Opening Night
(PARIS) "I think I got really lucky with this location," said Stella McCartney of her Palais Royal boutique, which she celebrated with a fête last night-even though the store opened in November. "I thought about the more obvious areas in Paris for years, because I've been wanting to open here forever. But you don't just show up in town at the Avenue Montaigne. You have to build your way there." Montaigne, schmontaigne-McCartney picked the coolest new shopping spot to tuck herself into, along the same row as Pierre Hardy, Rick Owens, glovemaker Maison Fabre, and Serge Lutens's Shiseido outpost. (Shoppers: Marc and Kitsuné are just a hop across the courtyard.) "This is a big deal for Stella," said Marianne Faithfull, as photographers dodged through the 1600-square-foot space like pigs hunting for truffles. Indeed, the night was big enough for Stella to debut a Cartier sapphire and diamond pendant her dad gave her mom in the '70s, and just passed onto her. "Only like one other person knows this was my mum's!" Oh Stella, people reveal things when they're shopping, and The Daily had just taken Faithfull for a spin through one of two satellite rooms on the lookout for party dresses, (" because all my old stuff doesn't fit anymore!" she said), and she reminisced about seeing the sapphires on the late Linda McCartney. (The racks being full of spring merch, there weren't enough sleeved dresses for the Faithfull-but she did fall hard for a grey silk blouse with a sailboat print.)
Unsurprisingly, especially for such a low-party week, McCartney had quite a turnout. Sir Paul and his girlfriend Nancy Shevell were in full receiving mode; François-Henri Pinault was practically glowing; when Catherine Deneuve arrived, some photographers dove at her and others ran away as fast as they could. (Hmmm.) They had plenty of other targets, though, in Stefano Pilati, Alexis Mabille, Lara Stone, Lily Donaldson (in bright red lipstick), Glenda Bailey, Suzy Menkes and Ines de la Fressange. Taking first prize for the night's ballsiest outfit was Natalie Rykiel, who was swathed in an enormous black fur. However, we weren't surprised to note animal skin was not otherwise a trend-that honor went to headbands. We counted six, in a crowd of about 50. Yes, that means 8.3% of attendees sported Gossip Girl-esque headwear. Daphne Guinness went flapper-retro from head to toe, so her rhinestone chains worked. But Sasha Pivovarova and two other guests, in identical gunmetal grey Chanel chains, did not team with a theme-and even with the tiny double-C's tinkling on their foreheads, it felt a little bit mall queen. Are we showing our age?
ALEXANDRA MARSHALL
