Week 3: Gare du Nord

Special treat for me this week as I got to be the one behind the camera with joy of a roommate (also known as Josie) stepping in as the one what dresses up and prances about. For her modelling debut, Jose and I headed to the Gare du Nord – one of Paris’s international train stations and reportedly one of the busiest in Europe. Built between 1861-1864, at the height of the Second Empire, this is a really beautiful old building and very very Paris. Its facade is decorated with statues representing each of the major cities it serves and it is  here where you arrive if you’re coming in to Paris on the Eurostar.

Despite its practicality (it is linked to the bus, metro and RER networks, is right next to a taxi rank and sits on a direct line to Charles De Gaulle airport) and 19^th-century charm, lots of people hate the Gare du Nord because as soon as you set foot out of the entrance you are likely to be accosted by a host of beggars – if you are unfortunate enough to look even vaguely like a tourist. I’ve found the best way to combat this is to walk quickly and look sulky, so now you know. Although the Gare du Nord has featured in a host of films –such as The Bourne Identity and Ultimatum, Ocean’s Twelve and...Mr Bean’s Holiday – it was an altogether different type of drama which caught my attention as I was researching the place.

In 1927 the American heiress Alice de Janzé shot her lover Raymond de Trafford in the Gare du Nord before turning the gun on herself. Alice had married the French Compte de Janzé in 1921 and they moved to Kenya a few years later and joined the Happy Valley set – a group of wealthy white ex-pats who led a wildly hedonistic existence and pretty much all had affairs with each other. This is where Alice – who was extremely beautiful, constantly well-dressed, and enormously popular with men – met Raymond. After leaving the poor old Compte to be with Raymond, Alice had hoped they would get married and so was understandably upset when he informed her they couldn’t and that he was leaving. Turns out that all she had to do was pull a trigger a couple of times to convince him and in 1932 the couple got married...only to split up 3 months later and eventually divorce. Upon reflection, she’s probably not the greatest of role models but I can’t resist a crazy romantic, or a determined, well-dressed woman or...anyone who lived in the 20s.

Alice on trial for attempted murder
(NOT MY PHOTO - wikipedia.com)

Necklaces and Bracelets - mine and model's own,
Earrings - Accessorize

This all being the case, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that this week’s shoot has a strong 20s leaning, which works remarkably well with the mid-19^th century architecture of the station. Now, I don’t really have the right hair for kiss-curls or the right figure for anything drop-waisted but, luckily for me, I just so happen to live with a 1920s ideal woman. Enter Josie – with her short dark hair and general lissom-of-limb-ness, joy of a roommate is a dead-ringer for Alice herself – just look!

Alice de Janzé (née Silverthorne)
(NOT MY PHOTO - lucindaville.blogspot.com)

Gloves - model's own

To try to keep things as authentic as possible, I decided to keep the outfit as monochrome as possible to mimic the few photos I could find of Alice. I added the belt to the oversized man-jumper (Josie’s words, not mine) to give the impression of a drop waist and a cloche cap will make pretty much anyone look like an extra from Some Like it Hot.

Skirt - H&M

Hat - Marks&Spencer

Shoes - Charity shop (originally from Tesco, who'd a thunk?!)

I wanted to find a fake pearl-handled revolver to use (like the one Alice shot her man with) but not only is that an inconveniently specific item to find, but I figured that waving a gun around probably wouldn’t go down too well in a large, international railway terminus... So I sacrificed my artistic license and instead diverted my attention towards making my consistently-smiley flatmate look sullen. And conflicted. And....as if she was about to kill someone. I think she did rather well, check out that pout.

Faux fur collar - H&M

Jumper - Charity Shop

To be honest it was mostly just refreshing to be on the other side of the camera – in fact, at points it was refreshing bordering on arctic (railway termini have the tendency to be somewhat draughty) but at least we were more or less inside this week! The only downside to being inside (if you see what I mean) is that there tend to be a lot of people inside places. And there were a lot of people. Luckily enough every single one of them seemed to be in a rush and paid very little attention to the art being created in their midst. We could probably have shot someone ourselves without them noticing... I’ll leave you with that slightly disturbing thought. See you next week!

Week 2: Cimitière du Montparnasse

Coat - Zara

Well, here we are. Beginning of a New Year and it has suddenly become winter. Normally there are two ways in which a person might react to the first snowfall: either they will suddenly acquire an excitable small-child mentality which prompts them to run about in sub-zero temperatures and throw frozen water at those around them, or they will develop distinctly feline characteristics and curl up into a ball under a blanket to watch the snow falling at a safe distance while eating warming food and making contented noises.  I did neither of these things. I got dressed up to the nines and hauled myself and delightful boyfriend down to Montparnasse.

NOT MY PHOTO - djibnet.com

Gloves - Accessorize (as before)

Montparnasse is down near the bottom of Paris in the 14^th arrondissement. Originally a rural area, it was absorbed into the main city in 1669 and used as a sort of rubbish dump, where all manner of rubble and stones from the quarries would be distributed. Students used to go there to drink and would jokingly refer to it as "Mont Parnasse" (Mount Parnassus – home of the muses: music, poetry and learning. Don't get too impressed, I definitely had to look that up!) A rather fitting title really since, at the beginning of the 20^th century, it  was one of the artistic and intellectual hubs of the city. You could barely move in Montparnasse without tripping over an artist/poet/actor/writer/singer. And they were all stony broke. Because of this cafes would take paintings as insurance if you couldn’t pay and boarding houses didn’t chuck you out if you didn’t have the rent. Can't say that's still the case, more's the pity!

NOT MY PHOTO - wikipedia.com

After WW1 this all disappeared, but you can still find many of the world's creative elite buried in the Cemetery there (Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Baudelaire, Soutine, Man Ray, Maupassant – the list continues!) and that was where we did this week's shoot. While doing some research on the cemetery itself I discovered that it is normally described as being surprisingly green (there are over 1200 trees there you know!)  and a “haven of peace”. Unfortunately, even if there were a million trees the whole place would have been white and, on this particular Sunday, the cemetery was so peaceful...it was closed.  That’s right, whoever is in charge was obviously off making snow angels with a four year old or purring by a fire because there was a large sign on the gates stating that for my “safety” the cemetery was closed until further notice. Super. Anyway, we decided to make the most of the gorgeous snowy landscape and when the cemetery is open again (and I have time) I promise to go back and take my own pictures of it.

NOT MY PHOTO - L'express.fr

Belt - New Look

Holy Moley was it COLD. If I thought last week was bad I had another thing coming- this week’s me laughed bitterly in the face of last-week-me’s whining. Not a single person who passed me could manage to suppress a giggle when they caught sight of my thoroughly impractical hat, heeled boots, and forlorn visage. And when delightful boyfriend suggested I take off the coat so the shirt could be seen better? I nearly spat at him. Still, he was a highly competent photographer (if not quite as scary as joy of a roommate) and managed to get some decent photos despite my hopping from foot to foot like a demented sparrow.

Boots - New Look
(Would not treat real Acne Pistol boots like this!)

Skirt - Modatoi
Leather is one of my favourite fabrics and still a big thing – Just look at the Spring/Summer ’13 collections for Derek Lam, Balmain, Gareth Pugh, Carven – the list goes on. 

For this week’s outfit, I went back to black. I know, I know, not massively  original- wearing black in a cemetery – but it was in nice contrast to the colourful outfit last week and looked amazingly dramatic with the red touches against the snow. ALSO, it is very important that I make this clear; Paris may be one of the world’s fashion capitals but there is still a uniform, and that uniform is BLACK. In the words of  Marpessa Hennink, (80s supermodel,  friend of Carla Bruni and long-time muse to Dolce and Gabbana) “À Paris, tout le monde s’habille en noir.” (“in Paris, everyone wears black”).  You walk along the Champs Elysees and you cannot move for thin, beautiful women wearing black. Or grey. Occasionally navy blue, but nine times out of ten it will be black.

All jewellery is my own 

However, being  the incorrigible  Brit that I am, I couldn’t bear to leave it looking so chic and...French, so I went a bit crazy with the jewellery in an attempt to get a sort of “eccentric 50s widow” look. As for the hat... well, I could argue that by the 1950s Montparnasse’s heyday was over and thus I (in my 50s hat) am mourning the loss of all the colour and sparkle that the district had in the 20s buuuutttt.... I am not that much of a ponce and it’s really more that the vintage pillbox is a reasonably new purchase and I love it.

Hat - Vintage 1950s, ASOS Marketplace

At the point of publishing this, I'm sorry to say that the snow has more or less all gone. Sorry Parisiens, that was your lot: two days of real winter. Still, for those two days the city was a place of total joy, sparkle and artistic genius (you should have seen some of the snowmen) akin to the brief beauty of Montparnasse in the 20s… is that too much? Yeh, too much – see you for a less poncey shoot next week!

Week 1: Centre Pompidou

For my very first shoot, I decided upon the Centre Pompidou – a cultural complex in Paris’s 4^th arrondissement. One of the many reasons why the Pompidou is great is that it is right next to the Marais, which has to be one of my favourite bits of this wondrous metropolis. Formerly a  largely Jewish quarter, this area has now –bizarrely – become known as the city’s gay district. It is busy and vibrant and fun, full of vintage clothes stores, Chinese jewellery shops, lively bars and cute cafés. What better place to humiliate myself than one filled with fabulous, arty people and in close proximity to a cosy café into which I could hurl myself if it all simply got too much?

Jacket - H&M

Gloves - Accessorize

                Never having done anything even vaguely like this before, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’m not really the model type, you see, being 5’3’’ and a bit...well...smiley. I presumed it could go one of two ways; either I would get in front of the camera, giggle like a small child, half-heartedly strut around and then say “I’m cold let’s go home”, or turn into a Carla Bruni-esque vixen, smoulder professionally at the camera for 15 minutes then say “I’m cold, let’s go home”. As it was, neither of those things happened.

Skirt - H&M

My joy of a roommate, who I have somehow convinced to help me with this, was transformed before my eyes from a bouncy bundle of barely-controlled energy, into a female Mario Testino. “No, don’t jump like that, it doesn’t work”, “Stop spinning, you just look like you’re flailing desperately”, “move to your right so you block out that van/graffiti/small dog”. It was, however, still cold. Very cold. Extremely cold. COLD. About 4° Celsius to be exact, which was probably a good thing because it helped distract me from the total embarrassment of having to pose like I meant it, wearing inappropriately colourful clothing, in front of strangers. Thankfully (sort of) it was also raining, which not only kept most of the tourists at bay but also gave us the perfect grey sky for the shoot.

Bracelets - H&M

                Opened in 1977, the Centre Pompidou was designed by a team of architects, (including Englishman Richard Rogers, who is also responsible for the Millennium Dome) in a futuristic style which was virtually unseen at the time, especially in such a historic part of the city. This style made the centre iconic and so it was important that my outfit was as visually reminiscent of the building itself as possible.

Earrings + Necklace - H&M

I went for bright primary and secondary colours to match both the pipes which cover the outer walls of the centre and much of the vivid and multi-hued modern art which lines the walls within, and I added Perspex jewellery to go with the vast network of plastic tubes which form the façade. Take the escalator up through these tubes to the fourth and fifth floors you will find not only the Musée National d’art Moderne, but also some of the most spectacular views of the city.

Top - H&M

 This plastic theme also came in handy with the rain and so I carried it on with the plastic-coated bags, hilariously touristy umbrella and the bubble-wrap headpiece.

Tights - Accessorize, Shoes - Modatoi, Bags - Cath Kidston

Umbrella - Tourist Shop near Hotel de Ville

This headpiece was partly inspired by Giorgio Armani’s Spring-Summer 2013 collection which features a rather interesting viscose-covered (and therefore waterproof) linen hat and while I am not personally skilled enough to make a replica, I figured I could try to make something in a similar vein.

Front and Back of Headpiece
Clip - Boots

What’s more, the first time I ever went to the Pompidou they were selling bubble-wrap hats so I thought it might be a suitable homage. The result is a sort of 1920s turban thing , I think it worked quite well – it certainly kept my ears warm!

Stravinksy Fountain
Each figure represents a theme or song by composer Igor Stravinsky.

                The multi-coloured ensemble was put together to reflect not only the appearance of the centre itself, but also the colourful nature of the area. The Place Georges Pompidou is almost always full of street performers, mime artists, dancers and clowns but, thankfully for me, they too are scared off by the rain! So, first shoot down, 33 to go and I think it went rather well. Thoughts for next week: be bolder, be braver, and possibly incorporate thermals into the next shoot...

13/01/13