FAÇON - Magazine Design by Chloe Hay

FAÇON

COCO INSPIRED EVA GALAMBOS How Coco Chanel changed one woman’s love life for the better

Issue1 April/May 2014 AUS $8.95 (inc GST) NZ $9.50 (inc GST)

42000 06 200

Maintaining her Sydney-based luxury boutique success

SEASON ESSENTIALS

Six of this season’s best fashion buys

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CONTENTS april/may

Fashion Buzz: the latest fashion picks from our editors.

La Woman: the new season’s dresses styles with an Angeleno edge on Sunset Strip.

Love. We’re Still Figuring It Out: what it means to be falling in love, again. Photography by Samuel Nolan

Peak Condition: après-ski chic takes a flamboyant turn with sculpted gowns and power coats.

Coco Marriage & Me: how to emerge from a divorce and rediscover happiness.

Front-Row Confidential: three hot women give us their new season picks.

X Factor: Eva Galambos on her success and the future of her Sydney based business.

The Grown Up Gap Year: abandoning all responsibility could be your best decision yet. Photography by Samuel Nolan

Truly, Madly, Dior: divine elegance and words of wisdom from Mr Dior.

Second-Hand Shopping Like a Pro: learn the ins and outs of vintage frocks from the 1930s through to the 1970s.

Gun For Hire: Karl Largerfeld talks candidly about reviving Chanel, his “Army of Beauty” and his love for the now.

139 Divine Inspiration: a lesson in icon

worship, courtesy of Dolce and Gabbana’s glittering new collection.

184

Art & Sole: craft, tradition and Italian style meet canalside at Louis Vuitton’s Venetian temple to shoes.

Singular Beauties: Carine Roitfeld presents a portfolio of amazing women in film, fashion and music.

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BUZZ

FASHION

1. 2.

Shop Shape For those intending to face back-to-work month in style, Thomas Pink and Hugo Boss are here to help. Pink, the British brand famous for its shirting, has just opened its first freestanding Australian flagship, on 357 Collins Street in Melbourne’s CBD. Meanwhile. Hugo Boss recently relaunched its King Street, Sydney, store to include VIP rooms and lounge areas. It also now houses the entire suite of Boss brands available in Australia, so you’ll be set for boardroom-to-bar for the year ahead.

A Real Pearler

The laughing Buddha’s wisdom and happiness have inspired Paspaley to create Enlighten, a new collection featuring diamonds cut to portray the feted figure. It’s jewellery that will put an even bigger smile on your face.

Case in Point It’s little surprise Burberry Prorsum (they of the paperless office) have produced the ultimate tech-cessory for S/S 2013. Inspired by the new collection’s shimmering rainbow palette, these tablet cases will give your work wear a much-needed colour injection.

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FAÇON Style 2014

Ring Master Karen Walker fans will rejoice in her latest offering: heirloom-worthy fine jewellery, which celebrates that iconic piece, the diamond ring. While yes, that means a collection dedicated to classic engagement rings with a Walker twist, she’s also designed two other ranges. The first is a series of pansies, while the second focuses on wild flowers. “Our philosophy has always been to casualise luxury,” says Walker. “A modern way of wearing diamonds is with jeans and a t-shirt, but it’s not wrong at a cocktail party either.”

Bag It! Coach’s bucket bag from the 1960s has been recreated for S/S 2013 in parchment-coloured leather and neon highlights.

Jean Genie Entering the jeans market might have seemed a no-brainer for masters of understated luxe Jac+Jack. Not so, says its designer, Jacqueline Hunt: “It’s not an area we immediately felt was us but after a dressed-up spring I like the feel of something worn and washed.” Cue the label’s new corduroy and denim jeans. “There’s no stitch detailing or [visible] branding. The fit is relaxed but with a tapered leg that gives it a modern sensibility.” Sounds comfortable.

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FAÇON Lifestyle

Love.

Photography by Samuel Nolan

WE’RE STILL FIGURING IT OUT.

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“You believe in soul mates? Finding your other half? You like jazz? Charlie Parker … and Kurt Cobain. I adore Kurt Cobain. Nevermind, whatever. Here’s my number. I’d really like to talk with you, if you call, more seriously and … for longer, especially.” - Jess Blanch

very time I watch this scene, as played out in the Gus Van Sant directed part of the film, Paris, Je T’aime, I wish I’d said those words, or better yet, that they had been said to me. Besides the fact that it’s highly romantic, it speaks to clearly about the notion of love and our eternal quest for it. Forgive me for indulging in a little sentimentalism but this issue is dedicated to everlasting love; an ambitious attempt to revel in something close to each and every single one of us. Before you roll your eyes, you have to admit, it is our love stories that define us most. Sweetheart, family , friend – two

independent souls fusing, another life being as important, if not more than, your own. My tale of love may sound like a simple one – I saw him, I chose him and I stuck with him – but it’s what’s beneath the surface that is more interesting. Love can mean overwhelming passion, it can be sharing the incomprehensible nature of everyday life and it can be the dizzy fear of the thought of losing that person who answers all the demands of your imagination. A mutual understanding, based on past experiences, can bring pure joy and yet other times leave you feeling, well, more or less destroyed.

The people in this issue are all believers in love and through them we’ve tried to answer our questions. But like the man in this movie – who spoke these words to a stranger in the Marais unaware that he could not speak French – we’re still working out the language of love. The object of his affection said after he’d left, “I don’t speak French that well, he used a lot of phrases that weren’t in my phrasebook.” Perhaps the lesson is to keep your heat open, no matter how foreign it seems, but for today, what more can any of us hope for than say “give me these moments” and then hope that they last forever. ▲

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COCO, MARRIAGE ME

While researching her biography of Coco Chanel, JUSTINE PICARDIE emerged from a divorce and rediscovered happiness. Here, she reflects on how the life and loves of the fashion icon have intertwined with her own.

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FAÇON Feature

wo years ago, I wrote an article for this magazine about finding love the second time around after a painful separation. It was a declaration of hope that might have seemed dangerously close to tempting fate, although a great many women (and more than a few men) have told me since that the piece made them feel more hopeful themselves. So here I am again, throwing caution to the wind, with a progress report: and yes, reader, I married him. How many ways might this seem unwise? And yet, how wrong it would be to deny the beginnings that emerge out of endings, the unfolding of the most unexpected episodes, just when you think a story is over. If life has taught me anything, it is that the experience of past grief makes new joys ever more precious; to be cherished, rather than dismissed or subverted with cynicism. Love becomes sweeter when you have also known loss, just as sunlight is a delight after the darkness of storm clouds and rain; and with that knowledge comes trust and the faith to make a public declaration of commerce. And so it was that a dare was set for our wedding, invitations dispatched, menus discussed, plans unfolding with apparent ease. We knew from the start that my two grown sons would give me away and be our witnesses and that my teenage niece would be bridesmaid (Lola is the daughter of my sister Ruth, who died of breast cancer 15 years ago). The venue was a given: Philip’s home in the Scottish Highlands, where his great clan of a family has gathered for decades of celebrations and rites of passage. But for all my confidence about the richness of marrying Philip, I started feeling increasingly anxious about what I wear, almost as if the choice of dress was key of the occasion. Which is, of course, absurd: I had been blessed with finding love, so what difference did the trivial derails of a wedding gown make or the success of the enterprise? Surely I was too mature or worry about the

surface of fashion, when I knew that the health of the marrier contained a truth far deeper than a dress? But here’s the thing: the path of my relationship with Philip was threaded through the narrative of my biography of Coco Chanel, and vice versa, each mirroring the other. It is not as obvious as life imitating arc, more a case of Chanel’s life providing ways of illuminating mine, and both opening doors to the other. I had already embarked upon writing the book when my first marriage was unravelling, which doubtless intensified a growing awareness that Chanel’s triumphs as a couturiere did not shield her from the sorrows of loves lost; although perhaps her pre-eminence as a designer who understood what women want to wear, and how they present themselves to the outside world, arose also from the subtle patterns of her inner emotional journey. Hence, my reflection on the pain of Chand’s childhood- she was abandoned in a convent orphanage by her father soon after her mother’s death - came at time when I was suffering my own sense of abandonment. Indeed, the wintry days I spent retracing Chanel’s youth in the medieval convent of Aubazine, isolated in the remote hills of Auvergne in France, were in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of my marriage. I cried in the cold bedroom where she had slept; I nearly didn’t go to that dinner, after running so late that it seemed tempting to stay at home; but slipping into the little black dress at least allowed a swift change. It was quite demure -long-sleeved and to the knee and as easy to wear as the fluid jersey pieces that Chanel popularised from World War I onwards. But beyond that, the dress made me feel more myself again, and less the abandoned wife. Philip and I talked about Chanel when we met – a conversation that continued the next day on the telephone, and channel over another dinner, which led to his invitation to go to the Scottish Highlands. You

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FAÇON Feature

might think that the Chanel trail would not extend so far north but, two months later, we were driving across the same wild terrain that the French couturiere had travelled with her lover, the Duke of Westminster, after their affair began in 1924. Chanel’s relationship with the Duke went some way to healing her heart – they never married; but always remained warm friends – while adding an enduring element to her language of fashion. For in discovering Scotland, Chanel had also discovered the soft tweeds that are a continuing hallmark of the luxury brand today, as well as adapted the traditional country garb of a British gentleman in the chic gamine outline of “le style Anglia’s”. And it was through the Highlands, too, that Philip led me to a treasure-trove of hidden archives that revealed Chand’s salmon-fishing expeditions with the Duke, and or Rosehall, the Scottish mansion whose crumbling interiors still retain traces of her Parisian influence. Thus, the fabric of Chanel’s legend and designs - black dresses and white collars, tweed jackets and pearls seemed to come alive as I came to life again. All of which meant that when considering wedding dress, I was aligned to the significance of my choice, with more awareness than the first time around, two decades ago. As a young bride, I had worn a simple white linen dress by Nicole Farhi, with flowers in my hair; this time, I knew I could not wear white, bur nor did I want to follow in the footsteps of my mother, who had chosen a chic black frock for her wedding day in 1960. If a little black dress is the inverse of a long white gown, then I needed something different. I’d admired the simple elegance of a cream silk piece from the Chanel 2012 cruise collection, which had reminded me of early-’30s pictures from the Chanel archives in Paris. The dress fell below the knee, with three-quarter-length bell sleeves, and seemed the epitome of Riviera chic, redolent of the summers that Chanel had spent with the Duke

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of Westminster at La Pausa, their Cored’Azur villa overlooking the sea. But I wasn’t quite sure if it would translate to an ancient stone kirk in Aberdeenshire, or across the fields to a country garden party. The magicians in the Chanel Atelier agreed, and suggested that the original design be lengthened and so it was that I found myself in the couture salon on the first floor of 31 Rue Cam bon. I’d passed here many times before while researching my book, as its just in the side of the mirrored spiral staircase of Mademoiselle Chanel’s own design (“the backbone of my house”), which leads from the ground-floor entrance to her private apartment on the second floor, and then to the topfloor studio where Karl Lagerfeld still works today. But I’d never imagined that I might enter the inner sanctum of the fitting room to be measured for a toile, or return there for a second and third time, and finally see myself in the perfect wedding dress. It was trimmed with delicate raw-edged

words can say. In my hands, and my niece’s, were perfect little bouquets of Scottish heather and lavender from the garden (“in memory of my sister, who grew lavender in potts outside her house”). And in Lola’s lovely face was a reflection of her mother’s beauty, reminiscent of when Ruth was bridesmaid at my first wedding – yet here was my sweet niece, all grown up and entirely herself. Wedding like christenings and funerals, are a reminder of where we have come from, where we might be going to, and of the threads that bind families and friends together, through good times and bad. Mine was everything I had longed for, and more: chocolate cake, champagne and dancing; Scottish bagpipes and fiddles followed by impromptu songs from my friend Annie Lennox (whose grandparents had farmed on nearby hills); then even more dancing, with my sons as well as my husband. Night falls late in the Highlands in June, and dawn comes early; the dancing went on as the sun set, then rose again,

When I stepped into the dress, I felt all surface anxieties slip away, as if the cream silk were as soothing as a cool glass of milk. lace and seed pearls, cut close at the waist and hips, and then falling in a narrow sheath to the ground. The design had the same feel as one of Chanel’s satin gowns from 1932; yet, 80 years on, it also looked timeless: the sure sign of a true classic. Best of all, when I stepped into the dress on my wedding day, I felt all surface anxieties slip away, as if the cream silk were as soothing as a cool glass of milk. Once within its soft folds, I could stop thinking about what I was wearing and enjoy the emotions and pleasures of the day. I left the house for the church with my closest friends gathered around me and my sons at my side, their presence more reassuring than

my mother (not in black) whirling in a jig with Philip’s three sisters and Annie. Here was the fabric of my past and my future; here we laughed, with people who had also shared tears. Mademoiselle Chanel herself never wore a wedding gown, and she designed very few; one in 1918 for her younger sister Antoinette when she married a Canadian airman in Paris (and thereafter drank herself to death); and a handful of others in the ‘30s, for close friends. The white dress that most associate with Chanel was the one she wore to Sergei Oiaghilev’s funeral in Venice on 19 August, I929 (her 46th birthday); she had been summoned to her friend’s deathbed from aboard

the Duke of West minster’s yacht, The Flying Cloud, its white sails fluttering above the dark Venetian lagoon. The great maestro’s last request to Chanel and their mutual friend Misia Sert – was that the two women should be in white as they accompanied his coffin to the cemetery island, Isola di San Michele; a reminder that white is associated with mourning in some cultures, and therefore goes hand in hand with black. (“Love you in white,” Diaghilev had whispered to Chanel and Sere. Promise me you will always wear white”). Was it coincidence, or synchronicity, that when we arrived in Venice for our honeymoon, the boat took us past the island of the dead (the most peaceful of places, like the graveyard outside the church where we were married, where the stones date back several centuries and beyond). As it happened, I was wearing a black and white striped top as we skimmed across the inky water, sunshine on the waves: darkness and light, forever and always, very Chanel.

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CT FA

Eva Galambos, owner of Sydney boutique, Parlour X, has a sixth sense for the pieces her global customer base covets, discovers Clare Mclean.

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FAÇON Feature

hen Hedi Slimane took over Yves Saint Laurent in March last year, it was announced that his first collection for the house would be resort 2013. It was also revealed that the fashion press wouldn’t be invited to see it in advance. Instead, only a select group of buyers were allowed to view the collection. Pictures were forbidden; a look book was not produced. The result was that most people’s first glimpse of the Hedi Slimane vision for the newly renamed Saint Laurent was his S/S 2013 collection. But what of resort? Happily, the embargo has finally been lifted on the Instagram-denied pieces and yes, you’re even able to see them up close thanks to Parlour X’s Eva Galambos, who was one of the few buyers chosen to view Slimane’s first offering. Expect to see her in Sydney store classic Saint Laurent cuts and silhouettes, with a twist. “I’ve bought a couple of styles of black suiting with classic YSL pant shapes and smoking jackets as well as white tuxedo shirts,” says Galambos, sitting down with BAZAAR at her Paddington boutique. “There’s also some beautiful silk shirting with fine polka dots and a one-shouldered minidress with a white bodice and black skirt.” From this month, Galambos will have another highly anticipated line on her hands: Nicolas Ghesquière’s final collection for Balenciaga. “I’m really blown away about him leaving. I was Balenciaga’s first ready-to-wear Australian stockist and it was a huge deal to me,” she says. Nicolas

even came to visit the boutique two years ago with his boyfriend. They dicked in on their way to the airport and later he sent me a beautiful note saying how much he loved the space. I don’t know, how do you replace someone who has changed the face of fashion like he has over the last decade?” Without missing a beat, Galambos rattles off a list of designers who has managed to replace the irreplaceable – from Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen (“I actually think she does a better job”) to Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino, another brand she stocks. Indeed, in the 12 years since she opened Parlour X, Galambos has shown something of a knack for securing an impressive and unexpected mix of coveted brands, from Japanese labels Comme des Garçons and Junya Watanabe to UK-based print innovators Peter Pilotto and Mary Katrantzou. Perhaps the most rarefied of all is French label Azzedine Alaïa. “The whole point behind Parlour X is that I want every woman who loves beautiful fashion and creativity to be able to walk in here and find something they can absolutely love, so every brand I stock has to have a different genre, theme and aesthetic,” she explains. “It’s funny – my background is in wholesale and marketing and I remember saying to my clients, “You have to know your customer.’ Ironically, all the advice I used to give them has gone out the door because retailing in this particular space and area of Paddington is completely different to anything I’ve ever experienced before.”

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FAÇON Feature

For Galambos, that means appealing to a wide range of clients, from lawyers looking for beautiful weekend-wear to diehard fashion nerds, with an age range of 20 to 60. She has many regulars who live interstate, such as the very well-dressed woman who arrived during our interview to try an Isabel Marant jacket for a second time. “She and her two daughters come over from Western Australia to visit Sydney all the time and often come into shop,” says Glambos. “She was in two days ago and saw he jacket but wasn’t sure how much use she’d get out of it given the hot summers they have over there.” She ended up buying it. And then there are e-commerce customers and socialmedia followers. “Pre-collections are very important in my business and always will be, but because of social media there is an increased interest in show collection as well,” says Galambos. “For example, when Jessica Biel stepped out in S/S 2013 Isabel Marant a week after the shows, photos of her in their designer’s embellished jacket, pants and blouse went crazy on Instagram, with people saying

they wanted to pre-order her outfit and they had to have it.” A global market has thus opened up to Galambos. “We’ve just started stocking a jewellery designer called EK Thongprasert, whom our Russian clientele on Instagram just love. We recently posted a delivery and were almost immediately cleared out of our 20 pieces,” she says. Wait. Russian clientele? “Yes, we Instagram a lot of pieces that appeal to clients in all sorts of faraway places. We try to make the process of buying from us as easy as possible despite the distance,” says Galambos. She clearly relishes this period of change. “Just as lawyers have to keep up-to-date with new laws, retailers have to constantly update their systems and be open to the next new thing. Right now one of those things is social media,” she says. “And you know what? I never used to be a tech nerd, but after 12 years of retailing I’m falling in love with the business all over again – and it’s all thanks to technology. Who knew?” ▲

After 12 years of retailing I’m falling in love with the business all over again.

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Photograph by Samuel Nolan

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THE

GROWN UP GAP YEAR

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FAÇON Feature

Would you quit your job for a holiday? It could be the best decision of your life, writes Cassy Small. Photography by Samuel Nolan.

onday-itis might be a cliché, but it’s one that’s rooted in truth. Plenty of people Australiawide are plaintively banging their alarms at the end of the weekend, dreading the five days ahead. Welcome to adulthood, right? The notion of abandoning all responsibility, telling your boss to jam it and ticking some big audacious goals of your bucket list instead sounds too good to be true, yet a growing number of people are making an endless Sunday their reality and checking out of employment for extended periods of time. Traditional thinking would have it that this is a lazy and self indulgent thing to do, but career expert and psychologist Suzie Plush thinks that taking a sabbatical mid-career can be good for future job prospects and personal development. “After dedicating your younger years to getting ahead at work, by the time your thirties hit, you know there’s a little more to life. The experience and confidence you’ve gained over the years will be to your benefit in making the most of your time out of the workforce,” she says. Many of us jump from high school, to university, to the office without pausing to process what we really want in life. “Some big career decisions are made when we’re

in our early twenties and it’s normal for our interests to evolve,” says Plush. “A tremendous amount of emphasis is placed on what we do for a living. And not just doing it, but excelling at it. We end up leading very unbalanced lives, which is the first sign of burnout.” Restoring the balance is what led Louise Terry, 36, on a journey of discovery. Terry had a dream job as the marketing manager for Tourism Noosa but, despite living and working in paradise, after almost eight years in the same role she found herself restless and itching for an adventure. It found her in the shape of a 1976 Kombi van and a six-month solo road trip around Australia. “My itinerary was to head north and around. I had a rough idea on timing so I could avoid the wet season, but aside from that the trip felt intuitive,” she says. A similar yearning for change saw 40-year-old Charisse Soutar leave her highly paid position in corporate communications. “Professionally, I was satisfied but my job wasn’t aligned with my personal values,” she says of her decision to volunteer with the Red Cross for 14 months in Mongolia. Soutar transferred her corporate skills into her work in Mongolia, establishing a marketing and communications strategy for the Red Cross. She also spent much of her time working on

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FAÇON Feature

humanitarian projects to aid the population living in poverty. “From a personal and professional perspective, this is the best decision I’ve ever made. I’m already planning my next assignment.” Finding the perfect time to take your gap year can be difficult. Financial commitments, family and responsibility mean that, for many, a sabbatical will remain a fantasy. Financial preparation is essential, since the bills won’t stop while you’re away. “Ideally you should save the equivalent of what you would usually earn during a period you’re away,” says Sarah Riegelhuth of Wealth Enhancers. Preparing for unexpected expenses is also important. “We advise clients to have three months of their salary saved for emergencies. Keep a credit card handy, but use it only in emergencies,” she adds. Riegelhuth says that you should save as much as you can as soon as you can get used to living on less while you’re not working. “The reality is any time not earning, and hence not saving, will have some kind of impact on your long-term finances.” Preparation is everything,

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Plush advises. “This isn’t a split decision and it would be sensible to carefully consider the logistics by talking it through with family or friends. For some, uprooting your whole world can be challenging, so you need to know if you can cope with what this change will bring,” she adds. Debt and a hard readjustment period confronted Lilani Goonesena, 36, when she returned from a two-year stint volunteering with a climate change project in Vietnam. She left her government job anticipating that she would seamlessly slip back into the workforce when the time was right. Despite preparing financially, unexpected expenses and an extension of her time away drained her funds. Now, back home, Goonesena is having problems finding a job. “Employment in my area of expertise is harder to come by than I thought and the credit card bills are starting to mount. While I don’t regret my time away, I wish I’d saved more money,” she says. Returning to reality isn’t always an easy transition and Plush warns that depressive symptoms are common.

“Understand that there will be low days and that’s a natural stage to progress through,” she says. With home on the horizon, Terry put her faith in fate and was ready to explore casual and freelance work. However six months later when her pervious job became available, she made the decision to return. “Taking my job back required some thought. But I’m a different person now and I approach work with a new mindset and energy.” She satisfies her thirst for new experiences within the routine of a traditional career by regularly doing things that push her out of her comfort zone, such as running marathons and going on short trips. “Planning and preparing for these things gives me a sense of satisfaction similar to my trips and helps me stay inspired at work and excited about life in general.” On the other hand, Soutar’s experience helped her exit the corporate jungle entirely. Now she is pursuing a career in the not-for-profit sector. She’s taken a significant pay cut, she says the financial sacrifice is nothing compared to what she has gained. “After my

experience in Mongolia I could never go back to my old life and that voice in the back of my head is louder and clearer in directing what I’m doing.” Returning to the workforce is one of the biggest potential challenges gap-yearlings face. For anyone in their thirties, taking a significant beak from the workforce can be viewed negatively by potential employers. HR expert Karen Gately says that you need to be ready to explain your experiences out of work, and what you’ve gained from them. “Rather than saying ‘I need a job’ explain that not any old job will do anymore. You’re being selective and pursuing something aligned with what you’re now passionate about. There’s a lot of value in that for an employer.” The best way to take a sabbatical is to ensure that the blank spot on your CV is filled with a wealth of new experiences and a deeper understanding of where you are going. Ultimately, your goal should be to build a life where Monday mornings aren’t so scary. ▲

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