Cool Paris

The first large retrospective exhibition dedicated to Yves Saint-Laurent the fashion designer is set to take place from 11 March to 29 August at the Petit Palais. Discover this beautiful exhibition, you still have some time, but buy your ticket in advance on-line or in the Fnac (even with a ticket be prepared to be in line for 3/4 of an hour). The exhibition is very worthwhile, you will recognize photo’s, advertisement, maybe fashion clothes.

The Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent and the Petit Palais (City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts) are showcasing the first Yves Saint-Laurent retrospective exhibition since the fashion designer passed away. A total of 307 haute couture and prêt-à-porter models are on show, ranging from the designer’s beginnings at Dior in 1958, with the famous “Trapèze” collection, to the splendour of the evening dresses from 2002. He revolutionised women’s wardrobes.In 40 years of creating, Yves Saint-Laurent revolutionised women’s wardrobes, by drawing on aspects of the male evening suit, trouser suit and safari suit to dress women, thereby passing attributes of power from one gender to the other.

Numerous photographs and films shed light on the historical background, the development of the Yves Saint-Laurent style and the aspects underpinning his creations.The designer took inspiration from the streets (1971 scandale collection), his dreamlike journeys (Russia, China, India, Spain, Japan, Africa and Morocco) and interaction with art (Modrian, Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh).

“I’ve always had the highest of respect for this profession, which isn’t an art form per se, but which needs an artist in order for it to exist” – Yves Saint-Laurent.

Rétrospective YSL, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris ,Avenue Winston Churchill , 75008 Paris

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Text: Rooksana Hossenally at Vingt Paris

Summer is here to stay, so what better idea than to scour Paris’s mysteries and lost nooks and crannies in a race against time? If that sounds like just your cup of tea, then you’re in luck because next weekend, Saturday 3rd July, the capital will be transformed into an urban playground full of treasure seekers, marking the start of the annual Great Paris Treasure Hunt.

Organised by the City of Paris, the treasure hunt will start at participating districts’ town halls (3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 19th and 20th and St Ouen) from 10:00am to 1:00pm, when instructions in English and French will be distributed to participants who will have until 3:30pm on the same day to reach the final destination. To enter the treasure hunt is free and you can sign up by filling in your details online or by simply turning up and queuing on the day.

The hunt will lead participants all over the city, whereby treasure hunters will follow clues, solve riddles, speak to locals, shopkeepers, and artisans alike, whilst discovering areas of a city, such as its hidden gardens and secret passages. The first participants to reach the finishing point will be eligible to win several prizes, the top prize being a concert at an undisclosed location that evening.

The toughest of treasure hunters will also be able to win a holiday by solving the 10-part riddle that will be told at the prize-giving ceremony. This riddle will lead to a secret hiding place where a Jericho rose will hold a password and telephone number. The first participants to call in with the password will be the happy winners of the free holiday.

The Great Parisian Treasure Hunt began five years ago and was started by deputy mayor of Paris, Jean-Bernard Bros. His aims via this event are on par with the event organiser, Audrey Epeche’s: “The initial idea was simply how to discover and rediscover the city off the beaten path, by creating an event based on interactions, encounters and conviviality”. If the past five years’ treasure hunts’ successes are anything to go by, then be prepared for your usually calm streets to be invaded by over 20,000 bolting charade-fiends! The very first treasure hunt took place in just one district and has since expanded to most of the city as it has attracted people from all over, who are keen to explore the city under a different light and in a more interactive way rather than through guide books.

The game will plunge you into a world of legend and myth as Paris unveils its secrets and casts its spell on you just as you thought you had finally got your head around it all.

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Anna Bromwich writing for VINGT Paris

Perched on Quai D’Austerlitz on the old industrial banks of the Seine is a 21st century Emerald City. The Cité de la Mode et du Design is a converted storehouse wrapped in a vibrant green, wavy skin that was designed to echo the murky Seine running beside it.

Cité de la Mode is due to open in early 2010 and the public should soon be able to visit the complex of boutiques, restaurants and exhibition spaces all pertaining to the theme of fashion and design.  The building already plays host to the post-graduate fashion design and management school l’Institut de la Mode. However, it is the Cité’s adventurous architecture which is the greatest testament to its proposed use.

Twenty years ago this part of town was a run down industrial zone. Stretching from Gare d’Austerlitz to Boulevard Général Jean-Simon, a visit to this corner of the 13th arrondissement was easily bypassed. Since 1991 the area has been subject to a massive urban redevelopment plan, which has seen the district renamed to ‘Paris Rive Gauche’.  Although the district centralizes the 24 storey Bibliothéque Nationale de France, it appears that architecturally speaking, the jewel in the crown may in fact be the Cité de la Mode et du Design.

Franco-Kiwi duo Dominique Jakob et Brendan MacFarlane, who won the contract in an open competition, took the existing 1907 warehouse structure and overlaid a web-like network of green-painted steel, screen-printed glass and wooden decking which form walkways along the river and lead to a grassy landscaped rooftop.
The architects have nicknamed this concept the ‘Plug-in’: plugging a new structure and concept into the old, thereby manipulating its form and use. The decision to retain the original building, which was not an obligation, has given a contemporary project a sense of history in the midst of recent development, which has changed the landscape dramatically.

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Until the end of the month at Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

In the 30′s, Madeleine Vionnet was one of the greatest fashiondesigner of Paris. Unfortenately she is not wel known. The musée brings a homage to her by exposing 130 models and textile.

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 70, Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, M° Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre

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