Nina Ricci’s neighbour

They say that the fashion world is a freakshow, but even I’m caught by surprise sometimes. Nina Ricci’s Olivier Theyskens has just presided over a revamp of the brand’s Avenue Montaigne store, so I decided to check out while I was in town. However, as I wandered down the Rue Francois 1er from the Balmain [...]

The Fashion Canteen

I found this brilliant article about Davé on guardian.co.uk:

Welcome to the fashion canteen
No menu, no prices – and no nobodies. Davé is the fashion world’s best-kept secret but if you can get past the ‘full’ sign on the door and secure a top table in this tiny Chinese restaurant in Paris, you can be sure [...]

Dinner at Davé

The gate which offers a shortcut between the Rue de Montpensier and Rue de Richelieu was closed so we walked the long way round, meeting up with Caroline and Giuseppe from Anya Hindmarch along the way. Despite the crisps we had devoured, we were still starving and dying to finally have dinner. Be also appeared [...]

Speak of the devil…but he wasn’t wearing Prada!

By the way, the title of this post refers to the fact that we had just been thinking about Jefferson Hack when we suddenly saw him and is a pun on “speak of the devil” – Jefferson, we love you
I spotted SJ emerging from the Salle Psyche carrying what looked like a very [...]

Putting on the Ritz

The amazing British model Erin O’Connor was standing outside The Ritz on the Place Vendome as I wandered towards the door. I was a good bit early for my meeting with SJ and Caroline from Anya Hindmarch, who had invited me out for dinner and drinks after finishing work, but I already had an idea [...]

Morning-after party

I caught up with Tara the next day for a (late) brunch instead at Angelina, the legendary tea shop on the Rue du Rivoli. The house specialties are the hot chocolate and the Mont Blanc pastries – to die for! It seemed that Tara was not the only guest at the Alexander McQueen after-show party [...]

Paris by night

After kissing Alexandra from Bronzette goodbye, I wandered down the street from Colette to the infamous Café Ruc – infamous mostly for the surly service it has to be said! I was meeting SJ and Caroline from Anya Hindmarch for a drink. There were some other familiar faces around from London and New York, including [...]

Paris – Take Two

Models were everywhere when I arrived in Paris as well – one girl I spotted on the Metro en route to the Avenue Montaigne must have either just come directly from a show or have loved her runway look enough to keep it because she was somewhat of a fashion caricature, shuffling along in sky [...]

Milan by day

The slow, downward death spiral of Alitalia meant I had to change my travel plans out of Milan – better safe than sorry, I always say. Unfortunately I only had half a day in my former adopted home town as a result, which meant loading up on espresso before bolting out the door to my [...]

In Transit

Monte Carlo and Milan, where I was heading for Fashion Week, may look just a couple of centimetres apart on the map but the 5-hour  train journey seemed to take for ever! I passed the time reading the absolutely massive September issue of American Vogue, texting Tara Matthews and catching up on my emails.
A very [...]