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Valenciennes

Valenciennes, France

photo the style bar 2009

Global style reaches just about everywhere these days. When a town of around 40,000 people like Valenciennes in France’s far north boasts international labels like Zara, Sephora, H&M and Esprit alongside charming boutiques in its central shopping district, you know that the locals have just as much choice as their city cousins in the style stakes, without the crowds to compete with, and all in an historical old town setting. The best of both worlds? I will certainly be back to test out the theory…

valenciennes 2

photo the style bar 2009

 

valenciennes 3

photo the style bar 2009

paris

fashion week? what fashion week?

Despite the flamboyant spectacles of Fashion Week going on all around them last week, I found the women of Paris quietly going about their business in the simple but well put-together style for which they are so famous.

Top five items seen on the autumn streets of Paris:

  • Longchamp Pliage Bags – short or long handles, but always oversized
  • Ballet Flats – leather, canvas, colourful
  • Cotton Trenches – more often than not in neutral shades
  • Jeans – light and dark washes but rolled up at the bottom into small cuffs
  • Long Cardigans – lightweight, knee-skimming, in black or charcoal
fashion comes and goes, but great style endures

fashion comes and goes, but great style endures

The perfect transeasonal wardrobe in fact. And when you know you are going to be spending your day doing a lot of walking or riding on the busy metro, the comfort and timeless qualities of these items make perfect sense. And somehow puts into better perspective the often exciting but largely fantastical business of Fashion Week.

Raval is a great area to shop for affordable vintage in Barcelona. Any number of tree-lined, café-filled streets feature stores that offer the more adventurous shopper a break from the super-fashionable but mass-produced offerings of the larger brands on the city’s main drags.

One such example of fabulous and funky retro items is Wilde Vintage, where they stock pretty much nothing but sunglasses in this tiny but neatly set out store. Ironically vintage is the perfect way to actually look up to date with your shades at the moment, as old brands like Ray-Ban, Carrera and Le Specs all make a come-back with their iconic shapes and old-school feel.

http://www.wildevintage.com/Home.html 

There is an amazing range of one-off pieces in here, and there are by no means expensive. Mainstream labels are all offering versions of what is stocked at Wilde, but the biggest difference is that you will get one-on-one service and the choice of hundreds of special, hand-picked pieces, all the while being free to soak up the groovy local atmosphere going on right outside the door.

1970s shades by Phillip Clark

1970s shades by Phillip Clark

Time your visit to coincide with the evening happy hour in the neighbourhood bars and you have the perfect excuse to toast your unique purchase, with a suitably retro cocktail of course.

A Lifelong Fan

Photo courtesy of www.ilvoelv.com

Louis Vuitton fan photo courtesy of www.ilvoelv.com

As I sat in the stands at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium last week, gazing out at the huge crowd (it seats almost 99,000 and is a truly impressive venue when full of fervent Barça supporters), a strange but constant flickering caught my eye. It took me a moment to realise that it was the fluttering of thousands of fans in the hands of the female spectators, all moving at more or less the same time in an attempt to conjure up some much-needed cool air in the otherwise still arena.

It was a sight that I would have expected to see at a midsummer bullfight rather than at a city football game (that’s soccer for you antipodeans out there, but only you). But, unlike an archaic and usually gory bullfight, it is one enduring tradition in Spain that makes perfect sense and which has no reason to be frowned upon for any reason at all, humanitarian or otherwise.

The folding fan was first seen in Japan just over a thousand years ago, and brought to Portugal in the 15th century where it spread to southern Europe and eventually England.

It was used for decorative, ceremonial and, most famously, seductive purposes – the latter elevated to an art form by our sexy friends the French – but somewhere along the way it went back to being simply functional or relegated to the domain of the performance arts, the province of flamenco or burlesque dancers. Perhaps that’s why they seem to retain some of their old-world, seductive allure when you use one in public, which, it has to be said, also makes them a lot of fun to use!

I originally learnt to use a fan in the course of my flamenco dance studies, but I’ve never used my fans so much as I have this summer in Spain. Right now I am rarely without one, even on the beach, but especially in the bars. The fact that at night the temperature really doesn’t drop that much and the breeze regularly does, means having one of these tucked handily into your handbag is a must-have accessory.

I often get looks from people when I use one, but not usually from the locals, who are already in on the secret of stylish ventilation.  And now that I think back on it, my mother has always used a fan in church or the theatre, well before my sister and I lived in Japan and starting adding Oriental pieces to her collection. To her delight it is now expanding with Spanish versions in, it has to be said, somewhat brighter and sexier colours and patterns.

They come, of course, in all sizes and varying degrees of elaborateness and price. I naturally covet the ones Rossy de Palma designed with Louis Vuitton earlier in the year, but so far have confined myself to ones picked up in little stores and markets in Granada and Seville. I have larger ones for dancing and medium-sized ones for cultural events, plus a small one for nightclubs or when I know I will be in a space where I may cause some grief to others if I go about waving a gigantic pink fan in everyone’s faces.

You may think it a hassle to carry one around with you all night but, believe me, when you see the envious looks of the girls (and quite a few of the guys) who realise that they either don’t own one or have forgotten to bring theirs along, you feel it was all worth it. That and the fact that you are keeping cool whilst looking fabulous at the same time of course.

And so I shall be continuing the tradition with gusto this coming summer in Sydney, hoping to add more converts to the art than my already-fanning flamenco friends. After all, how can you go wrong with an attractive and environmentally friendly accessory that keeps your makeup from running and your hair from frizzing? And perhaps, as a bonus, even lets you indulge in some harmless flirtation as well. To that I can only say, olé!!

Happy fanning!

Rubi

I have been doing some thinking about fashion industry spoofs for my friends over at at Model Management, and asking, who really benefits from these silly satires?
 
You can read all about it here:

http://blog.modelmanagement.com/2009/07/28/ready-to-war-spoofs-and-the-ongoing-battle-between-film-and-fashion/

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