Loving Paris
Spring 2015
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| Paris Abounds in Color and Fashion |
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| Design of the 70's Jean Paul Gaultier |
The following description caught my mind while net surfing a few months ago......." The Left Bank Tour is for women who enjoy design, fashion, textiles and art and who want to explore and encounter the magic of Paris with a designer's eye." With few second thoughts, I was on my way to Paris with Marcy and Kathryn Tilton, textile designers.
The Workshop Begins
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| "The Little Black Dress" Detailed by Fashion Historian Dominique Fallecker |
My first impressions of Paris architecture and public art thrilled me - beautiful Gothic style buildings and sculptures of 18th and 19th Centuries were everywhere: the Louvre , formerly an immense palace along the Seine now houses the world's most visited museum. Stained glass and bas relief wonders of Notre Dame Cathedral capture the imagination. Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe dominates the city's core from whose center radiates graceful tree-lined boulevards including the Champs De Elysee, Boulevard Voltaire, and Avenue de President Kennedy.
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| Typical Paris Skyline |
Contemporary art deco sites gave color to the Paris sky line as well: Centre Pompidou (houses France's contemporary art museum), the new Quai Branley Museum provides a global ethnographic art tour. and the Parc Villette exposition and music performance centers.
Even the dead can appreciate art and beauty. Cementaire du Pere Lachaise in Paris, the most visited cemetery in the world, is a treasure of elegant tombs of world renown artists, musicians, scientists, political leaders: Chopin, Moliere, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf are some of the million memorials here.
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| Oscar Wilde's Burial Site (Very Popular) |
What I loved most about Paris was our charming neighborhood called St Germain des Pres, west of the Latin Quarter, on the Left Bank. I will never forget the organ concert on Sunday morning in the St Sulpice Cathedral.
Within a short walking distance of our small hotel, was the immense Luxembourg Garden filled with handsome sculptures, children's play areas, puppet theater, museum, tennis courts, bee hives, petanque courts ( similar to bocce ball) chess tables...We enjoyed eating a light sack lunch and watching the locals enjoy their leisure.
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| St Sulpice Organ Recital |
Within a short walking distance of our small hotel, was the immense Luxembourg Garden filled with handsome sculptures, children's play areas, puppet theater, museum, tennis courts, bee hives, petanque courts ( similar to bocce ball) chess tables...We enjoyed eating a light sack lunch and watching the locals enjoy their leisure.
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| Sunday Afternoon in Luxembourg Park |
Speaking of restaurants...there were dozens within a fifteen minute walk from our hotel. To name a few favorites: Chez Fernand, Cepe Figure, La Boussole, Chez Rene St Germaine de Pres, L'enfance de Lard, and Jazz Club Chez Papa...
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| Great Food and Fun Nearby |
Haute couteur and fashion design is well and living in Paris today
The exhibition of Jean Paul Gaultier at the Grand Palais. He was considered "the terrible infant of fashion" by the press since his first shows in the 70's. He found inspiration in less conventional sources: dandies in bowler hats meet tattooed punks in Trafalgar Square, classicism and the spirit of rebellion, feathers, boas and frilly cancan style with leather, jeans, and plaid fabrics. He designed Madonna's cone breast outfit! I loved the vibrancy of his style and his open vision of society with its madness, sensitivity, humor and irreverence in which everyone can declare himself as he wishes.
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| Gaultier's Design from the 70's |
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| Other Gaultier's |
Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent's collection located in his former couture house contains several thousand garments as well as thousands of graphic and photographic references. Laurent (1936-2008) was best known as an influential European fashion designer who impacted fashion the the 1960's to present day. He is often credited with rendering ready-to-wear credible. Learning about his work style, from creating designs to final production, was fascinating.
The Jeanne Lanvin (1867-1946) exhibition at the Palais Galliera features over a hundred models from the time Mademoiselle Jeanne began her career as a milliner in 1885 to the time she opened her shop, Lanvin, at age 16. She is credited with developing the oldest fashion house still in operation. At one time her label employed more than 1000 workers. I was inspired by her creative uses of exotic ethnic fabrics and original designs throughout the collection.
Other Artists
The mural of Monet's Nympheas was the most inspirational art experience of my life. The walls or Jardin des Tuileries of the Musee National de L'Orangerie is covered with his totally sensitive rendering of gracefull water lilies luxuriating in a peaceful pond.
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| My Favorite Monet |
Musee d'Orsay featured impressionist, Pierre Bonnard. The vibrancy of his colors, particularly yellow, seem to convey Arabian nights brillance.
Gustav Klimpt and his group of Viennese intellectuals were featured at the Pinacotheque de Paris. Of interest were ersonal details and paintings of the development of Viennese art at the end of the 19th Century. Klimpt's golden Judith and his gigantic Beethoven Frieze were amazing.
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| Terrific Klimpt Exhibit |
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| Window Shopping is Fabulous |
Fabrics and notions: Entree des Founrnisseurs, La Droguerie, Ultramode,Tissus Reine, Dreyfuss/Marche St Pierre, Dam Bouton, Janssens and Janssens, Ultramode, Eva Tra LaLa
Clothing Boutiques: Noriem, Lilith, Toto, O-Paris, Iki, Bon Marche, Heaven, Eskandar...
Au revoir for now. Hope you enjoyed your time under Paris skies....
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| Graffiti Is Alive in Some Areas |
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| At the Louvre Can You See the Mona Lisa? |
