Antique Paris Postcards and more pretty parcels (and breaking into your own apartment)

This heat is really making me brain dead...it's too hot to stay in, too hot to go out and pretty much too hot to do anything. At least the laundry dries up fast - ha!

Speaking of laundry, yesterday we went down with a few bags and of course one of us forgot the keys and by the time the other asked about getting the keys, the door just slammed behind us. And you know what that means? We were locked out in full blast afternoon heat with two huge laundry bags.

After various attempts to break into the apartment, we finally caved in and called the cheaper locksmith for help. We basically paid this guy 60 bucks ( euros! that's like 80$) to open our door with an X-ray.

Now I don't know which is worst - the part about the money or the sudden realization that it's SO easy to break into our place and we absolutely MUST lock the door at all times.

So there you have it. I'll start wearing my keys around my neck from now on, just like when we were kids.

Aside from this (probably) heat-generated anecdote, I've been meaning to photograph the parcels I've been sending from the shop out lately for a long time. I try to recycle as much as possible, so when I'm using old envelopes , instead of pasting tons of paper to cover the old address on the front, I simply wrap the whole thing in a Paris metro map and just paste the new address on top of that.

Looks pretty neat, huh? The ladies from the good post office (the one 4 metro stops away) have been complimenting them a lot.

In the end I think it's cool to get something colorful in the mail.

Of course, I kept the same ribbon+lavender+plain paper wrap for the inside, only now I upped my game a little and finally bought some washi tape and that, my friends, pretty much makes all the difference.

I also invested in a bunch of antique and vintage postcards last time I went to Puces de Clignancourt to send out as thank you notes; they're all from Paris, some are blank, some have the prettiest hand writing and a lot are colorized/hand tinted. A lot of stuff from the '10s and earlier, and what I assume to be re-prints of older stuff.

Pretty much all very old and very cool.

On top of that, for the added cinephile bonus, I've been going to the movies more lately and collecting those cool little poster programs they put out every time they they have a re-release. All those little repertoire cinemas around St. Michel and La Sorbonne (think Le Champo, La Filmotheque, Grand Action, Le Desperado and Action Christine ) who all play classic movies in the original language, either on film or borderline decent DCPs, put out cool A4-sized glossy posters, with little essays about the film on the back.

I always take a few and use them for decorating; my friends from home like getting some as well.

And lately I started sending them out with the orders well; I don't know how much people really appreciate that, but I would love getting local oddities when ordering from Etsy. Maybe I'm too much of a fetishist after all...

Either way, at the moment I have a lot of Jerry Lewis ones ( you how the French love Jerry Lewis), an older Rebel Without a Cause, An American in Paris, La Dolce Vita, Seven Samurai and other cool stuff. Of course, if you would like a specific poster with your order just let me know.

What do you guys like getting in your parcels? Do you have any more cool packaging ideas?

Film&Fashion Fridays: Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41

...with the crazy rain/shine weather we've been having lately, all i can think about are trench coats and big hats.

And what better inspiration for this look than the iconic revenge-driven Meiko Kaji in the 1970s exploitation trilogy Female Convict Scorpion?

I only saw the second installment of the story, Jailhouse 41, as part of a Toei Studios retrospective at the Cinematheque two years ago.

It was a beautifully restored pristine 35mm print with crazy colors in cinemascope with eerie music. But the musical score is definitely not the most bizarre part of the film : following a jailbreak, a group a women find themselves in an abandoned village populated by ghosts, witches and evil spirits.

It's a horror/pinku/sexploitation flick that's visually stunning and very entertaining; of course, there's a group rape, a crucifixion and a healthy dose of blood as in any other exploitation movie, but this one makes some twisted and brave points for female empowerment and the violence against women.

I'm not the biggest gore/thriller fan and this film is pretty mild, while crude. The surreal imagery and saturated frames make for a stunning visual trip.

And then the clothes! My absolute favorite must be Scorpion's typical 70s badass trench+floppy hat get up at the end of the movie, but I'm also smitten with the inmates' uniforms (I mean navy shift dresses with tie dye stripes?? please and thank you!) and the creative use of grey draping blankets as coats. It almost feels like a distilled cross between Isabel Marant x Gareth Pugh x Hussein Chalayan.

...if all this didn't convince you, might I add that it inspired Tarantino's Kill Bill?  Then again, the same thing could arguably be said about any Japanese exploitation flick...

 Have a great weekend everyone!

Latest inspiration: Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven

Hello darlings!

 

In anticipation of the Days of Heaven vintage collection, I give you a glimpse of the original inspiration behind my photography and curating concept; or this is simply a chance to indulge talking about one of my favorite movies...

Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven has been part of the fashion canon for a couple of years now (if you consider Rodarte's tribute as a landmark); but well before that it had attained the reputation of being probably the most beautiful movie ever shot.

Magic hour, Edwardian fashions, an endless wheat field, horses and music by Ennio Morricone, what more could you want?

The film might fall a little short on the plot for some viewers, but the arresting visual style and Malick's gift for creating atmosphere are a pretty big compensation and enough to keep you mesmerized for a little over 90 minutes.

I remember going to see it back when The Tree of Life came out in 2011 and, as the cinephile tradition is in Paris, La Filmotheque du Quartier Latin, this little repertoire cinema by La Sorbonne was playing all his old films for a while. Did I mention it's one of the few theaters that play films in their original language? Dubbing is huge in France, but there's a little network of art house theaters that play original classics as well as new releases (I need to start writing a little guide on that).

It was a pretty sunny day and I remember wearing a light crochet white dress and my newly acquired flea market boater hat (oh I had just cut my dreads after 6 years that summer, so my new pixie cut was crying for a hat!) and watched this vividly colored scratchy print...

Now even in cinemas like that it's getting more and more rare to see a film on print;  I LOVE film and cringe every time I take photos for the shop and see how bad digital looks... The death of 35mm is a big debate in the movie world right now, but I think that even if a movie is shot on film it still makes a huge difference than if it was digital.

So go look for dusty neighborhood cinemas and see films on print, please!

The costumes in the movie can be divided into two different categories, as in the end it portrays yet another episode in class struggle : the poor seasonal field workers vs the rich land owner. It has a very depression era-dust bowl feel in many aspects. On the other hand there are idyllic nature scenes that could very well fit in Picnic at the Hanging Rock, for example.

So there are delicate white blouses, lace gowns, piano shawls, Dandy gentlemen and on the other hand calico and ditsy floral prints, earth tone dresses and plaid/gingham shirts.

 

And, of course, the best pan collar shirts, worn by the guys!

 I don't know if it was the selection or simply the very soft evening light we discovered while shooting late that made the connection, but I think this is a pretty coherent analogy between the movie wardrobe's and the vintage collection I selected. 

There are many '70s takes on Victorian/Edwardian fashion, which is exactly what this movie from 1978 is doing as well. It also has the same folk country feel and similar calico, art deco inspired prints.

Some might disagree with the concept of a vintage collection, but I think curating vintage and putting together a strong selection is no less important than designing a collection. The creative input might be different, but I still think it should be acknowledge.

The look book will be up on Thursday and the items will be available in the shop on Friday.

In the meantime there will be more screen shots on Pinterest and Tumblr; I'm also preparing a post on Rodarte's Days of Heaven inspired collection tomorrow! 

Stay tuned!

bisoux,
Sandra