FRANCE: Stella Cadente shows her Spring/Summer 2008 collection amid Claude Monet impressionist paintings in Paris

Using young women who are not all models, Stella Cadente shows her Spring/Summer 2008 collection amid Claude Monet impressionist paintings. The world of fashion gathered on Tuesday (October 2) in and around the Garden of Tuileries in central Paris, between the Eiffel Tower and the Louvres Museum. The Museum of Orangerie is also there, where art lovers come all year round to view Claude Monet's impressionist paintings, the 'Nymphs' serie he painted between 1895 and 1926. The 'Nymphs' is inspired by Monet's pond in his residence of Giverny, Normandy. This was the ideal setting to present the fluid and glamourous Spring/Summer 2008 collection of Stella Cadente, a french fashion house set up in 1991 by Stanislassia Klein. Pink tutus, satin ribbon and floral motives gently matched the nature painted by Monet. Klein said she wanted to create a world where models could be imagined longing next to Monet's water-lilies and weeping willows. Vichy print and black heeled shoes referred to French actress Brigitte Bardot. But accessories like embroidered black stars and bakelite jewellery added a rock and roll touch to the collection while fluorescent make-up modernised the glamour girl. This was an unusual show, as models were posing in the middle of the museum with the audience walking around them. Buyers could approach models and check materials, and the public could take pictures. Every one was given a MP3 to listen to a gentle electronic music while walking in the museum. Klein says she is not interested in presenting a show where models walk back and forth. "I never do classic fashion shows. I have made shows in aquariums, zoos or circus, today in the Museum of Orangerie because I think fashion should lift us to loads of beauty and lyricism and I get really bored by straightforward shows where you go back and forth. I also do not use real models, there are real people, with, with their body and flesh, with shapes and thighs, things that made them real women," Klein said. Born in Paris with Ukrainian roots, Klein is interested in all kind of design. She has recently collaborated to the design of a new Skoda car, a chair with design house Kartell and a lign of lingerie with Rosy. She said women need to mix glamour and rock and roll attitude in today's world. "I think today's girls sleep with their teddy bears and wear a string pant and a leather jacket, it's not contradictory. I think that's what important, to keep the modernity and be down to earth. It doesn't stop us from dreaming and believing in Prince Charming in our violent world. We are also in a technological Middle Age so we women have to face a lot of violence, and also a lot of magic and poetry all at once, and I think they do represent this well," Klein described. Most pieces in the collection cost between two and three hundred Euros (US Dollar 280-425).

ITN Source | October 8, 2007

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