Paris in the Rain and Exhibit at Les Docks

Sunday June 23 was another cool, cloudy day with on and off rain, sometimes heavy.  Everyone in Paris is very gloomy because of the hideous weather they have had all spring and summer so far.  Alain was able to get his 8.5 km run in before it started raining this morning.

We met my cousin Laure, who lives in Paris, for brunch.  The original place we were going to was packed so we ended up at Au Vieux Colombier, where Alain and I had omelettes and frites.  Of course, it was raining when we left.

Laure and Toby outside Au Vieux Colombier on Rue Rennes

Alain and I then took the Metro to Les Docks Cite De La Mode et Du Design (City of Fashion and Design) which is located near Gare L'Austerlitz. Les Docks, which houses the French Fashion Institute, exhibition space, a number of pop-up and concept stores, and a restaurant, opened in early 2012.  We saw an excellent exhibit there last June and the one we saw today was also very good.  Les Docks is located in an old 1907 warehouse that has been redone, with a new green skin on top.



The exhibit we saw was entitled: Mannequin-Le Corps de La Mode (Model-The Body of Fashion), which traces the history of fashion models and fashion photography during the past 100 years.  It notes that models were once called mannequins, a reference to the wickerwork figures that used to display clothes in couture houses in the 19th century.  The word has the implication of an "inanimate object" that clothes could be hung on.  The exhibit shows how models evolved from indeterminate mannequins to living ideals of beauty.  There is still fluctuation between the model as "object" or "subject"-- but models a crucial cog in the fashion machine.

Poster for show- luckily it was extended until today

The real mannequins

Interfoto Venise- Le Couturier Raphael cloue des etoiles sur un tailleur 1951

Henry Clarke (1918-96) Studio Adam Paris 1951

Irving Penn (1917-09) Robe de Marcel Rochas 1950 , Mannequin: Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn
In 1949, Lisa Fonssagrives was the first model to be on the cover of Time magazine.

David Bailey (b.1938) Jean Shrimpton 1963

Twiggy in Paris 1967

Guy Bourdin (1921-91) Charles Jourdan summer 1978 (Mannequin Nicolle Meyer)

Helmut Newton (1920-2004)  Vogue Paris 1981

Corine Dey (1965-2010) Kate Moss 1990 at age 15

Marcus Tomlinson (b.1961) Frame, 2002 Manteau Hussein Chalayan 

After the exhibit, we checked out a few of the open stores in Les Docks and then took the Metro to the Marais, which is one of the few areas in Paris where shops are allowed to be open on Sundays.  The place is always packed.  We headed over to Rue des Rosiers to buy some of our favourite aubergine appetizer, and pieces of poppy seed and apple cakes.  There was a huge crowd, as usual, at L'As du Fallafel.  We didn't partake today, but will probably return.

Crowd outside L'As du Fallafel

 Poppy seed and apple cake at Sacha Finkelsztajn's

Alain outside Sacha's

We wandered through the busy streets of the Marais and then stopped for an apero.  We then headed back to the apartment ducking the rain along the way.  Alain made another great fish dinner and I was able to complete today's post this evening.