It is a tough life being a designer sometimes, the decisions and deadlines, the constant battle to be perfectly on time, too early and your weird, too late and well your nothing, the endless cycle and chasing up samples and suppliers. Honestly it all gets a bit too much at times.

Even the trade shows can be uninspiring after a time, but too be honest I havent travelled enough to get to that point yet. Regardless of this show fatigue any designer worth their salt still gets excited at the thought of seeing new collections, and fabric ranges. (Excited yes, though all too often disappointed soon after having not seen anything that new or exciting) That was my Tuesday, all day in a crowded aircraft hanger explaining to Chinese people I need my sampling as soon as possible.

Monday however was a totally different experience. Shopping all day, until my feet practically exploded! Leaving my friends at a reasonable hour I wandered towards Place des Voges to go to L’Eclaireur on Rue Malher. A fantastic shopping experience to say the least. Fantastic clothes from a wide range of high end names. Van Asche, Margiela amongst other not so well known brands. There was a good mix between New Collections and Old Sale stock which considering the time of year I was very impressed with. Good markdowns as well, and had the credit card had more space and a less frantic day been ahead of me I would have left heavily weighed down.

(source: frenchtruckers.com)

This is an old shot as the shops been refurbed since. Very cool and simple place, with quality background music reminiscent fo a very trendy club. Deciding to treat myself I went up to their womenswear shop just round the corner. Again stunningly beautiful and fairly busy with plenty of rich and elegant people, (most of whom I figured were fashion industry peeps that day/ either that or high class escorts, it can be difficult to tell our industries appart at times)

Trotting back along the trottoirs towards the Pompidou centre I called into several boutiques, and photographed a few windows. Check out my earlier post on IKKS, whose jacket has climbed high on my wishlist. They are a great brand and to my knowledge not yet in the UK. Grab the exclusivity while you can!

In no time at all, I was on rue Etienne Marcel and hunting out recommendation number two from my friends. Kabuki. Their bag store looked lovely, and had any girlfriends been with me we would have lost at least an hour in there. I turned and there it was opposite, the menswear. Again stocking Van Asche, but also Neil Barrett, Prada, & Dior. Elegantly laid out, with chill out music the Buddha bar would have been proud of I ambled round desperately making mental notes (One of which was could I pull of a sleeveless DSquared letterman hoodie?). A brief chat with the sales assistant was helpful and they were brilliantly attentive, without making feel like I was being watched.

(source:www.fashiontraveler.com)

Taking the Green cross code very much to heart I scampered across to my home from home when I lived in Paris. Killiwatch. A heaven for vintage shoppers. Though 9 yrs ago it was much more cutting edge than it is now, and to be honest I was more than a little disappointed. Not be the clothes, which are still beautiful, (and with DSquared hoodies in mind I nearly grabbed a vintage letterman jacket) but with the prices. Age and inflation have not been kind to this once beautiful lady and there are better cheaper vintage stores in Paris. Though whether these stock Nudie jeans and are as full of fashion students from across the world rifling through the stock remains to be seen. I also noticed the death of the magazine section. A true loss though it could have been hiding somewhere under mountains of stock. This used to be even more hipster and cool than Colette and with more space.

From here it was onto the Palais Royale, and Didier Ludot. There are no vintage shops like this anywhere. The display of Lacroix haute couture demonstrated this on its own. Beautiful, elegant and good enough for La Moss and friends, should you win the lottery book an appointment to purchase some old Marchioness’ couture.

Next stop was Maison Margiela, which I nearly walked past but managed to find the right door. It could easily have been some concierge and I was grateful to be greeted by a labcoated salesperson rather than a bemused 90 yr old french madame. Another stop and another addition to Bainser’s wishlist, the trousers with a inlay down the outside leg seam. Fantastic.

Still feeling fresh I left Margiela’s and rewarded myself with a chocolat chaud before continuing. More of which later.