Landing in London and being immediately spirited away to the Victoria & Albert Museum Chanel exhibition was quite fun. Virginia Fraser, mother of model and L.A. gallerist Honor Fraser, and a writer for House and Garden, has a sharp eye. She spotted all the brilliant details of the vey early (1928) and exciting dresses or ensembles sold by the couturier … Read More
Here and there, around the Marais
I went to the opening of an exquisite tiny gallery, Anne Laure Buffard, on rue Chapon, which shows (until January 13) the photographs of Pierre-Elie de Pibrac and sculptures by the ceramist Yoshimi Futamura and discovered that the whole street is now lined with galleries. The photos are the same as the ones showing at Musée Guimet but here, you … Read More
Prosper Mérimée, a multi faceted talent in Compiègne
Prosper Mérimée is best known around the world for the two operas “Carmen” by Georges Bizet (1875) and “La Périchole” by Jacques Offenbach (1868) which were based on the short stories he wrote. La “Périchole” was called “Le Carrosse du Saint Sacrement” and took place in Peru. “Carmen” is set in Andalusia, Spain, where he loved to go and where … Read More
Iris van Herpen, a Dutch sculptor of dresses at MAD
It’s definitely been a Dutch week in Paris with the inauguration of Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen‘s show at MEP and the Iris van Herpen exhibition at MAD by Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and Brigitte Macron. The extraordinary 39 year old fashion designer is known for using avant-garde material to sculpt her dresses, and the show explores the place of … Read More
At Petit Palais, Modernity is the theme
This is the third part of a trilogy started by Christophe Leribault at Petit Palais with “Paris Romantique ” in 2019 and “Paris 1900”, in 2021. “Le Paris de la Modernité, 1905-1925” is a multifaceted show starting with Montmartre and Montparnasse, the beginnings of automobile and aviation, Paul Poiret and Jeanne Lanvin’s fashion, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées and the … Read More
A book on Fashion in the paintings of the Louvre, what a great idea!
I met Sabine de la Rochefoucauld years ago when she was the VIP guide at Versailles, and Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser who was writing on Marie Antoinette, raved about her. She has now been for many years at the Louvre as chief of Protocol for royalties and stars, but still organizes visits for normal people. One of her cherished … Read More
Azzedine Alaïa as a collector, at Palais Galliera
You all have heard of Azzedine Alaïa, the genius couturier who sadly left us too soon in 2017. But what I did not know before I visited the new show at Palais Galleria, “Azzedine Alaïa, couturier collector”, is that he collected 20 000 costumes from all periods and spent his time and money restoring them and preserving this unique French … Read More
“I can paint for a living”, at Musee Fragonard in Grasse.
In their introduction to the catalog of “I declare that I can paint for a living” exhibition in Grasse, Anne, Agnès and Francoise Costa, the owners of the Fragonard perfume company, pay a tribute to the curator, the formidable Carole Blumenfeld, 43, who discovered a painting by Marie Victoire Lemoine, 1754-1820, in the « purgatory » at the Louvre while … Read More