I usually go back to Paris after spending the holidays in San Francisco with my children. I stick around for a week or two after they leave, do some work, and then head back to Paris, to enjoy some more of the winter there. January is kind of a dull month everywhere, the weather is lousy unless you live in a tropical country—it’s miserable everywhere else, people are tired after the holidays, partied out, broke after buying presents, and nothing very exciting is going on. For me, it’s a great time to work. I work hard all year, especially in winter, so I can take time off in the summer to be with my kids.  But as wintry places go, Paris is a nice place to be in January. Often, it snows, which I love, the big sales are on, which is fun if you want to find a bargain, and the big Haute Couture fashion shows are at the end of January. Many of the big designers have closed and no longer do Haute Couture, and there are only 2 houses left that do couture, Chanel and Dior, other than some new designers that have appeared. And I go to the Chanel Haute Couture shows twice a year in Paris, so I’ll be going to that and am looking forward to it. They’ll be showing their summer clothes in January. And I love to comb through antique stores, and go to my favorite auction house in Paris, all good winter pursuits. And I enjoy winter evenings with friends, over quiet dinners. There is something very cozy about winter evenings, and I like staying home too, catching up on work, or puttering around the house. I always have a million projects, things I want to move or hang. Or change in the house. So I manage to keep busy on long winter nights. And mostly, I write in the winter, and will be working on outlines, and new books.

I haven’t gone skiing in the winter for a couple of years, as my children are spread out and no longer go with me, and it’s no fun to go alone. But that was fun too, for a lot of years. And I might go to the snow this year with some friends. It’s fun to go on long walks in the snow. I’ve always been a cowardly skier, and was never a great one, and hurt my back years ago, so I don’t ski, but am an enthusiastic supporter. I do après-ski extremely well, and have the wardrobe for it!!! I look like the real deal, even if I’m not. I took my youngest son to a place called Courchevel in France a few years ago, so he could ski (he’s a fabulous skier!!) and we had a great time. But he doesn’t have time for ski holidays anymore.

So I’ll be busy in Paris in January, and am sure I’ll find lots to do between bouts of writing. It’s a good time to catch up on things at home, and even curl up and do some reading (which I do in summer, when I’m not writing!!!).

I hope your January is off to a good start, and I’m looking forward to a good year ahead. Last year was challenging, and I hope that this year will be easier for us all!!!

Much love, Danielle

I really like contemporary art. I like abstract work and figurative, I love bright colors (I love red!!), and things with a touch of humor to them. I’m not good with very edgy art, or dark, depressing colors. I want art to make me feel good, and preferably happy!!! So I’m not very ‘avant garde’ in my tastes, and I am not a fan of ultra edgy art.  Buying a heap of sand as a conceptual installation always feels like the Emperor’s New Clothes to me (the children’s book where a tailor makes the Emperor an invisible suit, and he strolls down the street naked, while everyone pretends he’s wearing clothes…..oops!!). I always figure that if I want a heap of sand in my house, I don’t need to go conceptual, I can just haul it in off the beach. (And my kids used to do a fairly good job of that at our beach house). Similarly, I once went to an art exhibit with all white canvases with nothing else on them, blank in other words, and everyone was oohhh and ahhing about how “witty” the artist was, and how ‘profound’ his statement…..uhhh……excuse me, I just can’t play that game. I love abstract art, but staring at a blank white canvas leaves me flat, and doesn’t seem ‘witty’ to me. (Although I can conceive of the artist laughing at all the people talking about how ‘witty’ he is for showing a blank canvas) Okay, so I’m a drip. I want to see something a little more fun than that, and if I’m going to buy it, I want a lot more than a blank canvas.

So inevitably, my naughty kid side was activated at the art fair I went to this weekend, over three particularly challenging (for me) pieces of art. One looked like the contents of my bathroom cabinet, with bottles, medicines, and all the ordinary everyday stuff I jam in there. I know it must have been done by a famous artist, but it still looked like my bathroom cabinet at home (mine is possibly a little messier….but still….). And the price tag on that sample of everyday life was just under two million dollars. Oh. It gave new meaning to my Band-Aids and Tylenol. I went with a friend, and we muttered about that one, as we walked along, enjoying the art fair. It was a big fair, so we had a lot to see and enjoy. The other ‘aw come on’, was a bunch of fresh bananas sitting on a pedestal with a small color chart next to it, so you could see how yellow they were. Yes, okay. They were yellow. And looked exactly like the ones in my fruit bowl in the kitchen. At first I thought they were only made to look real, but nope, they were real (I touched). The price tag on that was the equivalent of $15,000, if I remember correctly—-or maybe $20,000?  Gulp. Now what happens when the bananas turn black next week, and go mushy, and you have to throw them away? Fifteen or twenty thousand out the window? Okay, I know its art, but please…….$15,000 for a bunch of fresh bananas that are not going to make it past next week? I’m sorry, I used to be an art dealer, but I still don’t understand. I’m sure it was witty, and the thought profound, and the artist respected and well known, but bananas are bananas. (It gave serious new meaning to the contents of my refrigerator). And the last piece I saw that provoked the same reaction in me was a stack of garbage bags in boxes, in that same price range. I make that kind of art every night in my kitchen. It is indeed using what you have on hand to make art. And I saw lots and lots of other works of art that were fascinating, intriguing, and that I would even like to own. But works of art like the ones I just mentioned always seem to me like they are pushing us—-for me anyway, buying a bunch of bananas at an art fair, at those prices, even with a color chart, is more than a stretch!!!! That, to me, is a definite “Awwwww, come on!!!” I’m sure there must have been some deep meaning to those pieces that I missed, or maybe not. Maybe it’s a sense of humor, or sensibility that I just don’t have. In any case, I did not buy the bananas, the garbage bags, nor the medicine chest.

The other two art fairs were much smaller, but fun too. They were both in tents, with many stalls of interesting art, at more reasonable prices than at the bigger art fair. And I succumbed to a miniature pair of blue jeans, in royal blue, under a plexiglass cover. They were inspired by an artist named Yves Klein, who is famous for the pigment he uses, in a brilliant royal blue. He uses models of famous sculptures, like the Venus de Milo, does them in varying smaller sizes, and covers them in a powdery royal blue pigment. I have always loved the color, but his prices are way out of my budget in the several hundred thousand dollar range, and he is a very famous, very respected artist. He uses primarily famous classical statues as his models and base for the blue color. In this case, the artist used something modern, the jeans, and did them in that gorgeous royal blue color—-and it was in my budget—–way way less than the bananas and the garbage bags, which I already have at home anyway. So I’m happy with my new sculpture, and had a great time looking at a lot of art….and I even got a chuckle out of some very incongruous pieces of art. That’s what art is all about, having fun with it, talking about it, and commenting on it…..and if you’re feeling artistic, head for your kitchen and see what you find!!!  Maybe you too can create a work of art with a head of lettuce, a cauliflower, or some brussels sprouts…..awwww come on!!!!!

Love, Danielle

Love, Danielle

First, I wrote some poems in French, then the composer showed me how to break them into ‘couplets’ (in French, which tell the story), then I added the refrain. The number of beats in each couplet, and the refrain, were very important. It was a whole new language of creativity for me, which made it that much more exciting to work on. Meanwhile, the composer worked on music to go with what I’d written (and I love his music!!). We’re still working on it, and I love all that I’m learning. I wrote the lyrics in French, and then translated them into English as well, and the composer created music to go with my words. And on the last song, he wrote the music, and I tailored the lyrics to work with it. This has been so much fun, and so educational for me. What a fascinating process, and whereas my normal work is so solitary, this is a real collaboration, and it’s so much fun to work on this together, and have company (the composer) while I do it. I hope the final result is good.

For now, we have a very rough version of one song, on CD, with both lyrics and music, in French. The composer still needs to polish up the music, and do the arrangements, and the singer needs to rehearse what we’ve done. In time, we will make proper recordings of all these songs, with full implementation of music and lyrics, in both languages. It is REALLY exciting for me. It has been a very exciting process, and a real joy to work in collaboration with two very talented people. We made 5 songs in all, and will do polished recordings of them. I try to take a break from writing in the summer, so this was a perfect time for me to work on it.

Anyway, I wanted to share that with you. The young composer spent hours with me, working on these songs. He brought a portable electric keyboard, and we sat at my kitchen table, working on all the songs.  I had an absolutely terrific time doing it—–and I hope you’ll be hearing more about these songs soon!!! The sounds of music were echoing in my kitchen this summer!!!!!!

Love, Danielle

Well for me, in a way, the summer holiday is over. I started somewhat early, in June, when I came back to Paris for almost two months, and it has been wonderful, seeing friends, having my kids here, doing fun things, and travelling to Italy. And the lazy summer days end all too quickly. For the first time ever, many of my kids used Paris as a base this summer, and travelled from there to other places (Holland, Germany, etc.), and some stayed in Paris longer than others, and we all went on holiday in Italy together, at a hotel, and on a boat, on our  annual boat vacation with the 5 youngest  kids. Each one brings a friend or significant other on the boat trip, but their friends stay at the house too. And it’s lively and busy while they’re here. All together, they stayed with me in Paris longer than any other summer, and some were with me for the entire month, which was great, and now I’m sad that it’s over.

It was a chilly June and July in Paris this year, which wasn’t so bad, though I didn’t get to wear my really summer stuff, and wore a lot of wool jackets and sweaters instead!!!!!!! I saw a lot of my friends, and enjoyed the time with my kids. And our trip to Italy was terrific, to Positano, Capri, Porto Ercole, and the fabulous day in Rome I told you about recently. We had great meals and conversations, played Scrabble, and relaxed with each other, spent time with each other and separately with our own friends.

Somehow, I am never ready to leave Paris. I love my home in San Francisco, and will be happy with another 2 or 3 weeks with my kids, each one for a few days here and there. But Paris is just a hard city to leave. It’s almost deserted in August, since restaurants and businesses close for the month, and the city is nearly empty. People take holiday either in July or August, and have a full month off. The whole country goes on vacation in summer in France.

When I go back to San Francisco, I will be curating an art show for a gallery (and owners) I love, which will be a lot of fun. Seeing lawyers, accountants, and catching up on work. It won’t feel like summer anymore when I go back, and SF is always cold. So I’m having a bit of nostalgia as I pack up in Paris, with the ‘spoils’ of summer, some things I bought to take back, mostly gifts for other people. I’m lucky I had the time off, the long visit with my children, the travel, and the time in Paris. But I’m sad to leave anyway. I wish the vacation were just starting and not ending, and it will be September before you know it. But my summer is about to end now. I hope the rest of your summer is fun!!!

Love, Danielle

They meet four times a year, and this was the third time I’ve been invited (someone squealed about how much I love chocolate), and it’s a serious ‘tasting’ event, like a wine tasting, only it’s alllllllll chocolate. There is bread and water on the table to clear your palate. The first time I went to one of their meetings, they served several kinds of chocolate. The second time I went, we tasted 5 kinds of mousse au chocolat. And I’m not a big fan of chocolate mousse, I like plain old bittersweet chocolate. And tonight, we tasted l6 kinds of chocolate from 5 different chocolate makers in Switzerland, and the members of the club took it VERY seriously. there were raspberry flavored chocolates, one with pistachios, one with passion fruit, and another with saffron (which was kind of an interesting taste. previously, I had tasted one with red peppers, which I didn’t like). And there we sat for an hour and a half, tasting different chocolates and discussing them, and after a while they all tasted the same to me, and I actually started to feel as though I was overdosing on chocolate. Can there be too much of a good thing? Well, maybe. But most of them were delicious, and even though I had promised myself to only have a tiny taste of each, I started nibbling more and more and more of what was sitting in front of me on my plate. It was kind of a funny event, instead of feeling like my chocolate was a guilty pleasure, I was expected to be serious and intelligent about it. Most of them were dark chocolate, which was all the more tempting for me.

When I finally left the club meeting, I felt as though I had eaten more chocolate than ever before in my life. I swore to myself I didn’t want to see chocolate again, at least for several days, and I sincerely believed that. And by now, about to write this blog, I just popped a chocolate from my fridge into my mouth. Hard to believe. Tomorrow is another day, and I’m sure there will be chocolate in it. But tonight was quite remarkable. I felt almost drunk on chocolate. It was quite an event!!! A chocolate lover’s dream……

Love, Danielle

When I arrived a couple of weeks ago, the weather was awful, cold, chilly, rainy, gray. I must have brought that weather with me, since I froze in San Francisco until I left in June, ran into the same grim gray wet weather in New York, and ran into it here too. And yesterday, it began to change, and by the end of the day, it was warmer and the sun peeked through. I had dinner at a sidewalk cafe, people watching, and today it is a gorgeous, warm, sunny summer day. And I’m planning to have lunch with friends in their garden just outside the city. A nice way to spend a Sunday, with good friends, on a brilliantly sunny day. And I can FINALLY put my winter clothes away. At last!!!

Since Paris is coming home for me, I usually get to do the same mundane things here that everyone else does at home, fix things that are broken, go to the hardware and grocery stores, take clothes to the dry cleaner, and get my life here up and running again. And a big part of my life here is seeing family and friends, which is an essential part of my life here. One thing I really appreciate about life here is that I think friends see each other more than they do in the States. People are much more focused on an intense work life in American cities, sometimes to the exclusion of all else. I see my kids doing that in their lives too, working in LA, San Francisco, and New York. And I do it myself. I get so submerged by my work, and writing can be pretty intense and very solitary, that sometimes I do nothing else, in fact a lot of the time. I have a handful of beloved friends I see in San Francisco, but I never see them enough. They’re busy, I am too, time drifts by, and sometimes I don’t see my good friends for a month or two, or even many months. That just doesn’t happen here. Friends here invite you over often, we go to each others’ homes. No more than a week, or at most two, goes by without seeing good friends, and we talk to each other more often. People make a real effort here to have a social life too, not just work. It makes for a warmer, happier life. And as a person alone, it makes for a busier, much less lonely life here. I never seem to have a day with nothing to do, or without contact with one or several of my friends. Here, sometimes it’s hard to fit it all in, which is a lot more fun. I think people in Europe make a much bigger effort to see each other, make contact, invite each other over, and even spend time with family. I really appreciate that aspect of life here, and miss it in the States. Sometimes I feel like my whole life is virtual in California, conducted by email and text. There seems to be more human contact here, and just more time dedicated to seeing people, and talking to them. I love that part of my life here.

So I’ve been out to dinner a lot with friends. Sometimes at their homes, or at tiny bistros with typical French food. I had a really fun lunch with a bunch of my women friends. And I think people are willing to make more effort to entertain here, even if they have no help to do so. People are shyer about entertaining in the States, or just don’t have the time. One woman I know here just gave a dinner party for 8 people in her very small apartment, she cooked it herself, served it beautifully, had everything organized from a rolling cart, remained part of the conversation at the table all night, and was a one man band doing everything, and we all had a great time. Even if people have small homes, no help, little money, or aren’t particularly good cooks, thy invited you to dinner anyway, they reciprocate invitations and initiate new ones, and it really keeps the social ball rolling, and constantly brings new people into your life, with those you meet at someone’s house. I love that!!! And I will confess that I make far less effort myself to be social in California than I do here. Here, everyone invites you to their place in a very short time, there everyone promises to call each other for lunch, and rarely actually follow through. No time, no time, no time…..I am guilty of it too!!!

I usually give a beginning of summer party here and I did last week. Forty friends came over for a casual buffet dinner, perched on the arms of couches, or sat on the floor, lots of food, good friends, and some musicians and we danced to everything from Lady Gaga to Motown to some old favorites. A very young girl I know came over and sang (and Wow!!! What a voice!!). She is recording her first ‘single’ next week and is very excited about it. Her name is Marie Ophelie, and I think she’ll go far (and she’d like me to help her with some lyrics for songs, which would be really fun. I’ve never done that before, although my son Nick was a musician, singer and terrific lyricist. I’m not sure I have his talent for lyrics, but I might try.). Meanwhile, she’s happy to sing while we dance. The last guest left just before 2 am, on a week night, which is something I love here too. People stay up late, even if they have work the next day. Somehow they manage to do it, and I’m such a night owl that I love that. The musicians and Marie Ophelie hung around for another hour after the guests left, til 3am, and played and sang. I had a ball!!!

The sales began in Paris yesterday, which is a major event. Prices slashed by 40 to 70% in every store, and you can get some fabulous deals. It happens twice a year in January and July, and people come from all over France to check out the sales in the Paris stores. The city is mobbed, the traffic is awful, and the shopping is great!!!

What do I hate in France? Going to department stores, particularly the practical ones. There is a store in Paris where you can get everything imaginable for the home, from kitchen towels to hardware to make repairs, sheets, beds, rugs, you name it they have it. And all department stores work on the same system here. Items are not grouped by type of object: like all towels or bed linens in one location, or all cooking pots. They are grouped by brand, and each ‘brand’ has a ‘stand’ usually with one sales person to help you with that brand (and if that one sales person is out to lunch, and just left, you have to wait an hour to buying anything from that brand. grrrrrrr). What that means is that if you want a vacuum cleaner, you cant go to the vacuum cleaner section, you have to go to every ‘stand’ that sells vacuum cleaners. Or cooking pots. And if you buy 4 cooking pots from 4 manufacturers, you go to 4 stands, look for 4 sales people (whom you can never find), and go to the cash register 4 times. Okay, I will confess. I go nuts in stores like that. I become hysterical, homicidal, French is my first language so that’s not the problem, but having to run all over the store to find what I want, and stand in line at the cash register five to ten times just about drives me nuts. I went to one of those stores this week with a friend who laughed at how upset I got, how much I complained, and how much I hate that system here. I was steaming by the time I left with dish towels, 2 pillows, and a new tea kettle, all of which took me nearly 3 hours to find, and pay for. Department stores are a whole lot more organized in the States. But France has other charms. My idea of hell would be being trapped for eternity in one of those stores!!! I try to go as seldom as I can, and then complain about it for months!!!

I was on a radio show here, to publicize my latest book in France, and that was fun. I’m always very shy on radio or TV, it’s not something I do easily, and I find it stressful, but it went well.

And a week from now the Haute Couture fashion shows will begin. I will be going to the Chanel show with some of my daughters and will tell you about that.

And that’s about it for now. I’m off to have a picnic lunch in the garden of friends outside the city, and spend a lazy Sunday afternoon with them. And tomorrow a friend is taking me to her ‘Chocolate Club’, where people compare different chocolates to decide which one is best, the friend who is taking me owns a restaurant and it’s a fun event, I’ve been before. It’s a fantastic excuse to overdose on chocolate, an opportunity I cant resist. I hope that all is going well for all of you, and that your summer is off to a good start.

Love, Danielle

Once in the square in front of Notre Dame, people looked for their assigned spaces, set up their card tables, opened their folding chairs, and got down to business. Every table had a table cloth, white plates were set down and cutlery, and suddenly white flowers appeared on every table, candles were lit, food was set out, linen napkins were used, and people sat down to an elegant dinner right in front of Notre Dame, which is a spectacularly beautiful church. And at 9 pm, it was still daylight, and we watched the sunset reflected on the church, as people chatted, talked, laughed, met up with friends, talked to strangers. It was a sea of people in white in a breathtakingly beautiful location, eating an elegant dinner. Everything was orderly, no one argued about their spot, everyone was in a good mood and thrilled with the location. And as night fell, the candles on every table lit the square with a warm glow. Wines were poured, delicious food was eaten (ours was good too, mozzarella, cold chicken, salad, a fresh baguette, and a delicious meringue dessert. some of the others had even fancier fare, but ours was very good. The atmosphere only grew warmer and friendlier as the evening wore on, and shortly before 11 pm, the church bells began to toll, and enthused by the crowd gathered outside so respectfully, a priest appeared on a balcony and blessed the crowd as the bells of Notre Dame continued to toll, and then sparklers came out and the entire square was lit with dazzling lights held aloft by people in white, people in nearby buildings stood on their balconies and watched, and by then Notre Dame itself was beautifully illuminated, and there was a fall moon overhead. As the sparklers began to fizzle out, white balloons drifted into the sky, and Chinese lanterns with lights in them flew upward toward the Heavens, just as a band began to play, and those who wanted to danced, and others sat at their tables, finished their meals, and talked to those around them. It was magical. If you planned a wedding for four thousand, in front of Notre Dame yet, I don’t think it could be as beautiful as that. I chatted with people I knew, and some I didn’t. People shared chocolates and cookies and little desserts, and offered wine to new friends. And the evening just rolled on. It was the most magical evening I have ever spent, the warmth and happiness of the people there just filled the square with good feelings, and for me, the blessing from the priest on the balcony was an added touch that warmed my heart and made it special for me. How lucky we all were to be there tonight, how fantastic to be able to share that with strangers and friends. People talked long into the night, and around one thirty and two am, people did as they had promised, picked up every scrap of garbage, empty bottles, left over food, and put it in their caddies with their flowers, candles and linens, and rolled it all away. It reminded me a little bit of the old movie Brigadoon, of a town in Scotland that appeared once every hundred years. In this case, the White Dinner happens once a year, and it has a magic all its own.

We were among the last to leave the square at 2 am, Notre Dame stood proudly watching us, still all lit up, with the full moon overhead, and a beautiful Paris night sky (pooh to the people who said it would rain!!!). And as promised, not a shred of anything was left on the ground, we all took our garbage to our cars, or even into cabs. And if I live to be l00 years old, any time I drive by Notre Dame, I will always remember the magic of tonight, the sparklers held by four thousand hands, the smiles and the laughter, the music and the full moon, as the bells of Notre Dame chimed, and the priest gave us his blessing. It was one of those incredible, memorable moments that I know I will never forget, shared with good friends, good food, in an atmosphere of elegance and friendship like no other I have experienced. It was a truly unforgettable night. And probably will stand out forever as one of the most beautiful, fun, warm, thrilling nights of my life. It was truly magic (I hope I get invited back next year!!!).

Love, Danielle

Okay, so I lied—-a little. I said that my last blog, on the Givenchy (pronounced Jee-von-shee) fashion show would be my last fashion statement on fashion week in Paris. Just one more? My report to you wouldn’t be complete without telling you about the Chanel show. It’s just too good to miss sharing with you. And since it was the last fashion show I saw during Ready to Wear fashion week in Paris, you’re safe (for men who hate these reports), I really won’t be writing about another one, but HAVE to tell you about this one. It is always the best organized, most breathtaking and most impressive show. And it is massive.

Whereas the other shows are seen by several hundred people, there must be a thousand people at the Chanel show—-maybe more, it’s hard to tell. It’s held in the Grand Palais, a gorgeous 18th or 19th (probably 19th) century glass structure that looks like a palace, and is fabulous in itself.

The fashion shows organized by Chanel are spectacular, and they are spectacles. Last year, at this time, they flew in an iceberg from Sweden, plopped it in the center of the vast expanse of the Grand Palais, and the entire show took place around it, as models waded through four or five inches of water (and the audience froze because the room had to be kept so cold so the iceberg wouldn’t melt.). As soon as the show was over, I am told that the iceberg was flown back to Sweden. Pretty cool, literally. And it occurred to me that the iceberg was going to be hard to top this year.

But, they did it!!! I was fascinated to discover what spectacular decor they would come up with this time. People invited to the show were filtered through security and metal detectors at the entrance, and we walked into the vast space of the Grand Palais, (which literally means ‘big palace’ in French), and we entered what looked like the end of the world, after Armageddon, or a landscape after a volcano had erupted. The floor (miles of it) was covered in fine black sand, strewn with black rocks of varying sizes, and a plain wooden runway made of wooden planks ran the entire length of the interior, and alongside it smoke was rising. It was a scene of total barrenness, rocks, sand, and smoke, with bleachers/benches set up along the sides, and the runway with smoke rising right down the middle. It was stark and strangely beautiful, not a flower, not a shrub, nothing…..just a thousand interesting looking and some very well dressed people. All the regulation fashion editors were there. The Vogue contingent was there in force, Anna Wintour, the most powerful editor in the fashion world (editor of Vogue Magazine) was seated in the center, wearing her customary dark glasses, flanked by Andre Leon Talley, and Grace Coddington (of the fabulous red hair). There was an instant mood of expectation. And finally, everyone was seated. The show began almost on time, unheard of during fashion week—–except at a Chanel show, which always runs like clockwork. Your name is at your seat, and you can actually find it, despite the vast number of people there. They manage to keep everything straight, AND start on time!!!

At either end of the vast space was a large white panel with the familiar double C of Chanel, and slowly the panel lowered like a drawbridge, and more smoke emerged from behind it, and through the smoke one after the other came the beautiful models in the gorgeous clothes. They walked from one end of the Grand Palais to the other, on the plain wooden runway, as the smoke rose around them from under the runway. It was very, very beautiful in a strikingly stark way. Models came from either end, and passed each other on the runway. The clothes were tweedy, loose, comfortable, stylish, there were lots of boots, and for once not very high heels. It was a great look and a very impressive show. What struck me too is how fashion follows real life, rather than the reverse. Years ago, Grunge became the style, imitating the rag tag look of young people in the streets, in torn clothes. Lately, young people wear their clothes in layers, short skirts over jeans and leggings, jackets over other jackets. I don’t think any of my fashionable daughters own a coat, they just wear several jackets and it seems to work—on them. Now fashion has noticed what they’re doing, and there were skirts over pants in the show, and several layers of jackets. The styles worn by the young have become fashion for us all.

It was beautiful and interesting and fascinating. The stark setting allowed one to concentrate on the clothes. And half an hour after it began, it was over, and we were filtering out of the building and down the steps of the Grand Palais. For me, it was the end of my fashion week in Paris….and it was great. I had a ball…..and now, you can look forward to blogs on other subjects!! But I think it was a great fashion week in Paris.

Love, Danielle

It was held in the evening, at the Palais de Tokio, a museum for modern art, it was in a very large space, that was quite barren and all cement, and the fashion house of Givenchy had transformed it with the long benches we sat on, and huge archways of green leaves with deep purple orchids over the runway, which immediately suggested a kind of jungle/garden theme. We sat expectantly on the benches eyeing each other with interest, press, journalists, store buyers (who come to order the clothes, which is actually the whole point of the ready to wear fashion shows), a smattering of movie stars, and a horde of people who just love fashion and fight like dogs to get invited to these shows. The tickets to attend are REALLY hard to get, and are considered a prize, to be able to get in. The whole contingent from American Vogue was there, the famous Grace Coddington, one of the icons of the fashion world, with her brilliant red hair that stands out from her head kind of like a Pharaoh’s hairdo in red, and the imposing and always chic Andre Leon Talley, who is roughly 6′l0″, and a major presence in the fashion world. Their presence tells you it’s a Major Event!!! And we all waited expectantly for the show to begin (they always start about a half hour late). The people-watching was, as always fantastic!!! (I wore a Givenchy black wool coat with a big black fox collar and cuffs, black pants, and my own long red hair down (I like Grace Coddington’s better—-it’s pouffier, and redder!! I want to be her when I grow up) And I had an interesting conversation with a British journalist behind me, and there were Italians there en masse, Spaniards, I heard some German, Russian, Japanese….it’s a very international crowd.

And then the room went dark. I mean really dark, pitch black. And in the darkness was the LOUDEST lion roaring, or tiger, or whatever, I have ever heard. The sound exploded in the room, and continued for a minute, the lights over the runway went on, the music came up, and the show began. The runway runs between the rows of seats, so you could reach out and touch the models if you dared, and you can really see the clothes only a foot or two away from you. Clearly, it was going to be a jungle theme of some kind after that roar, and with those archways of purple orchids. And out came 43 gorgeous, very tall, way too skinny beautiful models of varying nationalities as well, wearing next fall’s Givenchy collection, with lots of jungle prints, black jaguar faces on them, skirts covered in leafy prints. Lots and lots of very, very, very short skirts, some with transparent underskirts under them (and I was reminded of my mother in law’s comment in my days of mini skirts at l8 —-”is that a belt?”). The tops were mostly jungle themes as well, with some leather jackets, some velvet, a gorgeous yellow sweater, a purple one, and many with black jaguar heads on them, and jungle cat designs. It was hot!!! And very cool, and totally beautiful. Some really gorgeous clothes and some fun things. The show did not disappoint anyone who saw it, it was lively and happy and terrific to watch (although I would surely get arrested in one of those tiny short skirts with the see through underskirt beneath it!! But I could wear the tops!!!)  The whole procession of models took roughly 20 minutes, and then it’s over and there is a huge crush to the door, to go on to the next show, meet up with friends or colleagues, or go out to dinner (I picked dinner with a friend). There are several hundred photographers at every show, snapping people on the way in and out, and photographing the entire show, which is the whole point, other than the store buyers, the idea is to expose next season’s line to the press. It is VERY exciting being at those shows if you love fashion at all, or like people watching. It is definitely a scene!!!

The Italian designer of Givenchy, Ricardo Tisci, took a rapid bow at the end, and he is the object of much conjecture at the moment, while people wonder if he will go to Dior, since they lost their designer last week (John Galliano). The people at Givenchy are worried that Ricardo Tisci will leave and they will lose their very distinctive look. Last night was really a great show.

I just wanted to share that with you. It was too good, too exciting, and too much fun not to share with you. I’m going to one more show, the last one for me this season, Chanel. And I probably won’t be able to resist telling you about that too!!! I had a blast at this one!!!

Love, Danielle