Yesterday, Diane and I went to go visit Bess, the boutique everyone’s talking about in New York right now. Yeah… right now… I bet I’m getting the memo a little late, as usual, but hey, we got there, didn’t we? But yeah, if you told me about a boutique with studded clothes from floor to ceiling, I’d say yeah, sounds nice and all, but we’ve already seen studs everywhere, am I right?

Except for the fact that who cares?! I loved it. It’s dark in there and you can barely see anything. All of the outfits are black. There’s really bizarre music playing (but awesome). And you get the concept in the first second: stud-up the outfits almost to the point of obsession. … on some gloves, a scarf, a bustier, even on vintage pieces but then also…

Minnetonkas! Wow, aren’t they SO BEAUTIFUL? Even I, who doesn’t like studs nor Minnetonkas, was totally ready to grab the boots and run when we set up to take these pictures.

So in short, I was inspired. And it almost made me think that no one should care if you come at the beginning, the middle, or the end of a trend. What’s so great about Bess is this completely simple idea that when realized with energy, passion, rock’n roll and a decent dose of OCD, the idea took life and poof! You have no idea why, but it works. Okay, off we go, I’m gonna go buy some studs. Big hugs!

Translation : Tim Sullivan

“For the last ten years, I’ve been thinking that it’ll all come to an end tomorrow. Everyone will see that I really don’t know anynothing. I always thought that in the end, someone would find me out.

Sonia Rykiel. In the little colorful world of style, she makes up part of the people that I dream of meeting. She represents the idea of the free woman, creative and generous. And these few words, this light oddity, that hushed shyness makes her incredibly mysterious.

I’m at JFK, waiting for my plane to take me to London, and I remember the last day of August that I spent in Sonia’s company. It started like this, “Hello Garance, we want to create mix of your vision and Sonia Rykiel’s…”

Give my vision to the new collection, go to the showroom, try everything on? I didn’t hesitate a second. And like a spoiled child, I asked, “So Sonia, she’ll be there too?”

A few days later, I had my response. She’d be there.  YIPPPPEEEEEEE! Uh oh, stress time.

What did I get myself into? And what if Sonia thinks I’m an idiot? What if she hates all the outfits I come up with? And what if nothing catches on? And what if… And what if…

For moments of intense stress like that, I’ve only found one viable solution: don’t think about it until the last possible minute. In truth, that only works so well… So I’ve got another solution:

Surround myself.

So we left with Claire and Jade, who were helping me with the photos and styling, and the beautiful Diane. With my little entourage, I felt some confidence right away. We got everything ready all the way down to the chocolate in case I start to faint. And on top of that, whenever I have an entourage with me, I always feel more responsible. And when you’re responsible, you can’t freak out. Au contraire! You’ve got to reassure everyone around you.

So I arrived at Saint Germain des Prés, at Sonia’s, with a lot of faith in myself…  I’d totally been doing some mirror mantra work.

When she arrived at the studio, for a second there, time was suspended. Fragile and energetic at the same time, she took her place among us and starting in talking. She talked to us like she knew us, looked at the clothes, touched them, took a little twirl.

I showed her the first outfit. She lifted an eyebrow, took her hand to Diane’s low neck-line, and undid another button. It cracked me up. Then Natalie, her daughter, got there, and then Salomé, her grand-daughter, who was taking photos of everything she saw. A joyful mess of people, a little like the runway shows.

And then we talked about pompons, and she read us poetry, and then the creative teams came in to add to everything, and you saw her passionatly work on her new collection.

Diane, Jade, Claire and me were so emotional. We ate all the chocolate.

Right when we were getting ready to say goodbye, I took her by the hands to say thank you, and she said to me simply, “Come back whenever you like.”

Yep, There you go. Excuse me. Coming through, I’m Sonia’s new BFF. Yep, one second more she would have given me her direct line and had me over for tea. I’m telling you, it’s true.

In other news, these diamond Creepers, what do you guys think? The ones that Diane is wearing in the first picture… aren’t they terrific? Oddly wonderful? You think I’d be into them? Combine them with the return to flats, it makes sense, am I right? Just to be chic and practical during fashion week? Am I right? I think I want ‘em.

Heeellllllloooooo, Soniaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

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All of the looks and a whole bunch of other pictures will be published on the blog Rykielles for the next three weeks, but there is a lot of other cool stuff to check out there, the archives, news, videos, and a lovely mystery lesson.

Translation : Tim Sullivan

Last time I was at the flea market looking for Farrah Fawcett posters, I came across a booth stock full of the craziest pairs of shorts.

They had every size and color you could imagine, all for 10 bucks and I bought ‘em all up (that’s totally why my wardrobe fell over on my face, but that’s a whole other story). I was sure all my friends would each love a pair.

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Well I guess I’m partly to blame. Repeatedly proclaiming my love for grey has made it come after me. Thunder, lightning! The way grey loves me back is frightening. There’s been a dreadful storm this weekend in Marseille.

So dreadful that the floods came. Dreadful that it seemed like it was the end of the world and Bruce Willis would come to the rescue. Although we knew that the stormy weather would eventually calm down, still, there was a moment of doubt.

And when we thought the end was near, we were free to do as we please.

While waiting for the heavy rains to stop, we decided to go to La Caravelle, a very trendy bar on the second floor of Hôtel Bellevue which boasts of a breathtaking view of le Vieux Port.

When we were seated at our table, we ordered for tea but we were told that they didn’t serve hot beverages.

And there, Sarah cooly said, “I’ll have COGNAC, then.” “At 4 pm?”, I remarked with eyes wide open, then I heard myself say, “Ok, I’ll have the same thing!”

So that was how we found ourselves spending the afternoon witnessing the sky unleash its fury on us in what seemed like an eternity. The thunder was deafening, the wind blasting violently against the windows and the heavy flash floods rushing towards the whole city. Funny, it was if we were on a ship.

We managed to weather the storm. Completely pummelled by the rain and yet, we felta sense of pride, bursting into fits of laughter while splashing our feet through the flooded streets.

There was no need for Bruce Willis to create the perfect happy ending. Marseille is fine. I’m a little dazed and the weather seems to look good this morning.

It means it’s time for me to go back to Paris! Pffff.

Bonne journée!

Edit: I take back everything that I’ve said. Over here, the sunshine’s nothing but a short-lived illusion, the thunder’s roaring and it’s raining again. Brrrrrr. Paris, here I come…come…come!!! Bisou!

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* Suggestive of  “Après moi, le déluge”, said by Louis XV, yet supposedly coined by his lover, Madame de Pompadour. The original quote, however, was believed to have meant either the king’s prediction of trouble on the horizon (true enough, the French Revolution broke out years later)  and/or his indifference toward the future of France after his reign/death.

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Translation : Magali Eva Suárez.