Yves and his phantasmagoria

Tons and tons of lush stuff in the Yves Saint Laurent auction, it was just very hard to compute these two men living with all this stuff. The overall aesthetic is still sinking in and hard for me to describe although their magpie eyes would seem to have retired at 1980. I do think that the objects put into the show were ever so lightly chosen and edited. However - Pan, Dionysus and Minotaurs meet photos of Marcel Duchamp in drag emblazoned across bottles of imaginary purple potions. The subtext was there....

bits'n'bon bobs

Onto another, different writer; this intro to Ulysses floors me every time. Mise en abime as the French say:

Stately, plump Buck Milligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressing gown, ungirdled, was sustained gently-behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned: Introibo ad altare Dei.

Fab lunch at Ladurée

This was my first proper press lunch in Paris ie. with all the other fashion writers. There were about 50 of us, all from the big newspapers and publications (from what I could gather) I didn't know anybody, had no chums (it was like being the new kid at school essentially) and in the end thought, well I've been invited so I'll just make the bloody best of it and enjoy the good food!! The food was divine, I made a mental note to return to Ladurée and showed poor form by stealing a macaroon for the journey home. And of course this menu. For posterity like...

note from a friend..

This beautifully hand-drawn note came with an amazing bouquet of flowers from one of my favourite new friends in Paris, after a feature I had written about him in i-D. That was an exciting moment in my household!