397: PFW Days 3 + 4 / French dressing
Birkin's Birkin, designers' designers, the It girl of It girls.
Magasin’s pop-up Fashion Week newsletter-within-a-newsletter, where we go on the ground to suss out hot shopping gossip from scenes of interest: Paris Fashion Week, Days 3 + 4.
Itinerary
Oct 1
8:45a Top-secret Magasin project ;)
2p Louis Vuitton re-see — some insane pieces to countenance up close; a beaded fringed jacket, a totally impractical but extraordinary travel vanity kit, a metal-hooped skirt that feels like three’s a trend in line with past-season Tory and next-season Tibi (was just on presale but looks like that ended).
4p J.Kim tea ceremony
7p Dinner at Cheval d’Or — as good as they say! Straight to the top of my Paris restaurant list.
Oct 2
10a Maria McManus x Agolde preview
12:30p Marisa Meltzer’s “It Girl” book launch lunch at Sotheby’s 83 Le Cafe — we got to see Jane Birkin’s Hermes Birkin bag (Marisa’s book on the actress comes out on the heels of the record-breaking sale of the bag for $10mm), and of course I already got heat for posting through the embargo after a glass of 1pm wine. Americans can’t be trusted with such lifestyles!
4:30p Ralph Lauren fitting
7p Camilla + Marc cocktail curated by The Oblist
7p Desert Vintage Paris opening night cocktail
8:30p By Malene Birger dinner at Sugaar
11p Nightcap at Early June
some skips
Outfit rundown
AM
Khaite Verda Dress, $616 $880 / Fforme Sweater (similar, $1,295) / Métier Private Eye Bag, $5,250 / Phoebe Philo Gathered Flat, $890 / Savette Symmetry Pendant Necklace, $350
PM
Kallmeyer Tavi Dinner Trench, $1,190 / By Malene Birger Tralaido Plisse Dress, $550 / Manolo Blahnik Carolyne 50 Polka-Dot Mesh Slingback Pumps, $965 / Burberry Bridle Clutch, $1,995
Shopping gossip
One of the first things that struck me when I got here was how dialed in French girls are to their big, black wool coats. I’m never brave enough to approach them in the wild and ask where they got them (too chic!), but when chatting with my French friend at the Issey show, she basically confirmed that everyone’s wearing Max Mara. Not necessarily at full price, though. On Vinted, which is famously and detrimentally only available to those with EU phone numbers and shipping addresses, vintage Max Mara coats are a dime a dozen. Not quite as abundant, but The RealReal and eBay do turn up some good options. Immediately following this revelation, I found myself in front of a Sportmax store (basically Max Mara’s Miu Miu) and figured this could be a close fix for less than $5,000, if I’m lucky. I was. It’s not the heavyweight winter manteau of my Frenchest fantasies, but I ended up buying this double-faced robe coat that I will wear with absolute certainty till it gets prohibitively cold outside.
More DMs about these Phoebe Philo ballet flats than any other item I’ve worn in recent memory (rightfully so!). I spotted Olympia Gayot wearing them in Paris on IG Stories, too. Reminder that size 39 and up can get the Repetto version (they call it a men’s style) for significantly less.
The best part of new Dior is the shoes, designed by Nina Christen, who also runs her recently launched line, Christen (I just picked up this pair of sandals before NYFW). So, too, does the footwear designer behind new Versace: Trevor Houston designs the revived Herbert Levine. I like shopping the behind-the-scenes designers’ independent lines—like Khaite’s knitwear designer Conley Averett who does Judy Turner—it’s a chance to get in on the action at a lower price point, and often where designers are free to be more expressive.
Sotheby’s Karina Sokolovsky tells me she gets all of her news and does all of her networking at the gym. (Hers is Tracy Anderson, so maybe the correct phrasing is more “cult.”) Still, she was willing to bring some of the tea to lunch. Not really shopping gossip, but according to Karina and Marisa (beauty knower) Sofwave is the just-shy-of-a-facelift procedure that every other treatment claims to be but isn’t. Ultherapy, meanwhile, is apparently the most painful, least effective, and priciest thing to do to your face.
Marisa also told me she bought a 2003 Chanel dress from Resee for the NYC leg of her book launch lunch tour. If you’re in Paris, you can book a visit at the boutique to shop one of the vastest, most organized archived of vintage designer in Europe. They’ll prepare your wishlist for trying on ahead of time, or you can just walk in off the street to browse if you happen to be in the neighborhood.
Lauren Sherman rightly foretold the comeback of the Dior bar jacket at her live taping of Fahion People at WSA, covered in our NYFW Report Backs. Lo and behold, Jonathan revisited the silhouette this week, and yet somehow this tweed version is still listed for under $800 on TRR. Also miraculous to me is this Galliano-era corduroy jacket for under $600.
Did we know Lanvin’s Peter Copping also heads up a homewares brand alongside his partner Rambert Rigaud? La Carlière seems to be a sometimes project pegged to the couple’s 15th-century château in Normandy, for which they’ll occasionally produce mixed-jacquard throw pillows and indigo-dyed table linens available to purchase by DM. Very Kaitlin Philips-coded!
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Can't go wrong with a long black Max Mara!