Ladies, gentlemen and canines of the Whisperatti, it is my great pleasure to introduce to you today a new facet of The Clothes Whisperer, an ongoing project in collaboration with the lovely Delphine Hervieu of the blog Style Cartel: Style Whispering (hybrid of Style Cartel and Clothes Whisperer--still patting myself on the back for that one)The concept is a simple one: she's a slick Parisian with chicness deeply rooted in her very sophisticated bones. She walks le walk, talks le talk and doesn't take any of le crap de high street. I'm a tightly wound New Yorker with a hungry American consumer-driven attitude of mass consumption, basically shopping wherever I can and mixing high street, vintage and designer galore. I worship, to Delphine's put-together horror, at the shrine of all things slouchy and sloppy, and, if I do say so myself, exude a sort of laissez-faire I-could-care-less-coolness. Ok, enough massaging of the sartorial ego, the point is, we're two girls, with two different styles, hailing from two of the world's style capitals tackling one store, one brand, one designer at a time.
Blogging terrorists no more, we shoot on location in stores with the direct cooperation of the brands: out of the dressing room and into the light. Style Whispering is essentially the verb of the noun, the act of "whispering," of talking to clothes that are in shops now. The dialogue just happens to be three-pronged and bilingual.
So for our first Whispering venture, Delphine and I (both Notting Hill residents) headed on down to the Westbourne Grove outpost of cashmere magnate and hip French brand, Zadig&Voltaire.
Delphine, chattering away in French with the sales team, was immediately at home in her element. She beelined it for a pair of red cowboy boots and then hungrily devoured layers of printed sheer chiffon blouses tucked under sumptuous wrapped knits, to be topped off with just the one accessory--a scarf here, a hat there.
I, on the other hand, managed to pick out the edgy, grungy pieces smattered in amongst the lovely French ladylike bits. My favorite must-have which I have squirreled away on hold in the hopes that the gods will rain down exactly £415 into my wallet so they can be mine forever, was a pair of super soft black leather biker pants. I literally paired them with everything: distressed black cowboy boots and gold threaded red drummer boy jacket, cozy wrap sweaters over slogan-bearing tees, sparkly top and heels for evening--I was in wannabe rockstar heaven. And the bags. MMM, the bags. A metallic purple and teal python slouchy tote gave a casual charcoal knitwear day look an evening punch, and a goatskin satchel that is a boho wet dream. It was in fact the reason we chose to start with Zadig. I had crumbled at the sight of the thing, broke down, purchased it. When Delphine spotted my new little Goaty treasure, she asked me from whence it came and next thing I know, we have the whole of Zadig's delicious stock at our disposal for playtime. God I'm glad I don't see dead people, just clothes!
So I hope you enjoy the first of our whisperings, check back every week for the latest installment...click here for Delphine's version a la Parisian.
Photos by James Cocksey
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