vuitton and gatsby

In Style August 2013

Looks like Louis Vuitton is jumping on the Gatsby trend ala Prada (the costumer of the Baz Lurhmann film) and Tiffany.  I absolutely adore it.  I love the sensualness of the delicate silks and satins ... and the bias cut that makes the fabric slip across the body caressing it in hushed tones for decadent dusks into darkest night adventures.

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One of my favorite movies in recent years is Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Since reading F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway in high school, I have fantasized about the ex-pat life that they and others lived in Paris during the 1920's. When I moved on to Anais Nin and Henry Miller, I went deeper into the idea of living on wine and conversation and philosophical intimacies with dashing men who found ideas more important than life itself. Of course it is all fantasy. And Allen shows us in the film that indulging in the ideal of a past is best left to the imagination. And I agree with him on this point. Though I love the idea of it, I am happy to pull some of it into the life that I live right now. 

Sometimes, I wear pearls with my night gown and sip champagne from a crystal flute while listening to the Piaf or Billie Holliday (the French love American jazz).  I can close my eyes and find myself in my favorite Parisian square, Contrescarpe, seated at one of the cafes that circle the fountain watching the neighborhood breathe. I dine on stinky cheese and open a bottle of rose. It is all there for me to have if I put my mind to it. And I may not be wearing Vuitton, but I can wrap a scarf 'round for me to nestle my nose into a bit of sensual fabric and scents ... all of my scarves smell like Chanel #5.

I appreciate this nod to that past, and I look forward to the fall fashion editions to see if anyone else is feeling that '20's vibe, which for me is decidedly all things francais and cut from a different time and place.