Week 18: Musee du Louvre

From one Palais to another, this week I’m taking you to one of Paris’s (and, in fact, the world’s) most famous attraction: The Musée du Louvre.

The Palais du Louvre started out life as a fortress, built by Philip II in the 12^th century. Only the medieval foundations remain which you can see in the basement floor of the museum. The palace has been evolving and changing since the 16^th century, and was where the King lived until Louis XIV decided to move to Versailles in 1682 (but it remained a formal seat of power until the French Revolution in 1789).

Nowadays the Palace is entirely given over to the Musée du Louvre – one of the largest museums in the world, and the most visited into the bargain, with 15000 people on average choosing to visit every day.

The Louvre’s significance in the art world started in 1692 when it became home to the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture  who organised the Salon (one of the first public art exhibitions) in 1699. It was officially turned into a museum in 1793 and the public were given free access 3 days a week. With nearly 35 000 objects from pre-history to the 21^st century, the Louvre’s collection is enormous and split into 8 departments (Egyptian Antiquities; Near Easter Antiquities; Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings). The most famous work, of course, is the (vastly overrated) Mona Lisa, though the giant pyramid attracts a tourist or two as well. Apparently (as of 2002) attendance at the Museum doubled upon completion of I. M. Pei’s glass masterpiece (glass-terpiece? No?) in 1988.

Surrounded by so many works of art, it makes sense that this week’s outfit was influenced by a strongly art-inspired collection. Dolce & Gabbana’s Ready-to-Wear Fall collection for 2013 is inspired by the golden mosaics of Sicily’s Cathedral de Monreale, and is swiftly becoming one of my all-time favourites. From the hand-beaded evening gowns, made to look like Byzantine and  Venetian mosaics, to the cardinal-red lace and brocade dresses, to the perfectly-tailored grey business-wear, everything about this collection was beautiful.

The name of the palace apparently comes from the Latin word Rubras meaning “red soil”. Goodness knows why, since there’s no soil to be seen as far as I could tell, but it is rather appropriate for this week’s colour scheme!

For this week’s outfit I decided to follow a similar colour palette to D+G and pick out some of the details in terms of hair and accessories, but otherwise not follow the collection completely. This was partly because I don’t think there’s a great amount of merit to be had in trying to copy a designer’s work directly, but more because I’ve left my goldbustier and Virgin Mary knickerbockers back in the UK.

Alors, I went with gold and red – regal colours befitting the palatial settings, and further emphasised by princess aspirations with this necklace worn as a crown. (My landlord had a field day when he saw that.) And, prompted by my good friends (guffaw) Messrs Dolce and Gabbana, I decided to give a beehive hairstyle another shot, in the hope that my hair had cooperatively grown a bit since Week 10’s pitiful attempt. 

To my dismay, I own almost nothing that is covered with beads (HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?) so I had to resign myself to settling for the woefully understated beautifully tasteful beaded epaulettes on this Oh My Love leotard. Whilst travelling between the Byzantine era and its mosaics, to the 21^st-century and its mass of jewels with which I adorned myself, I swung by another artistic era to get this Baroque patterned skirt and ta-da! Outfit complete.

Leotard - Oh My Love at Asos
Skirt - Vintage
Shoes - New Look
Necklace as Crown - H&M
Other Necklaces - New Look, H&M, Accessorize

And that’s it for this week folks – if you still fancy voting for me to become the next face of M+S in France then this is the link again. Go on, it would be hilarious if it happened. Also, I’m currently nursing a whopping  7 votes and everyone loves an underdog.

Week 14: Petit Palais

Well, would you believe it, a whole two days of summer last week before it was back to the old 12-degrees-and-raining trick. Yes indeed, temperatures have plummeted and all of my shoes are damp again but the white skies worked a treat with this week’s outfit, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much.

To begin, let me share a fun fact with you that I just learnt: until the end of the 19^th century (1880, to be more precise) the City of Paris did not have a single museum. Not one! All national collections were either stored in the Louvre – which was open to the public 3 days a week – or was displayed in museums in other major French towns.

This week, we headed to the third museum to be opened in Paris: the Petit Palais (Little Palace). The Petit Palais was built in 1900 in order to host the Universal Exhibition, which was a world fair celebrating the mechanical, architectural, and electrical achievements of the previous century. (Things on show included the Eiffel Tower, Ferris Wheels and talking films). It became the Paris Museum of Fine Art in 1902 and now houses collections ranging from the Classical Era to the Renaissance and from precious manuscripts to Impressionist masterpieces.

My favourite item was Houdon’s plaster sculpture of Voltaire’s head. My favourite philosophe has the most blissful smile on his face. As, indeed, you would if you lived somewhere as beautiful as the Petit Palais.

I wanted this week’s look to chime with the simple yet ornate aesthetic of the building. Covered with delicate ironwork, sculptures and murals, it still manages to feel clean and uncluttered and I would put that largely down to the colour. White is everywhere this season and plays a huge part in the collections of Louis Vuitton, Chloé, Valentino, Stella McCartney, ElieSaab, Giambattista Valli, Carven, Rochas and Roberto Cavalli, among many many others.

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EDITED

Such a simple colour leaves so much room for adornment whilst remaining chic so whites on the catwalk were covered in sequins or feathers, laser cut, embellished, and embroidered. As for myself – I decided to take inspiration from Chloé, Valentino and Stella specifically and  go with broderie anglaise. One of my favourite materials for summer, the broderie anglaise of this New Look top means that it looks both innocent and sexy, it is both revealing and demure.

Top - New Look
Skirt - Asos
Belt - New Look
Heels -H+M
Jacket - Vintage
Bracelet and Ring - My own
Earrings  - H+M

I kept the lines of the outfit as simple as possible by pairing the top with a linen pencil skirt and holding back on the accessories. To liven up an otherwise very simple, elegant look, I added the earrings to carry on the street/chic look (pearls AND hoops, you have to love it). The black of the belt and the shoes helps to toughen up the look slightly and strengthen the sex appeal (sorry Mum), but the simple styles of both mean that they don’t detract from the uncluttered approach. The leather jacket was added in a couple of photos because joy of a roommate mentioned that the outfit was a bit 80s. Also I was really cold. Like, really cold. This look may say summer to you but I’m sure my goose-pimpled flesh would have suggested something else.

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EDITED

Another exciting thing to mention this week is that, along with the usual happy-go-lucky-go-amateur photos that you expect from this blog, I am including some which have been edited by my lovely friend Jonny. The ones that have been edited are marked as such, and I have decided to put them all next to the unedited ones because I think it is important that fashion blogs are as accessible as possible.

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An overwhelming emotion I have when looking through some of my favourite blogs is a mixture of admiration, jealousy and despair, because they look so professional. This is, of course, wonderful – and the results are certainly to be aspired to – but I wanted this blog to be as much me as possible. Therefore I am trying to showcase only those skills which I personally possess. And I’m rubbish with software in general. The photos you see will be of my face, in all its occasionally-patchy glory, but just to show how darn fabulous I could look, I’ll let you look at the edited versions and compare.

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Hope you all have a lovely week and I’ll see you next weekend, somewhere else in this crazy city. As ever, all comments MUCH appreciated, so do leave some below and if you really want to show me the love, follow me on Twitter here. I’m desperately seeking online validation of self.