Spring 2012 Paris

Shopping

Get Paris On Sale, But Only Twice a Year

Last month, while I was spending time in Paris, I noticed something special happening: Everything was going on sale. Every store I walked past had a sign in the window announcing exceptional soldes. But it was more than a pleasant coincidence; in case you didn’t know, France’s government regulates sales, allowing two six-week long markdowns a year, one beginning in June and the other in January.

This means that sales in Paris are major. By the end of the six week period, prices could be slashed by up to 80%, a discount that you rarely see in New York. While shopping I got two dresses at fractions of their original costs, a delight–especially considering the favorable exchange rate.

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Fashion Shows

On Aura Tout Vu Loves Lady Gaga, Underwater Creatures, and Interns

PARIS–This morning the Palais Royal gardens, where Marie Antoinette once frolicked around eating macaroons, were filled with journalists, buyers and giant bubble wrap monsters.

This indeed is a suitable scenery for a show by over-the-top, theatrical French label On Aura Tout Vu (French for “You think you’ve seen it all”). Launched in 1998, the Paris-based designer couple likes to use childhood references ranging from Tim Burton movies, to Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, or Luc Besson’s Chanel 5 Little Red Riding Hood advert. Their last show was a direct reference to Alice in Wonderland, and offered entire dresses made out cards, incorporating various props into the designs.

This time, their collection, entitled “Fishing for Compliments,” created an underwater universe, oscillating between Life Aquatic and a kitschy “Little Mermaid On Ice”: sequins, geometry and much irony punctuated the aqua-tinted show.

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Zac Posen Will Show SS11 in Paris

Zac Posen used to throw grand nighttime runway shows in the Bryant Park tents, until he scaled back to intimate morning affairs in the Altman Building, but now he’s going even farther back in the other direction and planning to show his SS11 collection in Paris. Why? He says, “they understand my clothes.” They being [...]

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Fall 2010 Paris

Paris Fashion Week Top Ten

In a perfect world I’d just wrap up all of Paris, stick it in my suitcase, and bring it back to New York–the collections, Laduree, the cheese, the sunshine–but instead I’ve narrowed it down to ten things I can’t live without. (We’re operating in dream world, obviously.) 1. Lace tops & bell bottoms from Rochas. [...]

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Mid-Day Snack

Mid-Day Snack

‘Tis the Season: I can’t say that I miss putting together gift guides like I used to do in my magazine days. They’re a serious undertaking to organize and shoot. But I still love looking at well-edited ones like this. I mean, rainbow Thomas Pink collar bones–what’s not to love. {The Moment} Gems from Zahm: [...]

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People We Like

Sonia’s Prep

It’s t-minus twenty-four hours to Sonia Rykiel’s H&M explosion. We’ve just landed in Paris, but the team behind the launch has been working for weeks to create a pink fairy tale within the Grand Palais. Event Planner Ettiene Russo walks through the progress in this video, in awe of his own vision coming to life [...]

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H&M Throws Sonia Rykiel A Parade

As H&M gets older and wiser, their collaboration launches get bigger and better. Stella McCartney launched her line with a Gwyneth Paltrow and Dita Von Teese attended bash in an old schoolhouse, Matthew Williamson rocked a ship in the Hudson River with Grace Jones and now, Sonia Rykiel will celebrate her collection for the Swedish [...]

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Beauty

A Little Piece of Paris

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Life With...

Life With Blue Logan!

Meet Blue Logan, if you haven’t already. A couple of years ago a friend dragged the soft-spoken Brit to a show at London Fashion Week, Aquascutum he thinks, and he started to draw the models as they walked down the runway. Within a few shows he realized the people in the front row were just [...]

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Slideshows

Streetwalker: An Italian in Paris

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Shopping

Balenciaga-aga-aga

What’s the only thing better than Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière? Balenciaga by Cristobal Balenciaga re-interpreted by Nicolas Ghesquière. Too much? What we’re trying to say is, the French house has picked nineteen pieces from their archives and re-constructed them with modern techniques for the latest ‘collection’ of Balenciaga Edition (an on and off concept for [...]

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Buy, Buy, Baby

Clutching the Future

There’s nothing worse than the morning you have to drag your laptop to work or class or in our case, fashion week, and zip it into that ugly synthetic black protector pouch that totally cramps your style. Well there might be something worse, but it is annoying. So Paris-based, Italian and New York raised designer [...]

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