Sunday March 4, 2012

       Designer Vicky Tiel, author of the naughty tell-all, “It’s All About the Dress,” noodles:

       It’s Fashion week in Paris and there are no cabs. Here is the latest news: Men are wearing lime green pants. Jeans all have cuffs. All cool men wear brown shoes.

       Today I did the fashion walk.  From St. Germain de Pres across Notre Dame and the back garden down the Ile St. Louis across the Pont Sully, (where the king of Saudi Arabia tore down the Hotel Lambert home of the Rothschild family and the most beautiful home in Paris to put in underground parking on the river), then up into the Marais,and back across the Pont des Arts from The Hotel de Ville.

       The swinging Sixties are back.

       Women have gone from tight red jeans to coral.

       Ultra wide belts are worn over layered clothing.

       Shorts are back for daywear, also cuffed, worn with black tights, high booties, and faux fur vests over soft full sleeved romantic blouses.

       Chiffon granny print mini dresses are worn under skin tight black leather biker jackets and more black tights.

       Patchwork floral dresses with ribbons, and peasant dresses and floppy hats, with open toe booties or worn with sheer lacy socks

       Patchwork lame print tennis shoes with red vinyl heels

       Vinyl tight black hooker pants mixed with Burberry trench coats in bright colors with large black buttons, shortened into jackets.

       For the ladylike look, the new swing coat in bright solid colored silk, worn over black shifts, very Margaret Thatcher.

       Cool men only wear brown shoes, (I just passed a hunky Frenchman and his wife: He was wearing deep purple corduroy slacks with a sand suede jacket and the darker brown suede oxford shoe.).

       I have been wearing my leopard taffeta cocoon puffy coat and suede booties with coral faux fur lining and turning heads. It is a piece unique, the only coat like it in Paris. It’s a thrill to wear a one of a kind item in Paris and see the heads turn.

       My beautiful Sixteenth Century courtyard boutique of 44 years at 21 Rue Bonaparte in the 6th arrondissement has reopened under the management of my goddaughter, Tullulah Rufus-Issacs and her partner Julia Van Hagan. These two beautiful 24-year-old Brits, much like Mia Fosnsagrives and me, 40 years ago have incorporated Fashion and Art.  The shop is called The Space. They also carry some current Vicky Tiel, as well as vintage pieces, my book and fragrances as well as a mix of other artist’s pieces you cannot live without. The Space is a fresh idea, soon to be franchised in London and Los Angeles.

Love.

Vicky