Your couture week bible!

Every couture week I come to realise just how much I have still to learn about fashion and clothes! I used to blank when someone mentioned a term like dolman sleeve (was that the shorter elongated sleeve or a puffy cuffed sleeve?! Panic!) but recently I got a hold of former Yves Saint Laurent staffer Sophie George’s new fantastic book Le Vêtement de A à Z, a complete guide to sartorial terminology and I love it! Entirely bilingual in English and French (very useful) – it comes from her new publishing house Editions Falbalas – the first house to be exclusively devoted to fashion!  

En librairie now or at www.amazon.fr

Eloise Comes to Paris!

A friend forwarded me these details today! What fun!

WE ARE LOOKING FOR A 8 TO 12 YEARS OLD BOY, BILINGUAL French and English
For an American movie « ELOISE IN PARIS»
(Based on the children book by Kay Thompson)
CASTING : Joule Studio Juliette MENAGER
Casting associate : Annette TRUMEL
Contact : eloiselefilm@joulestudio.com
Tél : 01 53 25 11 25
Send photos, Tel & Date of birth.

Ahhh.. Bellissima!

I walked past Galignani’s last week and noticed that Belladone Island was featured prominently in their window. Belladonna is the toxic plant Renaissance Italian women used to dilate their pupils (a sign of sexual arousal) and which grows in abundance on Belladone, the imaginary island created by Victoire de Castellane for her line of haute-joaillerie at Dior.

Illustrated by Guido Mocafico and curated by Eric Troncy, I am totally mesmerised by this book and Victoire’s stunning pieces like the “Reina Magnifica Sangria,” “Poisono Misterius Spinella, and ”Dracula Spinella Devorus.”

Galignani, 224 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, 01 42 60 76 07, M° Tuileries

Foodie Pursuits in Paris

This is my new favourite book! I was recently looking for something to read in between meetings, and while on the métro, deciding in the end that an anthology of short stories was the way to go. While at WH Smith looking at cookbooks, I happen to glance upon “Remembrance of Things Paris: 60 Years of Writing from Gourmet”. I was charmed immediately! I love Gourmet magazine, and what better than to read a collection of their best reviews from Paris! What I wasn’t expecting was for the portraits to be so gloriously vivid, and still entirely relevant to today’s diner. I have since discovered where the word “bistrot” comes from (something I quizzed a French friend about recently, who actually had no idea!), seen the birth of many of my favourite restaurants, and drooled over some of most fantastic recipes (like Oeufs Reine Amélie… mmm) that are unlikely to be recreated in our lifetime, if ever!

www.amazon.fr

Ssshhh.. it’s private!

There seems to be no end to the latest Marc Jacobs furor, however the designer himself is gearing up for one of the most revealing personal insights ever, as the guest-editor of Visionaire’s upcoming Private edition. Sponsored by Louis Vuitton, and to be sold in a limited-edition gold monogrammed case; Marc Jacobs and Visionaire co-founder Stephan Gan, have called on a bevy of beautiful people to pose nude for their pages. Celebs include Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Mariah Carey, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, and Selma Blair; along with the usual tops like Gisele Bündchen, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Jamie Dornan, Daria Werbowy and Natalia Vodianova. Jacobs himself appears in one of the last spreads, and according to a Visionaire staffer, were not retouched!

www.visionaireworld.com

Join the ranks of the Know-it-Alls

Do you know who Olivier Theyskens is? Can you name and define important art movements or prix littéraires? Feeling unloved and desperate to join the ranks of the acknowledged know-it-alls? Two books released this Fall have the cheat-sheet status to painlessly update your cultural lexicon. Leave the ranks of the dinner-party pariahs to join those of the witty-repartee superstars!

www.amazon.fr