In Paris we are letting off the pressure of whatever we do and how our lives have taken us to here. I am playing with Azzedine and Grace over cocktail time as only old friends can do. Artists when at the cafes would have sketched this moment,

I have my I PAD.

Every great city has its premiere Café and in Paris it is here, Café Procope.

This restaurant in St. Germain des Prés has had many famous diners like Voltaire, Rousseau and the theatre of the Comedie Française as well as politicians like Napoleon. Named after the historian Procopius who wrote the scandalous

Secret Histories, the Italian Francesco Procopio Dei Coltelli opened this café

in the 17th Century. I like to think that this helped its success.

Here the modular shelving system Pierre Paulin designed for François Mitterand

in the 80’s.  He used to describe himself as “continuing to work for the power”.

This means that art and beauty have always contributed to support the vision

of great leaders.

 While the architecture is unchanged, the Presidents of France, at least in their private apartments have enjoyed the Avant-garde. Pierre Paulin designed the private residence of Claude and Georges Pompidou in the Elysée in the 70’s. The famous pumpkin chair with its pouf was reedited in 2008. This year the other chair and pouf will be reedited. These photographs are original from the Elysée as are the photos from Paulin’s own collection.

With the stairs of Trinità dei Monti at its right, the cafe Greco is THE stop for coffee or just for the experience of being there. For 250 years this cafè founded by a Levantine person – Greco -, artists and writers have had their coffees here, Goethe, Stendhal, Leopardi, D’Annunzio…, so sitting and enjoying the atmosphere of these rooms makes me think of all the great personalities who have been here. I wonder also why it is foreigners who start the cafes? The Greek in Rome; the Italian in Paris? Curious.

 I had never been to the Quirinale before, the amazing house built by

Pope Gregory VIII as his summer residence. This building has so much art, sculpture and tapestries from the Renaissance it is hard to imagine it as a summer house.

And that the Vatican was not enough for the Popes! The mansion sits on the highest hill in Rome and looks out over the city. The Hill of Quirina is one of the seven hills on which Rome was built. It is said that the gardens here have the ruins of temples to the Dioscuri, the twins Castor and Pollux. One mortal, one immortal. Just like Rome.

For six years now, the President has been hosting the Leonardo Awards for the excellence of Italy. The Leonardo Awards were created to honor people and companies whose work has helped to promote Italian products around the world.

This year Piero Antinori received the first for his wines that his family has made for

400 years. His three daughters now also work in the business and I think this is worthy of mentioning. President Giorgio Napolitano hosted a light lunch and all of us were happy to meet a great man working so hard for Italy.

One new year ends in the Occident and another starts in the Orient!  So many new things happening for 2012 in both the east and the west for us.

This month we started CU@10CC in Milano for the new year and starting in March 15th we open our new spaces in Tokyo with CDG at DSMG, then, on March 30th we open at AvenueL in Seoul – So if this is the Dragon year for good luck and fortune, I hope he visits us while we are getting ready.

See you in Asia!

 

The lunar new year starts now and all the celebrations to bring wealth and happiness and longevity are starting all over Asia.  This is a special year 2012, it is the dragon year of luck and good fortune. Dragons are found on many beautiful embroidered silks from China but only the emperor could have a dragon with five toes on his robes.

 This year is also called the water dragon year and the magic is that in this year you get back all that you have given.  And since it is true that it is the giving that is always the gift, I give to you all the best wishes for a wonderful dragon year!

“Today is your birthday! Today is my birthday too!”

…the song of the Beatles is a  perfect interpretation of the meaning

of a birthday party – everyone gets to have a wonderful time.

No matter whose birthday it is!

Dinners at Alaia’s kitchen are always a great moment for me in Paris.

People are always surprising Alaia with visits during the shows

and always a dish is ready for them in the most welcoming atmosphere.

Here my sister Franca and her son Francesco enjoy a moment at Alaia’s table.

Another surprising collection by Rei Kawakubo. This season’s menswear show  really underlines her choice in naming her brand Comme des Garcons at the end of the 70′s.

The “Men’s” Collection was not for men, or women for that matter… just an amazing series of shapes that suit both sexes in striking ways.

A grand moment at Milano men’s fashion week with the theatrical environment at Prada’s show. Each show she does is always presented in a surprisingly new installation, this time on a giant red carpet.

Her “Red Carpet” meaning perhaps the end of the tyranny of the black tuxedo

at Oscar night?

With Adrien Brody, Gary Oldman and other great movies stars showing some really delightful new formal wear en situ.

In time for Paris Men’s Fashion Week, 40 original L’uomo Vogue cover pictures went up for auction at Sothebys to raise money for the United Nations, of which Franca Sozzani is the goodwill ambassador for fashion.

The bidding was lively for this good cause with the Francesco Carrozzini picture of Keith Richards reaching the highest bid of the evening.

I am here in Paris trying to send photos from the I Pad to the office and I find this wonderful app!  All color and shape changing – creating a kaleidoscope effect from the ceilings of the office in Paris.

 It takes my mind into hundreds of different directions like the psychedelic 60’s, only now with a button.

 

 

It is not a Blade Runner panoramic space but

the new 10 Corso Como at Lotte Avenue L in the middle of construction!  In six weeks we will open to welcome visitors to a 10 Corso Como World – maybe with construction hats with the Corso Como logo?  A lot of work to be done!

 

 

It is all in the bag! Not always true, but packaging has such an important meaning.

  At 10 Corso Como, since our package is also our logo and also our name and all designed by Kris Ruhs.

Here is a new interpretation of the 10 Corso Como iconic logo into the packages

for 10 Corso Como at AvenueL opening in Seoul in March 30^th.

This week preparations planned in 2011 are now starting to grow in earnest in 2012 as we see another new fashion season approaching. Milano is hosting Men’s Fashion Week and many visitors are in the city these days. It is always interesting to see Milano with foreign eyes and appreciate this city and its treasures again. I have never understood why because there is great business to do here in Milano, many don’t even try to know or understand the magic of our past and present, so here are some of my favorites.

 The first and sometimes only image people remember is The Duomo. Like a confection rising up from the piazza with a view from its roof across Central Milan, this image is celebrated around the world. And the most celebrated opera house in the world, La Scala, is nearby.

Another architectural masterpiece rarely visited is Giò Ponti’s skyscraper conceived by him for the Pirelli Company as a symbol of the economic miracle Milano went through recovering from the devastation of war. It was this period that reinforced the Milanese sense of business and industry that has been our reputation since the Dukes of Sforza in the Renaissance. A visit to the 31st  floor now open to the public is a great discovery of Giò Ponti’s vision of the Belvedere and his “metaphor for the infinite urban horizon” of civilization.

It is a must to find some time to visit the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Founded by Cardinal Borromeo in the 17th century, his library has an important collection of manuscripts including a Codex of Leonardo Da Vinci. Borromeo also collected art and started a university for Doctors where study and culture joined. Raphael’s cartoon, and Botticelli as well as Titian are in this collection. Here in the pictures three drawings by Leonardo, articulated wing, inclinometor, parachute.

Milano is the capital of industrial design, true, but continues today to be a leader in fine arts. To balance the beauty of the treasures of Brera with Piero della Francesca and all the Italian masters, the new Museum of Novecento is an impressive witness to the history of Italian art in the 20th Century from the “Futurism” of the past to the art of the present.

Maurizio Cattelan who lives in Milan and New York now has a large retrospective of his work in the Guggenheim in NYC. Last year his sculpture L.O.V.E was installed in front of the Milano Stock Exchange. It caused some comments, as art does. Here his colouring and activity book.

It might sound strange but a visit to Cimitero Monumentale is a real discovery. It is a very large cemetery conceived at the time of unification in the middle of the 19th Century. Since then it has become a who’s who for the architects and sculptors of Italy from modernist to classical with size and composition all demanding attention as you walk around. It even has its own museum and tours. Here in the picture a tomb sculpture by Arnoldo Pomodoro, 1969.

At a walking distance from the Monumentale, at the entrance of the inner city, since 1880. Antica trattoria della Pesa has served Milanese the best risotto “al salto” (fried) in town. The name of La Pesa comes from the weights (pesa) used to calculate the taxes on merchandise being brought to markets, including the salt from the coast, a very expensive commodity traveled on horse carts with armed guards during the Renaissance. Another curiosity at La Pesa is that Ho Chi Minh lived here, after he came from Paris where he was chef patissier with Escoffier.

As winter’s weather brings slow evenings, I am thinking that changes begin with each of us. I wish I could see the changes that will come and what 10 Corso Como will prepare to welcome them. With all the new talents in photography, fashion and design to keep an eye on this year it is a gift to work at what I truly enjoy.

Seeing the eyes on the IT book on my desk reminded me of a classic from the 1970’s, The Eyes of Laura Mars. A thriller with Tommy Lee Jones, Raoul Julia and Faye Dunaway. The movie used the photographs of Rebecca Blake. She did much like Helmut Newton….very erotic slightly dangerous pictures and she could see what was going to happen next!

 This photo of Swedish born American sculptor Claes Oldenburg was taken by Hannah Wilke, a sculptor and artist with whom he traveled and shared studios in New York.

His eyes and words join together.He knew the meaning of changes.In the ’70s he said, “Everything I do is completely original-I made it up when I was a little kid”.

The International Times (IT) was part of the London Revolution. This famous underground newspaper lasted only 205 issues. With writers like Burroughs, Ginsberg, Germaine Greer – and interviews with celebrities like

Pete Townsend and Pink Floyd, it is easy to enjoy. The graphics are so strong that the eyes are captured instantly.

 ”So I think So I paint”. This biography of  Fortunato Depero never leaves the table next to my desk. Writer, sculptor, painter, toy maker and costume designer,

he was above all for me the best graphic designer. This famous book is 234 pages of his manifesto for Futurism for the Universe.

The ideas of Depero became real in every day living.He designed the Campari Soda bottle still used and changed the style of advertising visuals forever.

His work is now in the museum he founded in Rovereto.

This COPPA DI BRIVIDI ad in 1931 is the perfect illustration for cocktails.

CU@10CC will open next week. Already it can be seen as a wonderful addition to the evenings at 10 Corso Como. Cocktails, tapas dining and some warm sounds every Thursday evening with Natasha Slater will chase the chill out of winter.

Perhaps this is the reason I started thinking about eyes this week.

The New Year opened here at 10 Corso Como with this painting of a new smiling face and very bright eyes I have found on my desk as a present.

I think he is looking to a positive optimistic beginning of the year. How lucky we are to be able to see the talent and enjoy these changes.

The best things we do in life are made with love. For the New Year, more love of the challenge to create, to explore, to pioneer and to question. Everything must come from the heart- this love sparks life for me for the New Year.

Photographer Bruce Weber brings so much emotion and thought again in this, his

11^th  book from his All American series he publishes every Christmas season.

The poem by Leonard Cohen inside “There is a war”, and the clarity of his photos,

so truthful, of the homecomings of soldiers is a great beginning of the year. And the book ends with Bruce’s essay on “Remembering Elizabeth Taylor” and is particularly touching as a woman who loved life and helped others also.

An inviting cover for a superb book, made with love by perfumer Frederic Malle.

11 years ago his vision as Editeur de Parfums allowed the artistry of the perfumer the freedom to construct new scents without constraint. Each perfumer became a “fragrance author” and Malle their “publisher”. With a preface by Catherine Deneuve and illustrations by Konstantin Kakanias, this book is different

from all others on the subject of scent.

Francesco & Sara: there is a special bond between these cousins – here looking at presents on Christmas Day. They are closer with each other than any other relationship in or out of the family. Always confiding in the other; care.

Best friends with the same blood; and no conflicts.

In an era where recycle-reuse-reinvent has become finally a conscious problem for the whole world, there is a lot of nostalgic feeling for something we will never see again – the naive paper dresses which were so popular in the 60′s. Invented in 1966 by Scott Paper Company as a marketing idea, the classic A style was as popular as t shirts today. Whether they were really made from paper or nonwoven cellulose and paper, they are great souvenirs of disposable dressing! I couldn’t help but be fascinated by this all over pattern of a cat featuring a giant photograph  on this poster dress,and hang on my wall just  in front of my desk.

Warhol was of course immediately attracted! Paper dresses perfectly embodied the spirit of Pop Art. He hand painted himself only two dresses now in the Brooklyn Museum. Scott Paper and Warhol inspired Campbell Soup Company in 1968 to offer the Souper Dress as a promo. This time it was the soup company that made the spoof of Warhol.

Today the Souper Dresses are very collectable .

It is a tradition to start cleaning drawers at the start of the New Year. These red Kuramata rotating drawers are all empty and ready for some new year’s energy. First thing in…the new red packaging designed for the 10 Corso Como opening in AvenueL in Seoul in March.