Beth Arnold

Letter From Paris: Designing Women

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“Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.”  -- Gore Vidal

WORDS TO LIVE by--and even more important when one lives in a foreign land.  Think of Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation.  Sooner or later every expatariate feels lost--and must rediscover who she is and express herself in a meaningful way.  The women I'm about to present uncovered their entrepreneurial spirits and became designers.  They transformed their self-identities--their individual styles--into products that organically fit them as well as their new lives abroad. 

I'd like to point out that what these designing women did not do was put products on the market just to make a buck, which seems to be the name of the game throughout what has become our throwaway culture.  The high road of honesty, beauty, and principles--on every level--which also transcends into true style has been replaced with a mass superhighway of products that manipulate and push people's buttons.  A cheap thrill. 

Never forget: There is nothing more attractive--nothing more stylish or deeply, spiritually important--than authenticity.  I was knocked out by each one of these women for reasons you'll soon understand. 

Meet designers ...

1) Kasia Dietz

Kasia Dietz designs a line of one-of-a-kind, reversible handbags, totes, and clutches that are "made in Paris with love." 

Letter From Paris: (Republic of) Georgia Fashion Week

After the catwalks of Milan and Paris, Fashion Week in Tbilisi? As curious as it may sound, the answer is yes. It was a whirlwind of Georgian feasts, tours of the beautiful and textured city, museums with historic icons covered in jewels, parties galore, and show after show of hungry young designers who wanted to impress with their visions of what Georgian fashion could be. So many delicious layers to peel away in discovery. What could be more fun!

The small Republic of Georgia, located strategically at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, along the historic Silk Road routes, is a cultivation and clash of those dual civilizations. Think about the alchemy of East and West that stirred the Georgian pot, and how richly veined the history and culture are. In more recent memory, Georgia's long occupation by the former Soviet Union was in lock-step with the other countries around them. The concepts of art and fashion were officially snuffed-out to make room for a sea of Soviet conformity, and the high culture of fashion was lost for a time, if not forgotten.

Letter From Paris: Sit On This?

In this Paris--our city of light, history, literature, and amazing architecture with classic, stunning monuments that are known clear around the world--some of the modern design one finds on the streets, in small boutiques or big department stores is...well, silly to say the least.  I am going to use the word "naïve" in this case, and I don't mean naïve in an artistic sense as in "outsider art."  I mean as in the French don't have a sophisticated sense of pop culture. 

As a little aside but as a good example:  In a commercial in the United States of America, we might see a young, sexy couple (as absurdly over the top as we are on young and sexy) or middle-aged stars in a big budget comedy go to a store to try out new mattresses.  In a commercial before a movie in Paris, an animated couple who have the heads of dogs and bodies of humans go to the store and lie down together.  And this is supposed to be...yuck, yuck, yuck...cool.  Our senses of humor are so vastly different.

So during the sales, the Lone Wolf and I were shopping.  I was at my favorite BHV again.  And the design I found was in the vein of super heroes.  I love super heroes!  Don't we all?  Don't we all want super powers (if you could have only one, what would it be?)?!  But super heroes as design is another story.  Even if it's Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman  (Photo by Beth Arnold)

Letter From Paris: On Location--Liwan

Separated from me at birth--in spirit if not by looks--my friend Katherine Mosby was in town to meet with her French publisher, La Table Ronde Editions.  With the publishing success in France of her novel The Season of Lillian Dawes, they were bringing out her first novel, Private Altars (which will be called Sanctuaires Ardents here), this fall.  Hurrah!

I have known Katherine for many years, and I hadn't seen her since last June when we had taken ourselves on a much-too-short road trip to Burgundy.  Oh, yes, we had a grand girlfriend time.  Old friends, good food and wine, and road trips go together like fried okra and fresh tomato slices in the South.  Now, if we'd only had spa treatments to pamper us, the trip would've been absolutely divine.

Sadly, Katherine's mother had died since our Burgundy trip, and we had much news to recount, gab or rant, and console each other over.  When we see each other we tend to talk non-stop, hopping from one subject to the next and back again, covering a lot of territory as good girlfriends do.  We had the afternoon to fill ourselves up with our new stories,  and then we would return to my new pad in the 20th for dinner with the Lone Wolf, after a drink at the Hemingway Bar, of course.

As luck would have it, Katherine's swish hotel was not far from a shoe store where I had to go buy a pair of mile-high platforms that I'd seen in the window a few weeks before.  (Ladies, for those of you who tweet with me, here they are!)

Letter From Paris: Charles PierreHumbert at the Institut du Monde Arabe

Crossposted at the HuffingtonPost.com.  Comments not included here.

I confess. When the Cheese Princess landed in Paris, she'd wanted to do two things: 1. Go to the Institut du Monde Arabe and 2. Visit the Catacombs (which had been closed the last time she was in town). But as is sometimes the way of travelers and visiting children, neither one of these was checked off her Paris list. Does this mean I'm a bad tour guide or mother?

Truth is I had wanted to go to the Institut du Monde Arabe the whole time I've been in Paris--and even advised others to cut a trail over there--but somehow haven't gotten there myself. Forget the fine exhibitions that have been shown there. I knew of the glory of the Institute's rooftop terrace with its fantastic view and its restaurant "Le Zyriab" by Noura. Since I'm addicted to Middle Eastern food, you'd think I would've made the effort for that alone...but no.

Terrace of the Institut du Monde Arabe (Photo by Beth Arnold)

Letter From Paris: A Designing Man

A couple of weeks ago, I received a sweet and funny email from James Leland Day.  They always are.  He wanted to borrow one of our seven new café chairs.  All but two of the chairs weren’t new at all.  The Lone Wolf and I had nabbed them at the Marché aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves before Easter.  Two chairs here, three chairs there.   One was blue and one green and three red-and-cream striped that I first thought I didn’t like and now adore.  L.W. hadn’t wanted the two new ones, which happened to be both brown (which L.W.  hates) and the cheapest of all at 15 euros for both, but our time was running out.  I thought we better grab them.  By the time they were painted, they were the most expensive.

 

James Leland Day (Photo by Beth Arnold)

M. Day is a stylist, and he wanted my chair for one of his shoots.  Oh la la!  My chair would be a star.  It was my new turquoisey green chair’s big break!

I met James at a party filled with charming people and delicious drinks and in a lovely 7^th Arrondissement apartment that suited both quite well.  The life of expatriates is by definition international.  Plenty of ex-pats move to countries where they choose to live, thinking they don’t want a lot of friends from home.  By making this move abroad, they feel they’ve pulled off the great escape and want to reach out culturally to the natives of their new universe. 

Letter From Paris: Yves Saint Laurent 101

Crossposted at HuffingtonPost.com.  Comments not included here.

Le Petit Palais (Photo by Beth Arnold)

After licking my lips for more than a month, I finally made it to the first retrospective of Yves Saint Laurent, held, a little surprisingly, at Le Petit Palais. Why not the Musée de la Mode et du Textile at the Louvre, which has exhibited such couturier luminaries as Paul Poiret, Madeleine Vionnet, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Christian Dior? "Simply because it's Saint Laurent," says Gilles Chazal the Director of the Petit Palais. To translate: This means that Saint Laurent's elegant and astute business and life partner Pierre Bergé has worked his magic again. Saint Laurent's talent was beautifully guided and globally framed by Pierre Bergé during Saint Laurent's life, and now after his death. Bergé heads a figurative Blue Book of French celebrities that keep the Saint Laurent flame burning--as it should.

Saint Laurent is still the couturier king in France. Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!

Saint Laurent Banner at Le Petit Palais (Photo by Beth Arnold)

Letter From Paris: The Beautiful Ride of The Saut Hermes

Leave it to my fab friend J. to be covering the chicest of chic Parisian (and other European) events.  The girl's got game, my darlings.  She is so in the fashion know we can only bow down with one of the best lines in movie history, which happens to come from nutty-romp-through-Mike-Meyers'-mind Wayne's World.  No, I'm not talking about "monkeys might fly out of my butt."  It's the genuflecting "We're not worthy!!"

J. was kind enough to invite me to tag along while with her to the Saut Hermès au Grand Palais, an international level show-jumping competition and a series of events based around the horse held April 2 - 4, 2010, and organized by purveyor of leather luxury Hermès.  From Hermès:

Open to the general public, le Saut Hermès au Grand Palais is an event that celebrates the many facets of the horse riding world, with its “Fantaisie équestre” that mix sport, culture and know-how. Over the two days, under the glass roof of the Grand Palais, there will be a succession of events, from the five-star international show-jumping competition, recognized by the International Equestrian Federation and the French Equestrian Federation, to a never-before-seen horse-riding show, exhibitions...

Hermès started out as a maker of harnesses, then saddles and all the equipment needed by riders and horses, before they exploded in the entire opulent lifestyle market.  So the company has gone back to its roots, though in grand style.  What else would one expect?

Hermès saddle  (Photo by Beth Arnold)

Letter From Paris: 14e Pavillion Des Arts et Du Design

Last week, stylist James Leland Day zipped an email over asking if I'd like to present myself at the 14th Pavillion Des Arts et Du Design.  Most pleasantly, he had a ticket for us to get in, which, naturally, is our preferred situation.  I checked it out here online and typed as fast as my fingers could go that I'd be delighted to be his date, which we soon made a triple with our friend artist Theo Edmonds. 

I met up with my boys at the Pavillion, which we entered at the Tuilleries from the rue de Rivoli, stepping into a world inhabited by art and design professionals that were to varying degrees genuinely accessible to snooty.  Which variety do you think fared the best? 

Pretension is the road to nowhere on all my maps.

These are some of the most striking images from the show that was held from March 24 - 28, 2010.

Most handsome piece of furniture, sleek and natural not to mention handy.  I loved this chair, and if I had a fab house along the northern California coast--maybe Sea Ranch--I'd have it positioned with a fantastic sea view.

Chair by Jack Rogers Hopkins, 1973.  $33,000.00.  (Photo by Beth Arnold)

Todd Merrill & Associates, Inc.

65 Bleecker Street at Crosby Street

New York, NY 10012

Phone: +1 212 673-0531

[email protected]

www.merillantiques.com

Letter From Paris: Celebs Are Out, The Fringe Is In

Crossposted at the HuffPost.com.  Comments not included here.

While Paris Fashion Week was gearing up and its participants were sharpening their stilettos (though hold the presses for the Big New Flash about that: According to a Reuters article, "buyers and designers at Paris fashion week are declaring the end of the celebrity cult." Has Hell frozen over?), I was hurrying down the street to meet my arty friend Louise. For those in the know: Louise has put up a new show at her chic Atelier 7. You don't want to miss it.

Louise and I were headed to a fashionable party. The Mademoiselle à Paris blog--which chronicles the adventures of a "Parisienne" via "Mademoiselle's" fashion and beauty ramblings--was throwing itself a 2nd birthday party. Oh la la! As a charitable part of the bon anniversaire celebration, stylish Parisian buddies e-boutique Je Ne Sais Quoi, leather cuff and other accessories designers Owen&Savary, and jewelry designer Nathalie Sevikian were holding a private sale of their luxury creations and products. A portion of their sales would be given to the Red Cross for Haiti.  Little Miss Cupcake and Synie's Cupcakes were providing the scrumptious hors d'oeuvre sustenance that would allow us guests to enjoy our champagne without its zooming to our heads.

Little Miss Cupcake's cupcakes

While millions of euros were being prepared to be spent on lavish splendorous events to woo the buyers, wearers, and fickle fashion press (with its soon-to-be-dead celebrity culture) of Paris Fashion Week, these smart women had come together to provide their own venue for their own private show, where clients, friends, and journalists would gather to ooh and ah over the quality, materials, and craftsmanship of these very personally chosen and created collections.