The Vivienne Files - Page 287 of 288 - Capsule wardrobes inspired by art and nature

my favorite artist: Marie Laurencin

Every time I go to Paris, I force whomever is traveling with me to go to Musee de L'Orangerie, near the Louvre. This is the home of the oval rooms which house the Monet water lily series, but also where I get to visit some of my favorite paintings, those of Marie Laurencin.

I could give you a biography of Laurencin, but you can Google all those things. Suffice to say that she was divorced long before it was acceptable to do so, the lover of the poet Guillaume Appolinaire, and a friend to just about every cool and influential artist and performer in Paris from World War I through World War II. So in additional to being talented and innovative, she lived the life of a pioneer of art and feminism.

I'm in love with the world ... View the Post

An interesting exercise in priorities

May 26, 2011

One of the things I love about the internet is the serendipitous nature of finding interesting new ideas and information. Recently, I stumbled across the blog The Burning House, which is now defunct.

The premise of Burning House is to photograph what you would grab to save from your home if it were on fire. Now a big disclaimer here - I don't for a New York minute believe that the things photographed are what most respondents would REALLY grab in a pitched emergency. But taken in a larger sense, I look at the choices the participants have made as more a "what would you grab if you had 10 or 20 minutes, and a carry-on bag?" i.e. what do you own that means the most to you? The responses are ... View the Post

Decoding the mysterious “weave knot”

This scarf knot has been receiving a lot of attention in the blog world recently; I saw a NINE step instruction diagram/hieroglyphic on how to tie it! Rest assured, it's not at all complicated - it's really just a clove-hitch knot, which any self-respecting boy scout could tie blindfolded. So in the interest of beautifying the scarf world, I'm going to tell you how to tie this knot, in five steps, in less than one minute, without a mirror.1. Arrange the scarf with the two ends hanging down in the front - the left side reaching to about your waist, and the right end (now fondly called the long end) to your right.

2. Cross the long end under the short end across your chest. You are now finished with the ... View the Post

Vivienne Veto: posterior prose

Tourist season in Paris is in full swing, and Vivienne is seeing some truly unattractive looks walking into the lobby of her hotel. Top of her list of vetoes for today is any garment with writing across the... backside.

As she points out, if you have a really unattractive tush, the LAST thing you want to do is call attention to that fact. And if you have earned (or been blessed with) buns of steel, the LAST thing you want to do is detract from your... assets.

On a related rant, Vivienne questions if anybody in the English-speaking world knows what couture means. And she's right - the word couture used to describe a ready-to-wear brand is an oxymoron, as well as an insult to the craftsmanship and artistry ... View the Post

Did you put on your sunscreen this morning?

My dear mother has a divot on her forehead the size of a small ravioli (or maybe a cocktail-sized crab cake - I'm really hungry!). She had a malignant skin cancer removed a few weeks ago, and she is going to have a pretty severe scar for the rest of her life. Happily, they are confident that the entire cancer was removed, and they don't at this time believe that she has any other "spots" that will become a problem. But from now on, she has to be checked head to toe every six months.

She never was a sun-bather, but she worked in our yard and garden throughout the year. I never saw her wear a hat, and I don't remember her ever putting what we used to call suntan lotion on her face. She never seemed to be ... View the Post

Things Europeans would know about: the Heineken Cup

Rugby is a BIG spectator sport in Europe - there are two professional rugby teams in Paris, in a league of 14 teams nation-wide. Their matches draw tens of thousands of fans; I recently attended a match at the Stade de France with an attendance of over 70,000.

Within the last hour, a team from the Dublin province, Leinster, won the European championship, which is formally called the Heineken Cup (because of obvious sponsorship), but which has to be called the "H" Cup in France because of the prohibitions they have on alcoholic beverage advertising in sports venues. An amazing project, separating alcohol and sport...

The Leinster team beat an English team, Northampton, who were winning with a commanding lead at ... View the Post

Well, this has been interesting….

I've had pneumonia. Well, for all I know, I might still have it - when it actually goes away isn't a clear concept in my mind right now.

More doctor appointments tomorrow, and as soon as I'm back among the (relatively) healthy, more news and thoughts from all things French.

Sorry for the unanticipated interruption - I have been thinking of you all every day! ... View the Post

Things Europeans own: Hot water bottles

The first time I met Vivienne, I was unpacking my suitcase, and she was opening a bottle of wine and torturing the room service staff to find us some food. (she works for the hotel, so it wasn't really torture, more like good-natured teasing to challenge them to feed us on the sly...)

It was November, I think, and the room I was going to be staying in for the week had not been occupied for some time. So Vivienne, very helpfully, tells me that I should get out my hot water bottle (La bouillotte, as she would say) and tuck it into the bed now to take the chill off the sheets.

Well, I was NOT travelling with une bouillotte at the time, which didn't terribly surprise her, and so it passed from my mind.

Fast forward to living in ... View the Post

Vivienne Veto: long toenails

I could easily have found a photograph to go with this post (just Google long toenails and you will be enormously creeped-out), but I thought I'd just share a beautiful night photograph of Notre Dame to accompany Vivienne's latest rant.

She works in a hotel in Paris that is very large, and she sees both tourists and business travelers from around the world. Thus, she is... lucky.... enough to see all sorts of fashion statements, both good and bad.

But this morning, I heard from her, and she was pretty inflammatory in her criticism of a guest who was checking in, who had toenails which extended at least an inch beyond the ends of her toes. The guest of course was wearing sandals, which Vivienne pointed out ALSO extended ... View the Post

Traumatized by Trench Coats

Every list of "essential" garments for women includes the trench coat. And I've tried, believe me, I've tried. Two years ago I picked up the lovely thing pictured above, and....

I look like a sausage with a rubber band around it. Deeply and profoundly NOT flattering. I should have known that double-breasted is not a good idea for me, and belting isn't something that I do very often either. But I was determined to take the fashion mavens at their word and I believed that if I just did.... something..... ANYTHING.... differently, this would be the coat of my dreams.

Nope.

So I sold this beauty on ebay, waited 'til I saw the right thing, and I scored the women's version of this:

from Burberry. Okay, ... View the Post

Coup de Coeur

Vivienne taught me years ago that it is essential to only buy things you really love - for which you experience that elusive "coup de coeur". This is a phrase I particularly love, because while it is generally understood to mean love at first sight, it has a more... physical? feeling about it. After all, a coup de pied means a kick, and a coup d'etat means overthrowing the government, so to me, a coup de coeur is like a kick in the heart, or your heart being overturned. What we're looking for here is a really deeply felt, visceral reaction.

And this is something that I've struggled with for a long time. I've always been very influenced by other people's opinions about the right things to own and wear, and so ... View the Post

Paris shopping: Diwali

Of course everybody in Paris wears scarves almost all the time! (seriously, it's true, at least in cooler weather) But these aren't the square, Hermes style silk scarves nearly as often as it's the more relaxed rectangular "echarpes" loosely looped around the neck. And where do these millions of scarves come from?

Diwali - yes, the same word as the Indian festival of lights. There are at least three or four of these stores scattered around Paris - I know of one on the Rue Mouffetard, and also on on the Rue Soufflot just down the hill from the Pantheon. These stores are the absolute mother lode of scarves in any color and any fabric you can imagine! You have to go in with some sort of a plan or clue ... View the Post