Week 25: Arc de Triomphe

Hello all! For those of you who are French, I hope you had a wonderful Fête de la Bastille. For those of you who aren't, I hope you had a lovely…Sunday. The 14^th of July is a French national holiday which takes place on the same day as the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789. On a weekend geared towards celebrating general French greatness, I thought it fitting to head to a monument of just that: the Arc de Triomphe.

The Arc de Triomphe (or "Triumphal Arch", though I'm sure you clever lot could have got there on your own…) is a huge Neoclassical monument, based on the Arch of Titus, commemorating all those who fought and died for France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned it in 1806, though it wasn't finished until 1836, the very foundations taking a whole 2 years to build. I guess triumph is a gradual business.

It sits at the centre of the Place Charles De Gaulle, at the head of the Champs Elysées and act as the middle point between the Louvre and the Grande Arche de la Défense.

Underneath the arch is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – a touching monument to all the unidentified dead from the First and Second World Wars. On this tomb burns an eternal flame, which was lit in 1921 and was, apparently, the first eternal flame to be lit in Europe, since that of the Vestal Virgins went out in the 4^th century. Every year on the 11^th of November, a memorial service is held there.

That's looking down, looking up is an incredible structure standing at 50 metres tall (which meant it was the largest triumphal arch in the world until 1982 when the Arch of Triumph was built in Pyongyang. “Take that, Europe” says North Korea...) Still, the second largest in the world isn't bad – and Charles Godefroy still managed to fly a biplane under it in 1919, so I reckon it's something to be proud of.

The sculptures covering the edifice were done by several different sculptors and show "The Departure of 1792" (also known as "La Marsaillaise"), "The Triumph of 1810", "The Resistance of 1814" and "The Peace of 1815". Rumour has it that the sword held by the figure of the Republic in the "Marsaillaise" relief broke off on the day the Battle of Verdun started in 1916. (For those of you who don't know or who, like me, had forgotten most of their GCSE History – the Battle of Verdun was a WW1 battle fought between the French and the Germans. It resulted in a tactical victory for the French, but was arduous, bloody, and took nearly a year.) The swordless Republic was immediately covered with a tarpaulin, in case any civilians took it as a bad omen.

When doing some research in preparation for the shoot, I read somewhere that there is a lift to take you to the top of the monument. Wonderful, I thought, no climbing up 200-odd steps for Fran then. Wherever it was that I read that was mistaken. And there are 234 steps. (If you're disabled, however, there IS a lift so for anyone desperate to visit the arc who has a deep-seated phobia of stairs or exercise, I don't know, maybe break your leg first). Still, it wasn't too bad and the view from the top is utterly stunning. Unfortunately you can't see it too well in the pictures, because the killjoys of the tourist office were obviously all like "bla bla bla, safety, bla bla bla, 50-metres, bla bla  bla, fall off and DIE" so there's a high metal railing all the way around.

Neck to Ankle - H+M
Shoes - Marks and Spencer
Earrings - Vintage
Sunglasses - ...H+M...

For this week's shoot I decided to go for pale, neutral colours to match the arch itself and then injected some life with the gold embroidery on the top and the gold jewellery. (Gold being the colour of Triumph, obvs.) It's a pretty rare thing to see me wearing trousers (Ones that AREN'T made of lace, that is) because I have complexes about my legs because of society, etc etc. HOWEVER, having examined Andrew GN's Pre-Fall 2013 collection, I felt drawn to the idea of giving tight cropped trousers a go. The brocading on the top was fortuitously reminiscent of the embroidery in his Resort 2014 collection as well. Have I mentioned my love of plans coming together?

A big thank you to Best Friend Recently Back From Africa for stepping in as photographer extraordinaire for this shoot and I hope the rest of you lovely people enjoy what's left of this week.

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.

Weekly Wardrobe 8

As you may or may not have noticed, the format of the blog has undergone an alteration or two. It was, quite rightly, pointed out to me today that using the over-excited, tiled photo of the Eiffel Tower made it a bit difficult to focus on the pictures/read any of the words... Anyway, it's springtime and about time for a wee change so here it is; Dressing up in Paris mark two.

Top - H+M
Skirt - Esprit (second hand)
Shoes - New Look
Necklaces and ring - H+M
Earrings - Vintage

To mark this completely un-momentous occasion, here's another weekly wardrobe post of what I wore today. Very much loving head-to-toe white or beige at the moment. It's the perfect canvas onto which to throw lotsandlots of jewellery.