To understand what I am talking about, just take a quick look at the video underneath… Kisses!

It was really great to read all your comments yesterday. Funny, full of advice, and great taste. While I was reading them and drinking a hot chocolate*, I was looking through some of my pictures and I came across this one here.

This is one of the impossible bags from the spring-summer Vuitton show. I was cracking up thinking it was the complete antithesis of yesterday’s post. That is to say, what could be more anti-basic than this bag?

The total opposite of a timeless accessory. You see this thing and right away you think: Oh, that? The Vuitton S-S 2010, remember that wacko collection with afro wigs and clogs with mustaches on them?

I’ll never buy it, but goodness I love it. It’s just so delusional, anti-serious, ugly and proud of it, two steps away from grotesque, with all its bizarre nicknacks, it’s useless frillies and its colors that match nothing at all. I think it’s just as delicious as a dripping Peach Melba with a fluorescent parasol right smack dab in the middle of it.

I like when fashion speaks to something other than good taste. And when it’s done with so much exuberance.

So do you like it? Vuitton’s Peach Melba?

—–

I’m in the snow!!! I’m drinking hot chocolate!!! I’m tanning!!! I have a jumpsuit that changes colors in the sun!!! Total anti-good taste, everyone loves it!!!! I had breakfast with Arnold Schwarznegger!!! I’m going snow-mobiling!!! I’ll tell you all about it soon!!! Big hugs!!!

Translation : Tim Sullivan

It’s true that Emmanuelle Alt is mysterious. … That she’s beautiful, so Paris and responsible for some of my most favorite fashion moments, whether it’s from a series of photos, a collaboration with a designer, or simply one of her outfits.

I love her style. I love that one of the biggest stylists of our generation is so unique in her simplicity. And she’s been like that for a while now ! It definitely hit me one day. I was perusing around on Fashion Spot, and I found this :

It’s from when she worked for 20 ans. It was quite a while ago, and I find that you get the essentials of what marks her style today from her 10 favorite style accessories. Sparse, simple, sexy. Very Emmanuelle, you know? Except for the fact that she doesn’t smoke anymore. How cool is that?

It really inspired me.

Bonne journée!

Translation : Tim Sullivan

——–

Hey all, here’s a translation of the interview, just ’cause I care.

1- Shoes : Black plastic flip flops, practical, chic and sexy.

2-Socks/Stockings : black stockings by Wolford (just because of the amazing Newton ads)

3-Trousers : Black trousers by Helmut Lang, because they are timeless, loose, but not huge.

4-Dress/Skirt : I don’t wear them but from time to time I enjoy wearing a perfectly cut black Ann Demeulmester skirt barefoot, and you gotta wear it with tan legs.

5-Jacket/Coat : A black coat by Costume National, totally modern.

6- Underwear : A sheer ‘Glossies’ bra by Gossard, either in black or beige, like tights, no couture there.

7- T-Shirt : An APC black T-shirt, short sleeves, and because it’s small, it looks like a 70s T-shirt.

8-Sunglasses : Armani black ones, totally Bono.

9-Accessories : Air King watch by Rolex because you could never do better.

10- Absolute basic for an evening : A long black dress by Galliano, chic without being granny-style, sexy and pure with Manolo Blahnik sandals

Monday, 10:34 : Stella McCartney at Opera Garnier. The show is a complete contrast with the explosion of gold in the decor. It’s simple, straight cut, and beige, beige, beige.

4:08 : At Kenzo. Anna Dello Russo says to me in her lovely Italian accent, “Ah, but Garance! You’re coming to the Jonathan Newhouse dinner! Okay! But that’s fan-tas-tique!!”

6:00 : I go home to get ready. Dinner with Jonathan Newhouse = a huge honor = huge amounts of stress.

For once, I know exactly what I’m going to wear: the one, the only, the sublime Balmain dress that Carole gave me a year ago.

This dress is everything it should be. Simple and beautiful. And I still don’t know how it succeeds in giving me the most amazing silhouette I could ever imagine. Well, so I’ve been told. I’m just like everyone else, always thinking I’m too big. (Especially during fashion week, big, tired, and crazy.)

7:30 : The only problem is that when you’re not used to fancier outfits, it’s tough to find stuff to go with the dress.

It’s 10 degrees outside and I’ve got nothing to wear over my dress.

7:36 : But as it is 10 degrees outside, I definitely find something to wear over my dress. I put on a cape and long grey gloves. I tie my hair back and put on some red lipstick because red lipstick = 200 fancy outfits. Even with the red lips, I still freeze.

8:00 : In a taxi with Scott, heading toward the Grand Palais for the Yves Saint Laurent show. He can’t stop telling me how beautiful I am. This guy, he sure gets it.

8:57 : In the Grand Palais. It’s freezing. I don’t really understand the show. But that happens to me often enough.

10:08 : We get to Prunier for dinner. To keep it short, Jonathan Newhouse is the CEO for the international editions of Condé Nast. So all the editor-in-chiefs of all the international Vogues are here. Carine, Franca, Yolanda are here, super glamourous. Anna Dello Russo and Emmanuelle as well. Coolitude on top of coolitude. She’s in a pair of jeans and a Balmain jacket.

10:16 : Guests of honor : Alber Elbaz, Christophe Decarnin, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Scott. And me.

When I was saying that Jonathan and his wife were doing us a huge honnor, I wasn’t kidding. Wow.

10:17 : … Wow.

10:25 : Christope Decarnin has an incredible gentleness to him. I show him my dress winking at him. He gives me a big smile. I dunno, I thought it might be nice for him to see one of his creations on a normal girl. (Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, normal girl in an exceptional situation, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, exceptional. I agree.)

11:26 : Anna introduces me to Mary-Kate and Ashley. Without sunglasses, all smiley and charming. These girls look devilishly intelligent.

11:30 : At our table, Anna Dello Russo is cracking everybody up. This woman is heaven.

12:20 a.m. : Home again! Near dead! There are still a few mails to check and a post to do.

2:00 : I’m going to sleep at 2, utterly exhausted… But I know that these next two days are the last, and I’m so looking forward to them.

Tuesday, 10:02 : At Chanel, mini-bags with two kinds of lipstick are freebies. Cool! It’s the one from the Vanessa Paradis ad! So beautiful. I put mine right on. I look up and right there, I see… Vanessa Paradis. Hmm. Hmmm sometimes my life just seems so bizarre. Like reality is moving past fiction, just like that, nothing big, two or three times a day.

11:07 : Chanel starts. A giant iceberg under the arches of the Grand Palais, it’s beautiful…

12:36 : I’m talking on the phone with Salomé. At the same time, I’m fumbling around in my bag because I need to send a text to Chris. I’m looking everywhere, turning my bag upside down, and I still can’t find my cell phone. Merde! Where is it?

…

Hmmm.

…

Right next to my face. I’m in the middle of talking to Salomé with it.

Pffffffff I think I’m a little tired.

3:00 : At Chloé, everything is pure, beautiful, and beige, beige, beige. Prepare yourselves for an overdoooooose of beeeeeige!!! As always, all the girls love it. And we filmed the whole thing. So I’ll be back soon! Big hugs!

Translation : Tim Sullivan

And now, let’s all take a brief moment to honor THE TRUE STAR of this year’s fashion week…

THE COLD!!!

DON’T BE FOOLED by the bright blue sky in the photos.
The wind will FREEZE YOU TO THE BONE.

Even during the shows, you freeze. IT’S HELL. It’s the death of fashion. No one has any idea how to dress for it.

And if it wasn’t enough, I’ve heard that Chanel was planning on displaying a giant iceberg this morning at their show… HEEEELP !

Translation : Tim Sullivan

Here’s a few select morsels from my weekend, because if I told you everything, it’d take all day.

Okay so yeah, sorry, it’s still gonna take all day.

Friday, 10:35 a.m. : You know what? I thought it was spring already. I wore an oversized button-down, a mini-trench, and soon there’ll be an oversized flu.

10:35 : I love Paris fashion week. Each day is exceptional. Today, Vionnet, Dior, Isabel Marant, Lanvin + an opening + A Purple Party that I won’t be going to because I’ll be too tired. Lemmie tell you, it won’t be anytime soon that I’ll be your party reporter.

12:45 : My jeans fell down. Oh my god I lost some weight!!! At the same time, breakfast today: 15 peanuts. Yep, but at Meurice now, Ahaha.

4:00 : I want to film at Isabel Marant, so I have to jump across the entire city in negative 30 minutes. … As the show was supposed to start at 3:30.

4:15 : I made it! Melanie and Anna from Vogue (who has a chauffeur)(During fashion week, the world is divided into two categories, those with chauffeurs and those without)(I’m with the withouts.)

4:35 : Backstage as Isabel Marant, I’m crawling on the floor four steps away from Isabel trying to film her shoes. You’ll have the result soon.
4:37 : Backstage at Isabel Marant, I attack the fruit plate. … Just because there’s no champagne.
4:38 : Backstage at Isabel Marant, I want these red leather pants right away.

6:34 : Just like after every Lanvin show, I’m in a state of perfect happiness. I see Clémence Poésy coming toward me, “How you doing Garance? It’s so good to see you!” Wow, and I only met her once. This girl’s golden.

Saturday, 10:03 : Got an invitation from Max Mara for an intimate dinner at Caviar Caspia. Didn’t have a lot of time to conceptualize my outfit (I need a styliiiiiiiist!!! Jaaaaaade! Getting dressed for fashion weeks is a full-time job!!!) I wear some baggy pants and a simple shirt because I’m a wreck.  I get there and everyone is pretty much in black tie. Carine is head-to-toe in gold, Franca Sozzani is shimmering, Alexandra Golovanoff is… sublime as always. I’m beginning to understand what intimate means for Max Mara around the time Suzy Menkes gets there and sits between Scott and me.

10:02 : …

10:35 : What’s so great in fashion is when you have one of those encounters that illuminate and shed light on the journey. Suzy Menkes is incredible, irresistible, curious, personable, and brilliant. I expected no less, but still, I’m in paradise.

I want to sit here and tell you our conversation second by second (seriously I remeber EVERYTHING) but Tim (the angel who translates my texts) would kill me.

11:45 : Caviar potatoes, no worries, THEY’RE HERE.

And then… No Montana. Are you crazy? Straight to bed for me.

Sunday 9:55 : Totally running late in the taxi on the way to Karl Lagerfeld. It’s at Tuileries. I love the atmosphere, the light there, always so pretty, so epic, alwa…

Okay we’re here.

10:00 : F*@# Sh%* IT’S FREEZING!!!

10:15 : so cold that I can’t type anymore, myyyyyyyyyyyyy haaaaaaaanddsssss froze.

11:35 : Chris meets up with me at Starbucks. We finished the Dolce & Gabbana video. So much work last week that we didn’t have time… And editing takes a crazy amount of time! It’s so awesome but it takes so much time! And I don’t want to be late to Céline at 1:00!

3:00 : WOW.

3:00 : Céline, Céline, Céline. The strongest show this Fashion Week. Collective exhilaration… what’s a good word for that? A show with so much anticipation and so well received that the public didn’t even let the models finish before running to the back to congratulate Phoebe backstage. It gives a spontaneously joyful twist at the end to a show so meticulously orchestrated. For the first time, right in front of my eyes, a new woman, a new inspiration takes form. But I’ll tell you all about it so soon: between Scott, Chris and I, we got the whole thing on film.

For the first time since the start of fashion week, I’m overexcited.

To commemorate, we have a glass of wine at Castiglione. Any reason’s a good reason.

5:55 : It’s after Sonia Rykiel, always awesome and fun, and I’ve got a cup of The Sweetest Hot Chocolate on Earth at The Worst Bistrot in Paris. I’m high on sugar, I’ll let you go.

8:15  : On my way to Givenchy!!! These days are so crazy. They never end. And it’s been like this for almost a month. Give me some vitamins, a massage, and some coffee, my friends, I need a life back.

1:15 a.m. : I’m rereading my post and finishing off a box of Muesli sprawled out on my couch in grey jogging pants. Totally un-glam. It feels so good.

Okay, I’m off to Stella. Bonne journée!

Translation : Tim Sullivan.

The most important thing in life is learning to adapt. For a long time, I’ve managed to spend my nights during fashion week writing, but now, I’m going to have so many things to do in the next 10 days that the best I can do is write directly onto my phone between runway shows in order to take you with me on my days.

So this is… A super experimental post, something like Twitter, just not in real time!

Right now, as I’m writing to you, I’m on the métro. Of course not, I don’t have a chaffeur. I’m on my way to Balenciaga. I’m two hours late… Because… Well, okay, let’s rewind.

8:00 : I take a little time to work. I have some super urgent stuff to get to, like super immediate-do-it-now stuff. Like give some direction to the retouch lab for an editorial I shot (Yoohoo!) with a deadline tonight (Boohoo). Or finish an illustration for a cover (!)(Yoohoo!) that they asked me to have finished the day-before-yesterday. And then there’s the 6823 unread mails. I’m like a spell of vertigo. Garance. Calm down. Deep breathes. Inhale…. Exhale…

11:00 : Oh shit. Time goes fast. I gotta get ready! Every time I get back to Paris, I tell myself that it’ll be great, that I’ll have all my outfits, finally be at home, that I’ll be able to get dressed in 15 seconds. And finally be super classy. (PS: My goal in life.)

11:35 :  2,500 outfits tried on too late, I hate having so much to chose from, I want to go shopping, and there’s no way I’m going to have time to change before tonight. And tonight, I’ve gotta go to Merci, Bar Vogue, and the opening of the Zahm exhibition at Colette.

11:55 : I get to Concorde. I’m gonna try to get into the 2nd Balenciaga show, the one for buyers. I’m gonna let you go, I have to runnnnn. See you in a second!

——–

12:03 : Pffff. The show already started. It’s already ended, actually.

I’m depressed but I run into Carole, my best friend who does the buying for Département Féminin, and who’s wearing a Céline shirt that right away I want to steal off her back. But since I can’t steal it, I take her picture.

I ask her how the show was. She loved the colors and she thought the show was a real explosion of creativity. She tells me she’s gonna go to the showroom on Monday to see the the collection’s commercial version. I’m going with her. I love showrooms, buyers’ opinions, knowing how the collections are greeted by the public, etc…

It teaches me so much about fashion!

——–

12:30 : Ok. I’ve got a half hour. Ok. Don’t laugh. I went home to change. OK. I TOLD YOU NOT TO LAUGH! It’s fashion week, I’ve got every right to be crazy.

———

3:00 : Pfffff, this post is already too long! Okay, off we go, we’re going to the Balmain show. Between the last note and now, just an FYI, I had a thai chicken sitting on my couch talking with Salomé, my dear agent, who is always on my back (and I love this about her)(My goodness, you really are going to know everything.)

——-

At Balmain, Giovanna shows me a video on her camera. She’s choreographing something, it’s quite crazy. We both crack up. I think the video is on YouTube. I almost attack her trying to get the link out of her.

3:45 : Balmain is about to start, we’re about 1 person per 3/4ths of a seat. Someone just sat on me, but hey, I’ve done the same myself more than once. I welcome my visitor with a smile. EVERYONE IN THE FASHION WORLD IS HERE.

———

4:55 : With Scott, in a taxi to get to Rick Owens. Jazz in the background, amazing sunshine. Balmain was funny, total recession-denial, lots of gold, brocades and Prince in the background.

———

5:35 : At Rick Owens with Giovanna and Anna, who are dying laughing because Anna is wearing a Francesco Scognamiglio belt and when the photographers asked her to spell it, in English, she didn’t even know where to start :

After the superb Rick Owens Show, I find Carole again. I slip into her car (she’s got a chauffeur!) and we jet into the first café we can find. It’s been way too long since we’ve seen each other.  All these trips are great, but I really miss my friends entirely too much.

I wasn’t quite ready for today. I spent the entire day moaning (I wanted to hide under my bedspread, remember?) but then suddenly, having some coffee with a friend did me a world of good. All my tensions melt away and my energy came right back… I get back to my house and I…

Oh my goodness, this post is already too long. I’ll stop there. Next time, if there is a next time, I’ll try to keep it more concise!

Big hugs!