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Entries tagged with 'Paris'
Posted Mar. 26, 2008,
Carla Bruni Adds Repetto to her Repertoire
By Whitney Spaner
The hot topic in Paris last week was President Sarkozy's recent wedding to the former model turned smoky-voiced chanteuse Carla Bruni. Most people seemed to think the shot-gun wedding was silly and Sarkozy's popularity seems to have suffered for it. Carla however is continuing to create with a specially designed shoe for Bridget Bardot's favorite ballet-inspired shoe company Repetto's 60th anniversary. Here is the picture of her shoe from the halls of the Parisian department store Printemps -- notice how her tag says "Carla Bruni - Artist." Really? Artist? After over two decades in the spotlight for various activities, including dating Mick Jagger while he was still married to Jerry Hall I think she could have picked a different title than artist. Perhaps now First Lady would have been better suited?
Posted Mar. 21, 2008,
Nina Ricci Heir Romano Ricci Is Smelling Like Roses
By Whitney Spaner
This week I’ve been assigned the horrible job of going to Paris to check out the changes being made to the legendary Printemps department store, but more on that later. My favorite part of the day was meeting Nina Ricci heir Romano Ricci, who decided to go from a career in race car driving to fragrances. He launched his brand Juliette Has a Gun last year and has been busy selling the two scents, Lady Vengeance and Miss Charming in 12 countries. Printemps is one of the only places you can find the fragrance along with one of our favorite Parisian boutiques Colette. It’s sold at Henri Bendel and Fred Segal in the US.
The very charming Ricci, has been said to be quite the man about town, and tends to hang out with his equally attrractive friend Erwin Creed, the heir to the famous French fragrance company Creed. On one website I saw them referred to as the Paris and Nicole of the fragrance world!
Here is a cute picture of Romano from yesterday afternoon. I loved his casual use of a tuxedo shirt!
Posted Jul. 26, 2007,
Give Me Velolib or Give Me Traffic Congestion
By David Hershkovits
On a recent weekend in Paris I was able to observe the latest advance in urban planning taking shape on the streets of the City of Light. Virtually overnight the city was dotted with Velolib stations where people could walk up, swipe a credit card and ride off on a bike you can conveniently park at one of the hundreds of other stations across the city. The bike is clunky and not very cool looking, but the cost is minimal, starting at less than $1.50 and going up depending how long you keep it. The city has been preparing itself for years, shaping bike and bus lanes on the sidewalks and streets in anticipation of the day, fittingly July 14th, France's Independence Day, when the velos made their debut.
Taxi drivers, predictably, make fun of the newbees pedaling along and tourists, their heads lost in maps trying to figure out which way to walk, now need to watch out, lest they find themselves on the wrong end of a swarm of bikes rapidly coming upon them. Cynics say that come February, stolen bikes will make their way to the suburbs and locals will opt out, but in the meantime it's kind of fun. Come Paris Fashion Week, watch the editors rushing to grab one as they make their way from show to show.
Posted Apr. 18, 2007,
New Obsession: Ned Rorem
By Alex Zafiris
And who the hell is that, you ask—which is just what I said myself when I saw the book, “The Paris and New York Diaries of Ned Rorem” in a secondhand bookstore. Having lived in Paris and now in New York, I’m always fascinated by any vivid personal accounts of those who have done the same. The book cost two dollars. I then sat and read it for three hours straight, not looking up once. Rorem is an American composer whose talent and ambition lead him to Paris in 1949 (then in his late twenties), where he cavorted with people like Cocteau, Julien Green and Paul Eluard, and due to his good looks, openness about his homosexuality and opulent wisdom, was the best person to have around for parties. His diaries are so candid, shocking, brilliant, revealing, honest and absorbing that had I had a pencil, I would have underlined everything (good job I didn’t, or the pages would have been ruined). Best part: the bugger is still alive and well, composing music and living in Nantucket. Read those diaries. Here is where I was officially hooked: