research review #2: PARIS

First stop of the research in Paris was at the matériO-material-library, with an introduction into the concept and the services of the material library. Fascinating materials as well as a good service for designers and architects who are looking for outstanding materials.

Paris moodboard - February 2013
(images: Wukovits 2013)

Fruther on I visited Mokuba (posh ribbons), the quirky la Droguerie shop and the fantastic Japanese ribbon provider Shindo (my favourite!). I know these places from my last year´s visit to Paris and expected to find as much as possible interesting “material” for my project, but I wasn´t that successful this year. I also stopped at Colette in the 1^st arrondissement. I was impressed by its great visual presentation as well as its outstanding product range. Next to the quite shocking prices, I really enjoyed the display of the latest fashion on the first floor. Exciting fashion - Great display -  Inspiring store!

Trend Union

This was THE highlight of this research trip – visiting the Trend Union of Lidewij Edelkoort. Fantastic presentation (fantastic visuals and audio-visuals!) about Li´s work as well as about trend forecasting in general.  I learned a lot of new thing and got a deeper insight into trend prediciton! By the way: Li Edelkoort danced in front of me...

Merci+Ultramod

There is definitely no Paris visit without going to Merci (Where can you spend 35€ on masking tape!?)in Marais and walking through the streets, doing some window-shopping at galleries and boutiques. Merci is always a source of inspiration, just the visual appearance and the styling in the shops is an inspiration itself. I captured lots of interesting textures and surfaces in the streets of Marais, which enriched my visual research.  And I didn´t forget to go to Ultramod, a fantastic ribbon shop in the 2^nd arrondissement of Paris. One part of the shop is selling all kinds of ribbons, buttons and some silk fabrics, and the other part it an old millinery-supplier shop, which is just opened on request (the shop assistant needed an extra door handle to get into the store!). In that vintage part of Ultramod I was browsing through some expensive, really old ribbons, fabrics and haberdashery for hat making. Exciting, but quite expensive -but always worth visiting it! 

Première Vision

This year´s exposition was not that exciting and inspiring than last year´s. It didn´t deliver that great inspirations for to me. Anyway it was a positive experience and I am glad that went. There were still some fabrics, colours and displays that attracted me. Première Vision is still an impressive and important exposition. It isn´t just a great source for people in fashion and textiles, it is also great for designers from all areas. 

Fashioning Fashion at les Arts Décoratifs

What a disappointment, the Fashioning Fashion – deux siècles de mode européenne 1700-1915 - exhibition ! I expected a completely different exhibition as well as more inspiration or research material. It is a perfectly designed and curated exhibition, but "non-exciting". The only thing what I learned from this exhibition (and didn´t know before) that during the French Revolution people were attaching messages (mostly political ones) onto their garments. I continued my visit in the Trompe l´Oeil – imitations, pastiches et autres illusions -exhibition area. I thought this might be useful, because when reading the Martin Margielas 20 years exhibition-catalogue, I also discovered that he is using the Trompe l´Oeil effect in his work. In the end I saw the Star Wars-exhibition, which turned out to be a toy- and merchandise exposition.

On the whole, I very much enjoyed the days in Paris, although I am a bit disappointed, that I couldn´t find the expected amount of inspiration for my work. It was anyway a good experience, I learned lots of new things and am thankfully, that I had the opportunity to visit exciting places. Besides that I discovered to date for me new, exciting areas in Paris.