Experience PARISIENNE

PARISIENNE is the essence of a woman who knows how to love and how to live. At the heart of YSL’s DNA is the empowerment of women, and true to this we believe that any woman, anywhere, can adopt the values of being a PARISIENNE. To celebrate the launch of PARISIENNE, and to encourage women to find their “inner PARISIENNE”, we have created www.ExperienceParisienne.com, where the essence of a woman and her PARISIENNE experience is shared with other women.

In this spirit, YSL is sending five renowned bloggers on a journey around the country to discover and reveal their very own PARISIENNE experiences in New York City, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Yves Saint Laurent has chosen an ensemble of women with passions for beauty, art, design, music, fashion and food to create a travel diary of their trip. Stay tuned here to read articles, see photos and follow the women on their journey.

Posts in Guest Blogger Category

2009: 12/03
Yves Saint Laurent
Category: Culture, Guest Blogger, Lifestyle

Apartment Swap | Elaine D’Farley of SELF Magazine

standsbytheseine_01

In the nineties, when I was a fashion editor at Glamour magazine, the Creative Director Cynthia Joannides took me to Paris to cover the collections. I had been before as an art student backpacking and roughing it. This trip was different. I saw Paris thanks to Claudie Rappaneau (the American Glamour French Editor) as a Parisian sees it. I saw it all, from Poilâne boulangerie to YSL himself. It was incroyable! Subsequently I did many fashion shoots in Paris and continued to go a few times a year.

2009: 10/26
Eva Chen
Category: Guest Blogger

City Favorites | Eva Chen of Teen Vogue

lamposts_hoteldeville

Ah, Paris! My favorite city outside the US, I try to go to Paris at least once a year to recharge my spirit—and closet! My first trip to Paris was when I was about eleven years old, with my family. We stayed at a small hotel off the Seine, whose name I have long forgotten, but it had a beyond-memorable view of the Eiffel Tower. I remember having tea at Mariages Freres, steak frites at Brasserie Lipp, and a Croque Madame at Café de Flore. And now, well over a decade later, I still visit those same places when I go to Paris. The thing is with Paris is that the city itself is like an everlasting memory—the places and experiences you love endure, but you can also constantly find new places to cherish!

Some of my favorite places in Paris include:

2009: 10/25
SunHee Grinnell
Category: Guest Blogger

Everything Sounds Better in French | SunHee Grinnell from Vanity Fair

So, why does everything sound better in French? Is it the accent? Is it the way it’s written? The way it sounds? Everywhere you walk around New York, there’s a French restaurant or store every few blocks. Just to name a few eateries that bring this to mind: Bilboquet, Sant Ambroeus (even though they serve Italian cuisine), Le Bernardine, La Grenouille, Adour, Bagatelle, Pastis, Les Halles, and Moutarde. I could go on for miles! Even peoples name in general sound better in French. Ordinary names become romantic and posses an alluring attraction. For example, David becomes, Davide (pronounced, Davieede), Peter becomes Pierre, Oliver becomes Olivier, Alexander becomes Alexandre, and so on. What is it about Paris that we find ourselves wanting to be Francophiles? I don’t know the exact answer, but maybe anything “Parisienne” is just chicer!

SunHee Grinnell | Vanity Fair
Photograph by Davis Factor

2009: 10/23
Eva Chen
Category: Guest Blogger

A Paris of Her Own | Eva Chen of Teen Vogue

ruemouffetardstreet

Luckily, there are pockets of Manhattan that help me recreate some of that Paris magic. Breakfast at Balthazar is a intimate, buzzy, small-world feeling, with delicious coffee and croissants. Shopping in Nolita recalls St. Germain for me—lovely small shops with great finds. You can spend a whole day wandering the neighborhood and adjoining SoHo, as in Paris! On the other side of Manhattan, there’s Madison Avenue, which is akin to Rue Faubourg St. Honoree—with all the glitzy shops, your credit card better be prepared! And just to show that Paris is not all about shopping for me, I’d recommend Central Park, New York’s answer to the Tuileries. Pack a picnic lunch from Citarella and head to Shakespeare’s Garden for an enchanting afternoon!

eva_chen
Eva Chen | Teen Vogue

2009: 10/21
Ying Chu
Category: Guest Blogger

Pedal Pusher | Ying Chu from Marie Claire

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed..

When it comes to getting around a big city—New York, where I live; Paris, where I love to visit—nothing beats two wheels. I’ve had my bicycle—a dusty-rose, single-speed Trek from the ’70s—in Manhattan for five years now. I ride it to brunch, to run errands, even to the office on an ambitious day (conveniently, there’s a bike storage room in the Hearst Tower, Marie Claire’s HQ). So when I was recently in Paris reporting a story that required back-to-back appointments from St-Germain to Montmartre to the Marais, I naturally turned to Vèlib, the city’s brilliant bike-share system (velib.paris.fr). With rental stations located every few blocks, all I needed was a sense of direction and a credit card (the first 30 minutes are free; it costs just a few Euros every hour thereafter). The bike comes with its own lock, rubber pedals that don’t scuff up my ballet flats, and a generous basket to stash my bag and my favorite French pharmacy wares (Créaline makeup remover, Biafine post-sunburn ointment, Citrate de Bétaïne—the famous hangover cure) that I picked up along the way.

2009: 10/16
SunHee Grinnell
Category: Guest Blogger
Tags: new york city, parisienne, travel

A Bit of Paris in Brooklyn, New York | SunHee Grinnell from Vanity Fair

arc

I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn. And a small part of reminds me of Paris, France. If you look down Eastern Parkway, the landscape and its architecture resemble Parisian scenery (fittingly so, as it was modeled after a classic Parisian Boulevard). From the tree-lined greenery dividing the sidewalk from car traffic to the short storied buildings, Park Slope has many Parisian sensibilities. Grand Army Plaza in particular is definitely our mini version of Paris’s monumental Arc de Triomphe. In 1867 designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux conceived Brooklyn’s version of the famous Parisian Arc, intended to mark a passerby’s grand entrance into Prospect Park.

Living and loving in the moment