Shopping - Paris e-guide: The Travel Guide with its Own Website - page 85

East

18 F2

Bastille Fashion Focus
The 11ème tends to be associated with its nightlife
buzz, but a daytime visit reveals a hive of independent
fashion activity. One of the first young designers to
move into the quartier and open her atelier-boutique
on rue Keller was Gaëlle Barré (see p221) . This young
woman turns out finely tailored collections based on
mixing and matching prints. Indeed, her whimsical,
feminine creations (50s-style dresses and tailored
trench coats) frequently fuse polka-dots, stripes and
floral patterns, all on the same garment.
Fellow rue Keller pioneer Anne Willi (see p221 )
works with a much more muted palette of colours, and
natural fabrics such as linen and embroidered cotton.
The simplicity of her style and her reversible clothes
have been influenced by Japanese designers such as

Yohji Yamamoto, but the charm of Willi's collections
lies in the unusual details: halter-neck dresses tying
with straps that dangle pebbles down the back or
skirts decorated with criss-cross lacing up the side.
Continuing along the street, Des Petits Hauts (see
p222) is just what its name says - a boutique special-
izing in “little tops” of every imaginable shape and
colour. Styles range from casual khaki T-shirts and
basic jumpers to strappy sorbet-coloured shift tops
and sophisticated black evening-wear. On nearby rue
Traversière, Catherine Magnan's (see p221)
collections have more of an avant-garde feel - think
striped men's shirts recycled into women's blouses
and halter-neck patchwork tops. Her spacious tote
bags made from recycled leather jackets are a
sought-after Parisian fashion accessory.