I have just spent a long weekend in Paris and it was just what the style doctor ordered! A girlie weekend, it left me feeling like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman as I stayed at Hotel Le Bristol. The place has been open since 1925 and is just beautiful. Its restaurant, Le 114 Faubourg, has three Michelin stars and is so worth a visit even if you are staying elsewhere. They have a fashion high tea at 3.30pm everyday where they show the latest Paris collections while you sip on the finest blends and eat delicacies. I love that it makes you feel like someone else for a while! In my head I was a narrow-hipped, beautiful Parisian lady viewing the collections to see what outfits would suit my social diary. We shopped for the winter season excitedly in the Isabel Marant boutique, which had mostly sold out back in London.
On Saturday we had a personal shopper and I cannot recommend it enough. He took us to places that we had never heard of, including a secret boutique with no sign or shopfront, it was like stepping into a Tim Burton film. But it sold incredible clothes with designers that we had never heard of and had collections of Maison Martin Margiela that are unavailable in London. He also taught us about the cuts of French denim designers as he was a clothes stylist that also did personal shopping.
Of course, I had to stock up on hairbrushes and pins, so I went to Strasbourg/St Denis, where there is a road dedicated to hair and beauty shops called Passage de l’Industrie 75010, Paris. It is well known that France excels in hair styling goods, the pins are stronger and the brushes are exquisite. I have bought small teasing brushes back from Paris for years, and they now get taken out in many a lady’s evening clutch bag to backcomb and flick up a style through the night. We sold them at Hari’s and called them the kitten brush. Anyway, here’s my list of a few great places to visit if you go to Paris.
Isabel Marant
L’Eclaireur
10 place des Victoires, Rue herold 75001 (For the secret Tim Burton-esque shop)
Marithé et François Girbaud (great french jeans and general kooky and chic things).
And of course, Collete
Have fun! And for your information, August is such a great time to go as it is so quiet, and don’t forget to pay a visit to the YSL exhibition.
Hey Zoe,
Thanks for this. Love to know a bit more about your career and what you are up to, love meeting/talking to other creative’s in the industry and you defo sound like a girl after my own heart!!. These bits for Paris has gone straight in my book of “places to go” its getting very thick now!!!
Look forward to hearing from you. Emily x