Paris When It Sizzles

Paris is beautiful any time of the year; when it rains, when it sizzles, when it changes mood from sunny to subdued. I've lingered in Paris so often I've come to think of it as my second home. In saying that, I'm having a torrid affair with New York at the moment so I'm actually cheating on the City of Love, I'm afraid to say. I do hope Paris lets me come back when I've had enough of Manhattan's wicked ways.

Here, in a travel tribute to Valentine's Day, are some of my favourite scenes, images and inspirations from what is still the most beautiful, most romantic, most spectacularly lovely place in the world. (Sorry, Buenos Aires.)   {Above image via the official Diana Vreeland website – dianavreeland.com – another woman who was mad for Paris.}

Audrey Hepburn as Gaby in Paris When It Sizzles (1964).

Filming Paris When It Sizzles atop a rooftop terrace with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Look at those gentlemen looking bored. How could you be bored going to work with a view like this  everyday? Pick yourselves up people!

Audrey in a promotional still from Funny Face. (This was the hat she went fishing in the Seine with. Isn't it gorgeous? I wish my fishing hat looked as glamorous.)

Pink peonies at the Rue Cler street market.

A deliciously pink patisserie in the 5th arrondissement.

Mrs Haris Goes To Paris. Apparently this book is delightful. As is the movie. I just adore the cover. And the whimsical title. Has anybody read it or see the film? Is it as really good as they say?

Schiaparelli pink walls at the Musee Nissim Camondo, Paris.

A hot pink door in the Left Bank. Who knew hot pink could look so sophisticated in a front door?

Chantal Thomass' French home, dressed in her signature pink. {Via Madame magazine, October 2009}

The gorgeously ornate facade of Chantal Thomass' Paris boutique. I'm not a fan of the lingerie but I'll take the architecture any day...

A scene from Vogue's fabulous shoot on French haute couture, wittily entitled A Handmade's Tale. This was taken in the Givenchy atelier.

Pale pink walls and panelling with two black-and-white striped chaises. Very Parisian! I love this image. It may not be Paris but it's clearly taking a leaf out of the place. From the book A Passion for Collecting.

The perfect handbag to have in Paris. By Kate Spade.

Another scene from Vogue's story on Parisian haute couture.

Sarah Jessica Parker dressed in Dior. Photographed by Mario Testino for American Vogue. Have you ever seen such a sumptuously beautiful gown?

Two of the designs created in a collaboration with Taillardat, a manufacturer specializing in luxurious high-quality reproductions of 18th century furniture including Marie Antoinette, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Empire, and Directoire styles. The company invited five key figures in the design and fashion worlds to create pieces of furniture that embodied the luxury of the 18th century style that they are known for. These two pieces were by Chantal Thomass. The top image is a glamorous pouf made of black varnished beechwood and nickel plated nails, with fabric by Pierre Frey. The image below it is a smoking chair with a cigarette box, made of black varnished beechwood and nickel plated nails, also featuring fabric by Pierre Frey. Too, too beautiful to sit on!

Fauchon department store, one of the most wildly colourful interiors in all of Paris. And the food is fabulous too. (Tip: Head here for a light lunch or a picnic-to-go: their takeaway meals are so exquisite, you'll have a difficult time deciding what to get.) {Via lesbonsbonsdesraisons.wordpress.com}

The Eiffel Suite of the Plaza Athénée, Paris. (The hotel Carried stayed in during the Sex and the City episodes shot in Paris.) Look at that view. {Via Plaza Athénée}

A lovely piece fom an old Balenciaga collection. Love the dress, the setting, the glorious glamour of it all...

Did you know there's actually a paint colour called 'Pink Chanel Suit'?

The islands of Paris, which are at their most beautiful at dusk.

A dress from the latest Dior collection. I'm so in love with this frock!

And one last image to end the Parisian fantasy... It's rare to see pink cafe chairs in Paris. How cute are the tables? {Source unknown}

From Dior to J'Adore

The news that the Arts Centre in Melbourne was about to stage a new version of that old classic Grey Gardens, the story of Big Edie (Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale) and Little Edie (Edith Bouvier Beale) started me thinking about the colour grey. Although grey has very little to do with the fascinating lives of these two Hamptons-bound has-beens, apart from the fact that it was the name of their now-famous decaying mansion, it does seem to represent them, in a curious, match-the-colour-to-the-personality way.

Another personality that grey represents – and in a much more stylish and dignified way – is that great, glorious French couturier Monsieur Christian Dior. Dior was so enamoured with the colour dove grey he made it one of his signature colours, if not his brand.

It's perhaps fitting that we're doing a post on Dior because a beautiful new book has just been released on the designer's life. Entitled Dior Couture Patrick Demarchelier, it's a collection of fashion portraits of the world's most glamorous women wearing Dior – all shot by Patrick Demarchelier. Locations inclide Shanghai, Times Square, New York, the grand staircase of the Paris Opera House, and the garden of the Musée Rodin. Published by Rizzoli, it's fashion as art. Just glorious.

Here, in tribute to the master of shape and silhouette, are a few Dior-esque posts...

Suite Dreams

After many years of sartorial woes, including being overshadowed by flashier fashion houses, and bit of a nasty business with John Galliano earlier this year, the legendary House of Dior is finally showing signs of an elegant comeback. One of these signs is this: the glamorous new Dior Suite at the St Regis hotel in New York.

Designed in collaboration with Dior, the 1700-square feet space features spectacular views of 5th Avenue and Central Park, and a decor based on the Dior atelier in Paris – right down to French-style mouldings and a pale dove-grey colour scheme (St Regis calls it  “whispering gray”). There are also framed sketches of Christian Dior’s designs. Yours for the Dioresque price of $8500 a night.

www.starwoodhotels.com/stregis

{Photography by George Chinsee for WWD and St Regis}

Classic Design Quotes

“The tones of gray, pale turquoise and pink will prevail.”

—  Christian Dior (French Fashion designer, 1905-1957)

Dior-ettes

DID YOU KNOW:

– The English singer-songwriter Morrissey released a song titled “Christian Dior” as a b-side to his 2006 single “In the Future When All’s Well”.

– American Rapper/Producer Kanye West released a song titled “Christian Dior Denim Flow” as a 2010 Fashion Week single.

More Dior

It’s not widely publicised, but Christian Dior’s childhood home in Granville, ‘Villa Les Rhumbs’, is open to the public. The only ‘Musée de France’ dedicated to a couturier, a this 19th-century, Belle Epoque-style clifftop villa overlooking the sea features hundreds of Haute Couture garments over three floors, including designs by Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré for Christian Dior and John Galliano. There is also a gorgeous garden, designed by Dior’s mother, which is beautiful in the spring and summer.

www.musee-dior-granville.com