Monday, March 29, 2010

Hommage à Clergerie via Céline

In my last trip to Paris the subject on every fashion person's lips was Phoebe Philo's collection at Céline. I swear I'm not swayed by the consensus when I tell you to look at her collection makes me short of breath and my heart skip a beat all at once. I mean, if I had to throw away everything I own and sign my soul away to the devil so I could wear only her collection, I'd do it in a millisecond. But, that's just not going to happen, so don't get judgy...;) Anyways, these clogs are on top of my clog wish list, only I cannot find them anywhere and I'm pretty sure, I'd have to sell my liver to afford them - which I'd do - if I could find them and a willing buyer.A while back I wrote about my love of platforms and how it all began with these Robert Clergerie's. Am I high, or do they look good again? I dragged them out of the closet today and then had a phone conversation with one of my oldest friends, the friend who was probably with me when I bought them, and she told me they must be about 17 years old!!! That's insane. That's officially vintage, from my own closet! I really don't know how I feel about that.
I put them on and they fit like an old glove...
You can see the little slice in the leather that happened on the right shoe when the window broke at Gimme Shoes - giving me the opportunity to buy my beloveds.
They endured far worse over the many years with me: I remember gingerly traversing a rocky creek in them to get to our camping (!) spot in rural France. I remember hiking in them to the Hollywood sign our first Christmas in LA. I remember painting bedrooms in them. I remember a few different boyfriends in them, which says a lot since I've been with Le Mari for 14 years...Never have I worn shoes to death like this.
Merci Phoebe and Céline for bringing back the chunky wedge - the ol' gams and the old Clergeries are good friends and may have one last happy summer together.
And, that's my new Terrget jumper with a vintage green belt.

I Love Happy Customers

One from NY sent me this bar of Mast Brothers Chocolate (avec fleur de sel!)

I'm just sayin...

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Un Sac, Une Fille

Or rather, "a girl, a bag" as BODIE and FOU would have it...
I'm in awe of the fact that a photo shoot featuring La Tropezienne (on a gorgeous girl) took place in London. It is ridiculously exciting for me, as they say here in the Southland (as the call LA here on the news.) B and F is an online store, and a blog, which sells and showcases fabulous interior design products. I believe my bag was among Karine's first foray into personal accessories. I'm very lucky.


From the amount she is reordering, Karine is singlehandedly outfitting the UK in Trops, yay! Go, Bodie, go.

How hot is this girl!?
Ummhmm, cute!
I want her to intern here!

all pictures BODIE and FOU

Friday, March 19, 2010

This Sunday's LA Times

Sometimes, for one reason or another, I send myself an email, either from my phone or from my laptop and a couple seconds later I hear the ding of my mail application indicating I've got a new message and I get excited. Psyche! It's only from me. Like with each and every ding it could possibly be a Vogue editor, or an invitation to the White House, or a long overdue message from a friend. Amazing how that all passes in an amnesiac millisecond. Pathetic but true, and it just happened now when I sent myself this picture from my laptop:
I'd wanted this picture from my laptop to post it here not for the lovely limited edition Trop bag which was pictured. No, I wanted it as it is the only one I have of my dining room chair. You can't really see it, but that's OK because I hate it - the chair. It is a benign, oak, inoffensive, straight back chair. We've got 6 of them or so. I hate them all. They are uncomfortable, and they squeak and creek and squawk with every slight movement of the unwitting sitter. I dream of getting something lovely like a Wishbone chair, but until that day I'll just go on silently ruing them with each dinner party we have.

On the day I was leaving for Paris 2 weeks ago, Ringo, an LA Times photographer came to take my picture for this lovely piece written by Victoria Namkung, and I thought the chair, that I've cursed so many times was going to have the last laugh and was going to crush me.
Ringo had the beyond kooky idea for me to scatter the bags about the floor and for me to lay amongst them while he, whom I've just met minutes before, stands upon the rickety old chair straddling my body. (While I knew it was kitschy, I just didn't have the heart to tell him. He seemed really into the idea, and who am I to take away the creative impulses of a Times photog.) He kept asking me to smile and I kept thinking how the chair was finally going to let go and Ringo and the chair would crush me and my obit would read, "She died whilst being photographed." And so all that and the fact that I only had minutes before I had to dash out the door for my transatlantic flight, made for an extremely forced smile.

I know hardly anyone likes a picture of themselves, unless you're Christy Turlington, but I really never do and I've had (the very good fortune) to see my pic a few times lately. There was this picture taken by the very talented Christina von Messling for LA's Mondette website where I look like I had waaaay too much make up on, but really it was just the lighting, I swear.

And the top image was an outtake taken by le mari at Echo Park at a shoot for a national magazine which will run - in full color and without the snarky smile - in their May issue (if they run it.) It was a story of people who bike to work. What? I bike. And that is my "bike" messenger bag in winter white. ;)
3rd photo - credit LA Times

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

the 4 lives of the merci bracelet

It all started yesterday when Else sent me this picture of her bracelet presy, with the subject line reading: Love this. Merci.
Her picture looked so lovely that I photographed Jocelyn wearing hers as well.
Heather got creative at the gallery with happy, fresh flowers in the background, no doubt from Holly Flora.
Greta has an old iPhone so when she attempted to photograph hers, it took many tries. And she never quite got "it," but she got something else. Here are a few of those attempts - pretty cute with that little jean skirt, belt and sandals. It captures a Gypset vibe perfectly.

Monday, March 15, 2010

les petits cadeaux

I barely had time for anything outside meetings in Paris. It was hard to leave the apartment during the day because at any point there may have been another appointment coming. But as was made evident in the last post, I went to Merci a few times because it was a very close to where we were staying. Finally the last day we made it out to my mecca - Le Bon Marché. Here are a few gifts I brought back for loved ones back home.
The roll that says, "My Drap" is actually a roll of cloth towels. They are perforated and you can rip them off as paper towels and use them as napkins. Then you can wash them over and over again. Such a cute Euro idea. They are for Simone.
I fell in love with Claudie Pierlot when I lived in France years ago, but I could only ever afford their lower priced line called, Mon Ami Pierlot. I bought a Claudie Pierlot skirt for myself at BM and I asked the young saleslady if Mon Ami still existed and she looked at me like I must be old and said, Non, not for a while.
The red card is a package of ever useful thank you notes from Merci. I love the front: "Shoot! I forgot to say thank you...to the lady, to my love, to my good friend, to you. For the lovely night last night, for your trust, for your friendship, for the gift, for your love. Thank you dad, thank you mom. Thank you life. Thank you for everything." We all need these.
Mariage Frères tea for Jocelyn, I didn't make it to their salon de thé but I made it to La Grande Epicerie...yum.
Fauchon's black & white repeat is one of my favorite logo patterns in the world.
During fashion week at Merci, they were doing a whole Liberty of London fabric theme throughout the store. One of the cute things I bought for a few copines were shreds of Liberty fabric with a little gold Merci pendant which you can wrap around and around your wrist or wear as a necklace. Ahhh boho chic, I just can't quit you. There was also a Comme des Garçons store around the corner from our apt (I told you, it was the best neighborhood) I spent a little too long in there oogling the goods. I walked out with this happy, robin's egg blue pocket and Sherbet series parfum - rhubarb series 5, for Else and Energy C - grapefruit series 8, for le mari.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sometimes you have to come to Paris to get to New York

Mars. Dimanche. 7. I love that old calendar on the wall of our favorite bistro. We've been here a day and a half and, maybe we're suckers for the bistro Parisien, but we already have two favorite ones. That's because we're staying in the cutest area of the Marais and I'll never stay any where else. That's not true, I'll stay at my sister-in-law's in the 7th any day, too. But still, if I were to live in Paris again, I'd like to live right where we are. Above is Cafe Charlot, sur le coin Chalot/Bretange.
That's La Tropezienne noire in its first spoting in Paris...bah, c'est hypercool, mega chic, quoi.
While my mate had meetings in our Parisien apt-cum-showroom all day, I was free and happy to help out as her showroom model. Her real, tall and waifish one bailed on her. Feeling large aside, kinda the best thing that could of happened did, that store in New York where every designer wants to be? The one that ends with New York, and starts with a B. They came in today to see my cellmate, er, I mean showroom mate, and they ended up taking, what appeared to be a fair amount of interest in my dear line...I was so pleased, I wanted to scream. But I'm not getting ahead of myself, they didn't order - yet. I'm just happy to have had the opportunity to have met them and had the chance to have explained a bit of my wares.
To celebrate we headed down to Cafe Charlot to split a cheeseburger, fries and a biere blanche (not split.) It was cozy and perfect and some of the best people watching in the world. But for real, see why I'll never be a real fit model?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Below the Fold

I'm pretty sure I'm about to bury the lead, as they say, maybe even two, so stay with me...
I'm a huge sucker for platforms, I love extra height. Ever since I fell in love with my first pair of Robert Clergerie honkers years ago back at Gimme Shoes in SF. They were $300 which, for a college student, was waaay too much for me. I used to go visit them every once in a while dreaming of them. Then one day while I was visiting them, I noticed that the front window of the store had been broken and a shard of glass had scratched my beloveds. They offered them to me at half price. I bought and wore them for a couple years straight. So when I saw these SR's for H&M, I couldn't help myself. Cheap-in-price is okay sometimes for play shoes, but cheap-in-look and you have to draw the line. I couldn't abide by the powder pink insteps showing at the end of my foot, it just said a little too playboy-playmate for my style, so I covered it with lovely kelly green swatch of lambskin. All the difference.
Here's what wasn't cheap. Vintage. Japanese. Snakeskin boots. From The Way We Wore.
I bought them a few weeks back when everything in the store was half-off...except these boots. I justified the purchase with a certain event in mind. You know how you do that, right? The event was literally, oh a month and half away, and I already knew I had nothing to wear to it. Had to, right? What was the event you ask? It was this:
Dior. Vanity Fair. Pretty much the swankiest event I've ever been invited to and it was on Monday night. I'd also brought back this from my trip to NY, thinking it would be the only occasion I'd ever have to wear it...The reason I was invited though, and this is the lead part that I've sufficiently buried:
I designed a clutch for the event!! It was very exciting to work on this project with Kimberly Brooks and with the subjects being some of the most important taste makers of our time!

We made 3 versions of my fold over clutch in coated canvas with a detail of a one of Brooks's portraits on one side and text of the show on the other.
I think they turned out extremely chic for an exhibit bag. And bonus, Vanity Fair bought a whole lot of them to go in their Oscar's dinner party bag!!
That's Janie Bryant, Jeremy Scott and Rachel Zoe from left to right.
So how was the party you ask? I didn't go. I was stuck with massive stomach flu starting at 5 a.m. on Monday that had me in bed the entire day. Here's how I was in my dreams getting ready to go the party.

I mean, damnit! If I didn't get to wear it all, I at least had to try it all on. Now where am I going to go to wear it all?

I leave on Friday. Next posts from Oui, Paris! (I'm bringing feathers + that was the second lead.)