Parisian Chic: a Style Guide by Ines de la Fressange

Written by Ines de la Fressange and Sophie Gachet, Parisian Chic is a delightful book to have. After years of being the inspiration and Paris resource go-to girl for her many friends and fashion colleagues, Ines de la Fressange decided to put her fashion philosophy and favorite haunts in this great little book.

The eternally beautiful icon of French style shares the well-kept secrets on how Parisian women maintain effortless glamour and a timeless allure, with specific pointers on how to dress like a Parisian, including how to mix affordable basics with high-fashion touches, and how to accessorize.

Ines's smart and funny do's and don'ts are accompanied by her own charming drawings, and fashion photography featuring her daughter Nine D'Urso who clearly has not only the perfect jeans but also the perfect genes!
In addition to fashion, Ines also shares tips for how to bring Parisian chic into your home, and her favorite shops and resources for all things chic in her home town. In short, this adorable book is a must-have for any woman who wants to add a touch of Parisian flair to her own style.


As gorgeous and gamine today, at 53, as when she first hit the runway over thirty years ago, Ines de la Fressange - the former Chanel Muse - has long been the essence of Parisian style and elegance. Her drawings have regularly appeared in Elle and she is a brand identity consultant for Roger Vivier. Sophie Gachet is a fashion journalist for French Elle.

Part 1

Dress Like a Parisian

Brilliant basics are the key to a great look! Make sure your wardrobe includes the Magnificent Seven:

a man's blazer

a trench

a little black dress

 jeans

 a navy sweater, a tank top, and a leather jacket.

Spotlight on Accessories
The bag is central to every Parisian's personal style...

Golden rule
#1
Never follow convention
Never be bland
Never neglect yourself

Courtesy Rizzoli USA

@Parisian Chic: A Style Guide by Ines de la Fressange, Flammarion, 2011

Photographs of Nine D'Urso by Benoit Peverelli

Meet the divine Ines

Tuesday April 26, 2011

Parisian Chic

Ines de la Fressange

6:30pm-8:00pm: Reception and book signing
Saks Fifth Avenue
611 Fifth Avenue, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10017 

rsvp: rogervivier@saks.com

Holiday Gifts: Murakami Versailles

A last minute gift, "Murakami Versailles." If you missed the exhibition of the Japanese pop art artist Takashi Murakami at the Palace of Versailles earlier this year, the once in a lifetime event was captured in the following book published by Editions Xavier Barral. The 280-page book is available at Colette -Paris, and also on line at Amazon.

 

Images courtesy Editions Xavier Barral

Babylon: Surreal Babies

I came across a series of 'bizarre' and delightful images, a collection of baby postcards featuring in James Birch's latest book "Babylon: Surreal Babies." These weird and wonderful postcards show babies as never seen before. Babies hatch from eggs, flower pots or cabbage patch, and bubble from cauldrons. They ride in zeppelins, and sit atop clouds. They also play instruments, drive cars, harvest the fields and more....
James Birch gathered this collection together as the result of his personal interest in Surrealism. He first discovered the postcards when he was a student in Aix-en-Provence. "A froth of smiling babies boiling away in a cauldron" caught his eye and he bought a small number of cards. He became hooked and started collecting until years later in the 1980s when he visited the Pompidou Centre for an exhibition on Surrealism, where a collection of fantasy baby postcards was on display.

The postcards were a source of inspiration to many artists in the 1920s and 30s, in particular to both the Dadaists and the Surrealists. They were collected by Paul Eluard, Andre Breton, Salvador Dali, Hannah Hoch, Herbert Bayer, and Man Ray. Little is known of their history. The postcards were produced from around 1900-1920 and were found from Russia, to Spain to England and most countries in between, however the majority appear to be from Germany.

A foreword is written by the late George Melly, best known as a jazz and blues singer, writer and broadcaster, he was also an art critic and an expert in the field of Surrealism.

A lovely holiday gift, "Babylon: Surreal Babies" is published by Dewi Lewis Publishing

All images courtesy Dewi Lewis Publishing

Herb Ritts " The Golden Hour "

Herbert "Herb" Ritts (August 13, 1952 – December 26, 2002) was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits in the style of classical Greek sculpture. Consequently some of his more famous pieces are of male and female nudes in what can be called glamour photography.


The Golden Hour, A Photographer's Life and His World reveals for the first time the personal aspects of Ritts’s world, work, and legacy. The book includes many never-before-seen photographs and scores of interviews from business associates, curators, staff, lovers, and family, such as Cindy Crawford, Elton John, Anna Wintour, Madonna, Calvin Klein, and Christopher Buckley (Ritts’s college roommate). The Golden Hour also includes images from Ritts’s personal archive—behind the scenes at photo shoots, parties, travels, intimate portraits, and moments with friends—along with notes and contact sheets that show how ideas became his best-known iconic images.


Introduction from Richard Gere.
....... Maybe this book is part of that good-bye. Herb was a superior person. A bit of a prince. A complex and compelling man and a dear friend. He was delicate, smart, loyal, tender, funny, forgiving, demanding, lost, rock solid, a total professional, a manipulator, an artist, a sweetheart, a lover of beauty, a knower of beauty, an encourager of beauty, a creator of beauty.....

The book cover

Richard Gere, San Bernardino, Ca, 1978

Fred with Tires, Hollywood, Ca, 1984

Woman in Sea, Hawaii, 1988

Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi, Hollywood, 1989

Kim Basinger, Los Angeles, 1989

Versace dress, El Mirage, Ca, 1990

Herb and a soaking-wet Julia Roberts between shots, Malibu, Ca 1990

Mel Gibson, Hollywood, 1985

All photographs are from the book Herb Ritts " The Golden Hour."

Photographs by Herb Ritts@Herb Ritts Foundation

Courtesy Herb Ritts Foundation Archives

Courtesy Rizzoli

Corinne May Botz " Haunted Houses "

And the spirit of Halloween continues.....
Corinne May Botz is a photographer and chronicler of everyday spaces with secret, invisible histories. Her work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group shows. She is the author of The Nutshell studies of Unexplained Death and Haunted Houses.

" My venture into haunted houses began the summer following my college graduation. I was living in an old Baltimore apartment, where I passed the long hot days reading ghost stories by the female authors Edith Wharton, Charlotte Bronte, Ellen Glasgow, and Toni Morrison. I wanted to further understand the relationship among women, ghosts, and houses, but I didn’t want to escape into books like far too many women before me. Instead, I decided to use ghost stories as a means to voyage into the world, and embarked on a journey to photograph the interiors of America’s haunted houses. "

One need not be a chamber to be haunted,
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.
—Emily Dickinson 

Book cover

Franklin Lakes, New Jersey

La Posada Hotel, Winslow, Arizona

Mono County, California

Frankfort, Maine

Private residence, Cumberland, Kentucky

Private residence, Clinton, Maine

Vancouver, Washington

Images courtesy Random House and Corinne May Botz
Click here  to listen to oral ghost stories

Guy Bourdin " In Between "

Bourdin was one of the best known photographers of fashion and advertising of the second half of the 20th century. He shared Helmut Newton's taste for controversy and stylization, but Bourdin's formal daring and the narrative power of his images exceeded the bounds of conventional advertising photography. Shattering expectations and questioning boundaries, he set the stage for a new kind of fashion photography. Bourdin worked for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and shot ad campaigns for Chanel, Issey Miyake, Emanuel Ungaro, Gianni Versace, Loewe, Charles Jourdan and many more ....

Since his death, Guy Bourdin has been hailed as one of the greatest fashion photographers of all time. His first retrospective exhibition was held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London 2003, and then toured the National gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, and Jeu de Paume in Paris.


From his first provocative editorial feature in 1955, which pictured haute couture alongside butchered cow heads, Bourdin pushed fashion photography into then-uncharted territory with his volatile mixture of violence, sex and surrealism. In Between delves into Bourdin's career, charting the course of his artistic development from the 1950s to the 1980s via over 200 superbly printed black-and-white and color images. It also reassembles many original editorial layouts as they were first published, in magazines such as French Vogue, British Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, offering a new critical contexts for approaching his work-for Bourdin tailored his compositions to the constraints of the printed page, both conceptually and graphically, and the mirror motif famously central to his work finds its formal counterpart in the magazine spread. 


" In Between "  celebrates a talent whose posthumous fame continues to grow and grow, a beautiful book to have.

Book cover

Excerpts from the book

All images courtesy of Steidl

American Dior by Kate Betts

Christian Dior was an influential French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior. He lived the American dream. From the first time he set foot in New York, the legendary designer had a special relationship with the United States, and he may even be more important in America than in France.
 American Dior, the 168 pages-book, published by Assouline, contains detailed drawings of the elaborate foundations, images of the New Look collection and more. With the introduction of the New look, Dior became American fashion's ultimate agent provocateur playing on the country's appetite for newness and for French savoir-faire. His collection revolutionized women's dress. His designs were more voluptuous with the use of fabrics lined with percale, bustier-style bodices, hip padding, wasp-waisted corsets and petticoats, giving his models a very curvaceous form. Dior used to say that his client would be "the most elegant woman in the world," which proved to be true, dressing an A-list of American icons such as Lauren Bacall, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe and Elisabeth Taylor among them.

Images courtesy Assouline

American Dior is available at Assouline