January always feels like the longest month of the year. It feels like ages ago we celebrated new resolutions and new beginnings and already I may have failed to keep up with the days without sugar, or with ‘Dynamo’ the Parisian version of Soul Cycle.
Most days were rainy and we saw the sun for just a couple of days, but we had a few spectacular sunsets and even a day and a half of snow.
Coming to the end of this endless month, here are some wonderful things that happened...
THIS WEEKEND was one of those lounging, hair up, no make-up and old films ones that are needed from time to time, when the to-do lists get too unruly and every email is a catastrophe to be solved. The city has been filling up again, mostly with tourists — French and German and other parts of Europe.
Perhaps it is warm wood in white interiors and gilded chandeliers, or the tan leather of a convertible with the top down on a breezy afternoon; a sun-dappled corner of a favourite café or the warm woven wicker of a basket bag set off by the billowy white ruffles of a silk dress.
THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT wicker that just seems to usher in summertime like nothing else. And to pair with wicker, nothing is more perfect than crisp whites, especially tiny ruffly little white dresses, with pretty necklines or thigh-high slits up the side. From the Algarve Birkin Wicker Basket to the Barcelona Mini Wicker Bucket Bag, we've selected some of our favourite wicker pieces for the summer, along with the prettiest selection of white dresses to go with them.
THE MAGIC OF PARIS FASHION WEEK is as unfailing and ubiquitous as the legacy of the maisons that hold their shows there since the late 19th Century. Take Dior, now helmed by the first female creative director in the house's history — Maria Grazia Chiuri — and her feminist looks that storm down the runways. Or Saint Laurent, which under Anthony Vacarello continues catering to the cool nonchalant Parisienne. However, under the great fashion week shakeup, new faces are migrating from London and New York to the French fashion capital.