Archive | 1:47 pm

We love you, Sophie Albou

19 Mar

pauljoe2.jpgpauljoe.jpg

Meet another neighbor in the 75007. She’s blonde, beautiful, drives a green MiniCooper, and listens to Curtis Mayfield. Her name is Sophie Albou. OH, did we mention she has two sons, aged 11 and 14? Their names are Paul & Joe.

Paul & Joe happens to be my favorite French label. People like Sienna Miller, Julia Roberts, and Keira Knightly may agree with me. Since lauching her womenwear collection 1997, Albou has gained international fame for her collection of feminine yet bold designs, all meticulously crafted with amazing fabrics and prints. The collection sells in 30 flagship stores worldwide, as well as in major retailers. The closest store to me is on rue de Saint-Peres, practically adjacent to Sonia Rykiel.

Born in Paris to a family of shirtmakers, Sophie studied at the prestigious Institut Francais de la Mode and began her professional career working at fashion house Azzedine Alaia at age 16. From there she joined her family business, La Garage, where she trained in the art of fashion design under her mother. After seven years, she stepped out on her own with the creation of the Paul & Joe brand in 1995. Initially only menswear (worn by Usher and Jake Gyllenhaal to name a few), she came out with the killer womenswear line a few years later.

Now Paul & Joe is on its way to becoming the lifestyle brand of Europe. Sophie is to Europe what Ralph is to the US. Her brand now boasts women’s, men’s, children’s, accessories, beauty, lingerie, and home– not to mention a stunning new store on Avenue Montaigne. Your carte bancaire might burn a hole in that new Muse bag.

Compared to YSL a few doors down, however, P&J seems perfectly rational. And it is, to be honest: these are clothes that are truly seasonless.

www.paulandjoe.com (the website is dreamy, opening music is Romeo & Juliet theme by Nino Rota…. ahhhh).

Charlotte Casiraghi: A young Brigitte Bardot, says Karl

19 Mar

charcas3.jpg

Is CC really like a young BB? Monsieur Lagerfeld would seem to think so, and that was when she was a mere eight-years old! Read on for an interesting vignette on our darling CC, by Rob Sheffield, for Rolling Stone Magazine.

 

Charlotte Casiraghi is the stuff that Eurotrash perv dreams are made of, a royal princess who looks like she just wandered into the palace from a Robert Palmer video. The nineteen-year-old beauty is fourth in line to the throne of Monaco, daughter of Princess Caroline and her coolest husband ever, the late Italian speedboat racer Stefano Casiraghi. She’s the hottest teen star in Europe, kind of like Tatu, except there’s only one of her and she hasn’t made any lesbian disco videos yet. She inspires countless online fan shrines, including some of the most laughably bad fan porn fiction ever written. [This is an unmistakable reference to the Charlotte Casiraghi Uncensored Yahoo! Group.] For her fifth birthday, she got a $9 million island off the coast of Sardinia. [Here is an interesting increase by two digits of the island’s previously-reported value.] When Princess Caroline was Charlotte’s age, she was already a disco-till-dawn playgirl, motoring toward a scandalous early marriage and a decadent public image. But like her grandmother Grace Kelly, Charlotte keeps her freak to herself. She’s a fashion icon (Karl Lagerfeld once said, “She makes me think of Brigitte Bardot”), a pianist, an accomplished equestrienne. She shows no signs of having her mama’s wild side. Not yet, anyway. But she’s clearly a ticking time bomb. This girl just needs a saucy American to bring out the nasty in her – the poor thing has probably never tasted her first Dorito. She’s been living in her white-plate world as long as anyone with hot blood can. And now? She’s looking for a downtown man! Yeah, well, dream on, buster. Charlotte sometimes? Charlotte always!

charlotte.jpg

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 41 other followers