At a few metres distance, Le Meurice is the setting for our selection of cutting-edge women’s readyto- wear : a bastion of traditional Parisian elegance offering a historical counterpoint to contemporary style. Our side-by-side exhibition of contemporary art not only accentuates this unique juxtaposition but offers visitors a broader perspective of fashion. While signature styles from established houses such as Judith Leiber and Missoma form the core of our selection, Vendôme Luxury continues to honour its reputation as a fashion industry trailblazer by supporting fresh new talent. Mai Lamore, who is presenting her eponymous line of handcrafted shoes, is the latest in a series of designers (such as Ivana Helsinki, Isabel Marant,Christopher Lemaire, Erdem...) launched by Carole de Bona, the event’s founder and co-ordinator.
Through the medium of contemporary art,Vendôme Luxury’s new edition will be shown within a specially-crafted setting that reflect an esoteric and rarefied aesthetic inspired by the theme “Through the Looking Glass.”
Cutting Edge Designers at le meurice - 6, rue de castiglione include:
Afterglow, Catherine Deane, David Fielden, Gaïa Pace, Jade Jager, Marc Bouwer, Megan Park, Nina Skarra, Noir, Ports 1961, and many others.
High-end Accessories at park hyatt - 5, rue de la paix include:
A Cuckoo Moment, Amishi, Assya, Babe, Byzantia Jewelry, Celestina Maynila New York, Cleo B, Coralia Leets, Dassios, Fiona Paxton, and many others
Culinary Design Exhibition
Culinary design is an emerging movement first developed nearly ten years ago by Marc Brétillot, a teacher at the École Supérieure d’Art et de Design in Reims, France. The designers involved in the emancipation of this movement are fairly young and are creating quite a stir in the media. Anything is still possible: parquet made of chocolate, fanciful tarts, gigantic vegetables, or other incongruous creations.
The creation of macro sculptures and sound and video also contribute to exploring new forms of expression within the movement. With culinary design the idea isn’t to make fried eggs look more aesthetic, and the designers are not necessarily top chefs. They are helping to liberate the last deeply rooted taboos associated with food: “We need to sweep away the codes and break the traditional rules” (Marc Brétillot).
Whether or not it can be eaten is perhaps beside the point, as it is the design concept that remains the focus of interest. In Alice in Wonderland we see what lies beyond the looking glass, to see things that are astonishing, original, to discover apparitions that defy expectations and refuse to conform to rules. This then is the ideal subject to provide the framework for the most inclusive exhibition of culinary design this movement has ever seen.
Through the Looking Glass
Why then is all this going to feature in the Vendôme Luxury during the Paris Fashion Week? In an event where fashion seems to be locked into the strict rules of the market, culinary design can play the freedom trump card. Here, in the Vendôme Luxury Trade Show with what it has to offer to professional buyers. There, through the looking glass, Vendôme Luxury Live will allow imagination to soar. Perhaps this will have an impact and therefore open up a new perspective for all visitors .
A mirror only shows the appearance and physical aspect of things. What lies through the looking glass is what we will be looking for on the 3rd to the 6th October 2009 in the Hotel Meurice with Vendôme Luxury Live.
A Shaded View Of Vendôme Luxury
Internationally recognised as a fashion icon, Diane Pernet is the face and brains behind the acclaimed blog AShadedViewOnFashion.com and helped launch Iqons.com, the first social networking site for the fashion community. Although best known for her work in fashion design, Diane originally trained as a filmmaker. Having launched her own label in the 1980s, her avant-garde creations made her one of New York’s “it” designers of the era. She relocated to Paris some 13 years later, reinventing herself as a fashion journalist (Joyce, Elle.com, Vogue.fr, Dutch…) all the while keeping her passion for (and involvement in) her art of origin – film.
Having not only worked for many years as a fashion designer and filmmaker, Diane also had a stint as a costume designer for cinema (an obvious choice for a woman equally impassioned by fashion and film). She is regularly solicited to curate and consult for numerous fashion and photography festivals, and also acts as a talent scout for the Festival de Hyères and the Milan White Club. In 2006, she cofounded the travelling film festival You Wear It Well before independently launching A Shaded View On Fashion Film 2008.
Over the years, Pernet has made many fashion films of her own, and has also been captured on the other side of the camera, through cameo appearances in Robert Altman’s film Pret-a-Porter and Roman Polanski’s The Ninth Gate. Due to the depth and variety of her work in the fields of fashion and the arts in general, Diane Pernet has been named the ambassador for the new edition of Vendôme Luxury Live. She represents a whole generation of benefactors to champion the fashion for art cause, and embodies the spirit of Vendôme Luxury.
Based at luxury hotels around the famed Place Vendôme after which the event takes its name, Vendôme Luxury is now a ‘must-see’ event for professionals attending Paris Fashion Week. In March 2009 alone, the event attracted more than 5000 fashion and trade professionals from 32 countries spanning 3 continents.
Buyers from Japan constituted 25% of the overall attendance - an all-time high - followed by France(16%), Italy (15%), Middle East (13%), USA (11%), UK (10%), Russia (7%), and others (7%). The highest growth in attendance was represented by the Middle East (up 60% from last year) surpassing the USA (down 16%), followed by Russia (up 46%).
Vendôme Luxury is widely recognised by leading French (Printemps, Galeries Lafayette, Le Bon Marché, Montaigne Market…) and international (Neiman Marcus, Takashimaya, Harvey Nichols, Harrods…) department stores as well as by trendsetting boutiques such as Maria Luisa, Colette, Dover Street Market, Corso Como, Podium, Tsum, Boutique1, etc.
Vendome Luxury
October 2009, 3rd-6th
10 am to 10 pm, except 6th October 2009 : 10 am to 7 pm.
ADRESSES
Le Meurice
6, rue de Castiglione
75001 Paris
Park Hyatt Vendôme
5, rue de la Paix
75002 Paris
www.xxb.fr
