PARIS, 9/26 — My first full day in the French capital proved productive and saw me backstage at a trio of shows including Carven, Nina Ricci and Lanvin. One of the first hurdles of any transatlantic hop is overcoming the time difference, which between the East Coast and the Continent is six hours. My trick for beating the devil is to sleep as much as possible on the flight, not to nap upon arrival, and go to sleep after midnight the first night. I achieved just this and slept over four hours Wednesday night, which is a relatively ludicrous amount of sleep compared to what I will likely claim on a nightly basis throughout the week. As it was, I woke before 07h00 on Thursday and immediately set to work. “>“>“>
I split my day in two parts by starting at the Grand Palais in the early morning where I met up with Wilhelmina’s Alexandra Martynova, Manon Leloup (above) and Kwak (below) for the Carven Spring 2014 show. The runway was not in the main space of the massive complex with its famous glass canopy, that engineering marvel turned rotten cliché by smartphones and social media. No, that cordoned area was already noisily under construction for its regal Tuesday morning tenant. Hair and makeup, though, took place in a narrowly partitioned slice of the Palais, a bit like the delicate braid that ran through the middle of the side part models wore for the show. The runway itself was a long affair, very long. So long in fact that for the finale, the applause wasn’t sufficiently sustained for the entirety of the procession, which is not meant as a slight to designer Guillaume Henry, it’s a fact of distance. Future sound designers could well address this acoustic conundrum through in situ sampling that could indefinitely loop rapturous applause, however brief. DJ Spooky, where are you?!
Backstage at Carven:
Next up was Nina Ricci, but not before I spirited back to my hotel for a quick edit of the Carven footage, coffee and no napping. Before I left for Nina Ricci, I began the interminable process of uploading the video to YouTube. There is something about the French Internet (are they still using Minitel?!) that makes even the most elementary task arduous.
Once I reached Nina Ricci, I met up with Carolina Sjøstrand (above, left) and Manon Leloup (above, right) under the tents at the Tuileries. Elisabeth Erm (below) was also cast in the show, but did not join the lineup until nearly show time. Turns out the Estonian beauty was busy opening the Barbara Bui show over at Palais de Tokyo. Nice work, that.
The show space for Nina Ricci made use of a sheer curtain that ran the length of the runway, down and back. The curtain was automatically controlled, much in the manner of an overhead conveyor. The industrial likeness shared, however, ends there as the curtain was light and ephemeral, the very fabric of those eagerly opened windows in early spring.
There was a bit of controversy that erupted during the run of show, none of which I was able to capture with my iPhone, haplessly struggling in the dead zone of connectivity otherwise known as the Tuileries. A pair of young women from Ukraine sprang from the terraced seats on the left down on the runway before the bank of photographers and yours truly assembled on the riser. Members of Femen, a women’s rights activist organization, the pair emerged with slogans that read “model don’t go to brothel” painted in black on their exposed torsos. As disruptive as it was, the show didn’t skip a beat as the agitators were frogmarched from the venue. I tried in vain to tweet the incident as it happened, but France’s 0G network would not deign to indulge my pithy rejoinder, which was probably best. Maybe next time, eh, Femen?
Backstage at Nina Ricci:
I concluded my Thursday at Lanvin over at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, where I was to meet one of the “Famous Five” (see Numéro #147) models, Soo Joo Park (below). I last saw the Chanel campaign girl in New York for Rag & Bone. This time she was not juggling nearly as many social media devices as she was backstage photographers angling to take her portrait. Fame, is it any wonder?
Soo Joo wore the penultimate look of Alber Elbaz’s ready-to-wear collection for spring, a dazzling gold dress that shimmered under flashbulb and spotlight alike. All the looks for the show, labelled in hand script, were individually tacked to the wall in the order of the show. The looks board (below) can reveal a lot about a designer and house despite it being an otherwise functional object. In the case of Lanvin, the looks board still carried the designer’s meticulous touch with handwritten names and individual tacks. The festive atmosphere surrounding the collection also extended to the show gallery, where audiences were served drinks (no popcorn this season) by handsome waiters.
Following Lanvin, I walked up a travel-snarled rue Bonaparte to the Metro. As the train pulled into the station, I boarded the car and took one of the last available seats. An elderly gentleman also entered the car before the doors closed. That rider was none other than Bill Cunningham. I almost immediately offered Mr. Cunningham my seat, which he politely declined. No other seated passengers offered the same and so he stood with his camera bag holding onto the pole in the middle of the car. He rode several stops, then quietly exited, on to his next destination. The scene played out as I rather sheepishly sat in my seat. I hope to one day be even half the man that Mr. Cunningham is.
Long day though it was, there was still considerable time to be spent editing footage in the small hours before Dior’s call time early Friday. That tale, however is for another day…
Backstage at Lanvin:
