Tag Archives: Fashion

Paris Women Collections FW 2008: Gaspard Yurkievich

Posted on March 6, 2008 | Leave a comment

“The Beautiful Fall” of Gaspard Yurkievich

Happy to get back from Paris women collections! Of course you’ve missed me for two weeks and I’ve missed you too guys! Damned: how can I start? Too many things happened, shows, interviews, my rundown of Paris women collections Fall-Winter 2008 and a special topic about my Paris, full of pictures…

Wake-up babe! Let’s start with my man : Gaspard Yurkievitch.

Every detail is perfect in Gaspard’s universe: the thin silk paper invitation with an electric blue shaded and the shiny gold geometrical lines on a deep sensual black catwalk, a kind of futuristic eighties and a microphone on each sides of the model entrance to the catwalk. The hall looks like a crowded small black box in Carroussel du Louvre.

A young woman leads me to my seat, I check my Canon, maybe some snapshots later… I read: Elvis Pompilio’s hats and look at faces in rows like pixels composing a modern painting. Yes maybe few backstage snapshots for the human, the atmosphere, a feeling behind perfection.

It gets darker, in front of microphones Sam Sparro and Dani Siciliano, the musicians dressed in Gaspard Yurkievich, show must go on, the first model… Silence please!

Thanks to Gaspard Yurkievich and his great crew : www.gaspardyurkievich.com

Julie Bernardin, the Parisian girlfriend of Batman

Posted on February 18, 2008 | Leave a comment

– I love speed, I’m not politically correct ! I am quick and I only work in the rush.

Julie Bernardin is a radioactive frenetic jewels designer and extremely good with her hands. She studied at Esmod and Studio Berçot where: “Everything I did was terribly bad!”. And became a collection coordinator at Isabel Canovas and a specialist of the XVIII century items and furniture: “pretty cosmic!”… And a Spiderman’s buddy who’s created her trade “to make gifts” three years ago: 4 Me.

– A jewel is a way to express yourself. People easily adapt, one season and you throw them. I think I have fun, but I don’t really have talent.

I disagree: for months, years, two years! For two years I’ve looked for the shop of Super Julie, further to a never-ending brunch at Hotel Murano with The Human Torch. While we nonchalantly walked: I saw it! A kind of “Honey I shrunk Batman” miniature with strass and chains, like a jewel for bags with hype bling charm! I love it! The Human Torch wants to give it to me, I can’t make up my mind: Tiny-Bat is too big for my imaginativeness threshold. Ellipse, after a while and the absolute certain I want the Batman jewel, “the object of desire” says Super Julie. Once again: after the Sunday brunch ritual in front of the Murano superstars fire place and endless white leather sofa, with this time a human friend, I look for the shop in rue de Turenne. Nothing! The shop disappeared. That’s it! With my jewel! Joker for sure! Two years later, Super Julie comes out again on Iqons. Now the shop has a black box frontage and my X-Men intuition won’t make any mistake again. So what? Even superheroes make a mistake! Seldom!

– I love charms, I put them everywhere! Thanks to Vanessa Zochetti (a elle.fr journalist), I also put them on chains. I really like working with chains. I buy small thingamajigs everywhere, lots in the States, in shops of cooking, cakes tins. Many stuffs from the 50-70’s.

My mega bionic eye examines the glam Barbie’s red superb curls dressed in vintage cowgirl, with a denim tiny short and colourful Mexican boots on a shelf. “Inspector Harry” flashes, in the Vegas 70’s. On another shelf, some Spanish”something”: Super Julie likes kitsch things she transforms into collectors. The 40-50’s jewels she antiques in the US and then “put back together again” to make her own jewels.

– I love Rita Hayworth, Fred Astair, Capra… 50’s massive influence. I’m very conceptual. I like when it’s representative and something happens: telling a story, like in a Crazy Horse act. All samples have a name. Small dogs are in “My Best Friends”, cause they are here when we need them.

Among the first persons to have a look at her jewels, guess who ? Two great members of the Marverick private club: Gaspard Yurkievich (again and again, I know!) and André who sells them in his Black Block shop at the Palais de Tokyo.

– I think there are people with an eye and others not. I grew up in the cult of what was beautiful and good, the Crazy Horse basis principles: it had to fix it! Detail is very important.

Yes, a detail, Super Julie is the grand daughter of Alain Bernardin, the Crazy Horse’s creator.

– Really hard to be yourself ! I am very shy: I listen too much, I need to be relieved. We are in the rat year, a very important year for me! I’m not zen at all!

A big laugh ! No problem, I am not either and I could ask for help Master Carradine for an intensive coaching! I shake off Joker, now we can leave our super powers:

– I love music, I’ve always gone to concerts. I am a mad keen of Fleetwood Mac, Prince, « Sympathy for the Devil » of the Stones… and seventies. I would like to work in music. Many DJs and rappers like my jewels. I sell a lot to celebs: Rolling Stones, Guetta, Audrey Tautou, Olivier Assayag…

Her handmade jewels, four to ten samples by models, are sold in Paris at Bon Marché that “loves them” (with an exclusive design, for this winter), Galeries Lafayettes (at the fashion designers corner, last summer) and in thirty shops, mostly concept stores (oups!) around the world: Great Bretain, Italy, Germany, Japan, Taïwan, New York and Chicago, by Jeff Mills, yeah the DJ…

Tribute to my blog-trotter attitude : Super Julie, what about travelling?

– When I travel, I’m always sick. The white plastic bed in Seychelles: No way! I love Caribbean, I feel home, the States, Italy and still not Japan.

My mega bionic eye noticed the love of the Wild Wild West, home sweet home Arizona:

– I was born in L.A. And I’m crazy about hardline stuff, Indian natives, Navarros and Tony Hillerman (one of my favourite writers too). I love desert, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas where you can find the best antique dealers… the Ceasar Palace’s lamps. And near Vegas, I recharge my batteries in an Indian reservation. I’ve loved Kauai (Hawaii) for the Yankee atmosphere at the very end of the world: many vintage things.

And what about Paris as the international Marverick’s ultimate trend?

– I am a real Parisian woman. Everything I like, doesn’t exist anymore. Paris is not a night city anymore, there isn’t any night bakery either! I hardly accept things change. I like things last. And I love eating.

The exclusive adresses of Julie :

– A « Burger and Château Carbonieux » diner at the Hilton Arc de Triomphe:
www.arcdetriompheparis.hilton.com

– Seafood at the « totally absurd funny old-word » Océan Paris Bar: 5, Place Parmentier, 92200 Neuilly-Sur-Seine – Tel : 01 47 22 92 05

– A brasserie, Le Stella: 133 avenue Victor Hugo, 75116 Paris – Tel : 01 56 90 56 00

– And place de l’Alma, the Monceau Park, the17th Arrondissement .

Joker resurfaced and I – don’t want – but I have to get back in supersonic mode. And the meeting is ending:

– It’s a short time, like a Polaroid. My grandfather used to take many Polaroid pictures. What a great pleasure when people enjoy what you do! It means they are like me… they want to be different. You need your eye to be happy! And what brings me the funniest feeling: creating! And I love design unique sample for wedding headgears.

I agree readjusting my (very discrete) golden domino, sheathed in my black leather second skin with my glittler sneakers, freshly laced up with my strass and chains jewels 4Me. Very stylish, I’m flying to save the world in Krytonik speed! Warning! Let me introduce myself : I am the last generation of super heroes, an efficiency exotic melting of Batman, Spiderman and X-men, family business. See you Super Top Julie!

www.juliebernardin.com

The Paris fashion designer, Gaspard Yurkievich

Posted on February 4, 2008 | 2 comments

Paris, ten something am, light greyness : I can’t stand the “morning” concept anywhere in this bloody world. The almost desert Marais (the oldest area in the centre of Paris) slowly wakes up, like the ritual of an eccentric dignified old lady. A friend of a friend recognized me, I need an awakening. Warrior Ipod, the catchy single of Blondie, “Atomic”, played again and again, addicted.

The not straight old walls and the empty brightness of the sky, give an impression of a crumbling whiteness and a German expressionist set with crazy perspectives. Small door in raw wood, large stairs, the contrast of the thick black varnish and the small white letters, here I am, I ring: Gaspard Yurkievich, the fashion designer.

Spare white show room, a “message” neon light (“Romance is a surprise”) in front of a basic neon light, study atmosphere in the next room where the officers staff works. Few snapshots, colorful geometrical forms on black socks, on carryings the last man collection presented a week ago. Easy to feel the idea of rigour, with a controlled fancy side. Unpretentious, Gaspard comes with Virginie, his P.R. and we sit.

– Berçot, it’s a beat like a psychotherapy, like the Actor Studio.

Studies at the Studio Berçot, an experience at Colonna (a famous French design of the nineties) and before the Hyères Festival (of the young creation) springboard, the “step” of assistant for shows in the Isabelle Roch press office:

– I needed to be less shy, to get more in touch with different people.

Smile and to add with mischievous eyes:

– Kid, I used to have my own world, I was never bored, I drew. I loved singing and dancing, music. Big crush on Diana Ross two years ago. I love dancing, the body. A unique idea of the body: it’s frightening! I dress my friends, they test and wear our clothes. We are really critical of ourselves.

I couldn’t stop myself telling him how much I’ve loved his shoes from the beginning:

– Thank you. It’s really easy for me to design shoes.

While Gaspard describes his “super Parisian and enough contemporary” fashion approach, his hands play with the shoes eels of the next season woman collection (here the supa hot pictures, an exclusivity just for you guys!):

– We got involved in Fashion business naïve and totally free. Imposing a language, an identity. Creating a sense between spirit and body: redefining the fashion “cliché “, a link between the establishment and the traditional. The philosophy of our brand is: item is a day mate. Today the approach is more and more elaborated. It’s sexy , but a real item. The first man collection was born from the woman collection’s foundations. But all collections exist by themselves.

Since childhood, Gaspard naturally enjoys the Contemporary Art and he collaborates for his fashion shows with many different artists, for exemple: Edouard Levé and the architect Didier Faustino.

– It’s a beat like a playtime at school, I’m like an art director on shows: a casting of visions, like keys given to people. We live a very intense moment. I need to work with people I like.

I think of the stylish dessert he designed for the “mythical” Café de La Paix:

– We love food, the idea of generosity. We wanted it sexy and “gourmand”: with a lucky charm in a case. First, I imagined for a Japanese magazine’s exhibition, a “Forêt Noire” cake crushed by a high eel shoe. Funny!

I moved, need different angles for the famous “creative mechanism” of Gaspard. For his next woman collection, he was inspired by a book not sold in France (Pierre Berger and Karl Lagerfeld might stand in the way of a French version), “Beautiful Fall” of Alicia Drake. I really like the concept, a forbidden book!

– The story of Yves Saint Laurent, Lagerfeld, Antonio Lopez. The seventies: how people dressed, it’s not interesting at all. It’s more the Couture spirit, the muses, Loulou de La Falaise: taking their energy, the fantasy of this period. The passing down between the Couture and the Ready-to-Wear.

From his several professional trips, Gaspard keeps the influence of ” the energy, not the folks” :

– There is a dialogue. I really like American culture. The US recycle a lot, the vintage culture. Meeting up with the Crazy Horse in Las Vegas, we had a day stop in Detroit, where we found a great vintage shop and discovered the exhibition of Anthony McCall.

And when the so Parisian Gaspard is his home town, Paris:

– I live Rive Gauche (the left riverside of the river, La Seine) and I work Rive Droite (the right riverside of La Seine).

I leave the show room thinking of this sentence of Gaspard:

– I love fashion, it’s suggestions, like a dialogue.

So Gaspard, thank you for this lovely dialogue!

His Parisian addresses:

– In a very exclusive hotel : a suite where switches were designed by Gaspard, with the shapes of Crazy Horse dancers… so chic! L’Hotel Particulier de Montmartre : www.hotel-particulier-montmartre.com/wordpress/

– A fusion restaurant : “the Japanese chief cooks the French gastronomy” Les Cartes Postales : 7 rue Gomboust, 75001 Paris – Tel : + 33 (0) 1 42 61 02 93

– A new “centre of Contemporary Art” Le Laboratoire : www.lelaboratoire.org

– A tubular architecture: “Of course” Beaubourg www.centrepompidou.fr/

– “Soulful Paris” : Le Crazy Horse www.lecrazyhorseparis.com