A weekend in Paris
I am busy every day with something different. But the most special thing I just did was to travel to Paris with Andreas for a party and so I did other things as well. The party was held in the Grand Trianon at Versailles for the opening of an exhibition, ‘The 18th Century Back in Fashion’ and to mark the end of Couture Fashion week.
On display were 50 designer dresses inspired by Versailles’ fashion of the 18th century and this has always been such an inspiration to us; quite a lot of our dresses were on display. And I was thrilled by the poster which superimposed a dress – originally worn by Nadia Auermann – on to a portrait of Marie Antoinette. We all know Marie Antoinette loved fashion – though she went to the scaffold in a long cotton shift, she was permitted to wear a favourite pair of purple silk embroidered shoes under it: shoes of the Queen of France.
Designs worn by Nadia Auermann and Kate Moss
Andreas was telling Tizer, our assistant, about the event and I surreptitiously took notes:
(Brackets = What I’m thinking or what I think Andreas is thinking.)
There is Versailles and the sun going down – and had we been quarter of an hour earlier or later we wouldn’t have got the sun – the backlight of the last beams and the gold and Louis XIV on his horse, an enormous statue in front, and the dazzle on the blue slate roofs and the gilded metal and the windows shining gold. You realise that this was planned for exactly this time in summer – when they had all the important guests and parties.
Le Roi Soleil: The Sun King (Propaganda); Louis in splendour rises and sets with the sun.
And then at the party, 5 or 600 people – all the women in evening dress, everyone different – everyone went to such trouble (crazy). And an incredible mood. When the French are in a good mood…! The champagne, so good…! (like it never happened before), super food prepared on site throughout the night.
And at 11.00 – standing on the terrace and sitting on the parterre overlooking the gardens where the King sat – the Fireworks! Not kilometres high (Roccoco) but like a theatre show high in front of you. Gold and silver against a blue, what do you call such a blue? (Diffused but still bright) Midnight blue? And the Fireworks sizzling high or crossing each other from all directions. And the moon. And the end an absolute golden mess and a drizzle of golden rain.
And now the disco tent! The sweets, one thing after another. And in every corner a different ice cream.
(The Trianon is a “small” royal residence – one story high – in the grounds of Versailles.)
And the Trianon is pink, a bungalow (pink and yellow marble). French: so light – so big – and therefore so small, so arrogant, So cool! Once the most powerful man, the most powerful nation, in the world (Andreas was thinking of Louis XIV. But I imagine more Louis XV having his summer residence there). After this, everybody wants to be in this way: Showmanship!
(But Vivienne, you can’t put that on the web. It’s arrogant telling people how you appreciate something. They know! Everybody knows. It’s been loved and adored for centuries. It’s like the Tower of London. It’s great!)
‘The 18th Century Back in Fashion’, Grand Trianon, Versailles, 8th July to 9th October 2011. http://en.chateauversailles.fr/news-/events/expositions/le-xviiie-au-gout-du-jour-en
Then, I visited the Musee d’Orsay to see the exhibition, ‘Manet, the Man who Invented Modernity’. Manet is one of the greatest of the great painters. Nobody paints like him. Everything I say in AR about great art pays homage to Manet. I am going to look harder at Velasquez to try to see how Manet used his methods. Andreas says the French wouldn’t be French without Manet. They are so proud of him. Take him away and our idea of France wouldn’t be so complete. http://www.musee-orsay.fr/index.php?id=649&L=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=27173&no_cache=1
Something else I had to do (secret) involved spending time with my friend, Lawrence. He has just got a very important job in communications and, while we were talking, it occurred to me that the biggest problem in today’s world is the isolation of intellectuals. That’s where we need communication if we are ever going to make the world a better place. That is what AR is about. I am trying to engender communication between people who are intellectually inclined like myself .
Vivienne at The Wallace Collection
Dear Vivienne,
Going on your last point, I totally agree with how you feel the need to finally give Intellectuals the respect they deserve for their passion and thirst for knowledge.
Too many times in my young life, people have said to me: “I don’t read books, .. why would I read a book?” – It genuinely aggravates me because reading is how we learn, or at least doing something that is structurally built around reading or education in some form.
A fantastic phrase I saw from John Waters while I was on the Underground, on a sticker, said; “”If you go home with somebody, and they don’t have books, don’t fuck ’em!” – I found it hilarious at first, but then found total relevance.
Intelligence is power, and status. Intellect is a beautiful thing, and I personally would like to think that who ever I end up spending my life with, thought they could live in a society today where so much is going on, and so many things in the world that need help and issues needing addressing – that they aren’t proud of being intelligent, or make use of what materials they have around them to become intelligent.
It’s as if in todays society, – people are scared to learn, or too lazy to.
I’ve always found, you’ll never get from Television what you can get from a book.
I think it’s about time that scholars and intellectuals did unite and come together more to talk about the world, and create a cultural revolution where people will finally see that carrying a book around is the height of status and power, and walking around the streets of London with a knife in your pocket isn’t.
Comment by Sam Varnham on 17/07/2011 at 9:09 am
Amen, Sam! The first thing I do when I go into someone’s house is look around to see where the books are, and I get a little scared if I don’t see any. John Waters is absolutely right!
Comment by Jeffrey Jordan on 17/07/2011 at 6:14 pm
Intelligence is an interesting concept I find. In today’s society, and in my life at least, intelligence is defined by what grades you get in exams, or which university you go to. I truly believe that intelligence is so much more than this. Surely the way in which somebody communicates ideas, and interacts with other people and the world around them demonstrates intelligence. There is a difference between knowledge and intelligence. Anybody can have knowledge, know things. It takes an intellectual, somebody who is intelligent to use the knowledge in the correct manner.
Throughout history people have had knowledge but used it in the wrong way, causing suffering and death. If only we could have had intelligent intellectuals to communicate with the world, maybe it would be a different place today.
Let’s communicate and get the message out there!
Another interesting post Vivienne,
James
Comment by James Emmett on 22/07/2011 at 10:23 am
I love the blog and photos
Comment by Pauline on 09/10/2011 at 6:12 am