Dries Van Noten Exhibit and lots of walking

Tuesday June 17 was our first full day in Paris.  It was cloudy in the morning, but cleared somewhat later in the day.  It got to around 20C- good walking weather.  We started the morning by doing some shopping on Rue Monge and Rue Mouffetard.  Our first stop was Le Boulanger de Monge to get for a baguette classique and a sandwich for our later lunch (baguette and chicken).  The bakery is just around the corner and has some of the best baguettes in the city.  The bakery had a small video of their new store in Osaka, Japan.

View of bakery and breads

Le Boulanger de Monge

We took the Metro over to the Opera stop on the right bank, and got some tickets for dance later in our visit.  We then paid a short visit to Uniqlo, and walked down Rue de l'Opera, with a quick visit to the Tourism Office to get some new maps/Paris booklets.

We continued to our destination- Musee Les Arts Decoratifs on Rue Rivoli to see the exhibit Dries Van Noten-Inspirations.   Dries Van Noten was born in Antwerp in 1958 and graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) in 1980. His father and grandfather were both in the garment business.  His first collection was in 1986, as part of the Antwerp Six collective (a group of Belgian fashion designers).  Van Noten has won many awards and his clothes are sold around the world.

It was an excellent exhibit- rooms and rooms of Van Noten's clothes with descriptions and pictures of his inspirations.  In many cases, pieces from his mens' and womens' collections are presented with iconic pieces from the museum's fashion and textile collection.  There are also paintings from artists and other influences that have triggered the designer's imagination throughout his career.

The exhibit is unique as it provides a real look into the creative process of a fashion designer.  It may be a painting, a film, or the work of other designers that inspires Van Noten.  As a result of his collaboration with the museum, he used several of the museum's 19th century textile patterns in his 2014 Spring/Summer collection.

Entrance to Exhibit

Each section of the exhibit had a paragraph written by Van Noten, with pictures of his inspirations and in some cases the inspirational art or clothing, etc were also displayed. It was quite dark in the exhibit, so I was only able to take photos of some of the pieces.

The first inspiration were butterflies.

                                                                                 Butterfly dress

Another inspiration was a painting by Frances Bacon.  The actual work was hanging beside his clothes.  The quote from Van Noten  below is an example of his commentary.  Each section had a paragraph from Van Noten, explaining his creative process.

                                                                          Inspired by Francis Bacon

 Gold was the inspiration for these beautiful dresses below.

Gold inspiration

 This painting below lead to the colours and design of a beautiful blue and orange dress.

The designers Lanvin and Balenciaga provided the inspiration for some of Van Noten's graphic pieces.

Lanvin and Balenciaga originals- the inspiration

Van Noten's modern graphic pieces

Inspiration was Bowie, Cocteau and Visconti (Masters of Masquerade)

Inspiration was uniforms- painting was a source of inspiration

There were also some beautiful black dresses inspired by the Jane Champion film "the Piano".

The quote about the influence of The Piano

The resulting dresses

The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson  was also an inspiration to one of his collections.

Painting by Cecil Beaton was an inspiration (Exhibit had the original painting next to the clothes)

Van Noten's take on the Duke and Duchess

Camouflage was also an inspiration.  Van Noten looked to earlier designers as well as some paintings with a similar theme and colour.  The resulting dresses were amazing.

Inspired by Garden feathers

A number of dresses were inspired by gardens and works related to flowers.

Original dress that provided inspiration 

It was incredible to see the transformation from the inspirational pieces to modern clothes.  Van Noten's colours are wonderful.

The Van Noten result

The following all relate to the Garden theme.

Cecil Beaton- source of inspiration

More dresses based on garden theme

Incredible colours- garden inspiration

                                                                     Flower power- inspiration

Some collections were inspired by countries.  One year, India provided the inspiration and another year it was Mexico.

                                                                    Inspired by India

                                                                           Mexico

One beautiful collection was inspired by marble.

Inspired by marble designs

Another dress was inspired by a painting by KeesVan Dongen.

Kees Van Dongen- Madame Jasmy Alvin 1925

Van Noten ensemble

 And of course, Jimi Hendrix.

Jimi Hendrix

Recent piece by Van Noten- colour and textures are incredible

Alain and I really enjoyed the exhibit.  We read later that Van Noten lives in the countryside outside Antwerp, where he tends to an incredible garden.  He is supposed to be one of the most "cerebral" of the fashion designers-- this exhibit shows this to be the case.  His inspiration comes from an incredible range of sources.

We stopped for a coffee at the outdoor cafe behind the Musee, which faces the Tuileries Garden and has a view of the Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower in the distance

We then walked to the Palais Royale to check out a few of our favourite stores.  I had to have my usual picture taken on the Daniel Buren black and white pieces.

Black and white at Palais Royale

We then stopped at L'Epice, our favourite scarf store.  Fortuitously, the designer Bess Nielsen dropped in.  We chatted and then forgot to take her picture!  We each did buy a scarf.

Aiko showing us scarves

The scarves are displayed by design in boxes.  Each design usually has five or six different colour combinations. 

                                     

I got a summer scarf, but Alain decided he would prefer a wool scarf.  They had a few boxes of winter scarves and he picked this beautiful red and white scarf.

Alain and his new scarf

We headed back through the Marais and stopped for a glass of wine at La Belle Hortense, a small library bar on Rue Vieille du Temple (where we rented a apartment for three months in 2011). Alain seems to be coming down with a cold, so we needed to rest.

We then crossed the Seine and one of the bridges with the "love locks".  One piece of another bridge with the locks came off a few weeks ago.  There is a petition to remove the locks, as they are becoming an eye sore.   We first saw the locks three years ago, and it seemed more innovative and less touristy. Today it is more of an eyesore as there are thousands of these locks that really don't mean too much.

                                                                    The Seine

                                                                               Lock overload!

We continued our walk and got back to the apartment by around 9:30 p.m.  It is wonderful that it stays light until about 10:00 p.m.  We had a wonderful dinner of our poisson (merlan), haricots, pain, salade, and fresh cherries for dessert.