Once Upon a Time in Paris Fashion Week - Part III - the arm and more

The day of the Stockman mannequin arm . . Nsha bought a stockman mannequin and a stuffed arm for fittings.. . it became our toy from the Ruc up to L'Opera to see Moncler-Valli . . .very funny especially with Saloni - all arms and legs in her very hot zipper skirt with Susan and myself with the giant hot orange corto cassette clutch all of us in heels too high to be walking in the daytime - hitting each other with an "arm" . . .classic.

Susan, the arm and Saloni

Not sure what our French passerbyers might have thought - rather strange sight I think it was.

Saloni and I

Saloni was in Paris to show her collection as well - her label is called Saloni and she showed it at the ultimate pad in the Marais - stunning duplex. Her small but collection was well beautiful - I loved it. The zipper skirt in the pics are from the aw 09 collection, I think I ordered a white one - BTW SAL - WHERE IS MY ZIPPER SKIRT? The collection should be hitting the stores very soon if it has not already - you get kind of spoilt wearing next seasons goods during fashion week. We all become life models of the clothes for our friends. . .

Opera

Moncler was an installation in the dungeons/underground of the Opera Garnier - produced by Alex de Betak - the colletion was a collaboration between Giambasta Valli and Moncler. I know Alex worked hard on the installation - he missed my bday the night before. . . the moment I entered I knew why - it was magical, a snow palace with real horses, it felt like I had walked in a great Russian romance novel.

Snow Fountain at Moncler-Valli

A room made by lights

That night we congretated at Fidelite, the english crew anyway . . of which i sort of am still member . . . Nish came along with me to Fidelite and I went with her to Neo.

Nishita and I

Nishita and DJ Sinatra

I have not been to Neo since at least 3 years ago, teenage models and young euro men . . . not my thing really so as soon as Canon arrived I left to Montana . . .

Once Upon a Time in Paris . . . Part II - Fashion Week BirthdayBaby

And of course my birthday fell during the shows and thus this time I was a fashionweek baby, haha.  Well, that was a treat, the first night of my B-day celebration was having very delicious Japanese food at Kai, although the owner insisted that his food was very very serious and that his restaurant is not a cafe, thus we could not be rowdy, well . . . little chance of that.  Food was very yummy and apologies to Kai that we were so enthusiastic. We kind of overdid the ordering and ended up with a cake box of tempura to take back to the apt which was 5 steps away.  We then all jammed into Mark's Cayenne, me and Ploi in the trunk (my usual spot in SUV's during fashion week) and on we went to the Ritz(fashion centrale and would make any fashion student or victim cry with joy as everyone was there) but my agenda was more personal . . .the drinks at Hemingway and well, my birthday countdown to a personal little raspberry tart which Nish managed to miraculously convince/bribe the bartenders to give me. Only Nishita would be able to manage that - she's amazing at making the seemingly impossible - possible. . . What was nice about that night was that all our old friends were there, that I did not expect to see - Giovanna Battaglia was one of them . . . and well, it was my "UK crew" so Daniella, Susan, Hannah, Lara and Ben etc + Nish and Ploi. . .Then to Regine for Tommy Saleh's party . . .See Tranoi had finished on Sunday which meant that well, apart from the showroom in the apt, Ploi and I were free from booth minding.

Monday was about changing the apt around - Ploi had gone to London and Nishita had nsha-related meetings.  Polina came to spend the day with me and the night was the real festivity although with so much going on, I was extremely late. . . the evening started at the Corto Moltedo boutique in the Jardins du Palais Royale for cocktails.  Corto had just recently opened his store in the Jardins des Palais Royale, if you know Corto, or Gabe to his friends, you realise that to enter into the boutique in the Galerie Valois of the Jardins is to enter his braind and his very view of the world.  Then to Colette I went with Polina where sniffing on a model with no shirt was what you had to do for the Fantastic Man perfume launch - bumped into some acquaintances there, Florent who stuck me in his Vogue.fr blog for nsha and Chris Simmonds and Will Davidson who did the previous nsha campaigns. Po also introduced me to a wonderful lady called Anja - Russian lady, super duper chic, she rolled through to look at nsha during the week as well.  

Lady Bunny had invited me to Scott Lipman's beautiful loft for drinks . . .so my pre bday drinks were there and I dragged Polina with me - Bunny is wonderful, her energy and her friends were tres interesting, the host Scott, Micky boardman and Diane Pernet . . eccentric ny.  

So i was kinda late for my dinner at Fidelite, 

Fidelite

The table - Guillaume and Matteo

Mark and Daniella 

Nishita and Matteo

Polina and Julien

grand wait but great friends with the introduction of a new friend, a robot called Kallinka and a surprise pain perdu cake which John fed to me in search of the perfect photo op. 

John and I

The robot and I

the Pain Perdu cake with sparkly candles

John feeding me cake

After that was Stella's party and the stumble from rue st guiallaume or whatever it was to the Flore . . .it was a funny funny walk - Saloni's Flip was witness to this,  .  .a las . . .the night ended at Mobtana - the first night of my 28th year. I was the most tired, sleepy and grumpy bday girl if there ever was one.  

Hannah Bhuiya

Xerxes and Erica

nsha x baseman . . .

So Chichi of La Clique blogged about this little collaboration of mine in her fantastic blog for Colette - thanks Chichi (Chichi is amaazing - love Chichi - check out her photographs too - my faves are the dayscapes)! So here it is . . .nsha x baseman

Nsha is the label that Nishita Shah and I started, I was the creative director and whilst I was there we did a little collaboration with artist Gary Baseman who I ADORE, after Gary came over to Bkk for the Nsha Launch last October, we talked about it a bit then, some more in Miami during Miami Basel (this is where Gary and I actually met 4 years ago!) and well, and I am thrilled with the results -  a set of limited edition bikinis, swimsuits and boardshorts for girls and guys, though we kept the guys' boardshorts to only 50 and girls' to 80.  There are 150 bikinis and 60 swimsuits in 2 patterns . .  . . .I've cheated and tested them out already and I looove them . . . there is Chouchou which is the orange little guy.

 Bali

and then Hot Cha Cha in electric blue on black . . It is sooo dope.  

HOT CHA CHA CHA

Not to get all the technical on you but the bikinis fit so good, I mean, I can go surfing in them and they don't fly off, I chose top grade polyamide for it and the boardshorts are dope too - light weight but falls well . . thus it is the only bit of nsha that I have kept and is kinda the little baby that will being launching. . .somewhere very soon . . . Chichi is right, we are keeping mum about this till further notice . . .I shall keep you posted  . . in the meantime yes, that's me in the bikini . . !

middle of the sea - Samui