La Coquette

Self Service

When I did an image search for “Self Service” just now, all of these French salad bar vendors came up, which look nifty (and can be yours for 3,700 euros!), but I didn’t come here to talk to you about salad bars.  I actually wanted to mention Self Service the magazine, which I have worked on for the last three issues as copy editor, and which you can find at newsagents while supplies last.  (Self Service is produced biannually, and the next issue, which I did not work on, will come out in October.) 

Current cover looks like this:

Interviews with Jeff Koons, Stella McCartney, Jason Schwartzman, Diane von Furstenberg, Katie Grand, Stephanie Savage, David Blaine, Dana Thomas, Emmauelle de Noirmont, Floriane de Saint Pierre, and Gilles and Daniela Andrier.  Enjoy!

More photos after the jump.

Who’d ya see? Where’d ya go? What’d ya do?

Blogging is a muscle, I like to say, and once it deteriorates, it’s so easy to sit back on the couch and eat Cheetos.  So I won’t pretend it’s for busyness, although of course I have been busy, but it’s more for one-track-mindedness that I haven’t blogged so much in these last couple of months. Anyway, it occurred to me that a little recap of what I’ve been up to could be in order:

In mid-November I left for Chicago for a month to work as the associate fashion editor on Chicago magazine's Spring fashion issue, a job that I continued to work on from Paris, and officially wrapped up about two weeks ago. 

And then in late December I began copy editing the Parisian-based Self Service magazine’s Spring fashion issue, and the issue just closed this past week.  If you don’t know the magazine, it’s an amazing publication, so ambitious and smart what they do there.  The back of the book has these long interviews (in English) with fashion luminaries; it's almost like the fashion equivalent of Inside the Actor’s Studio -- very much about the craft.  And since I’ve been intimately involved with the text while copy editing, rolling around in its bedsheets and smelling its musky deliciousness, there are some topics I’ll be blogging about when the issue drops. 

Meanwhile, you can check out the Work in Progress blog for a preview of Spring. 

Chicago Fashion, Fall 2007

While I’m away, you should definitely check out the super fabulous new issue of Chicago Fashion!

I wrote these stories:

Paris Fashion Week Unzipped

Rare Finds

Behind Closed Doors

A Hello To Arms

And I styled these pages:

To Have and To Hold

Made for Walking

Also please check out our amazing fashion director’s features.  I helped call in the clothes!

We DEED it

There’s this thing that my family says upon achieving some major goal like getting to the airport on time, or finishing a home repair project, or brushing our teeth: We DEED it.

The reference is to an all-time Fourmont movie favorite, Nadia. That line comes in when young Nadia first performs outside of her home country, Romania. She could have been anywhere, but she is in Paris, land of aesthetic excellence. And I’ve always felt that this added a special something, a “frisson” if you will.

I for one, always nearly have a heart attack when I watch this scene. With the balance of Nadia's life hanging in the moment, Bela Karolyi convinces the judges to play her tape (she was not actually slated to compete). And then he shouts, “Nadia, NOW.”

What follows is SPECTACULAR. Nadia is AWESOME. Then, at the end of her performance, her originally aloof, but now enthusiastic French cabdriver turns to Bela and says, “We DEED it!”

Oh those silly French! Always wanting to take credit!

Anyway, you may be interested to know that I have a point: the magazine is done. We DEED it! Anything I am tempted to say right now would involve the words “SO EXCITED” and make me sound like a very talented member of the high school thespian club. (Which, duh, I was.) So I’ll just say, “We DEED it,” and leave it at that.

(Jazz hands.)

Déformation Professionelle

At 1pm today:

“She’s at lunch with the people from advertising? Okay, I’ll just email her. Then she can see it on her Burberry….

BlackBerry.”

Postcard

Good morning America!  I'm back in Chicago, USA as of last Wednesday, and as of last Thursday at 11am, I am a temporary employee of a large media conglomerate.  I share an office with the assistant fashion editor and we've got a real pretty view of downtown Chicago, two shiny Macs, and a door that closes.  The door is crucial for when we decide to give each other manicures and squeal over lookbooks.  Don't want to scare the serious journalists.

Just to recap:  I am still living in Paris, but I've got this two month project in Chicago this winter.  I will be back in Paris by late January.  And yes, it's totally worth it.  I mean, sometimes a lady needs to get away from it all, away from the tedious bohemian grind of the City of Lights.  And when that happens, who doesn't think, "Hmm, Chicago in the winter.  Sounds peerfect."

Plus, unlike either of the offices I've worked at in Paris, there are big American elevators (no squishing behind the iron grill with your boss), and I haven't had to unstop a toilet, not even once. 

Rather big news

I am not only moving apartments this weekend (I know), but also leaving on Wednesday for two months (I know, I know) to go work for this magazine again.  So if you have sent me an email recently, please be patient.  If you have called my cell phone recently, it’s broken, so please send me an email.

And then see above disclaimer about the email. 

Paris photo shoot in print

The Fall issue of Chicago mag has dropped. Check out the shoot I worked on in Paris.  (Here’s my post about it.)

Oh and hello, you.  I’m back.  Last week I took the train to see my relatives in Saint Céré in the Lot and the weather was fine.  Pics coming soon.

Basically I just wanted to let you know I hadn’t been killed by a raisin or anything.