Okay, second day in Paris, full speed ahead!  My Blackberry is having an attitude problem – I set the alarm on my phone for 8 AM because we were all supposed to meet up at 9 AM for breakfast, but it didn’t go off (can electronics be spiteful??).  If it wasn’t for my amazing roommate Maria, I would be writing a lousy post about how I slept all day with photos of rumpled sheets or something.  So the morning began a bit frantically with arriving late to breakfast, but I got over it and moved on.  It was so nice to finally meet Susan Schultz and Deb Barrett in person – for those who don’t know, these women are the industry insiders who organized this trip, both incredibly knowledgeable and so generous in their willingness to share with others.  At breakfast, Susan recommended that we check out a couture fashion exhibit currently on display at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs near the Louvre, then head back to the Louvre to see Napoleon’s apartments, and then to the Musée Carnavalet afterwards.
So Karen and I (Karen, forgive me for spacing out on your last name!) headed out again on foot across the Pont Neuf to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, and it was so amazing that we couldn’t bear to drag ourselves away until dinnertime.  The first thing we saw was several darkened galleries full of the most exquisite fine jewelry collection I have ever seen.  There were nineteenth century jewel-encrusted hairpins, jaw-dropping necklaces, and diamond headband-tiara-comb things like the women wore in the paintings I saw at the Louvre.  My favorites were the Art Deco pieces from Cartier.  I felt like we were snooping through the Queen of England’s jewelry box!  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any photos in those galleries, but I enjoyed the artistry of the antique settings even more than the dazzle and bling.  Contemporary jewelry settings are sometimes so functional, just a strip of metal with prongs to secure a sparkly rock to a finger.  Today I saw an Art Nouveau brooch that combined amethysts, diamonds, pearls, and fine enamelwork to create a delicate sprig of lily of the valley, and it changed the way I think about jewelry.  For these artisans, the precious metals and stones were merely their medium, like the paints and canvases of Monet, and each piece has artistic value above and beyond its total carat weight.
At this same museum, we also saw a collection of medieval and renaissance tapestries and furnishings (including some spectacularly intricate inlaid chests), as well as furnishings and a few entire intact period rooms from the 17th and 18th centuries.  Tomorrow is the beginning of Maison et Objet 2010, a show all about what’s hot in the here and now for interiors, so after strolling through the centuries of design evolution I’m looking forward to seeing where this year’s show éditeurs see that trajectory taking us in the near future.  Design doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and I’m fascinated by the way creative people with a unique vision are able to make connections between old and new, synthesizing disparate elements across space and time as they reshape and redefine beauty for each new generation.  As my Western Civilization teacher used to say, “Remember — everything is connected to everything else!”

Vionnet-gown-with-appliqued-lace-stars-from-the-Musee-des-Arts

The temporary exhibit Susan had told us about, the reason we even went to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, was a collection of hundreds of gowns by the French couturier Madeleine Vionnet, a contemporary of Coco Chanel and a master of bias draping.  Most of the gowns on exhibit dated from the ‘20s through the ‘40s.  Think Old Hollywood glamour, from the silent films through Bette Davis.  Sleek, sensual silhouettes, simple shapes with stunning hand beading and unusual handmade trimmings, and many of them so timeless that they could grace the cover of this month’s Vogue and seem fresh, new, and original all over again.  I loved seeing this exhibit with Karen – she’s a workroom owner with couture standards and an appreciation of fine handwork, so the two of us were there with our noses pressed up against the glass, dissecting each garment visually and trying to determine how each was made.  When I realized that the fringe on the flapper gown in front of me was individually hand stitched for each garment, my mouth fell open and I, Madame Motormouth, was completely (albeit temporarily) at a loss for words.  Most of us who sew today know fringe as a readymade trim that comes with a bound header which gets sewn into a seam, and the other end of the fringe that hangs loose on the face of the garment or window treatment is either cut or looped.  But for the fringe on these garments, the seamstress had a big spool of the fringe thread that was stitched onto each garment and individually knotted one strand at a time!  I wish I had a picture of that fringe for you to see, but the guards had already reprimanded us for violating the no-photos rule by the time I came to that garment, and you can only play dumb blonde once and get away with it.  But I’ll show you a different gown from that exhibit, a bias silk crepe dress with hand-appliquéd lace stars sprinkled down the bodice.  You can see me in the background, furtively snapping illegal photos while the guard’s back is turned, secure in my faith that Mark and Jay will send someone to rescue me if I get thrown in jail… 

Extra-friendly-resterateur-making-the-moves-on-Karen-at-dinner

It’s 4 AM and tomorrow is an early morning, or else I’d tell you all about the overly friendly restaurant owner who was kissing everyone at our table at dinner and taking pictures for us, and the fabulously chic hotel lobby where we all met up for drinks (across the street from Armani on the Rue St. Honoré).  Maybe I’ll tell you about it tomorrow if it turns out to be a dull day, but meanwhile, perhaps a picture is worth a thousand words.  Bon soir!