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 17: Palais de Tokyo

No rest for the wicked(ly fashionable) as joy of a roommate and I headed off to do this week’s shoot straight after yesterday’s Marks & Spencer casting sesh. We barely stopped to have a bite to eat before pootling on down to the Palais de Tokyo in the 16^th arrondissement.

A mere stone’s throw away from the Champs Elysees, the Palais de Tokyo is a centre dedicated to modern and contemporary art. It was opened in 1937 in time for the International Exhibition of Arts and Technology, but has been re-organised since then, with its most recent configuration being opened in 2002. Right next to the Seine, the site specialises in the emerging French and international art scene and is not a museum (that is, it has no permanent collections and produces all of its own exhibitions). And, for anyone who is as confused as I was, it is called the Palais de Tokyo NOT because it has anything to do with Japan but because the street on which it sits was called the Avenue de Tokio until 1945!

Walking into the centre, you get the impression that you are inside an old warehouse, which has been completely gutted and then filled with an array of seemingly random objects. As soon as you realise that some of these objects are exhibits, you can engage in the ceaselessly enjoyable game “Junk or art?” Take these lockers, for example, are they there for you to safely store your belongings, or are they a comment on the way society encourages to pigeonhole ourselves, to fit ourselves into an easily-identifiable box? Do the open lockers represent those with the courage to break free?

Ahem. DO excuse me, my parents are art historians. I should explain the link between this week’s location and the outfit before I get too tiresome...

From May 5^th to June 5^th, the Palais de Tokyo are hosting an exhibition on Chanel No. 5 – the inspirations behind it, the cult surrounding it, and its general components and timelessness. The exhibition includes artworks, photographs, films, objects and archives which all acted as inspirations for the perfume and its marketing.

 First of all, I ought to note, that the Palais de Tokyo is strangely difficult to navigate. One of the (few) drawbacks of designing a gallery which looks like a warehouse, is that you can’t always tell whether you’re in an exhibition space or a storage facility. So I think the bit we found housed the whole exhibition – but it’s hard to say. At any rate, we got to browse around books about the perfume, and peep into drawers containing dried leaves of some of the plants involved (the two key ones are rose and jasmine) as well as watching the many television adverts from the 1950s up to the most recent (and, quite frankly, atrocious) one 

with Brad Pitt.

It seemed only fitting that this week’s outfit ought to pay tribute to dear Gabrielle’s house so I took some inspiration from Chanel’s Spring-Summer 2013 Ready-to-wear line. Now, I loved this collection, but I found it a little confusing – Lagerfeld seemed to jump from the black-and-white tweed twinsets for which the brand is famous to voluminous, pink-and-blue checked mini dresses to giant, chiffon, pyjama-like things adorned with windmills... So I decided to cherry-pick my favourite bits in the hope of creating an outfit which at least hinted at Coco gloriousness.

The predominant shape on the runway was the skirt-dress which I mimicked with this mesh skirt from ASOS. Buuut not having quite the same sort of figure as these catwalk models, I decided it was best for all concerned if I used a belt to give me a vaguely human shape and took the opportunity to add a hint of colour with this soft pink one. Cropped jackets are all over the place this season and I’ve always thought this H&M one was quite reminiscent of Chanel. And then I finished off the look with this beautiful little Chanel bag (a gift from my overly-wonderful-and-generous cousins ) and lots and lots of pearls.

Ta da! Chanel on a budget, what’s not to love? With that I’m signing off to go work on my (ever-present) dissertation and wish you all a very pleasant week. Bisous!

Skirt as dress - Yumi at ASOS
Jacket - H+M
Belt - ASOS
Shoes -H+M
Bag - Chanel (Present)
Cuff - Claire's Accessories
Earrings - H+M
All necklaces are mine/the photographer's own!

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!