Merci Merceries et Georges Rech

At Georges Rech with Madame D'Argoeuves

marking off samples in the pink, above and below:)

don't know if he can hold a candle to Adele but...

Our fantastic Fashion Illustration Professor, Isabelle D'Argoeuves (click on her name to check-out our book that she wrote for teaching the subject), led us through a tour of one of the largest garment districts in Paris. The area is called Le Sentier, which is a quarter entirely devoted to the textile and ready-to-wear business. We viewed many mercerie shops which contain mainly notions and buttons, but some with textiles, too.

(About la mercerie (the shop), the original word is mercier (for a seller) & mercière (for a woman)

We walked through a couple of indoor, arcade style wholesale marts, and ended our tour at a fantastic design house, Georges Rech. Professor D'Argoeuves worked at Georges Rech for a substantial amount of time (she did not want to say how long) before teaching at CEA. She worked many designing ends, but predominantly designed accessories.

Some notes from the gracious employees' who spoke:

* takes trois mois (three months) to create one collection

* Georges Rech beadwork is done in India

* they are also under partnership with Apostrophe

* they work with 121 fabric companies, chose 40 styles, in which they order 3 to 5 colors of that style

* once they have all the colors and fabrics picked, then they design

* wonderful Thomas, designs knitwear and avows that it is more difficult to design knitwear than cut-and-sewn because it takes about 4 samples to get one piece designed correctly due to re-fittings

Check out Georges Rech's website too! (ps, check out raena's blog to see video of the pattern plotter in action!)

LE BOOK

Thanks Nico, my sis's cousin who now happens to live only 5 blocks away from me, for having a good eye. Nicoletta was leaving the Pompidou after studying French and found three LE BOOKs awaiting the trash. LE BOOK is the bible/phone book that is used in the fashion industry every year. Designers, photographers, illustrators, coiffures, etc. all pay big bucks to be in LE BOOK. For 2007, just a page in LE BOOK was $4,200. (nico found the 2007 editions) There are LE BOOK's for New York, Paris, and London.
www.lebook.com

Chanel. (brought to you by, JPC)

Our fabulous History of Couture teacher, Jean-Pierre Constant, gave a fantastic tour around the high-end stores and the history of the set locations. But, the tour definitely felt Chanel centered, and rightly so.

The dynamic Jean-Pierre Constant and a top student, Gabriella famous chocolate cafe where Chanel would have coco (no pun intended, well yes) The actual staircase! THE actual staircase. The actual staircase that Chanel would use for her fashion shows. She would stand a the top of the staircase and oversee the shows, and the slated mirrors provided an all angles for her keen eye to view the clothes. Truly dramatic. Miss Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel The famous Didier Ludot's vintage boutique. Chanel vintage bijoux prominently shown in the window.
She also had another shop in this circle and lived a couple of blocks away at the Ritz for the later portion of her life.

I am truly getting a sense of the importance that Gabrielle Chanel has had on the world of fashion. This recent understanding may show my ignorance, but when you only see her as an icon and her work restyled by other designers, the courage and reality of her work is not as tangible. I see how she wanted women to feel precious, cared for, and confident to be women. To come from nothing and be able to dictate fashion during war and fashion barriers/men's rules, is as Jean-Pierre would say, "INcredible."

The London Tube

The London Tube feels like an airport terminal. There is much more space than the Paris Metro. Some areas in the Tube even have two escalators going up.
The signage is nice. The directive arrows help. The signage actually spells out to stand on the right. This allows the people in a hurry to move on your left. In Paris, this is understood, but there is not a sign of this, therefore; the travelers/commuters are more in a free for all mode.
There are also posters along the walls of the escalators that are video screens and show commercials or video ads--this is nice on a long escalator ride.
Pretty simple. Just like the Paris Metro, but the ticket goes stripe side down, and same for the electronic monthly pass just run it over the top of the console.
Well lit, clean, comfy seats, and people talk, not that people don't use their cell phones or talk to one another on the Metro, but there is much more verbal communication, and less despondency, "in my own world" attitude on the Tube.
does a white background add to the terminal feel? Does it help with clarity? This font is large and easy to read. The font is actually called the London Underground, or the updated version London Tube, which was originally designed by Edward Johnston for London Transport in 1915 and later updated in 1994 by Jonathen Paterson.


Less stops than the Metro. Here is a look of the Tube map.

Marriage, Murakami, McQueen

Feeling quite at home in London. Conley's good mate got married on Friday at the Ethlam Palace--Textile magnates Stephen and Virginia Courtauld built their glamorous Art Deco London showpiece in 1936, next to the remains of a medieval royal palace which was originally Henry VIII’s boyhood home--it was a fantastic and a gorgeous setting. We both stayed at Think apartments--totally ikea-ed out--near the London Bridge.
We checked out the Tate Modern and saw the Pop exhibit. The exhibit is a full experience. The exhibition designers for this show did a great job. I began walking through Warhol's work with his videos playing. Next, I enjoyed the setup of Keith Haring's replica shop accompinied with loud 80's hip hop. Then I moved on to a special 18 and over room for Koons--trully fun to see people's reactions to what sex, ego, and well excuted art techiques. Finally I stepped into the Murakami world. A music video of Kirsten Dunst dressed up like an anime charicture titled, Akihabara Majokko Princesss, directed by McG, and produced by Takashi Murakami, was on rockin' continual roatation;) here are some images from the film
You could be the next twins for Damien Hirst's installation!!!


Yesterday I experienced another well designed and engaing exhibition: SHOWstudio FASHION REVOLUTION at Somerset House. Yes. Yes. Yes! SHOWstudio is really pushing the Fashion envelope. There are touch screens that you pull and twist the garments with your fingers and mirrors everywhere, scrutinizing you at different angles. This really shows that there is no one right way to look at fashion. I enjoyed the films by Gareth Pugh. One of the films has shots through black lace--love. So check all these goodies for your eyes, mind, souls and/or wallets.

this is my favorite movie by Nick Night

Vendange de Montmarte

I attended the Vendanges de Montmarte avec mon petit ami. It was lots of fun of coure. I bought fig jam with walnuts-delish! We both tasted different wines and ate escargot. As I was eating my snails a very happy french woman told me to make a wish, because for your first snail you must make a wish--cute! I made a wish, but with all that is going on, what could I ask for?

deliciousness & Sacre Couer:)

love the literal signage

Must be approached with reverence.

sustainable and recycled wine designs

this was on the way in the 18th. Corn on the cob anyone?

here is the link for the fete too! Sante!

Feathers floating

This is a very cool installation that my boyfriend, Conley caught on his camera (mine is now in the shop--thank you Lumux, I mean Lumix). The artist or assistant creating the installation is acutally inside and has a a little white raft to get him to and from. Not really sure of what the material is, but it looks like white plastic; possibly strips of white plastic bags or a light plastic from milk containers.
I think it looks like a sugar cube, meringue, frosting...hmm, possibly I am hungry. But, what do you think it looks like?

Dancin in a Spiderweb

Knitted street art, can you get much better than this?
Stencil your way into my heart.

Pass me the FUN mustard!

Do these cartoons, showing various anthropomorphic food creatures having FUN, implore you to use mustard?

I do like that everything is spelled correctly; in the US, some products towards youth have kidz, or even text message speak. Smart to not have the wordz kidz on the packets--does not specifically say for kidz! These packets make the kid in me want to use mustard on my eggs, bacon, steak, fries, and drumsticks. Thank goodness they show the portability: on a boat, on the courts, or riding a scooter--let's take them to aerobics! I did not use any mustard on my dinde dinner, but if growing up with these packets in the cafeteria or at an after-school program, I might put mustard on my hard-boiled eggs, french fries, and even dinde (turkey) today.