Paris notebook: handmade jewellery from Medecine Douce

Paris is packed with tiny boutiques selling the kind of jewellery that I love - delicate but not too girly, made of decent materials that won't turn your skin green and it's all small businesses selling products they like at reasonable prices.
But although we went in to quite a few of these boutiques, I didn't really see anything that made my heart beat that little bit faster, nothing that triggered a totally illogical desire to buy something entirely ornmental with no real purpose.

Jewellery is different in this respect from most other fashion items. It really is pointless. Shoes, however ridiculous, do serve a function, as do clothes, hats, bags, wallets... but not jewellery.

For my grandmothers, jewellery - proper jewellery - was a real investment. That was its secondary purpose beyond the ornamental. And the best pieces were saved for special occasions. But most women I know don't buy jewellery like that any more. I don't really wear much jewellery on special occasions - it's usually just a great dress with minimal additions. And I certainly don't have the kind of money that would stretch to even high-end costume jewellery of the kind that retains value.

I grew up surrounded by cheap costume jewellery as a result of my grandpa and uncles' jewellery wholesale business. Going to their warehouse was a bit like visiting Aladdins cave, except everything was neatly organised into cardboard boxes labelled in black marker pen with my grandpa's distinctive small caps handwriting. I still have some boxes he labelled as it's one of my strongest associations with him. He was an amazing person to be around as a child and I was thoroughly spoiled. I used to love wearing loads of cheap jewellery. It was fun, and experimental, and quite freeing to just be able to wear it all at once.

However, as a result of this early glut of sparkle, I am now very picky about jewellery. So back to Paris, where the jewellery was lovely but failed to be lovely enough... and then we walked into Medecine Douce (I'm sure that name sounds much better when pronounced properly in French and without the unfortunate Anglophone echoes).
Founded by Marie Montaud in 2000, Medecine Douce moved to Paris in 2007 to occupy its current space designed by architects Flavia Fabbro and Philippe Delannoy.

The shop (image via bijouxmedecinedouce.com)

The MD shop, just off the Canal St Martin, takes up the left hand side of the space and is about the same size as most jewellery boutiques. It's pretty enough, but right next door is the workshop where you can watch people hand making all the pieces. Which is a brilliant idea because for people like me who love that shit it makes it much easier to fall in love with the jewellery. And fall in love I did, with two necklaces from the Faust range. I can only find images of the collar necklace and the bracelet, but the long necklace was probably my favourite of the lot.

Collier Faust by Medecine Douce - 95,00 €

Bracelet Faust by Medecine Douce - 80,00 €

And yet I walked away. Realistically this was because I  had already carefully budgeted all my money for goats cheese and pain au chocolats (food always wins for me I'm afraid). But a week and a half later the necklaces are still haunting me.

There is an e-store but I'm a goofball so I'm going to wait until I can go back and walk in and lay down cold hard cash. It's better that way. Also, there's an incredible bakery and a Maje outlet shop just up the road...

You, however, should definitely visit the e-shop, unless you're lucky enough to live in Paris already. They have some beautiful fine jewellery pieces in the Beaurepaire collection at the moment.

Medecine Douce
10, rue de Marseille
75010 Paris
Monday - Saturday 11am - 7pm

I leave you with this thought for the day: Baby Stingrays!

Agent Provocateur's Film Noir inspired jewelry

I get regular, so regular they're getting a trifle annoying, email updates from Agent Provocateur whenever they release something new. I used to adore Agent Provocateur and I can't actually put my finger on why I have gone off them. There was just something that seemed wrong about the direction they were moving in over the past few years. It was almost like they were trying to shed their 40' does 50's does 60's burlesque skin and come out as some neon-clad (albeit scantily) Crazy Horse dancer from the 80s.
But now they appear to have moved away from that - the new ranges are happily far less Dynasty and far more Betty Page - and are trying to spread their wings and do something a bit more than underwear.
Agent Provocateur fans will, no doubt, want to stop me and huskily point out that AP has long done more than just outrageously desirable and expensive underwear that can't actually be worn outside of the bedroom (unless you are quite adventurous).
They started doing shoes quite a few years ago. But that made sense because knickers, suspenders, stockings and heels is definitely a good look. They also did some nightwear of the satin dressing gown variety and very tight and tiny t-shirts that could conceivably have been worn in daily life if you were desperate for the kind of attention that most expensive underwear lovers aren't really interested in. If you're wearing Agent Provocateur underwear, you probably don't need to advertise quite so loudly with your outerwear. Because really great sex underwear, as opposed to really great functional underwear, usually makes you exude an air of sexual confidence even if you are literally wearing a hemp sack or have the sex drive of a slug. I know this from experience. The swimwear also made sense - slightly less revealing styles of underwear suitable for playing in the water like a latter day Brigitte Bardot or going the Mrs Robinson route and seducing pool boys with a very strong cocktail in hand.
And there was always jewelery of a sort. The sort that included studs and spikes, nipple clamps, jewel encrusted riding crops and nipple tassles. Because, let's be honest here, you are not going to AP to look for anything subtle that could give your boring old LBD a new lease of life with a bit of tasteful sparkle, now, are you?
And yet, may I introduce you to AP's new 'film noir' inspired jewelery range. Still quite naughty - the designs appear to be going for a hareem girl chic although I have no idea what that's got to do with film noir - these are actually also quite wearable outside of the bedroom even if you don't have enough confidence to wear what is, essentially, boob reins disguised as a necklace.

Hareem Body Necklace - £260

Hareem whip ring - £125

Hareem earrings - £100

 In fact I think the whole 'film noir' thing is nonsense. This is all more Liz Taylor as Cleopatra or Salome or something late 50s, epic and possibly a bit sexed-up biblical isn't it. They even have schackle inspired necklaces and bracelets. Actually these might be a really good way of getting nice jewelery and something to use to tastefully re-enact that infamous Princess Leia as a slave girl thing in one go.

However, at the more wearable end of the range, I particularly like the triumvurate of latin inscribed rings and bracelets. In gold, brown and black, each colour has a corresponding insrciption. I like the brown one, even if it is very cheesy - "Love conquers all things: let us surrender to love." Black is "Make me chaste and pure, but not yet!" and gold is "Kiss me with a thousand kisses". They're also fairly reasonably priced - £50 for a ring and £80 for a bracelet.

Latin Tri Ring - £50

Latin Tri Bracelet - £80

View the full range at the Agent Provocateur website.

Jewellery ideas that are a bit silly but I like them anyway...

I have found myself with a few spare minutes this week and am not quite sure what I'm supposed to do with them. There's not enough of them at the right time to do anything worthwhile that won't see me a/ hungover b/ wracked with guilt about how much I've spent or c/ trying to get home from Chiswick, so instead I have been rediscovering some old past times. One of those is reading proper books, which I have been trying to squish in to the tiny free moments I've had over the past weeks fairly unsuccessfully.
Now I have a bit more time in the evenings I'm racing through some of my favourite novels again. The stories in Gullivers Travels may no longer seem at all unlikely after months and months spent reading the depressing or absurd stories that pass for news in the newspapers every day but they are a bit of a relief.
I'm also enjoying some time to rediscover all the blogs I used to look at. Here are two of the silliest/greatest things I have seen on the blogs this week;

Stiletto x Eric Kayser x Mauboussin via viacomit.net
Some bright spark at Stiletto magazine had the idea to put a 7 carat Mauboussin ring inside a loaf of bread by master baker Eric Kayser and then give it away. Nice idea but surely a major choking/tooth shattering hazard? However giving this away to some lucky customer is certainly a good way to get people to come to your new bread shop in its opening week. (This is happening in Paris by the way. But of course.)

Chewed by Tuesday (can't remeber how I stumnbled upon this one)
Chewed by Tuesday is frankly a brilliant idea for people like me who like weird things. Created by Melbourne-based designer Vivienne Gibson and inspired by Brooklyn (the place in NY, not something banal) and stationery, the first range features only two pieces - a solid silver bic penlip and a solid silver bic penlid with a chewed end. Becasue who doesn't chew the ends of their pen lids. Well, JFK doesn't, but then he is very precious about his pens and would rarely sink to the level of the humble bic biro. 

(pictures from http://www.chewedbytuesday.com/)

At $250 each plus postage they're more than a little bit out of my price range, but I want one, if not both, very badly indeed.

Beyond the Valley jewellery special

So, a few weeks ago EDF and I were wondering fairly aimlessly through Soho and popped into one of my favourite boutiques, Beyond the Valley on Newburgh Street, to have a nosey around.

Beyond the Valley is a great place to find small labels and really different jewellery and, although they have an online shop, nothing beats a trip to the shop itself as they always have something new on their shelves. Every time I go in I come out itching to buy fabric and make things. Sometimes I even get as far as the buying fabric bit. Right now there's a small bag of creamy diamante studded tulle, the after effect of our last visit, staring at me from a bedroom shelf and making me feel guilty about having failed to turn it into something wearable. 

As ever, this particular trip flagged up a number of great designers I didn't know as well as giving me an opportunity to caress a selection of super soft, fine and witty cashmere knitwear by Kind, which always makes me happy.

Kapow Wow made me want to make things more than any other. St Martin's graduate Mia Morokawa creates crazy ruffled neck pieces that look stiff and hard but are soft to the touch and surprisingly wearable.

(images from www.kapowwowobjects.com)

Also by a St Martin's graduate (they do get around, don't they?) Momocreatura takes fairy-tale woodland creatures and adds some rather nasty gory touches. I loved the more than slightly macabre pierced animal pendants, brooches and bits and pieces. Bit too dark for regular every-day wear, in fact really quite creepy, but I badly want a piece none the less. 

(image via www.momocreatura.com)

But my lust-o-meter was really raised by Noemi Klein. Google might confuse her with the No Logo author, but I think I know which one I'd rather be friends with. 

I especially like her twig collection, which would go rather well with my twig horseshoe ring by Alex Monroe.

(images via Beyond the Valley)

Her bird skull pieces are also pretty awesome...

That's all folks.

Mode En Module

Liberty is my favourite shop in the world. No really. Just seeing it's lovely windows makes me instantly feel comforted. It's pretty much my Tiffany's, my safe place, the place I go when I hate the world and just want to be surrounded by lovely things.

I love the beauty hall, the perfume room and the Frederic Malle sniffing booths, reminiscent of that Pierre Cardin, 1960's vision of space age design.

I love the jewellery room with its glass cabinets full of lovely things by Alex Monroe and Vivienne Westwood and others, surrounded by lovely leather bags and the Liberty of London room full of ridiculously overpriced and pointless things. I love the wooden ballustrades and the thick carpet and the mirrored changing rooms and the haberdashery and the smell and the tea room and the mens department. I could live without the scarf room, but nobody's perfect.

Most of the time I avoid the first and second floors though. Because this is where the clothes are, and the clothes make me sad. Because I can't afford them. 

But a few weeks ago I let myself wander around until I found the Acne rail where I saw The Dress. This Dress to be exact.

(Acne Wise 1 A/W 09)

It had to be mine, despite the price tag. Not that much for a dress on the grand scale of things, but more than I have ever spent. However, I usually feel guilt when I buy new things, and I felt no guilt after buying The Dress, which I take as a good sign. 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had a nice chat with the sales assistant who helped me buy The Dress. Her name is Ann Nelvig and she is a jewellery designer. She's been working part time at Liberty's while establishing her own jewellery collection, Mode En Module, which has just launched online with a rather nicely presented website. 

I am a big fan of monochrome, simple layouts and moody photography, and the web site ticks all those boxes. Plus Nelvig's zinc plated and leather designs are beautiful, tough and organic in an Ann Demeulemeester-esque manner and worth a gander for anyone that way inclined. The cluster bracelet and ring are my favourites. Just remember you saw them here first.

And so it begins with a Bittersweets NY ring

We don't celebrate Christmas in our family. You have absolutely no idea how much resentment this has bred among us children, even though the reason why we don't celebrate it is an exceedingly valid one (we are Jewish).
For me Christmas had become, until relatively recently, a time I dreaded. Stuck at home feeling lonely, watching the same movies that are always on, eating our traditional egg and chip lunch, while friends received many extravagant presents, covered their houses in glitter and gorged on yummy stuff. I'm sure it would be different without my other-side-of-the-fence rose-tinted glasses, but I was particularly envious of the decorating and the cranberry sauce.
Despite all this, every year I assemble a rather motley Christmas wish list of things I know I will not receive as a minor form of self flagellation.

Here is the first entry for this year;

Bittersweets NY Baby Vamp rings. In silver please.

The past few Christmases have actually been lovely. I have been spending the dreaded day in Yorkshire with my lovely friend B and her lovely family and it has all been log fires and foggy walks in the woods with the dogs, stockings for everyone, excellent food and drink and, most importantly, Very Good Times.
Very Good Times make Very Good Memories, which are more meaningful than extravagant presents. Unless those presents are Chanel.
This year B is doing something amazingly altruistic in Cambodia, and I am very sad to be missing out on the Yorkshire Christmas. But I will be on a beach in Goa having a massage. So it's not that bad...