Le Déjeuner des Canotiers

Posted on April 14th, 2010 in Fashion, Paris

It seems like trends always come back around, it’s just a matter of time. The straw boater hat as it is called in English is one of my favorite trends from the past right now. This shallow style straw hat was first in fashion in the late 19th century for young ladies making a subtle statement of independence through incorporating more masculine elements into their outfits. Last summer Marc Jacobs revived the boater hat in his collection and since then I have been spotting this typically french hat on the most stylish of ladies. Click play to enjoy some “Moi Je Joue” by none other than B.B.!

Auguste Renoir often depicted this classic hat on ladies and gentlemen alike in his lively scenes of French cafe culture. In French the straw boater is called a canotier.

Here is one of Renoir’s most famous paintings Le Déjeuner des Canotiers, or the lunch of canotiers. I knew this painting well but in fact never knew the title until my french beau enlightened me last weekend.

I bought my canotier at Les Canotiers Du Marais on my street in the Marais. I wore it out for the first time this weekend to lunch with at Le Café Marly at the Louvre.

On our way there we walked through the Tuileries to enjoy the sun.

Le Café Marly is located in the arcades of the Louvre overlooking the entrance to the museum at the glass pyramid.

From your table you can watch the many tourists and admire the ornate facades of the former palace.

Here I am relaxing and enjoying my déjeuner des canotiers.

The grass in the Tuileries is green, the flowers are planted and blooming, and all the trees have their leaves again. When paris parks come back alive after the winter it completely changes the energy of the city.

People compete to grab the famous green lawn chairs supplied by the city to sit around the lakes and enjoy some people watching.  When I came to France I was completely amazed by the quality of the parks. Here the park is a pristine space always cleaned and well tended to where people off all types mingle, where everyone respects the shared beauty.

The dusty ground of the Tuileries has become infamous to me from street fashion photography like The Sartorialist, Garance Doré, and many others that frequently snap fashion’s elite crossing the park here after fashion week shows.

Hat – Les Canotiers du Marais / Sunglasses – Chloé / Jacket – vintage Pendleton / Dress – Louis Vuitton / Tights – American Apparel /Booties – Chie Mahara / Purse – Miu Miu

I created a new section of the blog I wanted to lastly share with you in this post here! There are so many books, films, and more that inspire me but I don’t always have space to talk about them in my posts. So I created Bardot’s Library where you can all browse and shop my suggestions! As always there are new images in the Inspiration Gallery. Be sure to stop by and have a browse in both of them.

P.S. Make sure to follow Bardot in Blue on BlogLovin’!

Alice in Printemps Wonderland ~ Part 2

Posted on February 26th, 2010 in Fashion, Shopping

For the second part of Alice in Printemps Wonderland, I invite you all to gaze through yet even more vitrines. You’ll see Alice is stumbling through Wonderland more fashionable than ever thanks to a handful of designers who were invited to put their spin on Lewis Carroll’s character. While I can’t remember all the designers, there are some I recall. Alice in their picture above is dressed in Stella McCartney. Would it be anyone else’s dream job to be in charge of merchandising the Printemps’ windows?

I would gladly have eaten these if there was not a piece of glass between me and my Laduree.

Alice wearing none other than Chloé.

These shoes were simply amazing. I would have sworn they were Louboutin but when I peeked there was no hint of a red heel.

The mystery designer adorned them with leaves, a pocket watch, flowers, teacups, teapots, beads, chains, pearls…

…and this beautiful antique key.

Tea anyone? There should be enough in there for all of us to share!

Each Alice wore one of these slightly frightening bunny masks.

This dress is fit for a modern Marie Antoinette.

R.I.P.

Alexander McQueen

1969 ~ 2010

My nose was on the other side of the glass so I couldn’t smell if this giant bunny was covered in real roses or not.

See you at the theatre!

P.S. Special thanks to Paris Atelier and French-Kissed for their kind mentions and to all of you who stopped by for a visit via these two lovely bloggers!

P.P.S. There is a new section of Bardot in Blue! While the main blog is for my own images The Inspiration Gallery is a space to share beautiful and inspiring images I gather across cyber-space.

P.P.P.S. I am decorating my sidebar blog roll with all of my new blog friend’s badges and buttons. If you would like to be up there email me your button or badge image or code to bardotblue@gmail.com. Or if you don’t have one just let me know in the comments you would like to be added and I will put one together for you!