Tale of a Rococo Fan,

 

Marie sent me an email of a blurry photo scrap of a fan 🪭 she once admired at an auction.

Being an ardent collector of antique fans 🪭 

1925-2025. Cent Ans d'Art Déco #2

 

Back to 100 years of ART DECO at MAD

The museum owns 1,500,000 Art Deco items

1925-2025 - 100 years of Art Deco - Musée des Arts Décoratifs, L’Orient Express

 

On New Years Eve day I went to 100 years of Art Deco at MAD. It is on till 26 April.

I thought it would be empty. HA!

Paul Poiret, fashion is a party 🎉

I decided the Paul Poiret exhibit at MAD/musée des Arts Décoratifs 

Was so full of color and pattern. 

La Naissance des Grands Magasins 1852-1925, Le musée des Arts décoratifs

 

Yesterday was the 1st day of the big department store show at MAD and I was there when the doors opened.

Are you a devoted department store browser (different from a shopper)

La Galerie Dior

Thursday I went to La Galerie Dior enfin with my sister.

I was a little reluctant after the amazing Dior exhibit at MAD a few years back.

Sixième Sens par Cartier, Cartier et les Arts d’Islam, MAD

 

Poster by George Barbier

Almost every year jewelers Cartier comes out with a new lush book. This year’s luscious book; 📕 Sixième Sens par Cartier: High Jewelry and Precious Objects by François Chaille has kept me distracted drawing 🐆 panthères, Jeanne Toussant, and multi-colored gem stones.

Jeanne came to Paris at 15 from a family of Belgian lacemakers. Already stylish, chic and charismatic, she met the right people including soon-to-be close friend Coco Chanel and Louis Cartier, who was instantly enthralled. He affectionately called her "Ma petite panthère". Her apartment was filled with animal skins, collected and gifted to her from around the world. She was famously known for wearing a full-length coat made of panther fur 🐆. 

Toussaint was hired by Louis Cartier in 1913 at age 26, the same year he met her, to be in charge of designing accessories (though she could not draw a line). In 1933, Louis made her full artistic director of all Cartier design, a unique position for a woman at that time. She retired in 1970 at age 80.

Cartier’s iconic panther logo evolved from her unique animal obsession and designs. “At the beginning of twentieth century, big cats were en vogue for expressing femininity – in fact, the beast was seen as the ultimate expression of femininity,” Says Geo Cramer.

Her large cat-themed brooches, bracelets, rings were exquisitely made of the finest, most decadent materials. Cartier’s eminent clients (Duchess of Windsor, Marjorie Merriwether Post, Daisy Fellows, Grace Kelly to name a few) adored her panther 🐆 designs.

 

Another of Toussaint’s specialities was art deco geometric jewelry inspired by the Mughuls and the Maharajas designs of India.

Original pieces were brought back, taken apart and put back together with added layers, mixing up many colored stones; rubies, emeralds, sapphires, amethysts.

Cut in the form of flowers and berries, the style was called “Tutti Frutti” and is still an integral part of the Cartier Collection.

Cartier as well was creating opulent pieces for Indian maharajas. Brother Jacques Cartier, who ran the London store, was traveling in the East finding trends and gem sources.

Recently MAD(musee des Arts Decoratifs had an exhibition of Cartier et les Arts d’Islam.

An opportunity to see original Islamic designs side by side 

With many Cartier bracelets, rings, necklaces, tiaras. 

The influence of Persian and Indian opulent geometric patterns 

Is immediately self-evident. 

Colors and patterns of Islamic ornamentation taken from rugs, pottery, decorative tiles, miniatures 

Show up in the design of cabochon emerald necklaces 

And an emerald and diamond belt buckle no less.

Truly an inspiring Aladdin’s treasure trove of splendors, both in the new book, Sixième Sens par Cartier: High Jewelry and Precious Objects and the past MAD exhibit. I could not stop sketching these beauties. Mille merci Cartier 👏 On my bridge looks like jewels 💎 on the Seine non?

Une Histoire de la Chaussure, The Red Shoes, MAD

Sometimes, by chance, a glimpse of an image opens a door to your childhood dreams. The current exhibit of shoes through history at MAD (musee des Arts Decoratif) on rue de Rivoli ends with a short video compilation of shoes in commercials and film.

The snippet of the dance sequence from the 1948 film, THE RED SHOES was the catalyst. So many little girls were deeply effected. Were you a fan? My plan was to become a ballet choreographer, costume designer and principle dancer all in one ;)) I've been painting red shoes all week.

One of my multiple careers was a shoe designer in Italy and Spain for an American company you never heard of.I fell into it (like so many of my professions) after working in fashion on 7th Avenue. Shoes are much more fun to design. You hold them in your hand like small sculptures. If you haven't designed shoes in the past you'll still enjoy the exhibit at MAD enormously.

It covers the historical evolution and political statements of design right up to today's obsession with running shoes.

Even showing you how shoes transform from wooden last to stitched finish.

Terrific graphic samples of posters selling shoes combine with the various styles.  

And Charlie Chaplin's old beat-up shoe from The Little Tramp. 

Plus a good mix of shoes in art like Delacroix's perfect painting of Moroccan embroidered babouches.

My red shoes obsession continues.

Unwearable shoes as real sculptures in strange shapes and materials. The MAD shoe exhibit is on till 22 March. If you'd like to obsess over The Red Shoes here are some lovely links:

The Red Shoes 15 minute dance sequence 

Lermontov asks "Why do you want to dance?"

The Red Shoes Trailer

Restored clip (no sound)

Victoria Page is offered her first lead role 

Three Reasons: The Red Shoes

Thanks for reading and sharing Parisbreakfasts. If you'd like to receive Parisbreakfast letters, maps and Watercolors in your mailbox, look in my Etsy shop. 🐻Xxx from Paris💋

Sheep May Not Safely Graze

Sheep may not safely graze during Easter/Pâques.

They are likely to end up on your dinner plate.

There isthe option of becoming a chocolate sheep, if you're shopping at Dehillerin and buy this yellow mold.

BCBG had sheep grazing in their windows on rue Saint Honore.

This black sheep found a safe refuge at the Art-Paris show. 
Plenty of sheep are seeking sanctuary at the new François Lalanne show at Les Arts decoratifs... The noise is deafening.
But as long as you keep them outside your chateau, it's bearable.

Inside, they do best on the floor...
Hippos, blue or not, can graze all they want without fear or fuss.

As can cat-bird-fish-cows...

A non-grazing horse-lamp was not in the show but standing in an alcove on rue Tronchet...

At Les Arts Decoratifs, you could almost spend as much time in the bookstore browsing as in the museum in my opinion...

A dog onboard-a-Lalanne-sheep postcard...
Here's a little gentle music for those sheep...