love notes 05 | Parisian Fashion Pairings

Feat. Alaïa and YSL Couture, Outfit Doppelgängers, Monet, Matisse

When we speak about love, we mean the desire for beauty. — Marsilio Ficino

Welcome back to Love Notes - a curated creative journal documenting visuals, words, spaces, textures, flavors, and other elements I found beautiful lately.

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Hello! I’ve just returned from three wonderful weeks in France and Switzerland - including two weeks in Paris.

This was a true pilgrimage in fashion and art: I stayed in the chic Le Marais in Paris, paid homage to the masters at Foundation Alaïa, Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Dior Galerie, and Monet’s estate in Giverny. I saw Matisse’s L’Atelier Rouge at Frank Gehry’s brilliant Fondation Louis Vuitton and even more Matisse at Musée Matisse in Nice. I lingered to my heart’s content in Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche, copped my first Carel Kinas, and hunted down vintage gems. I encountered Larry Bell at Hauser & Wirth in Monaco and Gerhard Richter at Kunstmuseum Basel. 

Throughout all of this I began noticing affinities - sometimes subtle, often striking, between fashion and painting, sculpture, and food - that became too numerous to ignore. I’m documenting them all here: a creative rendezvous, in juxtaposition, an ever-evolving choreography in celebration of beauty.

I. Dialogues Transcending Mediums 

“In the Japanese language there is the word”音色” (neiro) meaning "tone" in English, comprised of the characters “音” (sound) and "色" (color). It is a word that l most cherish. What fascinates me the most is seeing and feeling colors in the transparent world of sound, and think about colors when looking at transparent objects. l exercise my imagination in these two insatiable worlds of color.”

— Shiro Kuramata

ALAÏA/ KURAMATA - Lightness in Creation, Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, Paris.

Azzedine Alaïa was a great admirer and collector of Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata. This stunning show at Foundation Alaïa presented a meticulous curation of Alaïa haute couture pieces juxtaposed against Kuramata furniture - associated by materials, forms, and approaches. A sinuous red echoes between furniture shelves and a dress. The lurex knit of a simple gown responds to a chair’s knitted metal mesh. Poetry of form resonates throughout.

Left: Lily pond, Monet’s Gardens in Giverny. \ Right: Floral embellishment detail, WeWoreWhat velvet grown via RTR

I visited Monet's estate and gardens in Giverny the day before seeing his water lily paintings in the l’Orangerie. It was to be enveloped by two landscapes - one ephemerally natural and one immortal, both scintillating and flooded with iridescent light. 

The Nymphéas [Water Lilies], Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris. Wearing floral velvet gown

I also learned the scientific name of a water lily is Nymphéas, drawn from the Greco-Roman myth attributing the birth of the flower to a nymph who was dying of love for Hercules.

The illusion of an endless whole, of a wave with no horizon and no shore.

— Claude Monet 

Left: Wearing Toccin x RTR puff sleeve leather dress, Carel Kina Mary Janes in Bordeaux. \ Right: Dinner at Christian Le Squer's exquisite Le Cinq in the Four Seasons George V. Spaghetti Gratin with ham, mushroom, and black truffle; wine pairing. 

II. The Doppelgängers 

Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. — Karl Sandberg 

Left: Wearing ARKET silk organza blouse. \ Right: Giancarlo Botti, Zizi Jeanmaire wearing an evening dress from AW 1968 haute couture collection on the televised Show Zizi Jeanmaire. Vintage print on baryta paper. Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Paris 

Transparency is a chosen medium of Yves Saint Laurent, who began playing with materials such as chiffon, lace, and tulle in the 1960s, echoing the sexual revolution at the time. I saw the TRANSPARENCES show that closed late August at Musée Yves Saint Laurent.

This was a full circle moment - I was supposed to visit here in the summer of 2020 for a couture fellowship, but then COVID got in the way. I happened to wear a sheer silk blouse on the day of my visit, echoing the YSL black chiffon dress with a belt of ostrich feathers donned by Zizi Jeanmaire in the photograph. 

Left: at Maison Pic in Valence, wearing a tulle - a gem vintage find from Le Marais back in Paris. I love the daintiness of pastel lilac and 3 layers of lace and tulle. \ Right: detail, unnamed painting, Château de Chambord, Loire Valley 

Ballet was on my mind - I lived next to the Repetto store in Le Marais and saw endless Degas at the D’Orsay. I managed to score a vintage tulle on my last day in Paris, and wore it to all the chateaus in the Loire Valley. Felt like a princess!

Top: Detail, Woman with Collar, Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, on view at dreamy Château de Chenonceau. \ Bottom: cheese dessert at Restaurant l’Ilôt in Amboise, Loire Valley. A delightful texture play in pairing of savory cream and cheese shavings 

Musée Matisse in Nice, Wearing Silver Fresia Butterfly Ring from Harlot Hands

III. The Final Red

"Where I got the color red—to be sure, I just don't know. I find that all these things . . . only become what they are to me when I see them together with the color red." 

— Henri Matisse

Left: L’Atelier Rouge, Matisse, 1911, On view at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris. \ Right: Courrèges Re-Edition Signature Contrast T-shirt

It was a delight re-encountering Matisse’s L’Atelier Rouge at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, having first seen it at MoMA in New York. Matisse was said to have painted the entire scene in natural colors, before deciding at the last minute to cover most of the surface in Venetian red.

On my last day in Paris, I ran into the Courrèges store in Le Marais 10 minutes before closing - I’ve long admired André Courrèges’ role in fashion history in pioneering 20th century modernism and futurism, and knew I wanted to bring a Courrèges piece home. In the store, my gaze immediately settled onto the Signature Contrast T-shirt with red accents - the final red grand finale. 

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Thank you for reading Taming the Light. If you enjoyed this piece, please like or share it with a friend - it would mean a lot! You can also reach me on Instagram at @lyndxey :)