As the Gods would have it, Ellen Shepp's friend, Alison Barshak, decided she'd come to hang out in Paris with Ellen the last few days of her trip. Alison's restaurant, is called Alison at Blue Bluebell. We met at the Yohji Yammamoto showroom.
I guess before I go on, I shold talk about the clothes at Yohji. Some things were beautiful. The Japanese designer is known for his architectural pieces in stark blacks and white. But for fall, there is tons of color. And it appears that Yohji is changing the silhouette a bit. The clothes, surprisingly, are a throwback to fashion that predates Dior featuring full, bustled skirts and long skirts with crinolines.
Joan says that showrooms often dresses the mannequins in outrageous looks (replicate what's on the runway.) But they don't expect to sell the pieces together. One of the most interesting things about this trip is that buyers, like Joan, look at the runway so they can familiarize themselves with what WE see, but the real decisions are made in showrooms where the designer's bread and butter pieces- the crisp white shirt, the easy to wear skirt, the full pants, are out in all their possible colors, fabrics and silhouettes.
Anyway, Alison and I were just two Philadelphians in Paris, trying to read a map in French and make our way around a neighborhood that looks much like the garment district. While Joan and Ellen were writing up their Yohji Yamamoto order, we went to a Middle Eastern restaurant called Liza, where we chatted about fashion and food and how the two connect. Sometimes they do. They did this afternoon.
