Miniature worlds, high & low fashion & Makers magic … A Week in Paris
Celebrating life in Paris, Paris Makers, and the strange, new, true and beautiful – forever !
📦 After his recent retrospective at the Cinémathèque, Wes Anderson participates in bringing Joseph Cornell’s Queens studio to Paris with The House on Utopia Parkway, opening today at Gagosian Castiglione. The little storefront gallery is transformed into a meticulously staged tableau – part time capsule, part life-size shadow box – with over 300 objects from Cornell’s “spare parts department” arranged into poetic assemblages, reflecting the obsession with meticulous detail, nostalgia and miniature worlds that defines both artist and filmmaker.
🪡 Part two of the duo of exhibitions celebrating Azzedine Alaïa’s passion for Dior opened yesterday at the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, completing the latest Gallery Dior display. An inspired and extravagant collector, Alaïa amassed over 500 Dior pieces during his life, and for this exhibition nearly 70 designs – archival 1950s Dior and Alaïa’s own creations – enter a thrilling dialogue, revealing how two generations of couturiers explored accentuated waists, sculpted shoulders, curved hips, voluminous skirts and a refined palette of black and grey in their own distinct ways, and for their own times.
🌈 Local fashion legend Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s retrospective L’Imagination au pouvoir (“Imagination at Work”) has just opened at Les Abattoirs in Toulouse – not Paris?! – showcasing nearly 300 works, from clothing and design objects to drawings and photographs, highlighting a career that has traversed entire epochs since the late 1960s. His playful use of materials, bright colour palette, and collaborations with artists and musicians – from Keith Haring to Lady Gaga – reveal how he has maintained a distinctive vision while continually reimagining fashion as art, turning clothes into statements, armour and joy.
🎁 Christmas shopping alert: the Jean Roger ceramic workshop is exceptionally open to the public leading up to Christmas with a special gift selection (23 rue des Tournelles). It’s your chance to browse, touch and buy iconic pieces – like the tulip candle holder or mini frog pot – that are usually only available online with long wait times, while soaking up the atmosphere of their historic Paris atelier. Open through Friday.
🪩 The Grand Palais des Glaces the world’s largest indoor ice rink returns to the newly restored Grand Palais for the holiday season. By day, natural light illuminates the rink; by night (until 2am) DJs and light shows turn it into a frosty dancefloor under the monument’s iconic glass roof. Book your ticket online.
🖤 And lastly, on Saturday, two years after her death, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon inaugurated the newly renamed Passerelle Jane Birkin over the Canal Saint-Martin. Built in 1860 and previously known as the Passerelle des Douanes, the iron footbridge now honours Birkin’s life as a singer, actress and muse. Situated in a vibrant, historically working-class neighbourhood, her daughters emphasized the bridge as a living, open space for Parisians, reflecting their mother’s connection to everyday life.
See you there!
Thanks for reading :)
Kate x
Welcome to Paris, Puces. on Substack. Expect the best of : LIFE IN PARIS 🇫🇷 each week, plus expert intel and tips from the world’s most epic FLEA MARKET✨ Art, Fashion, Design !
On Mondays: Life in Paris postcards - a curated mix of sights, bites and delights, celebrating Paris Makers, and the strange, new, true, and beautiful, forever!
On Fridays: Flea market intel - in-depth guides, behind-the-scenes stories and practical tips (this content will eventually be paywalled, but Life in Paris will remain free).