The Bucolics of chic

A conversation about the concept of chic arose this past week after the launch of CHIC Fille a new French magazine.

 

It's not about being trendy, wearing the next thing, battling against aging, reckless consumption or chasing the latest trend like a headless chicken. A girl's style and her wardrobe are not a chain production mill of fast-paced fades, it should be cradled as a curated exhibition. 

Jane Birkin

Everyday life is infested by what theorists call the 'megaphone effect', an audience pleasing game where you allure the readership by wearing the latest, the 'un-published', the hot-off-the-runway IT bag to drool over. It doesn't matter whether it's 'tasteful' or not, it's what the designer and the corporation behind him are supporting and will be featuring in the ad campaign. Coming soon to your nearby screen, meanwhile it's on Instagram or Twitter 'as seen' on X, Y and Z.

That 'as seen' means X, Y and Z received it in consignment or as a regalia where gift assumes the double sense of present for the blogger and free advertising before the paid advertising campaign. It's a merry-go-round of freebies where good taste, chic, elegance, eye for details go forgotten.

We are not here for bitching though. 

Mademoiselle Coco Chanel

Here we are in the realm of the naturally chic, instinctively refined, honestly sophisticated that doesn't happen overnight, but we believe in it. It's like going to school to learn how to cross stitch like good wives to be used to have to: it takes time, there's no crash course available, you have to climb the steps. Same happens when you decorate a house and you decide to hire an interior decorator, a landscape designer, buy pieces at flea markets and hang your child's pre-school hand-crafted masterpieces and dress your bed with family's heirloom monogrammed linens.

When people show they rely on you, they count on you and they consider you good at 'being chic', you are first surprised, baffled by the role and proud to take it seriously. 

Ines de le Fressange

“... that’s how I ended up with this reputation for being the ultimate Parisian. I didn’t choose it, but I am very proud of it.”
— Ines de le Fressange

It happened to Ines de la Fressange, unofficially crowned the Ambassador of French awesomeness. There are various misconceptions and rules, but the most important secret lays in learning the balance of being unpretentious. 

How are you being chic? 



The Season's Honor Code: Spring

Spring is that season that opens the windows to colors, transparency, sun-kissed cheeks. This one is all about cool, freedom, comfort, laid-back and that mix of lady-who-lunch and tomboy-ish attitude.

There's room to play around.

Shoes, mean flats this season

Drop the heels for a season. It doesn't mean eliminating all our stiletto, pumps, wedges, D'Orsay but, on the contrary, buying flats. All is good, homework is shopping anyways. 

  • slip-on sneakers (Celine, Aldo, Steve Madden, Gap, H&M). If you are one of us, you indeed own Stan Smith, Vans and AllStar Converse at least. To update the shoe closet, you may splurge at Givenchy and Celine or go frugal at The Gap, Steve Madden and even H&M. They may be disposable and who cares? The *good* ones will be in the closet forever. These are temporary trends. 
  • 2-band sandals (Celine, Marni, H&M, Prada, Tod's)
  • Birkenstocks & Co (Steve Madden, Zara)

RETIRE platforms ... yep, just for this summer at least.

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The Shirt 

We have done an extended research on THE shirt, like that crisp button-down equivalent of the perennial green cypresses in the Italian gardens. Alexander Wang nailed one look of his spring collection that contributed to the relaunch and resuscitation of the item. 

This means that:

  1. what you have in the armoire needs to be spruced up and brought back to pristine conditions;
  2. this is the season to dig in to your pockets and invest in at least a couple of new shirts. There are plenty of options, Madewell, Zara and JCrew  being the frugal ones. Celine, Alexander Wang and Valentino some of the VIP ones. White cotton, even the most sophisticated Swiss one, doesn't get better with time like wine does. Au contraire, it gets worn out and, no matter how many times you have it washed, pressed and starched, it will never be that David you were once proud of. 
“That shirt you have in the closet needs to be spruced up and brought back to its pristine conditions.”

Skirt

the hems are descending, getting to around the knee

  • pleated
  • full 
  • pencil (we love the lace ones, they go versatile from work to the beach as a super chic cover up)
  • wrap (look n.    of Altuzzara SS14 is the leading example)

Pants

Billowy, wide-leg, slouchy, cropped, flowy

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What happened when I met Carlos Huber @ Babalu'

I bought a new perfume after 23 years of being married to one.

If you know my adversity for synthetic colognes sold with discounts and gift-with-purchase, you know it wasn't any of that.

It was a walk in the past into one of those mid 17th century literary salons.

I will not be abandoning my Patchouli, but 'it's like choosing what to wear in the morning', that's how I was broken into the New Me by Carlos Huber, the one of the only two Latin American 'noses' in the world and the creative director of Arquiste parfumeur.

Here's how it started.

This is how Babalu looked before the party 

As I am getting ready for the event where the master perfumer will be doing a one-of-a-kind appearance, I realize I am walking to Babalu without wearing my own perfume.

(Un)consciously naked.  This is going to be interesting.

Unusual to say the least. The fixation with my own scent started from getting acquainted to the Galateo of Giovanni della Casa: a debutante is supposed to own her own personal fragrance. God only knows I am long past that decade. 

Carlos is behind the counter like a master mixologist and we are welcomed with a refreshing gin cocktail, the perfect concoction for a steamy Miami Beach afternoon.  (Don't you even think I got drunk and bought the perfume like one would get married in Vegas and not remember the following day. )

The atmosphere is understated and chic as usual at Babalu,  the 'antithesis to a department store'  [Greg, one of the owners - cit.] boutique cornered in the most unusual real estate spot of Miami Beach. 

Huber sniffs (baaad pun) I am Italian and Paolo, the other owner of Babalu, says he is too -  'molto piacere'. 

As I ask where is Carlos from, I realize I didn't come prepared. Another sign that this is going well: no expectations.

“Huber collaborated with internationally recognized noses in order to recapture the olfactive notes of historical moments. ”
— www.arquiste.com

The nose behind Arquiste is from Mexico, 'but I spent all my summers in Florence, as long as I remember' he adds.

Signs of the unexpected are folding over me like an origami flower. 

Miami, the ocean and at one point there must be those essences in one of the perfumes

FB - "How did you begin the path to fine fragrances?"  

CH -'I am an architect specialized in historic preservation.'

History, Tuscany, travel, a unique zeal for the past and the aromas of past moments. 

I am charmed and intrigued to hear how those stories got trapped in the bottle and I want to spray them out. But since I cannot keep my mouth shut, we diverge into talking about heritage, living in different countries, national pride. An engaging conversation with a stranger who wasn't a stranger anymore.  

FB - "How were you drawn from designing homes, rooms and bridges, to the ethereal job of combining essences into fine fragrances?". They seemed two opposite worlds, one tangible and the other ephemeral.

The fil-rouge unifying both worlds is time - and memories. Buildings have their own unique scent fruit of the combination of materials used, events that happened there, people that populated and visited them.

WARNING: if you are intimidated by old constructions or don't like history, do not proceed. 

The gardenia is in one of the fragrances ... for sure!

Each fragrance of the Arquiste line is an olfactive reminiscence of events of centuries past in detailed minutiae .

Life in 1695 in a Mexico City convent, the celebration of a good harvest in a Calabria 1175 (before the Americas were even discovered), the day when Louis XIV married la Infanta in June of 1660 that, by Carls interpretation, produced two fragrances, masculine and feminine.  

FB - "How would you convert someone like me who has had one perfume forever?" And then my rant about patchouli bla bla bla went until he said:

CH - 'Let's not give too much credit to a perfume. It becomes who you are, not the other way around.'  

I start getting the whole essence (I swear this is the last pun).  

CH - 'What the perfume smells on the sliver of paper is not how it develops on your skin', Carlos continues. 'When you spray it on your skin, it goes through phases and it builds on you in a different way it does on anyone else.'

CH - 'Let's say you remember that day you spent in the garden in Florence, the cypresses, the honeysuckle, poppies, jasmine, you wore a linen blouse and leather boots.'

Carlos is good. He brought me back to my summer vacations. This is getting better by the minute. 

“A scent is a time capsule. It can invoke our most intimate memories and dreams, and open doors to distant worlds.”
— Carlos Huber - Arquiste parfumeur

Gotta say we took a train ride on the Orient Express, did a VIP tour of the world through centuries and landed on our almost exclusive fragrance. Our essence in a capsule.

Grace Kelly and YSL: the curse of the biopic

Grace Kelly and Yves Saint Laurent, the beautiful and the damned. Some post-mortem analogies. 

The American Princess

Grace Kelly, the American princess, the actress, the fashion icon, an utterly good-looking offspring and a doomed cruel fate. We have seen her, loved her styled by Givenchy in 'Rear Window' and at least once dreamed to be her.

The movie 'Grace of Monaco' starring Nicole Kidman will premiere at Cannes Film Festival, how fabulous and geographically appropriate, right? The picture perfect novel is screeched by the news that the royals of Monaco, the Ranieri, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will not be in attendance. Prince Albert has spoken: the character of his father has been 'vilified' to paraphrase. 

While we are anxious to watch the movie, see Nicole Kidman's performance

official image of the movie

The French artist

Yves Saint Laurent and his troubled and dark life are the subject of two movies. When one life and a bigger than life legacy cause controversy and debacle.

Yves Saint Laurent  vs. Saint Laurent 

Corporate battle? With the first being blessed, approved and authorized by Pierre Berge' and the latter fought, threatened to be banned by the designer's long-time partner. We have read YSL's bio by Alice Rawsthorn, his Voguepedia profile and watched the documentary on Netflix on numerous rainy Sunday afternoons. 

Fact is that now that the new creative director,  Hedi Slimane, has taken bold decisions and veered the direction of the brand far from where Stefano Pilati had aimed and eons away from the artist's world [told ys the opinions are mine], we, and by 'we' here I mean us, fashion world, not 'we the people' have risen our antennas ET style.

A series of questions arise:

  1. What took Monsieur Berge' to take the biased decision? 'I will give access to the archives and my personal approval to one and not the other one.'
  2. Are we really even sure that we are going to be able to see the movies in the US? [usually when movies are so controversial they are shushed in our beloved America]
  3. If so, when? May is one, the 'blessed' one, but how about the black sheep?
  4. Why, if the company's name has been officially changed by Slimane to Saint Laurent with Monsieur Berge' approval,  the title of the authorized YSL sealed movie is called Yves Saint Laurent? 

Some numbers and curiosities: 

  • seventy-seven is the number of outfits lent from the headquarters and each of them hand delivered by one handler
  • 'conditio sine qua non' to borrow the garments was that the Fondation Pierre Berge - Yves Saint Laurent would choose models, hair and make-up ... talking about micro-managing
  • Pierre Niney, the actor impersonating the designer, was allowed to wear the glasses that Saint Laurent used to wear (I mean the same frame). He looked so identical that the dog, the very one dog that the couple used to have though he had found his lost owner.

Analogies?

They were both talented gracious souls.

He had this noir halo that persecuted him, in other words what it is called a troubled soul. She had a noir fate persecuting her.

We lost them too early: we needed more of them ...

There's only one thing to do: wait and devour [the movies when they come out].