Weekly Wardrobe 1

So, I've decided to add a new feature - you lucky people! Alongside the shoots done around the city, I am going to start doing a post a week about an outfit worn to work (dressing up...in Paris, innit?) in which I feel good, because - as far as I'm concerned - that's what clothes are for: making you feel good. Anyway, it will normally be one, but I'm going to do three this week- just to get us started! Enjoy!

Jumper - H+M,
 Skirt - Roland Mouret, bought on Ebay,
Boots - Hobbs,
Necklace - New Look

This outfit made me feel wonderfully chic and French... and one hair-bleaching away from looking like Andy Warhol!

Jacket - H+M

Shirt - New Look
Trousers - H+M

Boots - Marks and Spencers

Earrings - Turkish Shop in Edinburgh Grassmarket
Torque - Asos

                                                                       Tuesday's outfit.

Shirt - My Dad's

Rings from left to right - Present, Accessorize, Alchemia, Etsy

Pumps - New Look

Jeans - New Look

Friday at work is normally an unspoken "casual dress" day, a trend against which I bitterly fight every week, wearing a pencil skirt just to spite this - quite frankly - lazy concept! This week, however, I caved and decided that simple could also be good, and you can't really beat the jeans and white shirt combination. Also, wearing flat shoes helped my Friday-spring-in-the-step bounciness no end!


Happy Friday all! Hope you have a good one.

Week 6: Sacré-Cœur

This week we were in my favourite part of Paris – I’ll give you some clues; it’s in the 18^th arrondissement, it’s on the Right Bank of the River Seine and its name means “Mountain of the Martyr” (due to Saint Denis – former Bishop of Paris and patron Saint of France- being martyred here in 250AD) Got it yet? No? Really? Even with all those clues? Well maybe you’ll get it if I say that it became famous as an artistic district in the 19^th century with many of the best-known artists of the modern era (such as Dali, Modigliani, Picasso, Monet, van Gogh) having had studios here.  You got it! It is Montmartre!

Red Scarf - Joy of a Roommate's 

Necklace - New Look

Dress - Second-hand (donated by lovely colleague), originally from Monsoon

Towards the end of the 19^th century, Paris was very briefly ruled by the Paris Commune, a government made up of left-wing socialists and one which is often hailed as the first working-class assumption of power during the Industrial Revolution. While it makes sense that this liberal, artistic quartier would be the place where the Commune’s first insurrection took place, it is far harder to couple this view with that of Montmartre as the "mountain of the martyr". This is where this week’s shoot location comes in: the basilica of Sacré-Cœur.

Upper Arm Bracelet - Asos

Earrings - H+M

Situated at the highest point of the city, Sacré-Cœur was built, not only as a symbol of moral order, but also to act as a penance for the "crimes" of the Commune (one of which was murdering Georges Darboy, the then Archbishop of Paris). It was designed by architect Paul Abadie in 1875 – though he would be long-dead by the time of its consecration in 1919. The front of the basilica displays equestrian statues of two French saints; King Saint Louis IX and Joan of Arc, and the mosaic inside the dome "Christ in Majesty" is one of the largest in the world. As the mosaic shows, and as the name suggests, the basilica is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and it was this image that I decided to use for this week's outfit inspiration.

Belt - Belonged to my Ma

Yellow Scarf - Small Turkish shop in Edinburgh Grassmarket

The Sacred Heart has been one of the most common Christian images since the 17^th century and is supposed to symbolise Jesus’ love for the world. The image is a flaming heart, shining with "divine light", encircled by thorns, pierced by a lance wound and bleeding. I thought I’d leave the lance-piercing and bleeding bit out, but apart from that I decided to take these features and use each one as an individual part of the outfit. The heart can be seen in the cuff and the necklace, the thorns are represented by the spiked bracelet and ring and the studded belt, and the red and yellow scarves are to show the “divine light” or flames. Because the Sacred Heart image is often used as a tattoo, I decided to make the look a bit punky and I chose the blue dress to mirror the background colour of the mosaic.

Cuff - Claire's Accessories (no judging), Ring - H+M 

Another exciting development was that this week’s photo-shoot took place at night. Delightful boyfriend and I headed over to Montmartre in the afternoon only to realise that clement weather brings tourists out in full force and – let’s be honest – what nicer place is there to spend a sunny winter afternoon than Montmartre?  Take my story as a cautionary tale folks and if you are going to visit Sacré-Cœur (which you absolutely should) try to head there in the morning. Anyway, my photographer of the week and I decided to do what all professionals do and decided the situation was a sign from the universe that we should spend the next couple of hours eating nice food and waiting for the tourists to clear off. Doing the shoot at night made the experience far more pleasant and the basilica looks wonderfully dramatic but the picture quality seems to have suffered a tad. Still – a useful lesson to have learnt, and I hope you all enjoy the shoot anyhow.

Week 5: Musée Rodin

Between 1727 and 1732, in Paris’s 7th arrondissement, a beautiful big house was built for a wigmaker who happened to be more or less the only person to emerge  from the Law crisis (one of the worst times in history for France’s economy) with any money. Unfortunately for him the mansion – called the Hotel Biron - was only completed a year before his death, after which it was sold on and on, from person to person until 1820, when somebody had the sensible idea to place it in the capable hands of the nuns of Sacré-Cœur who turned it into a school for girls.

The school was closed in 1905 (when the French government legally separated the Church from the State) and the building split up into lodgings. The nuns’ loss became the house’s gain when the sculptor Rodin rented out some of the rooms and turned the hotel into his studio. Towards the end of his life he donated all of his sculpture to the State of France under the condition that it would turn the hotel into a museum dedicated to his work. This it did and now the hotel is one of the two sites which make up the Musée Rodin and this is where we did this week’s shoot.

Born in 1840, Auguste Rodin is widely recognised as the father  of modern sculpture. As is the fate of many great artists, fame and acclaim took their time to reach him and, although he dearly wanted academic recognition, he was never accepted into Paris’ foremost art school. Many of his most interesting works were criticised during his lifetime because they didn’t follow the generally-accepted sculptural rules; they weren’t mythological  or allegorical and lots of them didn’t even have subjects. Rodin was more interested in individual character and physicality  and he would often get his models to walk around his studio (stark-naked) rather than pose, so he could get a better idea of how they moved.

This sculpture - "The Age of Bronze" - was Rodin's first full-scale piece.
It is so realistically-proportioned that Rodin was accused of cheating
 by taking a cast of a real human body.

To pay homage to Rodin’s love of physicality, I wanted the look this week to be structured and simple, and to allow for as much freedom of movement as is possible in a floor-length ball dress... As well as its practical cut, I chose this dress because it is the perfect colour to mimic  the aged, weathered bronze out of which so many of the sculptures around the Musée and gardens are made.

The Thinker

I decided to carry on this theme with various pieces of bronze or copper jewellery which led to another home-made fashion project. When compiling the outfit, I realised I didn’t own the bronze/copper necklace which was really needed to complete it, but that I did own enough Kirby grips to make a scale model of the Eiffel Tower. SO, the necklace you can see in this shoot is a golden bird necklace from Accessorize, worn back to front with a fan shape at the front made of Kirby grips... Easy peasy!

Dress- second-hand, originally from Ghost

Earrings - Turkish shop in Edinburgh Grassmarket

As for the shoot itself, I am beginning to notice that it gets a little less scary, and a little less nerve-wracking every week. As soon as the coat was off this time, I just decided to enjoy making the bizarre shapes Josie directed me into. I think the tourists enjoyed it too, they certainly took an awful lot of photos... What’s more, we got our first sunshine in weeks, which is just as well since nothing less could have done justice to the beauty of the garden and surroundings.

This is probably Rodin's most famous statue, The Kiss.
 I hope you're all appreciating the picture, I got told off about 30 seconds after taking
this because I hadn't noticed the "No Photos" sign...

Week 4: Cirque D'Hiver

In order to keep a nice sense of continuity, this week we were at another building designed by Jacques Ignace Hittorff (the architect who designed the Gare du Nord): the Cirque D’Hiver (the Winter Circus). Opened in 1852 by Napoleon III, it was originally called the Cirque Napoléon, though it was sensibly renamed in 1870 after the emperor was defeated, captured and exiled during the Franco-Prussian war.[..] One of the first ever indoor circuses, the Cirque D’Hiver was taken over by the Bouglione brothers in 1934 and has remained in the family ever since! I thought this would be a great place to do a shoot not only because it is a gorgeous building, but also because it has been involved in a couple of significant fashion events in its lifetime. For example, in 1955, Richard Avedon took his iconic photo “Dovima with Elephants" in the circus. Also, forty years later Thierry Mugler held a show in the Cirque D'Hiver to celebrate his brand’s 20th anniversary.

Ring - H+M, Bracelet - Little boutique in Pernety, Paris

Belt - Vintage (belonged to my Ma)

 I am a big fan of Monsieur Mugler’s clothes, and figured there was no better place to do a Mugler-inspired shoot, which is what you will be getting this week, dear readers.

For this shoot I used the "vivid colours" setting on my camera .
I have included a couple of pictures taken without (e.g. below) it to show you the difference.

Hat - Monki

Born in Strasbourg, TM started out as a ballet dancer with the Opéra national du Rhin when he was 14. 10 years later he moved to Paris and by 1978 he had designed his first collection and opened his very own boutique.  Having started his working life on a stage, it makes perfect sense that he has gone on to design costumes for theatres, the Cirque du Soleil and Beyoncé . His clothes are beautiful and brilliant and just a bit bonkers. He is known for his bold silhouettes, sharp tailoring, accentuated shoulders, severe curves and his flair for the theatrical makes me want to wear his clothes the second I lay eyes on them.

NOT MY PHOTO - blog.fashionanthology.com

Net Petticoat - Lindy Bop 

For this week’s outfit I tried to recreate one of the designs from his 1995 show (see above) and spent my Saturday  morning – and I mean my entire Saturday morning- making a hoop out of folded A4 envelopes and an awful lot of tape to go underneath a net petticoat. I’m not sure it worked exactly, but it certainly was hilariously fun to wear! I went for bright primary colours again, to match the cheerful simplicity of both circus performances and the building itself, as well as the children’s playground we ended up in.

 Being the winter circus (and because it is still, well...winter), I decided to give this outfit a slightly Cossack-y twist by adding the furry hat and feathery cape. And, because I was riding a residual craft high from the envelope-skirt-hoop, I decided to add a wedge of cardboard to the back of the collar so it could stand up, taking inspiration from another gorgeous Mugler creation.  

Collar - Topshop

NOT MY PHOTO - thierrymugler.tumblr.com

The man who created the flying trapeze- Jules Léotard – debuted this exciting new art form at the Cirque D’Hiver in 1859. His other great life achievement was attaching his name to the nifty little costume he wore whilst doing it. All things considered – it really would have been rude of me not to wear a leotard.

Leotard - Oh My  Love at ASOS

Now, to the shoot itself; when we left the house this week, joy of a roommate and I were wearing sunglasses – a positive sign when the outfit of choice is a leg-less bodysuit and a skirt made almost entirely of tiny holes. And it was all going so well until we got out of the[me]tro. Now, I love a freak hailstorm as much as the next person – but I won’t pretend it was enormously easy to look childishly carefree  and clown-like when you’re conscious of your joints seizing up – one by one – due to the cold.[Furthermore], this had to be the most embarrassing shoot we’ve done so far. There was a show on at the circus so we couldn’t go inside, and instead took refuge  in the less-than-sheltered children’s playground just in front of the circus.  We were watched by people. Lots of people. And if the tourist with the DSLR happens to be reading this – sir, you were kinda breaching my copyright a tad.

Boots - New Look

Anyway, that’s enough clowning about for one week – I better go and lavish my attentions on my poor, neglected dissertation. À la semaine prochaine (mes chers amis)!