FASHION Magazine

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While in Paris during the couture shows, editor-in-chief Bernadette Morra had a rare glimpse into one of fashion’s most treasured troves: the apartment once inhabited by a one Mademoiselle Coco Chanel. Luckily for us, she brought her Flip Camera. Come inside!

The post This is how legends live: Our tour through Coco Chanel’s apartment appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Jean Paul Gaultier always delivers entertainment in addition to standout clothes. But for his spring 2011 couture collection, he proved just how clever a showman he is.

His Rue Saint Martin headquarters was packed with heavy hitters: clients (including a young oil-type who was veiled and sabled to the floor) as well as high profile friends like model, Ines de la Fressange who wielded a peacock blue crocodile handbag, from the Roger Vivier collection she is ambassadress for, no doubt.

But what really sent the paparazzi into a tizzy was the double-whammy of Catherine Deneuve and director Pedro Almodovar, who were encouraged to nuzzle in their front row seats, guaranteeing that everyone walked away with a money shot.

With so many press and wealthy clients in Paris for the haute couture shows, many of the luxury jewelers in the Place Vendome are using the occasion to launch new collections. So off I went to Van Cleef & Arpels to see their new Zips. It was the Duchess of Windsor (the sometimes scandalous, always stylish legendary Wallis Simpson) who first suggested in 1938 that the house craft a zipper necklace in precious materials, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that technology caught up with the duchess’s imagination. By then, Wallis was over it. And though her character is seen wearing a Zip in The King’s Speech, the real duchess never did.

It’s the morning of the Chanel couture show and the Hotel Castille is jammed with Chanel press attachés from around the globe. Breakfast arrives late, and I gulp down tea and scrambled eggs before dashing off to the Chanel Fine Jewellery boutique in the Place Vendome.

Sophia Loren, Jodie Foster and Olivia Wilde squeezed into an empty shop in the corner of the Place Vendome to take in the Armani Privé spring 2011 couture collection, which looked as if it had been poured out of a flaming goblet. The molten fabrics in silver and jewel tones were sculpturally cut, with stiff little peplums or spliced openings across the hips. Imagine a liquefied suit of armour topped with lacquered dinner plate hats. It was all very futuristic Cardin-meets-Lady Gaga.

I don’t know what bigger news is: the return of the ‘80s pouf at Christian Dior’s spring 2011 haute couture show, or designer John Galliano’s own new ‘do, a lush and healthy-looking pixie. Very sexy and gamine!