When someone told me that Solange Knowles was going to be the DJ for our party tonight at Tiffany, I practically fell out of my chair* : “Hoooow cool is thaaaat! She’s so cool we have to meet her!!! This is the perfect opportunity!”

And that’s how we ended up at her place in Brooklyn yesterday, taking a look through her closet, talking design and music (when she asked me if I wanted her to do a special dedication for me for the party, I didn’t know what to tell her – I feel like I’m about to become a lost cause when it comes to music.) and so it was a totally inspirational trip.

The colors and prints she surrounds herself with (in the picture, she’s wearing Marni pants and a vintage blouse), her haircut, and even the way she does her makeup… I’d been following her on her Damn Blog and she didn’t disappoint!

With that, I’ll stop with the superlatives and let you go. Scott just got back from two weeks and Europe and I’m so happy to be next to him again, finaaaaaallyyyy!!!

I’ll take some photos at the Tiffany party, I promise! Big hugs!

——-

* Yep, seriously… There were screams. There were shouts. I danced around the apartment. And I just about fell out of my chair. And that’s how it goes when I’m super happy. When I’m a little PO’d, I’m calm. Super calm. So yeah, that happens rarely.

Translation : Tim Sullivan

From Manhattan to Brooklyn, here are Dianas’s favorite places. Check out this picture of her at one of her favorite cafés, Smith Canteen..

How would you describe New York to someone who has never been?

It’s a big city that can feel quite small.

What’s your favorite hidden shop?

I’m not sure anything stays hidden here for too long!!! I personally love Maryam Nassir Zadeh and Assembly in the Lower East Side. They always have a perfectly curated selection of pieces you won’t find elsewhere.

And your favorite place to buy vintage?

My favorite vintage spot is in the city: Narnia on Clinton street in the Lower East Side.

What would you say is one New York clothing staple?

Comfortable shoes!!!!

Where’s the best place to buy treasures for a loved one?

It depends really. I’m usually quite specific when buying gifts. D.O.C. wine shop in Williamsburg has an amazing selection of wines and grappa. I also love Mast Brother’s Chocolate for goodies and a tour!

The best salon in the city?

I love IonStudio in SoHo, that’s where I first cut my hair short. I’ve tried other salons but nobody does it quite as well.

Your doing a staycation in New York, which hotel will you stay at and which spa will you go to?

The Bowery Hotel and Bliss Spa.

The best place to have a coffee and people watch?

The Smile on Bond Street or the Brooklyn Flea.

And your favorite bakery?

I love the lemon poppyseed cupcakes at Babycakes.

What’s your favorite date spot?

For a romantic candlelit dinner I like Peasant on Elizabeth Street.

Where can you spot the fashion crowd?

Le Bain

What is the one food you have to try in New York and where is the best place to have it?

Pizza! Definitely! I love Roberta’s in Bushwick and Rubirosa on Mulberry Street.

Where’s the best place to escape?

Ideally upstate, but if I can’t get out of the city I love McNally Jackson bookshop  (My favorite too!!!) in SoHo, I could sit there for hours. The water lounge at Great Jones Spa is also great for a bit of R & R.

Where’s your favorite place to get in a good work out?

My favorite form of exercise is running. I like to weave through all the smaller blocks near my apartment in Carroll Gardens. The neighborhood is so quaint. I also love Verandah Place, which is narrow cobblestone street adjacent to Cobble Hill Park, it feels very European.

What is one touristy place you still love visiting?

I love Central Park. On a nice day you can sit with a bottle of wine and snacks or take a boat ride. Then afterward a visit to the Guggenheim or the Whitney.

You’re meeting up with girlfriends for a night out, where are you headed?

We’ll usually meet up for a casual dinner somewhere and take it from there. My friends are great cooks and great hosts, but if we’re going out to eat then Diner in Williamsburg is a favorite. Hotel Delmano nearby is a great spot for cocktails, I suggest the Devil’s Garden for a refreshing tequila concoction with bait of cayenne pepper.

Your absolute favorite restaurant?

Il Buco on Bond street. It reminds me of my favorite spot I used to go to when I lived in Florence…

Can you tell us what your idea of a perfect day in New York is?

A perfect day would definitely include sleeping in, followed by a late brunch. Vinegar Hill House is a great spot and a scenic walk from my neighborhood through Dumbo and along the Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront. My friends and I also love to play a game of bocce ball at Floyd’s bar on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights.

What’s the best way to get around the city—car, subway, bike?

Subway! Or scooter/motorcycle.

See more City Guides here!

I’m freelan… An entrepreneur. Okay, I’d like to think that I’m still freelance, but when you look at what I posted last week, it’s clear things have really changed. And since three many of you asked, here’s…

24 hours in the life of a Garance Doré, 2012 edition.

I wake up early. I hear my iPhone alarm 45 minutes after it started right at 7:00, hop out of bed and get on the same jogging pants from 2007 my yoga outfit.

Right after I take a quick look at Twitter drink a big glass of water, I do my daily 45 minutes of reading the ingredients on the back of the box of oatmeal of yoga and meditation totally synched up with Gwyneth Paltrow.

It’s 8:45 am and our employes are about to arrive. I have to put my best foot forward and lead by example on the road to success.
I keep daydreaming looking at Tumblr hop into the shower and put on a super cool chic outfit for my role as inspiring yet friendly boss.

It’s 9:00 and I’m still in my jogging pants ready to go on the starting blocks. Emily, my assistant, arrives with a big smile and her Starbucks mug and reminds me that I have a meeting.

Ah, Shit! Awesome! I totally forgot am totally ready: I’ve carefully prepared an outfit comprised of the first clothes I see in my closet that’s perfect for a spokeswoman such as myself, perfect hair, in knots brushed and ready, powerpoint by Emily that I of course forgot on her desk know by heart and off I go into the new and exciting day.

Whether I’m shooting, in a meeting, or brainstorming or totally paralyzed by all these ing words, I’m super productive until around 1:00 pm.

It’s time for lunch. Everyone knows that when you’re a career woman, you have to use every lunch to network. So every day I network with Scott someone different, just to keep filling my belly address book.

After lunch, I make my way back to the studio. Did I not mention that? I don’t have an desk. Nooope, I’m too disorganized creative for that.
I work sprawled out on my couch wherever inspiration leads me. Scott, and everyone else at the studio finds it super annoying inspiring.

They love to find traces of my total mess my incredible creativity strewn about everywhere. Hard drives, jump drives, drawing pads… With me, you never know when you’re going to slip on one of my art pens I’m going to start expressing myself through art.

Around 4:00 pm, I start stressing myself to death because I haven’t even started my post for the next day getting myself together for one of my many projects. I’m always super last minute super ahead of schedule with my blog, and that makes me as hysterical zen as can be.

To get my energy up, like all New Yorkers, I’m a big fan of the cookies from Grey Dog (500 calories) green tea.

At 7:30, everyone is still at the studio and I start trying to shoo my employees out. It takes them about a half hour. I don’t know why they love staying at the office so much but maybe it has something to do with the calming hysterical energy that I communicate throughout the day finally taking effect.

I calmly remind them that I that they all have lives, that even if they all love what they do, going out helps to keep you connected with the pulse of the world around you.

That said, I close the door behind them, hop into Scott’s arms and put on a movie, perfectly chill, and totally oblivious connected to the pulse of the world around us.

Translation: Tim Sullivan

If I had to name one thing that I love more than making my own moodboard, it’s exploring other’s.

I took a tour of Aurélie Bidermann’s showroom and just drooling over her jewelry, I spent an hour exploring every last inch of her moodboard while she told me where each thing came from. The concert tickets, the photos that inspire her, some notes that meant a lot (in the picture, you can see a note signed by Lauren Hutton, –Aaaaaaah!!!! Swooooon!!! – I thought you guys would like that as much as I did.) but also where a lot of the ideas for her creations come from, like these knotted gold chains that I just love.

And you know what’s cooler than all that? The fact that she paints these blue turquoise stripes.

Not bad for a pro-moodboard, right?

Click on the arrows to see all the images !

PS : It’s official : the last picture is going to be my new computer’s wallpaper.

Translation : Tim Sullivan

First I was intrigued by the Louboutin red sole, then I thought it was just the coolest idea, and then I loved the design of the shoes, and then I saw way too many of them during fashion week, and finally a few years passed and I saw Kim Kardashian wearing them. And now I’m just not interested anymore.

And then after that, I was locked up in the house because of a hurricaine and I watched the Kardashians – just to get up to date on my pop culture, of course – and of course I kind of fell for Kim’s charm and after watching her, it bothered me less that she wears the studded Pigalle – I mean, even when she practically eats it when she gets up from the table, she’s still just so cute.

I always wonder if having such a distinct marker for a brand is more of a weakness than a strength.

I know that Louboutin’s success is partly because the red heel is sort of a status symbol [and a status symbol very heatedly defended. Have you followed the Louboutin vs YSL affair?] but doesn’t that make people like me shy away from them some?  Regular folks who just love the shoes but not necessarily what the red heel says about them?

Because the quality of the design of the shoes is still fantastic! So much so that I know of one top editor who found a good solution: she just paints her soles black.

Fashion can be so ironic, don’t you think?

Translation : Tim Sullivan

This is volume 2 in the series Changing Lifestyle. You can read the first episode here, where we visited the effect my move to New York had on me.

Stripped naked, we’re always beautiful. And our man will love us just the same. And our friends couldn’t care less. And we really can be just as happy. I mean, really, nothing really changes when we get a little plumper.

Okay, that’s almost true.

There’s that moment when you see a photo of yourself and you suddenly feel like you’re about to pass out.

Or there’s the jeans that don’t quite button and you pretend to forget them in some dark corner of your closet.

And there’s that quiet discomfort. It’s hard to explain, but those few extra pounds… You wear them.

I really tried to stay cool, and the people around me have always tried hard enough to say the famous, “but you look great!” to my face, but really, inside, I wasn’t feeling that cool. I was just so profoundly annoyed with it all. I knew I had to do something about it but I had no idea where to start.

The thing is that I’m just as bad at dieting as I am with exercise. I have the will of an oyster and I plus I love going out to eat and having a glass of wine, and never once do I actually give a second thought about what kind of food (Japanese? Mexican? Mexicaaaaaaan!!!) I chose to eat. And plus I’m constantly traveling. It’s hard to find a balance. Add to all that the fact that past your thirties, pounds stick to you like never before.

Something weird happened. I started thinking about that constantly.

What I had eaten and what I shouldn’t eat, what I was going to eat in the next hour compared with what I had eaten the hour before, and what I should be eating, this instead of that, or that instead of this. All the time.

What a interesting use of my brain, don’t you think ?!!! Totally self-centered – at an intellectual level close to zero.

And the more and more I thought about it, the more I just put whatever in my mouth.

Like if I weren’t hungry at all, still, I’d pack away a box of Oreos all while thinking how terrible it was and how I really shouldn’t finish them. And then… the guilt sets in.

And I developed this most terrible thing that the Americans have given a perfect name to because it’s just so true: self-loathing. It’s when guilt, through some vicious cycle, transforms itself into an utter hatred of the self. You spend all day telling yourself how bad you are.

It’s horrible!!! Because when you’re caught up in this craziness, it effects everything. You spend all day putting yourself down and not only is it useless and completely egotistical, but on top of that, believe me, you’re not a happy person.

And you know I hate taking myself too seriously… I didn’t recognize myself at all.

Then one day, finally – about two months into my little free fall into delirium – I had a moment of clarity. A voice inside me said :

“So, tell me, is this little game with yourself gonna last a while?”

You know, it’s like when we decide to quit the job that is killing us, to cut ties from that toxic relationship we’re in or move out of the apartment we hate. I finally had enough perspective to see that this just wasn’t working. I was obsessed.

I still remember that very moment. It was late and I was alone in some hotel room in Australia. I called Scott and cried and cried for an hour. And then I called my shrink in Paris who wasn’t there. I called a friend. We talked, we laughed – what was happening to me was so weird it gave us a lot of room for laughter – and then there I was, alone again.

The next morning, I went to Dymock’s, a bookstore in Sydney. Went straight to the nutrition section. I didn’t really know what I was looking for, but I know that usually the book we need just makes itself known. And sure enough, it did.

I ended up with three books. One was a book by Portia De Rossi who talked about her anorexia. The other, similar actually, was written by Crystal Renn. Finally, Feeding The Hungry Heart, a book by a woman named Geneen Roth. I’ll tell you about that one in just a sec.

I devored these three books. The two first ones, who talked about the the downward spiral into anorexia, made me realize just how much my little problems with food were actually quite tiny. But at the same time, the thinking spiral was a little bit the same, a progressive isolation through negative thought around food, exercise, and self-image.

And that constant repetition of the thoughts which end up taking over all other aspects of your life.

The third one cracks me up today when I see it. You know, it’s the kind of book that you never would display on your bookshelf. It’s what I call a feel good book. It’s the kind of book that you read when you need help but don’t know how to ask for it. When you feel a little alone – I was far away in Sydney – and needed someone to tell me that it’ll all be ok.

Geneen Roth was fat, then skinny, then fat, then skinny, then… obsessed with nothing but grub. Anorexia, bulimia, you name it, she tested every diet on earth and spent most of her life thinking only about food. One day, she understood that if she continued on with that war, it would make her increasingly more depressed and suicidal ideation would enter the picture.

She decided to stop all her dietary obsessions. And in a few months, she realized that her weight regulated itself all on it’s own – and she could smile again. She started to write anti-diet books, full of good advice and even better humor, and yeah, a lot of clichés but I’ll forgive her because her book helped me at a moment when I really needed it.

And anyway, I was already better. I had decided to totally stop intellectualizing everything that passed through my lips and let myself go without thinking so much.

I also started to do some yoga in Australia all by myself with some videos. It definitely helped quieting my mind.

I stopped speaking to myself negatively. We live in a world that encourages us to loath ourselves. It’s as troubling as an era where narcissism is king. But what we show of us is only the bright side, isn’t it, Facebook ?

And about gaining weight, I stopped beating myself up about it. I told myself that if it’s my destiny to become round, well, then why the hell not? I know tons of amazing people who happen to be round as well. And it wouldn’t hurt to have that influence in the fashion world.

After a long trip in the Australian summer, I came back to Paris where Scott was waiting for me.

It was snowing and it was Christmas…

——-

Oh man it would be all to easy if my lifestyle changes stopped there… More about it next time around !

Translation : Tim Sullivan

I love Jessica’s surfer / hippie look. And her bracelets she knits one by one, by hand. I don’t know if you remember but Zuzana was wearing one, here.

Next year, I am bringing indian blankets for the beach. And tomorrow, I am taking surf lessons !

Click on the arrows to see all the pictures.

I am such a fan of my friend Lisa Marie’s style (and I take a lot of pictures of her) – her wide pants, her Equipment shirt knotted at the waist and the Celine wood wedges that she loves. I kind of tried to copy her a little, but on me that look doesn’t really work, at all. I also love her swimsuit collection, which I’ve told you about but never really had an occasion to shoot.

Well, I guess I’m going to have an occasion to do so. The day I went to visit her showroom at the Standard (in the photo) she told me she had designed a swimsuit especially for me and called it the Garance.

It’s so beautiful !

Well, and I’d kind of have to be sublime too if I ever wanted to show it to you. Me, on my blog in a swimsuit ? Mmmmm I am not sure if I’ll ever dare. In the meantime, gotta go. I have yoga ;-)

Seen at the Stella McCartney resort presentation (the one where I saw Giovanna), two accessories I would quite like to have… Right now!