Week 16: Cité des Sciences et de L'Industrie

Now, I could start another blog entry with some banal remark about the weather, but it’s possible that it’s starting to get boring. So instead I’m just going to jump straight in and tell you all about this week’s shoot, which was inspired by Giorgio Armani’s Spring-Summer 2013 Ready-To-Wearcollection.

I must admit, I’m not always an enormous Armani fan, but this season's collection had sparkles in it – SPARKLES – and goodness knows I'm a sucker for those. Speaking of all things twinkly, one of the main themes in this collection was the night sky, so joy of a roommate and I got our things together and went off in search of a Planetarium…

... Which, thanks to the power of Google, was a lot less adventurous than I just made it sound! We headed to the “Cité des Sciences et de L’industrie” – the largest science museum in Europe. As well as a Planetarium, the museum has a submarine, an IMAX cinema and a plethora of huge exhibition spaces, displaying and explaining all manner of technological, science-y joys.

The cite was opened in 1986 with the goal of spreading scientific and technical knowledge among the public – especially the youth. It is indeed  a brilliant place to take kids, with so many exciting things to look at, an area especially for little ones and plenty of room to run around – even late on a grey Sunday afternoon, there were a fair few budding Einsteins about.

Considering that I just talked about kids, it seems a little macabre now to tell you that the museum is situated in the Parc de la Villette in the 19^th arrondissement...which used to be the site for the huge Paris abattoirs... so I’ll gloss straight over that, and get back to the aforementioned SPARKLES.

The Boat Dress!
(one of my favourite things we saw at the museum)

Armani’s collection this season was called “Kaleidoscope”, invoking splinters of light and shapes, repeated and reflected. This effect was achieved by the flashes of colour – jade, turquoise, pale blue – in an otherwise neutral palette of grey, navy, black and white. It was also picked up by the sequins and beading work (yup, there are the sparkles I was talking about!)  which, along with the floaty, feminine fabrics (silk, linen, organza) balanced out the slouchy tailoring. Cropped jackets, mix-and-match suits and lots and lots of layering were used – tunics over trousers, dresses over maxi-skirts – gave the whole collection a lovely, relaxed, summery feel.

To mimic the casual look, I layered this hilariously fun, sequinned dress from H+M over this green maxi dress then added the blazer to give the look a slightly more androgynous edge. I went with m favourite colours from the Armani collection – green, turquoise, and blue-grey- and we tried to reflect the kaleidoscopic theme by finding any cool shapes/spaces and taking pictures of me in front of them. It’s tricky stuff, this blogging business.

I know not everyone was a fan of the little lid-like hats Armani used on the catwalk, but I love them! They keep the collection from looking too serious as well as adding a certain unity.

Dress worn as skirt - Topshop
Sequinned dress - H+M
Earrings - Present
Blazer - H+M
Hat - Asos
Shoes - H+M

And with that, we’re leaving space and coming back down to Earth. I hope you’ve all enjoyed this week’s shoot and do stay tuned for next week’s as there may be a little extra something special to (hopefully) look forward to! Have lovely weeks all of you!