White Dreams - Jardin Albert Kahn pt2

Happy Easter everyone! In Romania we're just celebrating it this week.

I know I've been neglecting this blog quite a bit, but I've been focusing on some music projects lately.

We're having such a warm and amazing spring in Paris! Everything is scented and in bloom and all the parks are full of daffodils and magnolias and people having picnics.

I took a friend to the Jardin Albert Kahn  last week, which reminded me about this photo shoot from last summer.

I never got around to sharing the rest of the photos, so here is a couple from the same series.

The ones in the Foret Vosgienne make me feel like I'm in an Edwardian postcard, like those I sometimes find aux puces.

The beautiful Partie de Campagne dress I'm wearing is still available in the shop, ready to fulfill your early 20th century fantasies.

Have a lovely spring!

White Magic - Jardin Albert Kahn

The Jardin Albert Kahn is probably one of those infamous Parisian hidden spots you keep hearing about; sure, we all love Bois de Vincennes, Buttes Chaumont and Jardin des Plantes, but this little garden is really something special. Or maybe less so as more and more French bloggers started using it as a backdrop for outfit photos.

It's a story of a romantic banker who wanted to travel the world but instead he sponsored other people to do it , strongly believing that knowing other cultures would lead to peace and understanding among people.

The garden comprises six carefully planned regional environments, from a Vosgian forest (the guy actually had boulders and rocks transported from the actual mountain for authenticity!), a Japanese garden buiolt under the supervision of a real stone mason from Japan, complete with koi pond and an English rose garden.

It is pretty much pure Victorian eccentricity, only a few decades later.

It is a very quiet and nice spot, not to mention complete with an entire museum celebrating his life and work that displays an impressive number of autochromes.

Autochromes are like a gateway drug - they're super pretty and show Edwardian fashions in color and David Hamilton hues, so they appeal to the fashion geeks but the process is also super freaky and fascinating ( colored potato peel dust anyone??) so the tech/photography geeks are all over it.

For some reason the contemporary art world remains skeptical; maybe it's because ''beauty'' has been a pretty unpopular concept for the last two centuries.

This late '20s-early 30s eyelet dress complete with my 30s boater hat seems like the perfect outfit for my first garden visit; it was just one of those places I've been planning to go to for over 2 years now but alas it only happened this year. I like to believe I've been waiting for the right outfit.

And seeing the photos on this film roll, I like to believe I did.

The dress is very old but in perfect condition and it will be in the shop next week; I think it would make a wonderful bridal dress!

Also for some reason they let me in for free with my student card, so I should be all the more motivated to return!

You can read more about the fascinating story of Albert Kath here.

The English version is pretty poor unfortunately, but I will try to write more about it, especially since I have another batch of photos to post.

Enjoy!

Leave Her to Heaven

... probably the most amazing 1940s dress I have ever come across.

It's been in my closet for a few years now, but for some reason it just doesn't feel completely right on me - I think it might be because it keeps falling off my shoulders.

Having styled it with my little 1930s boater hat and Swedish Hasbeens clogs, I feel a little sad to let it go but at the same time you shouldn't hold on to beautiful things you can't use, right?

I think it is only worthy of the comparison to one of the strangest and most amazing 1940s melodrama (one could argue it is a color film noir) Leave Her to Heaven - an iconoclastic classic starring the breathtakingly gorgeous Gene Tierney.

 It's a tragic love story involving sister rivalry, horseback riding in Mexico, a mountain lake cabin, gardening and um...murder. Like, you know - one of those things you just HAVE TO see. Not to mention the most rich, saturated Technicolor tones out there. Might actually write about it this Friday- I miss doing those cinema posts.

Until then, you can watch the trailer in order t tie you over.


This little vintage gem is now in the shop.