bunnyshop shopping fashion blog

Frenchy: Reader Mail

In today's Reader Mail:

can you read the la redoute site and see if they ship to the us?  found a bag i like but my french isn't good enough to navigate. either way, could you recommend an easy way to get some french basics here?

Voila! La Redoute has a US site. Unfortunately, the only thing we want there is this hoodie. ("Hoody".) It is cheap, but it is not sufficient. LR hoodie, was $29.99, now $14.99

Otherwise: our first choice for French basic-y things is Zadig et Voltaire, which is about a billion euros out of our price range. Which leaves us with Petit Bateau:

Nothing fancy, but everyone needs tee shirts. Petit Bateau "chemise pointelle," $22

Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel

We had such little interest in seeing this movie before we saw this poster. But now. Things are different! Manohla Dargis wrote a brilliant piece on Sunday about how little women have to do in the movies: 

Nobody likes to admit the worst, even when it’s right up there on the screen, particularly women in the industry who clutch at every pitiful short straw, insisting that there are, for instance, more female executives in Hollywood than ever before. As if it’s done the rest of us any good. All you have to do is look at the movies themselves — at the decorative blondes and brunettes smiling and simpering at the edge of the frame — to see just how irrelevant we have become.

This could be awesome. At least Audrey's not stuck being all Da Vinci Code assistant-y \ nominal love interest forever.

 

Shopping (and Dressing) in Paris: Reader Mail

In today's Reader Mail:

Dear Bunny,

I see that you were recently in Paris - le sigh! I leave for Paris this weekend; it's my first time there. Since you manage to be sassy and fashion-y while being totally reasonable, I want to know: what are the must-pack items for gallery hopping, landmark visiting, marathon meals and general wandering about?

Lots of love,
C
Toronto

Oh, we just love the travel-y questions! First, we must say, our top top top recommendation for Paris will always be: Caves Saint-Gilles, a tapas restaurant in the Marais (our favorite neighborhood, btw.) It is amazing. It is so great we spent a birthday there, and our friend K. spoke Spanish to all the waiters, and it was amazing. We don't even mind using that word twice, it was that great.

We spent our time in Paris on the border of the 4th and the 11th, and we prefer this part of the city to any other. Maybe it's not the Louvre, but we love love love the Promenade Plantee, an elevated park tres pres de la Bastille—it's the prettiest thing in Paris, especially at this time of year. We were there a week and a half ago, and it was fucking snowing. But we've been there this time of year in years previous, and it's been perfect.

If you have any interest in contemporary art, we beg you not to miss the Sophie Calle show at the National Library.

Shopping wise, you have to hit Colette, Spree, and basically everywhere in the Marais—we are paper freaks so we adore Papier Plus, also in the Marais.

Anyway, this is clearly supposed to be about clothing. Three things hit us on this most recent trip:

1: We saw a million girls in swing jackets. Anthro swing set jacket, $118

2: High-waisted, wide-leg jeans. We didn't think anyone actually wore these, but we saw them all over the place and were totally jealous. 18th Amendment Colbert jeans, $218

3: Scarves. We could practice for a thousand million years and we will never be able to wrap a scarf like a French woman can. Topshop scarf, $30

Four Very Quick Pictures From Paris

The dress floor at Colette! This is the picture we got yelled at for taking.

This is the reading room at the National Library in Paris, which in this case is interesting because it's where Sophie Calle's Take Care of Yourself is installed. It is amazing! If you're in Paris between now and June 8, don't miss it.We know, it's not like the picture makes it look super fabulous or anything, but it is.

This is just one of the many racks of patent-y bags at our favorite French department store, Le Bon Marche. That is where we used to buy all our Oreos when we were there and they were still hard to find.

And at first we were all, what the fuck? But now we are like, er, you go, AJ McLean and your pirate earring.

 

Field Trip To Colette

So we're just wrapping up a very short trip to Paris at the moment, though we did have time to get to Colette, the fashion store of all fashion stores. Our mission with Colette is to go there and see what they're selling, because it's usually awesome, and then not to credit them with it, because they're so freaking mean there. (We plan on putting this into action later this week.)

We found the video above and it's perfect because the two hosts (who read off notepads) talk about these bizarre Evian sprays exclusive to Colette. C'est vraiment bizarre, this whole idea of $4 limited-edition water sprays. Eh.

So the water sprays were not one of the awesome things. We did, however, like: all the clothes, the fashion magazine rack (which, if we're correct, only two US titles: Paper and V), the giant Kiehl's selection (all in all we felt very on top of their beauty choices—it was mostly Kiehl's and Bumble and bumble), and this book, which we thought was so underground but is apparently #484 on Amazon, which seems awfully high to us. Looks super cool—a book about clandestine military operations, as told by their patches. And we freaking love patches. I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me, $15.61

The Raffia Necklace

So we're in France at the moment, which is cold as fuck in a way that's really interfering with our springtime buzz. Anyway, we've noticed too things here: April snow is an abomination. And we have seen like three million store windows with raffia on the mannequins. This is, below and to our surprise, one of the few raffia
necklaces we were able to find. 

This isn't exacccccctly what we were looking for, but it's as close as we're getting. Wood, Lucite, and raffia-wrapped bead necklace, $63.50

Disturbing Beauty News!

In today's Reader Mail:

Hi there!

I've been reading Bunnyshop long enough to know how much we both love Fresh's Sugar perfume. So I went to the Fresh store the other day to buy more, and I noticed the packaging had changed. I didn't think anything of it, but when I got it home, I realized that it didn't smell the same, it was more perfumey-flowery, and I thought, "Uh-oh."

So then a couple of days later, I went to my local beauty supply store, and I noticed that they had all their Fresh products marked 50% off. I asked them why, and they said, "We just got our new shipment of Fresh supplies, but when we opened the box, we realized that there were differences in the new stock, so we sent it all back and discounted our current stock. We're not going to carry Fresh anymore."

It turns out that the Fresh company recently moved from France to New York, and that they've changed some of the formula of their products....including Sugar perfume! No!

Luckily, the salesgirl was supersweet and helpful (it turns out she was a Sugar fan, too), and she told me to try L'Occitane's Honey & Lemon perfume. It's not the same as Fresh—it smells more sweet & honey-ish—but I really like it.

Anyway, I was just wondering if you've heard anything about this, or if you had tried the new Sugar and noticed the difference.

Thanks!
RB

We investigate! All future Christiane Amanpours must begin somewhere, we feel. Though perhaps in an actual war zone. Anyhoo, we did find this very recent story about the Fresh founders and a new shop in Boston—maybe just the production has moved from France to New York? In any case, we certainly share the reader's concern, as Fresh is a longtime favorite of ours, especially the lovely (if pricey) Sugar perfume. Our initial response: stockpiling!

Above: L'Occitane's Honey and Lemon perfume, $44

Reader Mail: The Truest Thing

In today's Reader Mail:

Dear Bunnyshop,

This is pretty random, and I'm just trying to avoid thinking about Christmas shopping. But say all your clothes came from one online place, money is no object. What would it be? And please ask everyone else.

Just wondering,
K.

Oh! So it is really like, what store would be your personal stylist, or whatever. We like this question. Because we're thinking the narrower the vibe of the store—we mean (and we wonder if it is clear that we just drove 18 hours straight across three states), it'd be easy if your choice was, like, Barneys, or Shopbop or something. But you're sort of saying more if you go with a narrowly defined look.

Anyway, anyway. Our answer: APC. It is not so much that we want to be French as we want to live in a country where we have no access to cars, but plenty of access to bread.

Those shorts are so meh but it's that whole, APC thing we love. And we're totally into that sweater. Money being, of course, no object. Cashmere pullover, $305

Les Defiles

Cafe Mode has the—and we are thinking of spelling that THE—best—BEST—street photos from the French shows up at the moment. Do. Not. Miss! Especially if you can read French. But really: either way!

Above, that's Charlotte Gainsbourg in her Balenciaga jacket and we love her forever and always.

The New Discount Code: Shopping Paris Mode

Hurrah! And so begins summer. We loooove summer. And we are going to especially love this summer because we have arranged a whole! Series! Of discount codes! And Shopping Paris Mode is just the first for the season. (We recently discussed them recently regarding their April, May line, which is super excellent.) Anyway, we begin with this dress. We love that this model is not anorexic. Why can't we have non-anorexic models here? Why do the French get everything?

Anyway. Cute dress! And just for us: 25% off! Actually, the whole site (minus shipping, they tell us) is 25% off. This is just today's suggestion. Nothing says summer like a black dress and big sunglasses, we're thinking, unless it's sitting in a hot car at one of the toll booths on the Parkway.

This is the Eurythmic Mia dress, formerly $175, with discount code JOUR-REDU-FETE-MERE (we know it's a little more unwieldy than usual, and we swear this is special for us—without the intervention the Fete Mere code would have expired tomorrow. In case we were sounding like ass wipes) $131.25

Related posts:

The Summer Black Dress
Summer Black Dresses, Continued
Introducing (To Us, At Least) April, May

Introducing (To Us, At Least) April, May

So this picture hardly does our argument justice, but we are so enjoying the "April, May" line from two Parisian designers, one ex-Paul & Joe. Two of our favorite stores carry it (Bird in Brooklyn and Candy Store in SF) and it is lovely. In fact, what they have in stock is even lovelier, but we'll have to live with this dress, currently available on "shoppingparismode.fr". But we heartily recommend checking out their site for the rest of the collection, and examining it in person, if possible. They are our vote for the next cute-chic Paul & Joe etc.

Above: Patou dress, about $160

Reader Mail: Denis Darzacq

In today's Reader Mailbag:

Dear Bunnyshop:

It seems occasionally you talk about art things, and you like photos....

All true! And we love these as well. V. French, we're thinking, not least because they are being shown in Paris, right now. They sort of simultaneously break your heart but also ... you're just like: That is insane. How did he do that? At least we are.

We also need to say that something is wrong with our head when we see this picture and are, like, We really need to get shoes like that.

From the Guardian:

The French riots of 2005 inspired the photographer Denis Darzacq to head for the housing estates on the outskirts of the capital. But he wasn't after gritty shots of urban deprivation, he tells Angelique Chrisafis. He wanted something more - to capture an entire generation in freefall and with no one to catch them.

And from Feed Me Cool Shit, which we also love:

This canny photographer is now hiring models for the specific purpose of throwing them out of windows and capturing the moment before they hit the ground and turn into street pizza…

We are in the process of trying to find out if this is true, but this is amazing:

Gallery show ending soon! Galerie Vu through May 5.

French Style Icon Week, Continued

Once again, we are enjoying the French style icons rather than the American vapid morons. It is very funny, this note from S., in general, and also how it sort of very self-aware-y nearly-but-doesn't fit in both categories.

Marie Antoinette (the original).

If I could wear powdered wigs and pearls, I would.
On a date.
To work.
To the supermarket.
To the dry cleaners.
To the bakery, where I would eat cake.

It is so painful when you do the Google search for "Marie Antoinette" and get like 30,000 pictures of Kirsten Dunst. The original, we are thinking, would spin in the grave. Er, headless, or whatever.

And now, to the retailing.

Rhodia! Very French. Not super expensive. Rhodia notebooks, $3 - $9

Formerly mentioned:

The Charlotte Gainsbourg Giveaway Winner, Plus Our Favorite French Things
Our Newest Style Icon: Charlotte Gainsbourg

One New Website: French Soaps

We found this website while looking around for photos of French style icons. First, whoever did the photography should do the photography for every retail website, in the world, forever, because now all we want to do is buy what they sell.

Even though: We previously had no use for an apothecary jar full of soap flakes! But now! Must! Have! Scented soap flakes! The little Suze Orman who lives in our head is weeping, by the way.

In any case: Soap flakes in jar, $45. We would prefer the lavendar.

While we are at it, we would also quite like the bath salts with flowers, $30. These would make excellent presents for impressionable strangers, such as boyfriends' parents or similar.

NB: The one thing this site does wrong is the frames, or whatever, which deny linking directly to the product. We got as close as we could, and it's not far from the home page.

French Style Icon Week

We got so much nice mail following the announcement of our Charlotte Gainsbourg winner \ French style icon contest that we thought we'd also go ahead and run the runners-up—like, above, Francoise Hardy. They make us happy. We think it is in part because in large part they are still revered, even though they are now 60+, and we would like to live in a culture like that. And not in the one that thinks Carmen Electra has a lot to offer. So: instead of discussing CE here, we will not, and we will spend all of our time with French style icons, whose relative worth we have already droned on about much too long.

A note from K. about her French style icon selection:

Françoise Hardy ... not only was she gorgeous (she still is) in that flat-boot wearing, black turtle necked, somehow-still-relevant French style of the 1960s, she wrote her own music, was photographed with the likes of Mick Jagger and the Beatles, and had a poem written about her by Bob Dylan. She is also new age as fuck, and is still rocking these days. I'm always happy to add a "new" Françoise Hardy record into my burgeoning vintage lp collection.

That is totally it, we think: Somehow French style icons mature, like wine, if you will excuse our metaphor, while American starlets are almost literally disposable. Like bad milk. Honestly, look at this picture, from her website:

Totally stylish and elegant, at 63. It makes us not want to kill ourselves as we age. Vive la France! We are so moving to Paris.

And if we are being completists about it: here is video of her singing.

Anyway: Our favorite song from Charlotte's new album.

And a random French thing for purchase. We think these are totally adorable. Foaming milk bath and body lotion, $10 and $12

Download Charlotte.mp3

Formerly relevant:

The Charlotte Gainsbourg Giveaway Winner, Plus Our Favorite French Things
Our Newest Style Icon: Charlotte Gainsbourg

The Charlotte Gainsbourg Giveaway Winner, Plus Our Favorite French Things

First! The winner of the Charlotte Gainsbourg giveaway! It goes to the following favorite-French-style-icon entrant:

Tricky tricky. Of course there's Audrey Tautou with her impish cuteness, and Charlotte Gainsbourg who is oh so beautiful in that "she's got something going on up there" sort of way. And then there's the classics, Brigitte Bardot, who shares the same birthday as me, the lips, the hair, the eyes, goodness gracious she exudes sex in every which way.

But for me, Anna Karina takes the cake. Sure she was born in Denmark, minor technicality. She was renamed by Coco Chanel and not only stared in his films but was married to one very cool French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard. Big cat eyes, that perfect wavey brown hair, a mouth that has not only mastered the pout, but a perfect coy smirk. And the girl makes the school girl look (not the Britney Spears version, but the knee-length skirt, cardigan, and bobby socks one) so chic and endearing.

A.

First of all: We are personally in debt to this entrant, because we found the picture above after we got her email and we are absolutely getting that haircut. Tomorrow. Bangs! Adorable French bangs. She is the antidote to all the Paris Hiltons and Nicole Ritchies and Kimberly Stewart and all the rest of them. Seriously. We know absolutely nothing about her, except for her film bio, and we are just so calmed by it. This is difficult to explain.

Here are a few more pictures:

Bangs! Encore et encore.

We guess we think of it this way: We do believe there is something about achieving style-icon-ness, even in a local and personal way. And it's not about age or weight or being rich or anything like that—it's about savvy and cleverness and making whatever you were born with into something uniquely excellent. And we love that because it is completely democratic: Style icon, that's something anyone can achieve. Now, on the other hand: Heiress-y empty-headed starlet: Maybe that's more difficult to achieve, in the sense that we cannot all be born heiresses, and more to the point, in the sense that we cannot all be empty-headed, vacant-eyed starlets. We prefer style icon to starlet drug addict.

Anyway: more Anna Karina at what we believe to be her MySpace.

Here is a French thing. It is a t-shirt. With a squirrel! How bizarre. And it is like $90! The mind boggle. Zadig squirrel shirt, $90

Our Newest Style Icon: Charlotte Gainsbourg

We are just totally loving Charlotte Gainsbourg at the moment: 36, French, and just so la-la-la—er, not in the French article way, maybe da-da-da would be a better translation—about the whole promotion thing.

We don't know. We are thinking that it is just the appeal of someone who seems the tiniest bit ... unmediated. Un-Kimberly Stewart.

And we totally love her in this Balenciaga.

We are totally embarrassed by this but when we have a new French style icon, it makes us want to buy French things. Like:

Willow baskets, $65 and up, depending on size

Hand soap! One of the nicest possible things in the bathroom, French or otherwise. La Compagnie de Provence fig hand soap, $18

And good lord we want APC jeans. APC jeans, $140

Website of the Day: French Soaps

We found this website while looking for some of our French style icons, and it is pretty much the most beautiful thing we have ever seen. If you love soap. Like we do. Including: soap flakes in tins!

Marseille soap flakes in tin, $26

Equally pretty: bath salts with flowers, $30

Wentworth Miller In L'Officiel Homme

This is seriously and truly the first, and we pray last, time we have ever put up basically a pin-up. But. Hubba hubba!

Oh, what can we say. We just love Prison Break.

Sales Sales Sales Sales Sales: APC

Everything. Is on sale. Everywhere. Which makes careful planning the aim of the day. We usually only do one sale item per day, because we're big believers in that Suze Orman tenet—and here we think for a second how we are more likely to reflect upon the writings of Suze Orman than, say, most religious figures—of: If you wouldn't buy it full price, don't buy it on sale. We generally interpret this to mean we should buy everything full price. Suze Orman would put us in her version of hell. In any case, a few of the items we were seduced by today: above, the APC sun top. We're a little confused about this, because it can look both good and bad, and we can't tell if we are being tempted by the photography here more than anything else. In any case: sun top, was $44, now $22

These are the skinny black pants we wanted when we saw those Gap Audrey Hepburn ads. Narrow trousers, were $181, now $91

We have been so against black jeans, all of our lives, since we were forced to wear them, no kidding, while manning the till at The Body Shop, but we will make an exception for these. Faded black low rise jeans, were $163, now $115

These are without a doubt the blue tights we have dreamed of for the last three months. Lace tights, were $56, now $28

This seems to us like a very French-girl hat. Knit cap, was $84, now $42

Reader Mail Tuesday!

Letter #1 from today's Reader Mailbag:

Is there a dress/pair of shoes/purse that by purchasing it, will magically make me get over my ex-boyfriend who is a fucking asshole?

I am bitter and would rather not be. Grrrrr. Only Bunnyshop can help.

J.

PS: Is there a magic pair of sunglasses that will turn his new girlfriend into an ugly troll?

Now, this is obviously a subject we have spent much time considering. Depending on whom you ask, a dress/pair of shoes/bag could, maybe, perhaps help attract a boyfriend. This is not, in our opinion, because they are savvy to the difference between $35 skinny jeans from the Gap and $350 skinny jeans from Seven, but because they are visual creatures, and like things that look nice. We neither endorse nor support this position, but we believe it is true.

We are not sure, however, that it works the other way as well. We tend to get a little spend-y when we are in a bad mood, and we are pretty sure this is a better reaction than doing Ecstasy or puking up Long Island Ice Teas on the sidewalk. We are pretty sure this is more of a distraction than anything else. Mostly it provides an option for doing something (a) outside of our apartment and (b) that is not crying.

What we are sure of is this: first, to the soft spots of the heart. They will break up. Nine times out of ten, or 99 times out of 100, they will break up. And if there is any solace to be found in it, we would just keep this in in the tiniest, darkest part of our heart, and that is: It is always possible, and sometimes quite possible, that he will want you back. We don't believe in motivation; we only believe in results: We believe even less in the motivation for motivation, if you know what we mean. If it helps you get your shit together, and we know this has been true for us, there is a lot of success in that line of thought that says: "I will be awesome, I will not neglect brushing my hair [been there], I will learn Italian and become dashing young Italian-speaking diplomat and cocktail party-hostess ... and then he will love me." That last part doesn't matter, because as you do all those things, you will magically, and it is pretty magical, stop caring about that last part, and then you will speak Italian, host cocktail parties, and have a hot new Italian boyfriend. Because. Really. There is always someone else. There is always, always, always someone else.

We don't think clothes help in these situations, except in the keeping neat 'n' tidy sense. We think adventure does. [This is our bias: Whenever we get advice from people, and we do that quite frequently, we always think to ourselves: Remember their bias.] We are the kind of people who believe a plane ticket to Paris solves everything. But, oh. It just does. It is a big world out there, and plane tickets get us closer to it. And they are much cheaper this time of year than more than a few pairs of jeans.

(Above: Grey Ant carpenter jeans, $330.)

The coldest medicine for him is for you to be amazing, and awesome, and just pay him no mind. It is also the best medicine for you. We believe in the power of clever shopping, in that the right sweater, shoes and skirt, in the right circumstances, can make a world of difference, and we believe that fashion, in the right, non-coke-dusted hands, can be an artform. But, in this case: moxie. One thousand times more useful than a new pair of jeans.

Shopping At: Basic French

French stuff! Love it. Like it even more when we can buy it here, thus preventing the mind wandering into the dangerous, "Mmm, why pay rent when flight to Paris actually substantially less expensive?" Dangerous, landlord-peeving territory, that.

Pencils. We get by quite well without pencils most of the time, but we needed to go buy some this weekend, and how much better would it have been if the pencils had adorable little French things on them? Er, perhaps only marginally, but you get what we mean. Hmm, quite difficult to see there, but they read "Je t'aime" and "Ca va?" Ca va bien, merci! French pencils, $.75 each. These are, we would like to say, the cheapest things that are not free we have ever featured in this space. Hurrah for cheap!

Pencils are sort of like notebooks. We want them, we need them, we rarely use them and we also lose them. The only one of those sentiments that matters much is the first one. Metallic letterbox notebooks, $10 - $14.

Er, ditto with the toile. Toile notebooks, $8 - $10

Once we came back to our apartment and realized our sublettor had mysteriously replaced our very nice bathroom mat with a different, ugly one. We were extremely annoyed. So this is a rug, not a bathroom mat, but we would have been even more annoyed if she'd replaced this one. Brown floral rug, $60

Ditto with the hand soap, actually. We came back and there were two bottles of hand soap: ours and hers. We didn't mind so much in this case, particularly as she left hers (and ours, for that matter) behind, and it was really quite nice. La Compagnie de Marseille hand soap, $18

We can't vouch for the smell, but we love Fragonard, and we'd be willing to buy-blind "the perfect blend of jasmine, lily and honeysuckle." Fragonard eau de toilette, $48

And here's the book we need to buy: Chez Moi, The Foreigner's Guide to Buying a Home in France ($20). Ooh, dare to dream.

Fred Flare Duck Bag

Ahhhhhh adorable. We were going to say something about how it would be nice if there were a young child, perhaps of the niece or nephew variety, we could accessorize with this tote bag, but really we would just keep it for ourselves. And, we would like to add, this would not be the first time that would have happened. French duck canvas tote, $24

Paul & Joe at Target

When we began this post, we had a lovely, operating computer, and many pictures of our trip to the Atlantic Avenue Target. Now we have a piece of shit, horrible, cursed computer and no pictures. And a very, very large bill. For the love of God, if ever there was a time to click on one of those ad links to the left, now is the time. We are ready to add one of those "PayPal Donation" buttons. Because we are. That. Screwed.

Anyhoo, this post has nothing to do with that. Target! Sweet Target. We've always been firmly opposed to the whole Tar-zhay thing: Tar-zhay. No. It is Target, rhymes with Barnet, and it is as American as apple pie, baseball, Dr. Phil and catfood commercials where the dogs and the cats do little tango dances on their way to the food. We refuse to assign it over to the French.

Which is, in this case, a very poor comparison, since what's making Target interesting at the moment is its first super-good Go: International collection, folliowing the ultra-blerg Luella and Tara Jarmon ones. Tss. Those sucked. But Paul & Joe! Love, love, love Paul & Joe. It is so much easier to say nasty things than nice ones, and really all we have to say about Paul & Joe for Target is nice.

Even the tags. The tags! Adorable. A little ersatz Paris, like when Outback Steakhouse goes all "Aussie" and starts rhyming things with Melbourne, but still adorable.

This was, in fact, our third trip to Target, to three different ones at that, and they all had entirely different stock. We cannot explain that. We can say that in order of selection, they were, worst to best, Atlantic Avenue (practically empty), north Philadelphia (fairly good) and, again, Bridgewater, NJ (packed packed packed). We say it was packed and there was one other girl there picking through everything, and part of us just wanted to, we don't know, terrify her into the Mossimo section. Like we said, we had a bad day.

If our computer hadn't screwed us, this would be a much more convincing photo of the picked-over rails at the Brooklyn Target. Unfortunately, it did, and this rack, in New Jersey, is actually pretty full.

That sweater looks really ugly, but it was actually pretty cute on. We also really liked that blue top. Not available online! Which we assume means it is selling out. We are now feeling that self-loathing of no-purchase remorse. Tss.

We were maybe most excited about