there's something about marianne

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Ines de la Fressange as Marianne, 1989.

When Fressange  was selected as Marianne -the Kaiser Karl spouted :”I don’t want to dress a monument, it is so vulgar!” A falling out ensued, Ines-ever the patriot chose Marianne over Chanel and lost her contract, but not her head.

The ever glamourous Marianne represents the "Triumph of the Republic." 

But who is Marianne? By the artist Daumier, she was a mother nursing two children, 

for the sculptor Rude, Marianne was an angry warrior voicing the Marseillaise on the Arc de Triomphe,

Delacroix's Liberty leads citizens on the barricades.

something about Marianne

"Marianne" is the name of the bust and symbol of the French Republic representing the mother figure of France. The busts are found in all governmental institutions The national emblem of France and an allegory of Liberty and Reason-other famous faces lent to represent Marianne are Brigitte Bardot in 1969. and Mireille Mathieu (1978), Catherine Deneuve (1985).

they did it for France

Bardot,at left above, and below. Denueve, fourth from left above, and at right below. Singer Mireille Mathieu,at far right above.

Model, Laetitia Casta became the face of Marianne in 2005. Not without its own puritanical patriots, one mayor in Neuville-en-Ferrain, France, had the statue replaced – because its breasts were-too big-proving a distraction. 

Just after being chosen as Marianne, Casta located to London. French taxes too high?

Évelyne Thomas a French talk show host was chosen as the new Marianne in 2003-with mayors electing a populist choice- Thomas said while she was in favour of liberty and fraternity, she opposed equality, which implied making everyone the same- So much for the Revolution.

Marianne- a married lady. She did it for France.

on this day, 14 July 1789- the storming of the Bastille

Vive la France! 

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Vivier CHIC

We've talked about CHIC- and last week I was in New York-probably considered one of the most chic cities in the world. Perhaps autumn's unkind 80 degree weather created a chink in CHIC at October's end. What does one wear when one wants to wear fur?-and they did, velvet? and they did, coats? and they did. This Southerner was flummoxed, and hot-not in a good way. I got by with a short Burberry trench and a McQueen silk stole, so I did look somewhat put together. I am happy to add I mostly wear sensible shoes-my soles would not have it any other way- so- I did no Roger Vivier trodden on the pavement or pounding it. I did stop in at SAKS to eye VIVIER, since this post was in the works before the trip & there is No Doubt CHIC perfectly describes the Vivier shoe- the man, his style and his home.


"SUPPOSEDLY it was Christian Dior, who while working in his atelier with the legendary cobbler Roger Vivier, was moved to coin the word “footwear.” “Imagine discussing Marie Antoinette’s shoes!” Dior was said to have exclaimed. From then on, M. Vivier, when speaking of his creations, never used the s-word again. Or so the story goes." (nytimes-Zarah Crawford)

A Colorful Collage by Roger Vivier ,

Circa Mid 1970's

C H I C SHOES

A Framed Colored Paper Collage by Roger Vivier. French, 20th Century

VIVIER for DIOR

the Fragonard of the shoe 

the Faberge of footwear

C H I C

Vivier for Diana Vreeland late 1960's

ROGER VIVIER

VIVIER HOME

C H I C

As with his footwear, Vivier approached the interiors of his Paris apartment, shared with Jacques Damase, like sculpture. The assemblage of period antiques,objects and art were displayed strategically with space to breathe. Louis XV chairs sit sculpturally against white walls. A Serge Poliakoff painting is framed in an Italian 16th century frame. Poliakoff had been influenced by the Delaunays' emotive color studies and the sculptor Otto Freundlich's curved colour-form compositions. His palette of browns and greys open to accommodate bright colors like Vivier's. Objects like the Egyptian Ibis is displayed on a 16th century lacquer Chinese table & it coexists harmoniously with a Venetian Saint Sebastian placed on an ormolu Louis XVI table.


Deliberate juxtaposition ruled the residence. A striking Carlo Segio Signori sculpture dominates a Coromandel screen and an ancient Cycladic idol. Perfect balance pervades in this Vivier setting. A Jean-Michel Atlan painting hangs defiantly over a Louis XVI chair from the Rambouillet Palace, still in its original leather. Atlan, a self taught painter, a teacher, poet and member of the French resistance found a place exhibiting his paintings alongside Braque & Matisse. Atlan recreated the rhythmic elements of poetry in the heavily blackened outlines of pastel forms. A lyric or hieroglyphic message emerges in many Atlan's paintings.

Vivier's 12th century "shoeless" Chinese goddess floats along a wall in the sitting room where Louis XV chairs in red leather reside alongside a Mies van de Rohe's Barcelona chair. 

Vivier showed up in the cinematic masterpiece by Luis Bunuel, Belle de Jour, on Catherine Deneuve's feet. ( l.),  in its current incarnation- Vivier's own masterpiece. The Vivier shoe was a sensation. Bruno Frisoni has adopted the de Jour shoe's geometric buckle as the Vivier signature.

Frisson carried on with the cinema CHIC of Roger Vivier in the footwear he designed for Cate Blanchett in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood 

the

C H I C 

VIVIER site here.

utterly charming with true C H I C-and we do not use the C word loosely, No?. explore it in depth. there are wonderful photographs of the Vivier apartment there and the design House of Vivier

Bruno Frisoni is responsible for the revival of the Vivier mystique and as its creative director he has been searching the Vivier archives for inspiration- his homage to and his interpretation of Roger Vivier's style has made it the most CHIC footwear today. It is firmly ingrained luxury. There is a twist of the modern-a newness-but not trendy-no Never-just witness the Jimmy Choo ugg?
No not here, thankfully-but then THAT is nowhere near our word-CHIC, not even close.

 Bruno Frisson of Roger Vivier

VIVIER with

 C H I C 

to spare 

Another photograph of the VIVIER interior takes the idea of spare Chic into the dramatically lit Hall. The stone Burgundian goddess of plenty, Pomona, confronts a Cesar Baldaccini Compression sculpture. Cesar is known as the great innovator of modern metal sculpture and took the idea of junk cars in America being compressed for scrap. Cesar said "although I had received a classical academic training, my vision changed through my work with scrap iron. I entered the factory world and learned to approach recuperated materials in their own language."

  a Cesar Compression lithograph , l. and a Cesar Compression sculpture at r.

and the ever CHIC Carine Roitfeld in a Cesar Compression necklace, below.

In Ines de Fressange, ROGER VIVIER brings the epitome of CHIC to the label.  

Ines Little Diaries here

 the New York Madison Avenue store below 

the design House of Vivier has been revived beautifully since 2002 by Bruno Frisoni- carrying the idea that a VIVIER shoe is sculpture and for Fall 2010 Frisoni says “Be classic and chaste with a modern touch” .

  Gwyneth Paltrow in Roger Vivier

(that clutch GP is clutching is CHIC, truly)

all VIVIER interior images from The Best In European Decoration, edited by  Georges & Rosamond Bernier
&  once there find- Ines Little Diaries here -

at Adrianna Sassoon-read all about VIVIER here  

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