King Vakhtang Gorgasal statue in Tbilisi, Image by Blazej Mrozinski via Flickr
I spent part of the last week in the Republic of Georgia, where I had been invited to attend their second ever Fashion Week. This showcase is a way forward-thinking Georgians are trying to regenerate their country and support young Georgian designers, who don't know how to make their way into the larger world. Situated at the dividing line of Western Asia and Eastern Europe--and on the old Silk Route--Georgia is still quite isolated. Georgians benefit from outsiders bringing in breaths of fresh air, making connections with them, and getting feedback. And I don't just mean business speculators swooping in to make a killing on a country trying to build itself back up.
By Contributing Editor Philippe Perisse de Montchenu, Fashion Reporter and Consultant
WHAT’S UP DOC ?
AFTER FIFTY YEARS, Dr. Martens is still cool and ever more fabulous! In France, 15 years ago, every pre-teen would have sold their grandmas for a pair.
For a while I’ve been trying to find a cool pair of high boots. As I was walking down the corridors in the BHV (Bazaar de l’Hotel de Ville) I found myself face to face with THE pair of black Dr. Martens boots…
Those were the days when getting on an airplane was the fulfillment of anticipation of a trip. The planning and getting ready--the excitement of what our journeys would be--were fully crystallized once we stepped foot on the planes that would carry us away. Oh, rapture! We were flying to faraway places, where we would reinvent ourselves and be part of a new idea of what the world could be. Back in Mad Men days, and after, we even smoked cigarettes while we enjoyed our mile high cocktails to celebrate this good fortune.
And then the world became a darker place with 9/11. Many people in the United States became afraid of travel itself as well as new vistas that could be dangerous. Our temperaments are unlike our British friends who roam the globe with more fearlessness than we, their colonial upstarts. Did their experience with colonialism, in taking over peoples and countries make them more bold? Or do we feel more exultation in discovering our own huge continent....Or both? Do we feel the same wandering spirits?
By Contributing Editor Mario C. Servin, iPhone Photographer and Traveling Economist
IT IS QUITE fashionable these days to point to Berlin, Shanghai, New Delhi or the stalwarts of London and New York as the centers of contemporary art while bemoaning Paris's low standing. But there is a lot of contemporary art in Paris and several events around Paris's annual contemporary art fair, the FIAC, offer a chance to discover familiar and new artists from around the world. This week's events inspired the title for my picture of peeled paint on a Paris building.
iPhone photos by Mario C. Servin.
Mario C. Servin is an amateur photographer who has recently taken up iPhone photography after having retired his SLR- Film Nikon camera in 2006. When he is not in Paris, his home for the past 17 years, he travels the world as an economist.
After training in biochemistry at the Institute Pasteur, Matthieu Ricard left science behind to move to the Himalayas and become a Buddhist monk -- and to pursue happiness, both at a basic human level and as a subject of inquiry. Achieving happiness, he has come to believe, requires the same kind of effort and mind training that any other serious pursuit involves.
WHILE I WAS in the United States of America, the Lone Wolf, Cheese Princess, her sister, Bret, and I were staying at an old beach shack on Pawleys Island, SC, (Town Hall shown on right). That alone was Heaven on Earth as well as a slice of Southern authenticity, but on top of that, one of our perks was having a cabinet full of our favorite drinking glasses.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, these are the famous Tervis Tumblers. Oh, how I've coveted actually having some in Paris. I love them so.
As I have made clear on at least one previous occasion, I am a lover of Frédéric Malle's luxe Editions du Parfum. Every breath I take could be filled with his divine fragrances--and many are--though I will not divulge the ones M. Malle chose for me himself. Can you imagine how much fun this was?
Perfume is actually no little subject. As Coco Chanel (on right) said, "A women who doesn't wear perfume has no future."
This photo wall of M. Malle's perfumers shows the dashing group of "noses" who each have natural and extraordinary talent in fragrance alchemy.
by
Contributing Editor Des Coulam. Recording the street sounds of Paris attempting
to capture that gratuitous, never-ending show for which no ticket is needed
I am
not by nature a protestor. But I am delighted to live in a country that not
only allows free demonstrations in the streets but has also turned protesting into an
art form. In France,
the street protest or the “manifestation” is a way of life.
The
French do it all the time.They protest anything and everything.
From 25 May to 19 September 2011, the CENTRE POMPIDOU presents a major exhibition that explores Indian society through the eyes of Indian and French artists. A FUN & DYNAMIC exhibit! For more INFO: http://bit.ly/nID8Ym
I'm on a mission--to walk to all the addresses I can find of The Lost Generation writers--Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and more. I've gotta tell you. They had some great digs, and it's a kick to look them up. As M. Malrick of our beloved Hotel Saint Germain would say, not bad. That wild gang knew how to create their lives. Something to think about.
I'll try to get some photos up soon. Ciao.
King Vakhtang Gorgasal statue in Tbilisi, Image by Blazej Mrozinski via Flickr
