A Pinay in Europe

If you are a fashion-freak and your ultimate dream is to attend a show at the Paris Fashion Week which is ongoing right now but simply can’t because you are not a famous person nor a high profile fashion journalist but even if you are a multi-millionaire, your money cannot buy you a ticket to the PFW as it is per invitation only, but don’t fret as it is still possible to brush elbows with the fashion guri (if this is the plural for “guru”), if not, join the multi-cultural photographers chasing models on the streets of Paris.  How?

If you are raring to do it now, then you still have a chance and you have to hurry, for the Fashion Week ends on 7th March.  Other ways of scouting models is to watch them march into the fashion venue, one by one, or hang around the most famous fashion street -  Avenue Montaigne - where glamourous ladies trudge along with their giant-sized Prada or Chanel shopping bags, or better yet, sit in cafés frequented by fashionistas such as those in the Marais - one of them being La Perle in rue Vielle du Temple which was made even more famous last year by John Galliano!

Excuse me?  You cannot come to Paris this instant?  Well, it’s not the end of the world. That’s why I’m here.  Yours truly is here to share with you what she had been seeing - and snapping - these last few days IN THE STREETS OF PARIS!

I just love taking shots of chic women.  I am bowled over whenever I see one in fashionable boots, the way her scarf is wrapped around her neck, the way she carries her extra large handbag… and the shoes!  I also have my eyes on men in casual chic, in business attire or wearing something out of the ordinary!

Enjoy my photos of the Fashion Week, seen on the streets of Paris!

I was walking along the quayside of the Hotel de Ville when I saw this stunningly-dressed lady walking towards my direction. As soon as she got past me, a crowd of Asian photographers suddenly burst running, chasing the same lady that just walked past me!  And as she boarded her waiting car, the photographers were clicking their cameras on her, as if she was a celebrity!  It just occured to me that she might be a fashion model.  With the snappers gone, I noticed that the car is not yet moving.  It’s stuck on red light.  So taking my chance, I sat on the concrete garden box of the Hotel de Ville and started feasting my thumb on the shutter..voila! This is her!

The cafés at the rue des Archives are also the best spots to scout for fashionistas.

This corner cafe at the Ile dela Cité is a cool place to get your roving eyes working.

There are a hundred and one ways to put on a scarf ..

and wearing the right gloves creates a sense of elegance

The trend these days also delves on pastels.

This shop of The Divine Factory in rue d’Amsterdam is a good place to start your colour dress up!

Even the seniors have a preference for colours. It’s vibrant, isn’t it?

Men’s briefcases with shoulder straps worn across their shoulders are not only easier to tote around, they have also become a fashion statement

 
Shoulder bags are also becoming unisex

Moreso with handbags…kind of gender-blind handbags

And men in hats are back

Wait, I think he is Guillaume Canet, the actor-director boyfriend of Marion Cotillard, of La Môme fame!

Leg warmers can be chic, too

Fashion is also a form of expression

..and independence

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Winter in Paris is not complete without the caps!  It’s like cruising in the cold without the coat.  Not only that, it’s a “must-have” winter fashion accessory, too! 

Yesterday, I went searching for that ideal Parisian cap but couldn’t make my mind up which style to choose so I went observing what everyone was wearing.

After a day of rigorous headwear analysis, my choice was reduced to knitted woolen caps.

Before I even left that morning, I also dug into my photoarchives:

It’s not a woolen cap but classic

what about fur caps, I asked myself.  Hmmm… too much of an attention-getter

———————-

And the winner is:

How about you?  Which of the above would you choose?

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I went to watch the Fashion Show at Galeries Lafayette last Friday, the first they had after breaking off for the summer holiday. (I didn’t realize earlier that they also disappear in August, too bad, I was hoping to take my sister and her family to watch their Friday catwalk show when they visited Paris  last month.)

Anyway, it’s nice to be in familiar surroundings again.  The last time I was here was almost two years ago.  Starting at 3pm and lasting for half an hour, the Autumn/Winter collection of Cavalli, Sonia Rykell, John Galliano among others were presented.  I took just a couple of still photos as I was videoing the show most of the time.  For a change, I wanted to show you the catwalk movement of the models and I will post the video shortly, meanwhile, please be patient with these photos:

Wedding dress by Cymbaline Paris
I looked at their website and learned that Cymbaline won the wedding trends news award of the Best French designer of the year 2009 and 2010

These ladies in the audience came as a big group and occupied the entire left wing of the Salon de Opera. I reckon they are the successful applicants who will be participating in the Biggest Fashion Show on Earth.

After the show, I went out of the store and was astounded at this montage of photos covering the entire facade of Galeries Lafayette.

 They must be the photos of the successful applicants who come from all walks of life, a perfect formula where the theme of the event will be about Street Fashion.

On September 30, at 6pm, Galeries Lafayette (GL) is hoping to set a Guinness World Record by staging the biggest fashion show on earth.  Boulevard Haussman, home of its flagship store, will be transformed into a giant catwalk.  On the same day, at the GL branch in Berlin, at the same hour, another fashion show will be staged.  The other GL branches in France will hold similar shows on Sept 25 starting at exactly 4pm.  In total, all the 61 stores will be mobilized, about  10,000 people will be parading for the show in a giant catwalk comprising 2 kilometers. 

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Attended the 2nd day of the 2-Day Paris Fashion Days organized by Pret-a-Porter Paris. It’s very rare that fashion shows this genre are open to the public for free but there you are! You just have to be resourceful like yours truly to get into a chic action line this. 

Venue was the mysterious Palais Brongniart which was built by order of Napoleon Bonaparte to be the permanent home of the Paris Stock Exchange in 1826. Alas, with the advent of computerized stock trading activities, it is now transformed into a prestigious exhibition center holding numerous events and a gallery dedicated to the Paris stock exchange and its role in the economy.

The Audience

Err…I seem to have gone there to observe the audience instead of to watch the fashion show..

THE BRANDS

Camommila Milano

Pablo by Gerard Darel

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Last night (Sunday), the entire length of the Champs-Élysées was like a scene after the “14th of July” celebration! Hoards of humanity on pavements on both sides of the avenue, even spilling over the busy thoroughfare with the same objective in mind, that of photographing the Arc du Triomphe on one side, or the ferris wheel on the other. Passing motorists are either annoyed or joining in the fun ( cameras or videocams sticking out of cars shooting the hullaballoo).

After buying 5 grams of marshmallow chocolate (at 5euros.. that’s highway robbery!…but it was oh sooo tasty nevertheless!) from one of the Christmas market kiosks, we exited to a quieter street - the “most expensive street in Paris - the Avenue Montaigne!

 Walking along the avenue at daytime with its ultra-chic window displays intimidates me, what with the number of bouncers-in-black-costumes guarding their shops like they are fortresses! But last night, with H in tow, in the cover of darkness, I just kept clicking to my heart’s content!

Here are my “stolen” shots:

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A regular Friday event, this 30-minute show is free.  All you have to do is email them for a reservation of x number of seats. They will email you back for confirmation, have this printed and present it at the door.   Yesterday,  there were loads of Japanese (as usual) who came to watch. The Americans came in big numbers - 9 in one group!

Yes, that is a (black) wedding dress!

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A very Parisian way to wrap up a Parisian Sojourn!
10 September 2007

My very first time to watch a Fashion Show was in Galeries Lafayette years ago, only, they used to hold it in one corner of one of the floors. So when I saw it advertised in the Paris Guide, I knew I must see it again! It was to be held on the same day of our flight back home but luckily, I could still make it!

Outside the venue door, they were checking the booking reference of each one coming in. Oh no! they won’t let me in!! When my turn came, luckily, they just asked me (and few others) to wait until all those who have made reservations were seated. Indeed, there were still a lot of free seats left. Later on, I really felt doubly lucky when the seat I was in allowed me an uninterrupted view of the models walking on the aisle…I was actually just a couple of feet away from them!

Watching fashion shows is like watching a classical concert! I mean, the same rapture I feel while listening to beautiful music is exactly the same as when I am watching beautiful people in their beautiful clothes with their equally beautiful looks and coiffure!! Huh! from now on, I’ll make sure to include a Friday in every Paris trips I’ll make!

This Free Fashion Show is held in the Salon Opéra, 7th Floor of Galeries Lafayette Haussman (behind the Opéra) every Friday at 3 pm. Reservation is a must! Either phone +33 (01) 42 82 30 25 or email broesch@galerieslafayette.com

It was the Winter Collection 2007 - 2008 of the houses of Diesel, Ralph Lauren, Guess, Kenzo among others…

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Greetings from England!

From a blue-skied Paris up to the north of France where we caught the P&O ferries to cross the English channel, the skies were all grey and cloudy in the land of stately cars. You will say, what about Germany? it’s also a land of stately cars! i agree, but in England, you are mesmerized by a wide display of vintage, 4WDs, the latest family cars, the branded cars….it’s like, this is the land of the rich that you wonder how they are making so much money!

But before I proceed, here is my promised pics of Parisian belles;

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(image from lefigaro.fr)
Funeral mass for Yves Saint Laurent at a Paris church

It was the most-attended event in France’s fashion history. Big names in fashion, in film, in the government including the French president and his wife were all there. Fashion shows were shown non-stop on large screens installed on the street infront of the church. It was a moving experience watching the homage rendered to an icon. And equally moving was the sight of the pall, the cloth covering the coffin, its elegance befitting the man it was made for.

Elegance was given a literal meaning by Saint Laurent himself. Taking the word “gant” which is “glove” in French, he once said that an elegant woman is a “gloved” (gantée) woman

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the models waiting for the experts

If I tell you that H had to change his itinerary just so he could accompany me to my rendezvous with Wella in Paris, would you believe it?  Well, having said that, I wonder if his purpose in doing so had to do with his long time desire to turn me into, kind of, a chic Parisian.  But anyway, he probably just wanted to encourage me to go ahead with this crazy idea as I was already debating earlier - shall I go, shall I go not…hmmm, who do you think is more excited here?
Anyhow, I read an article in Parisinfo.com  about this “free coiffure and make-up” so I went to their office in rue Cambon to arrange for an appointment. Their HQ is just at the back of the Ritz Hotel, exactly the spot where Princess Diana and Dodie Al Fayed boarded their ill-fated Mercedes car just to get away from the hounding Paparazzi.

Ritz Hotel…..Place Vendome… hmmm… I haven’t told you about the incredible chicness of that area but that’s another story.

I was given a rendezvous two weeks from the date of my visit so that means Iwill have to take a special flight just to get a free coiffure! Isn’t that crazy?  And to be honest, my guess at that time was: I will be turned into a guinea pig by trainee-hairdressers who just came out of lycée (high school).

Came the appointment date and there I discovered that I was not the lone sacrificial lamb.  There were 11 other ladies of varying ages, from 17 to 65. Some were housewives, some were career women, some were already chic looking, some were not.

Then the “students” arrived.  Throngs of them!   But contrary to what I had suspected, they were seasoned hairdressers - men and women, and take note, the men were really acting like, errr.. men!
They go to Wella for their regular developmental training, similar to doctors and accountants who go to their annual conferences to learn the latest advances of their profession.

They distributed themselves around the models, which I assume, in accordance to the number of the raffle ticket they have picked up earlier which also corresponds to the model’s number. I was “Number 1″ and was approached by two matured lady hairdressers whom I found extremely nice!  We had instant rapport right from the first minute!

From 10am to 4pm, the total period of the relooking session, they  spent nearly two arduous hours analysing my looks, my behaviour, my family background and my interests in life.  I told them about my travel site and mypassion for photography. I was like a patient sitting there getting scrutinized and dissected by a couple of surgeons (I swear!) but then, I was kind of enjoying all these interview and close-up examination, in fact, looking back, I realize I have fully entrusted my whole life into their hands that moment!  That whatever happened to me, to my scalp, I was just there, willing to take the risk!

Then came the moment of ‘no-turning-back’: the hair chopping, the coloring, the highlights, the styling!  I was secretly observing the lady doing me up and it reminded me of that flamenco dancer in Granada, Spain where I was almost bursting in tears just by looking at her facial expression! This lady, the hairdresser, was twitching the ends of her mouth at every movement of the comb in such an agonizing fashion! 

By 4pm,  I could hardly recognize myself.  I have never sported such short hair for a long time but I love it!
Even the make up! Now I realize how Parisian women are masters of the art,  letting their true assets shine and the imperfections subtly concealed, all without the slightest hint of colors in their faces.
I retorted to my surgeon-hairdresser, “It’s like there’s no make up at all!”  But I could very well see the difference!

H,  upon seeing me that evening, was mesmerized!  He couldn’t believe the change in me that we had to go out and celebrate my new look!

Note: I was actually mistaken for a Japanese by the proprietor of the restaurant  we went to that evening!

The Before and After discussion.
The hairdressers had to explain to the instructors the changes they did to the models.  This is where the feeling of being a celebrity befell me!  While they were explaining the work they did on me, some ladies were clicking their cameras!

For this Taiwanese student of architecture who lives in Paris, it’s her second time to model at Wella.

Hmmm, I think I’ll pass up with that style, but it’s cute on her!

Wella Studio Paris
43, rue Cambon
Metro: Concorde
Free coiffure, regardless of age. Registration every thursday from 9am to 1pm and from 2pm to 5pm. Bring an ID photo.

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  My very first time to watch a Fashion Show was also here in Galeries Lafayette years ago, only, they used to hold it in one corner of one of the floors. So when I saw it advertised in the Paris Guide, I knew I must see it again! It was to be held on the same day of our flight back home but luckily, I could still make it!

Outside the venue door, they were checking the booking reference of each one coming in. Oh no! they won’t let me in!! When my turn came, luckily, they just asked me (and few others) to wait until all those who have made reservations were seated. Indeed, there were still a lot of free seats left. Later on, I really felt doubly lucky when the seat I was in allowed me an uninterrupted view of the models walking on the aisle…I was actually just a couple of feet away from them!

Watching fashion shows is like watching a classical concert! I mean, the same rapture I feel while listening to beautiful music is exactly the same as when I am watching beautiful people in their beautiful clothes with their equally beautiful looks and coiffure!! Huh! from now on, I’ll make sure to include a Friday in every Paris trips I’ll make!

This Free Fashion Show is held in the Salon Opéra, 7th Floor of Galeries Lafayette Haussman (behind the Opéra) every Friday at 3 pm. Reservation is a must! Either phone +33 (01) 42 82 30 25 or email broesch@galerieslafayette.com

It was the Winter Collection 2007 - 2008 of the houses of Diesel, Ralph Lauren, Guess, Kenzo among others…

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