Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: It's French charm, you know, beheaded people, red wine and blood all over the place - it's romantic, it's normal.

[botemp]

Lovers of Parisian style and fashion with a conscious mindset and lots of chatter in between.

Previous Thread

Flo, you heathen, she's one of the most well known (female) artists of our time and probably the most well known performance artist. Her work makes the news because it always causes controversy of some sort, if you see it you'll probably go, oh that woman. There's not much on MD beyond the two pictures I posted, hence my confusion.

She's likely a bit old for Roman Abramovich but they're probably long lost relatives going by their names, although I've always assumed the surname was a sort of placeholder for 'Jewish'.

Same!

Very intriguing Bo, I have no clue of what to expect from that.

I am sure you remember this Flo and Volte
last year on the RA she put two naked people for visitors to squeeze thru for her exhibition.
https://amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/sep/29/intimacy-with-strangers-marina-abramovic-puts-the-squeeze-on

I am very puzzled by this. I haven't thought that contemporary art would be so unsqueamish about high street fashion. Aren't they supposed to maintain the allure of exclusivity to maintain numbered editions gallery sales. I guess my bewilderment is misplaced, thinking back to YSL's Mondrian dress but that wasn't a direct collab... Very interesting move

Hmm, well, she's always been a bit of a contrarian within the art world and as a performance artist there's isn't really anything exclusive to sell that can be devalued.

Clothes, and occasionally the complete lack thereof, have always been pretty central to her performances. 'The Artist is Present' is the one that most springs to mind when it comes to dress as an integral part of the work. I think she was also quite close with Riccardo Tisci, then at Givenchy, at the time, maybe he made the dresses she wore, can't remember (just remember the dresses being great). And I think there was also some sort of odd ball collaboration with Jay-Z at some point. So it's not totally out of character, just a bit more down market?

Anyhow, I'm still not convinced it's a clothing collection. Cos used to comission an abstract stand design by an architect or designer annually for the Milan fair (I think covid killed them), it was just part of larger brand building. I suspect it'll be something similar to that, actually a sponsorship but framed as a Collab to help the brand move away from its traditional classic roots into this quasi intellectual minimalist thing they've been morphing into.

Nope, I don't remember her at the RA either. Maybe I was up a tree at the time. But I'm intrigued enough to tune in tomorrow.

Serendipitously, an interesting article on BoF this morning about the whole Collab eco system between art and fashion at Art (Basel) Miami.

<a class="break-all" href="https://12ft.io/www.businessoffashion.com/articles/luxury/art-basel-miami-luxury-art-collaborations" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Why Fashion Needs the Art World More Than Ever. (Linking a paywall bypass hoping it works and I don't get autocensored. I'm not sure if that's what happened with my previous shared Jil Sander interviews the other day. Not that I expect everyone to read and reply but usually there's some chatter?)

I'm still none the wiser about the MD X MA Collab, this is what's on their site

Not sure what happened to formatting there but the preview link seems to work for me.

Yes the formatting has gone weird Bo first link didn’t work, but then it is also on that box below your post and that works. I will read it later.
i have to admit, with the monographs … firstly I read it as monogram and when I saw the link I didn’t understand anything as couldn’t understand what a monogram was 🙄in that context. And because I couldn’t understand… I was thinking about monograms … I then forgot about it…

and now I am confused about MD x MA

basically, I feel I lost the plot 😬

Coming back to basic fashion, I have some African wax fabric with reds, blues , a good 6mts. It was a present. I am thinking what to do with it. Not myself, but what to ask a tailor to do for myself.

Not sure if it's of interest but:
How I dropped my scruffy English look and became more French

@Redandblue11 , what a fortunate coincidence.
I have baggy dungarees Lucy&Yak style, skirts and dresses done in ankara. I get compliments, and am asked where I got them, and some glances. (I'm have no african heritage).

Rachel Johnson <shudders>

Red, I suppose it could have been worse and you could have read it as mammograms 🙈 monograph is like an autobiography (a subject by the subject, usually) but a wider medium not constrained to just the written word, usually pictures in a book.

For Dutch wax cloth inspiration, to move it back to art again, I adore the work of Yinka Shonibare. Struggled to quickly find a good site to link with a comprehensive overview, so have a Google. There was a period of time (early 00s, I want to say) where he did a lot with wax cloth costumes, it's emerged a bit from now, still of interest but less wearable inspiration. Maybe play around with AI image generators? You can use Yinka Shonibare as a stylistic input to help generate ideas.

mmm, I am unsure about the fashion and art crossover. Of course, I am not meaning the fashion is actually a form of art type argument. But here I think they are intending a more intrinsic crossover in the more defined way contemporary art and fashion have evolved?
but, if I think a bit more is not surprising probably. I am thinking of the customers, and the potential crossover there.

Oh! Of course that is quite good inspiration. Yinka Shonibare has some pretty cool stuff.

yes, I saw sometime ago that article with Rachel Johnson. I was unimpressed and carried on.

@botemp , I thought it was quite interesting. I am roughly of RJ's proportions.
However hard I try, I'll never look like a stylish parisienne.

Rachel Johnson nails it when she admits she has a face (and I'd suggest) a body for radio. I remain to be convinced about her intellect, but a clothes horse she ain't. She faces the endless conundrum of shorter stolid professional women: she looks over-done if she wears anything obviously glamorous, and like Tracy Emin's bed when she does casual. I would head to Saville Row for some really superbly tailored clothes, and replace my preferred t shirts and sweaters every year. So basically a uniform, plus accessories for colour, and lovely, slightly mismatched, subtle costume jewellery. The Times featured Completed Works yesterday which struck a chord with me.

She is of average height, within the normal BMI range, and has her own look, and looks OK to me. She was a journalist before her brother became famous.

I linked the article, because although the makeovers are fine, they just don't quite nail it. She was never going to look like the people whose style she admired. Like me, she is not ever going to look tall and skinny.

Maybe I should work with what I've got.
Bonsoir.

She's fine, duchess. Not plain, nor obese. But for that feature, she wasn't paired with the right stylist. And that should have been the starting point. Ordinary, slightly chunky Anglo-Saxon only ever got flattered by portraitists and tailors.

I quite like Rachel Johnson. If I had Boris for a brother, I'd have probably run away to sea and started a new life by now but, from what I've seen, she seems to manage the situation with dignity and good humour. But I don't think she looks comfortable in any of those outfits, although that might just be because she's not used to them.

I missed the Jil Sander article! Off to look

I'm not anglo-saxon, and RJ probably is not very either, but I agree that it would take the right stylist and tailor.

Jane Birkin and Alexa Cheung nailed the look but both looked incredible anyway (IMO).

Where does one find the right stylist and tailor? asking for a friend

I had an arty friend draw me once. I asked if she could make me look less fat, and she replied 'I can only draw what I see.'
I shall imagine myself looking like a young parisienne and face the day with pride.

Bonjour mes amies,
DuchesseDeSaucisse

For me the way that makeover is done, just doesn’t cut it as you said it duchess.
The double denim is hideous (I like and do sometimes double denim), for me that thin belt and those shape denims are all wrong.
The white dress and boots , is just wrong to me… too heavy, severe, CR did that look with a bit of skin between boots and dress and more skin showing at the neckline, the way RJ does is is just too much imo.
Interesting that I actually find the shape of her own turquoise trousers much better on her, all the trousers in the makeover are the wrong shape imo.

Yes. You're right. The cuts are slightly off. Also the detail is slightly not right.
I think she's in her 50s and probably dresses to suit her shape, as I have learnt to over the years by realising that some things just don't work for me.

The makeovers look a bit like someone trying to look like someone they're not, which is what it is.

The Telegraph fashion isn't that great really. It's not awful, but probably not what we on here aspire to.

A bit of background about Rachel and Boris' mother.

Charlotte Johnson Wahl

Is double denim parisien chic? I have a feeling it's not. [Scampers off to look up bon chic bon genre.]

I am not sure if is considered parisien chic in the traditional sense of the word…
I see it more of British, preppy, etc. I quite like it to be honest. But not how they did it there.