Nobody Mistook Me for a Fashionista! - Tuesday, 30 Sept.

Just down the block from my apartment stands this large iron and glass structure that appears to have seen better days. Apparently the city is starting to renovate it, but it still seems to offer a huge open covered space for concerts, shows, sports, etc. It’s called Carreau du Temple, and for the last several days there have been teams of workmen there – I peeked through a temporarily open door over the weekend to see them setting up what appeared to be a series of risers running parallel to a wide center aisle. As I was walking back to the apartment last night, streams of people were flooding onto my little quiet street (some with official-looking ID cards strung around their necks, some with cameras and tripods, etc.), chauffeurs were standing next to fancy cars, the handful of cafes on my street were packed, big trailers were parked next to the building, and don’t-mess-with-me-looking security guys were standing around here and there. Parisians are, in general, quite fashionable (and I do my best, not always successfully, to avoid being an eyesore and standing out as an obvious tourist), but the crowd streaming down the sidewalk towards the Carreau du Temple were extremely beautiful and well adorned – not “screaming” wealth and luxury, but perfectly put together and sharp and healthy looking!

Well, as you might have guessed, it turns out that this is Fashion Week (for spring 2009 fashions) in Paris, and the crowd was assembling for Yohji Yamamoto’s show. On Wednesday night Givenchy’s show will be there (bummer that I will have left town by then – what a crowd that’s likely to be!) and on Thursday it’s Stella McCartney’s show, and on Saturday it’s Kenzo’s show. Holy buckets! It’s like one long crescendo!

Stages like this are being set up all over town. This is BIG BUSINESS, and I was heretofore largely ignorant of the scope of it! Ya live and learn, don’tcha know!


I took the photo of the building just before I sat down for a café crème (what they call cappuccino here). Thought you might like to see how beautifully they serve it - I love the layering, and it's much more elegant than a Starbuck's paper cup!