The designer spotlight this week focuses on Philippe David, an artist and textile designer from France. Philippe designed fabrics for 6 Mandel, an elegant chambre d’hôte not far from the Eiffel Tower in the chic 16th arrondissement in Paris.

Born in 1961, Philippe received his diploma from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Appliqués et des Metiers d’Arts de Paris (Olivier de Serres) in 1985. He was selected by fashion designer Thierry Mugler to create prints for Mugler’s fashion shows, as well as for the fashion house’s Japanese lines and the bedding collection for the US market. Philippe moved to New York City and began doing work for the Clarence House; he has also worked with Fujie textile putting together several exclusive home funishing lines. These days he splits his time between Paris and New York, working on many diverse projects.

Photo of Philippe David by Céline Niezsawer

• Favorite restaurant: Indochine on Lafayette Street in New York City where he recommends the steamed fish in banana leaves.

• Favorite food shopping area in Paris: rue Montorgueil (a pedestrian-only street near Les Halles) and rue due faubourg Saint Denis.

• Favorite patisserie: Stoehrer on rue Montorgueil (the bouchée à la reine is divine).

• Favorite shopping area: the Palais Royal which has boutiques such as Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney and Didier Ludot (vintage classics).

• Fabric shopping: boutiques along the rue du Mail.

• Best vintage garage sale in Paris: in the 2nd arrondissement, the “vide grenier” on the 18th of September.

• Favorite holiday location in France: his small farm near Bernay in Haute Normandie (30 minutes drive from Deauville/Honfleur/Trouville).

• Inspirations: People watching in Paris and NYC; street fashion; the verdant lush natural beauty of Normandy, contemporary art galeries in West Chelsea and the Marais, students in his textile classes at the Paris Fashion Institute, his manufacturers’ great use of silks, natural fibers and pigments.

On 1 September 2009, Philippe is hosting a cocktail party in the Marais in Paris (on the rue Saint Paul) to kick off a month-long exposition of his work. On 23 September 2009, he is holding a cocktail presentation of his new collection of area rugs and fabrics in New York City (at TexStyle 200 Lexington, Suite #423). Find out more at TexStyle. Philippe’s work was featured in a TV show last fall in France: http://www.france5.fr/question-maison/index-fr.php?page=article&id=1880

Philippe David Dessins
251 Rue Saint Denis
75002 Paris
France
+33 (0)6 71 18 15 21
http://philippe-design.blogspot.com

- - - - - - - - - - -

Related articles:

6 Mandel: artistic, elegant chambre d’hôte in a 19th century mansion in Paris

Do you like APC and agnes b., but feel like fainting when you look at the price tags? I’ve been wearing agnes b. and APC for years. I love their modern take on classic French style, which means you can wear their clothes and accessories season after season without looking outdated. But during this recession, it’s hard to justify paying the prices these brands demand, especially in the US where I am temporarily based. So where to go for the same classic French style? Comptoir des Cotonniers.

Comptoir des Cotonniers (CDC) opened its first US store in New York City so you don’t have to go to Europe to find their clothes and accessories. But if you are in Europe, you must look them up. They have shops all over Paris (and other French cities), but also in Belgium, Spain, Italy, Britain and other countries. Their coats and dresses are well-made and their take on classics such as the trench and the A-line summer dress will attract a lot of positive comments. If you are in France, you can order from their online shop.

If you like my style, you will definitely like Comptoir des Cotonniers.

I am obsessed by beautiful blank notebooks, note cards, pens and pencils. Millimeter/Milligram from Seoul, Korea is one of those online boutiques I wish I could order from (they don’t deliver except within Korea). You may want to contact them to see if they have a wholesale distributor in your city. Here in San Francisco, you can find similar items carried by the Kinokuniya store in Japantown and in Maido at the Westfield Mall in downtown San Francisco.

I found this beautiful hanging book shelf system from a French online design shop called Design De Collection. It is a bookshelf called Piegato by German designer, Matthias Ries. It is a “laser cut and powder coated sheet steel delivered almost completely plain, which results in a simple and cost effective transportation. The customer then bends out the required amount of shelves from the plain and mounts the hole rack with just two screws in a few minutes. Due to the environmental friendly production, the freight size and the recyclability Piegato also holds a brilliant ecological balance.” It can support approximately 9 kilos.

For many women, the days of spending $40 on a bottle of foundation or $25 on blush are over, at least temporarily. Many of us are discovering the joys or horrors of shopping for cosmetics in the local drugstore. Unfortunately, the average American drugstore is hopeless: the choices are bewildering and the displays are utterly depressing. Cosmetics companies don’t make things better: one brand’s packaging looks like every other’s, until all the products from Maybelline to L’Oreal to Revlon blend into one another seamlessly along a sad, poorly lit wall . . . that is until you get to Almay’s new Pure Blends cosmetics (see above).

Almay Pure Blends stands out from the rest. Packaged like Stila (a more expensive brand sold in department stores and Sephora) in cheerful cream and pink colors, Almay makes us feel good about buying inexpensive beauty products in an otherwise very depressing time. While the other brands stick to decades-old packaging, Almay has decided, even during the deepest recession since the Second World War, to go all out and grab the customer’s attention. And it worked! I bought the foundation which comes in a small tube that is perfect for traveling. I also bought the shimmer loose powder, three eye shadows, blush and lip gloss. Here’s my review:

• foundation: small tube, perfect for traveling, beautiful lightweight coverage - better than almost all expensive department store brands I have tried; makes pores smaller, skin look smoother and glowing.

• loose finishing powder: comes in matte or translucent shimmer  - I chose the translucen shimmer because when applied over the foundation, it makes the skin gleam, not in an oily shiny mess but in a healthy way. Perfect companion to the foundation.

• powder blush: 3 shades of blush and 1 bronzer - gorgeous subtle color that you can build up if you want a more intense blush. I recommend the Orchid shade for darker skin tones and honey for lighter ones.

• eye shadows: sheer, natural-looking eye shadows that go on smoothly giving you more control over the depth and intensity of the color. My favorites are stone, steel and cocoa.

• lip gloss: very natural shades, easy to apply but the taste and smell are awful. I do not recommend this gloss.

In summary, Almay Pure Blends cosmetics (except for the lip gloss) are much better than most department store brands I have tried. The packaging is beautiful and portable for travel: small, compact and lightweight. Prices are very budget friendly: $14 for the foundation, $7.50 for the eye shadow, $14 for the loose powder, $11.50 for the blush and $8 for the lip gloss. I bought these products at a Walgreen’s special promotion (buy one, get one for half price) so it was truly a bargain. Many online stores are also discounting these products so do your research before you buy.

Link: http://shop.hardgraft.com/category/»-new-high-collection-«

I had just posted an article on Merci, a new store in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, when I found out that a new concept store called Hotel Particulier has opened in the 2nd arrondissement near the Rue Montorgueil (a pedestrian-only street filled with restaurants and food shops). Hotel Particulier is owned by Vanessa and Laetitia Roggwiller. It functions as an art gallery that also sells furniture, beauty products, perfumes from État Libre d’Orange, clothes from Gaspard Yurkievich and Kris Van Assche, and graphic t-shirts.

Hotel Particulier
15, rue Léopold-Bellan
75002 Paris
France
www.hotelparticulier-paris.com

- - - - - - - - -

Check out all of my favorite shops in Paris.

Fashion magazines became celebrity gossip rags showing starlets in Roberto Cavalli’s hideous (but expensive) dresses, where every square centimeter is covered with some kind of print or frutsel. TV shows like “Sex and the City” glorified the kind of  conspicuous brand consumption (Manolo Blahnik shoes, Fendi baguette bags) that only someone with a six-figure salary could afford (definitely NOT the Sarah Jessica Parker character on the show). Right before the world’s economic system entered its intensive-care phase, women found themselves unquestioningly paying over $1000 for handbags. I remember the good old days (in the 1990s) when a handbag that cost between $500 and $1000 was considered extravagant.

I need to dial back to the 1990s to remember with fondness the beauty and elegance of Sergio Rossi’s shoes before Gucci took over the company. Gucci Group, led by Tom Ford and Domenico de Sole, wrecked Sergio Rossi. Gone was the original Rossi family, making gorgeous shoes for stylish women. What filled the shelves of Sergio Rossi boutiques were extremely high-heeled, vulgar creations that one would associate with high-end hookers (basically the style of the “new Gucci” as reinvented by Tom Ford). I stopped buying Sergio Rossi shoes after Gucci Group took over the company. Recently, they’ve shut down the US stores of Sergio Rossi. Although my bank account was very thankful to the Gucci Group for making Sergio Rossi’s shoes unappealing, I am saddened by the demise of this great brand (and the family’s exit from the business).

That’s why I was thrilled to see the 2009 fall collection from Jil Sander, the fashion house founded by (the still active) Jil Sander (now designing for Uniqlo). The designer at Jil Sander is Raf Simons, a Belgian whose clean, simple elegant lines bring fashion back to where it has always been, at least for me. These are clothes (see below) that anyone from the ages of 18 to 85 can wear.

The Financial Times Weekend edition (March 21-22, 2009) published an article entitled “Fashion for Grown-Ups: Do this season’s favorites work if you’re over 25?”, to help women out of their teenage years select clothes that don’t make them look like teen pop idols or underage Las Vegas call girls. This is how low the fashion industry has gone, but now that people have much less money, they will be much more critical about how they shop.

There are a few fashion houses that still create clothes, shoes and accessories which make women look beautiful, dignified and confident:

(1) Jil Sander (see above): expensive but if you are going to spend these sums of money on clothes, it’s at the top of the list.

(2) Max Mara and Sportmax: less expensive, although still pricey, they have never wavered from their dedication to quality and style. They still make the best coats.

(3) Agnes b.: French fashion house that does not advertise in magazines, has a few stores around the world, much more affordable than Max Mara and Jil Sander.

(4) Bally: you can still find beautiful shoes and bags although this Swiss company is dangerously skirting the edge of vulgarity in their drive for more profits. This is one company that could end up in the Roberto Cavalli/Gucci camp of vulgar accessories and clothes.

(5) Lanvin: thank heavens, Alber Elbaz is designing for them. Elbaz is supremely talented and his clothes make women look alluring, not cheap.

- - - - - - - -

Here is my graveyard of fashion houses that used to make decent clothes and accessories, but have gone over to the Cavalli mentality of sticking more ornamentation and prints to distract the lady from the fact that she is paying lots of money to look sleazy:

• Sergio Rossi
• Chloe
• Celine (when Michael Kors was designing for them, it was wonderful)
• Gucci shoes and bags (became much worse under Frida Giannini if one can even imagine that)
• YSL (I don’t think Stefano Pilati comes close to the late Yves Saint Laurent, regardless of how much the fashion magazines fawn over him)

Merci
111, boulevard Beaumarchais
75003 Paris
France
+ 33 1 42 77 10 38

- - - - - - -

Go to the reviews of Mapplr’s favorite hotels, restaurants and cafes in Paris (also on a Google map).

You can see from the title of this post that I can’t write advertising copy to save my life. After brooding for over ten minutes on how exactly to describe Strellson’s clothes, I gave up. Let me just start by saying that Strellson is my favorite men’s clothing brand. Every time one of my male friends asks me where he should buy clothes, I say Strellson. The problem is it’s not widely available (perhaps that’s a good thing too because I don’t want them to go mass market).

Strellson is a Swiss company based in Kreuzlingen that makes beautiful, wearable clothes for men. They have a more formal office line of suits and shirts, but their design really shines in their more relaxed collection of rough jackets, shirts, and trousers. The quality of the workmanship (i.e the stitching, button holes) of the shirts exceeds what you see in other men’s clothing brands. They use good fabric and they do not design the same old boring stuff that comes from the previous century: old-fashioned Brooks Brother’s type shirts and jackets, faux English upper-class hunting wear, preppy Great Gatsby sportswear.

Strellson is indeed very modern but they don’t go to extremes, nor do they slavishly follow trends (such as the hideous low-rise jeans and drainpipe trousers that are the scourge of the modern man looking for something good to wear). Arnon Kohavi, co-founder of Shopplr, visited Strellson’s recently opened Berlin store on Münzstrasse 8 and came away with two shirts that he now wears all the time. This is a guy who hates shopping, not because shopping is horrible in and of itself, but because you can’t find decent clothes unless you are shaped like a teenage male model (thin legs, thin arms, no waist), or you want to look like a suburban dad (sloppy baggy trousers, large baggy t-shirts).

It’s hard to believe that Strellson hasn’t made a bigger splash here in the US where men are just screaming for beautiful wearable sporty modern clothes that take them beyond the Brooks Brothers-Ralph Lauren-Tommy Hilfiger triumvirate, but which do not force them into looking like hip hop hoodlums.

Strellson
Münzstrasse 8
Berlin, Germany
www.strellson.com

- - - - - - - -

Go to Mapplr.com to see our Berlin favorite restaurants and hotels.