The Return Of The Glamorous Years

Jay Gatsby is back. 

This excites me more than anything. More than hearing Pantone's prediction for 2013 is Monaco Blue. Even more than hearing that Downton Abbey is doing a fourth series. (But sadly, without Matthew and Mary. Oh Matthew, why are you falling for Broadway?) 

I'm so excited about the return of The Great Gatsby that I don't think I can wait until May 10 for Baz's beautiful film. In fact, I'm quietly worried that we'll all be OVER the 1920s by then. Seeing Baz's version after the world has already gorged on the trend will be like seeing Robert Redford lying in the pool after being shot in the back by Myrtle's husband George Wilson. Quietly anti-climatic. 

Gatsby was everywhere in Paris last month. Everywhere.  If you blinked, you could've been forgiven for thinking you'd fallen into a time slip and landed with a clatter of pearls at a gin-soaked soiree on Long Island somewhere. Many of the big fashion boutiques were busily devoting windows to the decadence of the 1920s, bookstores were filling windows with F. Scott numbers, and florists were doing arrangements using lots of black and gold. 

We're definitely seeing a return to the va-va-voom years.

Vintage cover.

Kate Spade clutch.

A still from Baz Luhrmann's forthcoming movie with Leonardo diCaprio.

A stamped tribute.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's former home in Paris. 

I always walk past on my walk to the Luxembourg Gardens and pause in respect.

Another of F. Scott Fitzgerald's apartments on the St Sulpice Square, now a fancy hotel. 

FSF's passport.

A fantastic book about Sara and Gerald Murphy (supposedly the inspiration for many of FSF's books), and their time with Scott and Zelda in the south of France,

A poster in a Paris bookstore.

A poster for Baz's new film.

The trend for 1920's legs is already showing up in London department stores. {Unsure of credit}

{Unsure of credit, but love it.}

One of Grace Coddington's most beautiful shoots, for US Vogue.

Bryan Ferry's latest reinvention, assisted by some alluring 1920's style women. Very Ferry. {Shot by Richard Grassie}

Series Three of Downton Abbey which opens in the spring of 1920.

Giorgio Armani.

Shakespeare & Co in Paris

Shakespeare & Co; a bookstore that's far, far more than just a literary cliché. It's a place that groans (quite literally, because the floorboards are stairs are so old) with history. The atmosphere here is wonderful. No wonder FSF and Hemingway loved it.

Ralph Lauren, who dedicated his St Germain windows to a Gatsby theme.

Johanna Johnson.

A new rug collection by Catherine Martin (Baz's parter), inspired by the film.

Via the lovely Collage of Life. 

And this quote, my dear friends, is precisely why I love this writer so much.