Discovered two great shops in Gent

Visitors from abroad always make a great excuse for exploring your own country. I took a Brazilian friend to see Gent this weekend and went into some shops on the way. One was on my to do-list, and another was a complete surprise.

Let me tell you about the last one first. I wanted to show my friend one of the oldest buildings in Gent, located in the street Nederpolder. Right across the street was a store I had never noticed before. There was no name or a clear sign, just a lot of accessories and a lady ironing inside. She was the owner and when I asked if this was a new store, she assured they had been at this exact location for at least 5 years. She sells clothing by the colourful Belgian brand Just In Case and a hell of a lot accessories. My eye fell on a beautiful winter scarf right when we were planning on leaving. I bought it, and she told me that the scarfs were overstock from Belgian designers who took out the tags. Apparently my scarf was originally sold for 300 euros. At 50 euros I still considered it quite expensive, but it's the most beautiful dark green and super comfortable and I wear it all the time. Behind the computer, eating, at work. Right to the point where my boss asked me yesterday if I was really that cold.

Pictures!

The object of my desire. It looks a litte grey-ish in the picture, but it's actually green. Also, I clearly have thing for dressing up trees with scarves.

I can't find the exact adress, but it's right where the street Hoogpoort changes into Nederpoort. If you're around that location and in need of a break, turn the corner and go to Huize Colette in the Belfortstraat. It's got a salon-feeling, with cosy corners and a selection of second hand books (you can buy them or read them for free right there). I'm devoted to Colette because of their great hot chocolate. I always take the Malteser one, my Brazilian friend took Yin Yan, a mix of white and dark chocolate, and proclaimed it 'best host chocolate ever'. If that ain't a quality guarantee, I don't know what is.

Over to 'Maaike Kleedt' in the Zuivelbrugstraat. This had been on my to do-list for a long time. The building used to be occupied by a bit of a boring shop before, but Maaike really turned it into something. She's as nice a shopkeeper as any, and sports an infectious smile. She looks a bit like the fashion godmother you've always wished for. Maaike Kleedt has a great selection of clothes you won't just find anywhere. I didn't know most of the brands, they were mainly Scandinavian: Odd Molly, Rules by Mary, Nakkna, Dagmar, ... The French Gerard Darel and (personal favorite of mine) Surface to Air are a few exceptions. I love the diversity, and the way the clothes are presented is really cool: they're on racks hanging from the ceiling. (Zone 09 tells me this is because the building is a little crooked. Before you raise your eyebrows, the building is part of a really old neighbourhood, called Patershol. And on a random sidenote, 'Pater' means 'Father', 'hol' means 'hole' but has the connotation of 'arse'. Just so you know where exactly you're shopping.) Prices range from affordable to quite expensive.

When you cross the street, you can get typical Gent candy in the cutest candyshop in the world: Temmerman (Kraanlei 79)!

5 Basic Tips for Shopping in Paris

Who doesn't love to shop in the city of light? There are few places in the world where you'll find such an enormous variety of clothes, ranging from really cheap to luxury only oil magnates can afford. The expectations can get pretty high, so I want to give you some tips to ensure a satisfying trip!

Picture courtesy of http://flybee.com

1. Come prepared

When I made plans to visit to Paris with a friend in february last year, I made a stores-to-visit list. It was the list of lists. If marriages between humans and lists were legal, I would have bought it a tux and dragged it to my city hall. I spent hours on the internet researching, scouring forums, scanning blogs. At two pages, it was a plethora of stores, ranging from very expensive to the cheapest of cheap. Vintage Chanel to flea markets: all on the list. I looked up locations on google maps, ordered the venues by arrondissement first and then by metro station.

Now I’m a former history student and a freak, and I like the process of researching. You may not want to take the effort I took, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to consider what kind of shops you want to apply yourself to. Do you want to visit the grand department stores, like Printemps, Le Bon Marché or Galeries Lafayette? Do you want vintage couture? Vintage cheap? Flea markets? Typical French brands like Maje, Sandro, Manoush? (Rue Vieilles du Temple is definitely your place to be.) If you have friends in Paris or France, tickle them until they release all of their best kept addressess. (You could always ask politely or buy them some wine, but does that really beat making them laugh until they’re crying and purple in the face? Au revoir elegance!)

Keep in mind that you most likely won’t manage to see everything you want to see. I mean, Paris is Paris. First of all there’s a humungous amount of interesting shops, scattered throughout the city. Secondly, there are so many other things to do and see! With less then two days time, we managed to visit maybe 5 stores on the list?

2. Ignore your plans from time to time

Despite everything I wrote above, leave room for improvisiation. The best discoveries are those made by accident. When I was walking through Paris with my boyfriend last year, we passed by Maeght, a gallery with a great collection of modern art prints. I discovered they also sold some cute jewelry by Del Re, an artist they were featuring. Prices were a bit above budget, but still affordable at 60 euros for a beautiful silver pendant. I regretted not buying anything, but discovered they sell them online while writing this. I’m exerting some serious self-control not whipping out the credit card here!

3. Dealing with French Shop Assistants

The French are surrounded by myths and prejudice. Most of them ridiculous, obviously: frog legs are not consumed on a daily basis, not everyone is carrying around baguettes (sadly), you will not have to pee in a hole in the ground (unless you’re planning on sleeping over in a gas station at the country side) and French women don’t shave their armpits any less than you or I do. The cliché of the haughty French lady is very much alive in some of the Paris stores, though. You never know when you will encounter one. They tend to avoid independent stores, because those rely much heavier on customer service, but these are in no way a safe zone. Anyway, you’ll easily recognise them. Their noses are turned up so bad you could fit three thick 19th century moustaches between their nostrils and their tight-lipped mouth. The look of pure disdain in their eyes will make you wonder if you maybe grew a hunchback overnight. Don't be intimidated. It's not you, and it has happened to all of us. It's not even because your French sucks. Maybe you don't look poised enough, or she has x-ray vision and noticed your blouse is from - mon dieu! - H&M. Keep your inner calm and concentrate on the goods - if they're worth it. If not, just get the hell out of there.

Gargoyles cheering Quasimodo up after he was snubbed by a nasty shop assistant.

4. Sales

The beginning of January and July in France mean one thing: sales! As anywhere, you’ll find some real steals in Paris these times of the year. Last july I bought the cutest pair of Maud Frizoni ballerinas (under the watchful eye of A Haughty French Lady) for under a 100 euros. They’re great quality, and still look spic and span, even though I’m horrible at taking care of my shoes. One piece of advice: Sunday is still the day of rest in Paris, and one of the only main streets with shops wide open is the Rue Vieilles du Temple. Do not go there. Unless you want to see some real French shopping frenzy, that is. I’m not kidding. If I would want to witness a fashionista bitch fight, this is where I'd take my chances. If ever someone would wind up in the hospital with a stiletto heel in her head, they would trace it back to this place.

5. Hydrate

While Paris food prices are okay (even in highly frequented shopping streets like the Rue Vieilles du Temple), drinks will cost you. Buy a bottle of water or soda in advance or on the road, so you don’t have to spend chunks of your precious shopping budget on all too expensive bottled source water. If you want to have lunch, you can always ask for tap water. It’s free and it’s just as good, usually. Keep in mind, I’m not telling you to skip on a good glass of wine. (I wouldn’t even dare – savouring a glass of Chianti as we speak. Woop!) Invade the Paris terrasses by all means. Just make sure the experience is worth the price. You don’t want to spend 5 euros on a coke when two more euros will buy you a glass of decent wine. If you're real lucky, you might just end up being scaffolded by John Galliano!

Picture courtesy of Solli's Lifestyle Blog

Got more? I'll be happy to hear them!

Boutiques then and now: an interview with Madeleine Gallay

The amazing thing about the world wide web is that there's always some or other discovery waiting around the corner. For instance, I coincidentally bumped into the blog of the fabulous Madeleine Gallay the other day. Her intelligence and eye for beauty immediately struck me. Madeleine, it turned out, had worked in some of the most fashion forward stores in L.A. in the eighties, together with her husband. After their divorce, she opened her own store on Sunset Plaza. From what I gathered, it must have been quite something. I was intrigued, so I sent over a bunch of questions - and philantropic as I am, I will share the answers with you. The interview is quite lenghty, but worth the read, I assure you.

Madeleine, I’d love to hear more about your shop. What was your vision for it? Which designers did you carry? How did you proceed to choose them?

When I opened my Sunset Plaza shop, most boutiques were incredibly elegant, very expensive gallery-like spaces, heavily influenced by a Japanese aesthetic of minimal beauty. Christian LaCroix was splashing runways with happy clothes, poufs in pink and mint green, sumptuous and luxurious and all his. I never carried his clothes but my reaction to his mood translated into a shop with hand-washed pink walls, a rose garden, sofas piled with antique textiles and pillows, white wine and water and coffee. I thought that by having beautiful dresses I could sell beautiful dresses without intimidating customers, by finding designers that took my breath away that could be in any price range with the qualifier of having deep intrinsic value. My shop was next door to LeDome, a very hot Hollywood lunch restaurant for agent-client meetings and my pretty customers sometimes dashed in just to freshen their makeup or have a (not-quite-as-evil-then-as-now) cigarette or just relax before the next big thing.

Christian Lacroix in the eighties - picture courtesy of InStyle

I opened the shop in '88 and stocked at various times John Galliano, Rifat Ozbek, Dolce & Gabbana, Chantal Thomass, Erickson Beamon, Ghost, Todd Oldham, Kenzo, Helen Storey, Callaghan designed by Romeo Gigli, Martine Sitbon, Eric Javits hats. Mary McDonald (Million Dollar Decorators) made custom fantasy hats with miles of tulle and flowers, amazingly beautiful. These were indie collections, which is what boutiques can do well, and probably the only thing that could let them survive, whatever price range they're in. A skirt is just a skirt is just a skirt is so not true. Designers, if they are truly creators, have a signature as well as consistent quality. It's not a shopping list of buy so many white shirts or black skirts, although that would be a fabulous beginning. It's about showroom hunting. Never mind the fashion show which fritters away time and consists more often of deceptive, theater playing games than of a presentation of clothes we would wear. A buyer has to react to each piece on a hanger, just as a retail shopper would. Some things are perfect. A boutique has the possibility, with great discipline and hard edits, to only present the perfect pieces. Every designer has pieces you simply hope disappear and that means nothing. John Galliano made the most seductive bias cut pieces, frail and fey, but had a penchant for awkward silver metallic space-age pieces. Ignored, of course. Some is pure business as in "no, you cannot sell my ex-husband across the street, are you nuts????" Under no circumstances should a shop carry the same overexposed things as a dozen other shops -then you become a grocery store.

What did you like most about running your own shop? What were the downsides?

I loved the buying and playing with clothes to see the possibilities, piece by piece. Every morning, my staff and I would take turns making five or so outfits and modeling them so we could have different moods. I loved my customers and many became friends. Many could pop by the house to borrow an evening bag or a silk flower - the perks of being special customers. The downside of being a small boutique is that in the development of raw talent, they cannot be held back and will become major houses. The decision to stay with a house you have a relationship with but who has added four stores is rocky. It won't work. So it ends up becoming a lab of sorts. Shopped by department store buyers and manufacturers, who seldom hid what they were doing and with an introduction it was one thing, sneaking notes drove me mad. The business of paying for a huge inventory and hoping it sells in orderly fashion is hard. An order is a promise and a buyer must be very responsible. However, a designer who delivers poor clothes should get them right back. That only happened to me once with Isaac Mizrahi shortly before Chanel dumped him: a connection?

Christy Turlington and a Vogue cover in Isaac Mizrahi early nineties.

Do you feel the fashion industry has changed a lot over the years? Do you think shops are run differently and customers shop in a different way?

The industry is now quite organized and democratic, the doors thrown open to people who actually have nothing to do with the business of fashion. Students used to beg for last minute seats in Paris and Milan; now catwalks are streamed to your iPhone, sometimes in 3D as Burberry did. Designer websites are up with photos and videos almost as soon as the show is over with all the world's Vogues offering to send you the photos or videos. It's a little disenchanting that there's no wonder left. There really was a time when designers wouldn't allow a buyer to take working photos and made them promise not to let anyone photograph the clothes in shop. Also, the reporters covered the shows with descriptive and comparative language, instead of personal opinion which in some cases has downgraded to a simple "I hate it" or "Bananas I die." That makes me cringe. Is it so hard to understand the spirit and mood, the colors and fabrics, the details, skirt lengths, ... ?

So many shops have closed. The world is both buying luxury faster and harder than ever before and yet evading shops. Last summer's IFT Luxury Conference in Beverly Hills revealed that a whole generation, maybe more, of shoppers hate the experience of being in a store. It's not fun; the stock is what you see whereas you can probably Google search and find the exact size and color of anything you want; it takes up too much time. Whoa. That is bad news. Shops better evaluate as soon as possible and figure out how to make shopping more fun. Cookies and good chocolates would win my respect (hell's bells, mine too, ed.), as well as a decadent amount of accessories to linger over. Since the designers are dreadfully over-exposed, there better be some reason to motivate me, or any shopper.

A dreadful thing has happened in that a company offers to pre-sell designer collections for a week or two. Why not the retailers? Step up, buyers! You should get very angry about this. I loathe the flash sale sites that have degraded a nice dress or whatever to price and available at 9am, I hope they go away. I hate the fashion magazine collaborations to sell clothes; how is that ethical? I love shop owners and they certainly have to be spunky. It's not easy hours and the savagery of retailers doing poorly is a constant looming threat of greater and earlier markdowns. Shop owners would be better off visiting South Moulton Street. Mrs. Burstein (Joan Burstein is the founder of Browns, located at South Moulton St., ed.) has managed to be at the beginning of careers and continue with many and her shops are never tired. Retailing has to be so energized and experimental and, again, fun.

Browns - courtesy of runninginheels.co.uk

What would your ideal shop look like nowadays? What brands/designers would you feature? Where would you want to be located? Which audience would you like to speak to?

I sometimes dream about a shop and oh I would love one (with a financial backer, I am so bad at the business side). There are so many great indie collections that need to be sold in a boutique. Hogan McLaughlin (and his art), Trashy Couture, Azzedine Alaia (my former husband and I did have the Alaia Chez Gallay boutique on Rodeo, which he won during our divorce, alas), Chantal Thomass lingerie, always Erickson Beamon jewels, a selection from Rare Vintage which is so beautifully curated that Carine Roitfeld shops there, Rick Owens (oops, my ex-husband did have a Rick Owens boutique on Sunset Plaza, closed when Rick left for Paris). I think I'd like to be here in Venice Beach because it's both edgy and non-Rodeo Drive non-Rue St Honore, and you already know what you will find there. Here it's downtown edge by the beach.

Design by Hogan McLaughlin, gathered from a post on him by Madeleine herself.

I think the clothes in a shop yell out for their customers. I've always accidentally or not sold to pretty women. Maybe because my shop was on Sunset Plaza where everyone is pretty. Whether someone is actually "pretty" or not is not the point; it's a feeling of being pretty that matters.

Do you have any stores you have fond memories of, apart from your own?

I loved running into Joan Weinstein, the owner of Ultimo, on buying trips. She also tried everything on and her more minimal aesthetic of Jil Sander (yes there really was a Jil Sander) was so richly done. I love Maxfield for harvesting raw talent, stocking really the finest of everything in a designer world from Rick Owens to Loree Rodkin: his manager Janet is probably the most magical person ever in any shop. Linda Dresner's now closed Madison Avenue shop was beyond words, elegant and filled with things – it is essential to have lots of things to keep you from running out in fear of a salesgirl, I think.

What do you look for in quality clothing? How do you judge whether a piece of garment is worth its price?

Fine clothes matter and some designers, no names, cheat; their clothes are 30% overpriced. It begins with the fabric, the construction, the details, buttons. Chanel bought an Haute Couture button house because they are so essential. It all matters, along with the ability to deliver as promised. Late is not good.

What are some of your favorite brands, shops and designers nowadays?

I love Mona Moore for shoes here in Venice Beach and on the web, Maxfield of course. I love Barney's parking lot, which is silly since the store disappoints me; a lot of clothes that are not cared for in shop. I did remove an Azzedine knit dress, 3700.00, from a hanger and display it on a table. I would have fired a few people, but of course I can't.

Rick Owens, Fiorentini&Baker boots, Gary Graham dresses ... more interested in pieces (still, I guess) than collections. I wear or yearn for the pieces, never the collection.


I think there's few things in this article I can't wholeheartedly agree with. If you, like me, can't get enough of Madeleine, you can pay a visit to her blog In New York Paris Tomorrow. Thanks a lot, Madeleine!