I loved reading about French photographer Thierry Cohen’s images of the starry skies over cities like San Francisco and Tokyo minus the light pollution we’ve added to them. Nice to remember that the stars are still there, even if we can’t always see them. (More images after the jump…) And check out this link for [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1455
Every time I go to Paris’ Jardin de Luxembourg I have to make sure that it’s there—Rilke’s beloved elephant, going round and round on the park’s carousel, as described in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite. The wooden carousel, created in 1879, were installed in the park in 1904. Poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was hypnotized by [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1141
Just before I left Paris for good several years ago I discovered Camille, the French singer who has Edith Piaf’s bravado and the quirkiness of Bjork. I sang her song about quitting Paris to myself a lot back then. Now, taking a flight in from Milan today, I’m humming along. The posts are sure to [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=874
Kiki de Montparnasse, Man Ray’s famously saucy lady muse, plays a big role in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite. I was thinking of her today and came across this great, short compilation of archival black and white film footage of Kiki—shot by Man Ray and by Fernand Léger. I always think of her as quiet and [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=848
Once, because I complained that I’d never received one, my mom sent me a telegram. I was in college at the time and it arrived in a regular envelope in my tiny mail box. While it wasn’t the romantic comunique of my fantasies, at least I could say that I’d received one. What I regret, [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=521
Today, because I am missing Paris, I watched a bit of one of my favorite movies, Cleo 5 à 7, by the only female director of the French nouvelle vague, Agnès Varda. Shot in black-and-white in 1962 on a very low budget, part of its charm comes from the coincidental encounters and serendipitous moments that [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=480
When I first started working in fashion, I couldn’t spell the word fuchsia for the life of me. Even with spell check. Even with a dictionary. That is, until one lucky day when a gruff senior editor at WWD explained that all you had to do was remember “old Dr. Fuchs, for whom the color [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=222
