Les Jours Heureux-The Paris Summer Olympics 2024

This was the last week of a special exhibit in the Hôtel de Ville, the Town Hall, in Paris about the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

James Mayo, our 2009 Study Abroad French teacher, is here visiting and went with me to see the exhibit.

Olympic Rings and Paralympic Ajitos

Olympic Medals

Olympic Torch

At the heart of each medal is a piece of the Eiffel Tower. Have you heard that athletes are asking for their medals to be replaced? The medals, and especially the bronze medals, have been corroding rapidly. The Paris Mint determined that the varnish coating the medals is defective and is busy replacing them.

We were very excited to see the Dior dress worn by Axelle Saint-Cirel, a mezzo-soprano from Guadeloupe representing Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic. She sang the Marseillaise, the French national anthem, from the top of the Grand Palais during the Opening Ceremonies. Her performance and the dress were stunning.

Marianne Dress

We also saw the Dior dress worn by Celine Dion who sang Edith Piaf's Hymne a l'Amour from the Eiffel Tower. Edith Piaf wrote this tragic love song in September 1949 as a tribute to her lover, Marcel Cerdan, a famous French boxer and hero. The next month, she was in New York City performing and awaiting Cerdan's arrival from Paris when he died in a plane crash. Piaf was devastated and the country mourned the death of a hero.

Celine Dion's Dress

There were many pictures and videos from the Olympics and Paralympics. It was fun to relive the memories.

View of Léon Marchand
French Swimmer who won
4 Gold Medals and 1 Bronze

Olympic Mascot in front of
Place de la Concorde

The Olympic mascot creators were inspired by the famous Phrygian cap worn by French revolutionaries, which is a symbol of freedom. Les Jours Heureux were truly happy days and it was a fun little exhibit to see along with many proud Parisians.

Afterwards, we walked down rue to Rivoli towards the Louvre to the Tour Saint Jacques. This is all that is left from Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie church that once stood at the site. During the French Revolution, it was demolished and the stones sold. But the tower was saved because of its Flamboyant Gothic architecture and because the scientist Blaise Pascal conducted experiments on atmospheric pressure from the top of the tower. The tower is a traditional starting place for pilgrimages to Saint Jacques de Compostelle in Spain (Santiago de Compostela).

James at the Tour Saint Jacques

The name James is Jacques in French, so it is James's namesake tower. So of course we needed his picture at la Tour Saint Jacques.

Azzedine Alaïa

After the La Galerie Dior, Sande and I also visited the Foundation for the designer, Azzedine Alaïa. Alaia was a designer from Tunisia who came to the Paris in 1956 at the age of 21. He worked for various designers and in 1965 made the protype Mondrian dress for Yves Saint Laurent.

His Foundation, located where he lived and worked, had an exhibit, Lightness in Creation, of 20 Alaïa dresses paired with furniture created by the Japanese artist Shiro Kuramato.

Lightness in Creation Exhibit

Alaïa was a great collector and collected Kuramata's furniture. Kuramata died in 1991 and Alaïa organized an exhibit of his work in 2005. 

It was beautiful seeing the pairing of the furniture, which was light and often gravity defying, with Alaïa's creations.

Alaïa's designs were known for their very tight fit, skilled tailoring, and curve-accentuating seaming. He used leather and knits in inventive ways.

Unlike other designers, Alaïa normally stayed away from huge arenas and spectacles for the presentation of his collections. Instead, he kept to traditional, sedate salon showings where he strictly limited attendance and only presented a handful of garments. He showed on his own schedule, not conforming to the the timetable of fashion week shows other designers put on at the same time twice a year. He did not show a collection until it was ready. If he was tired out from a particularly successful season of high sales and the resulting heavy workload, he might not show at all the following season.

Alaïa's designs were timeless. The pairings with the furniture were beautiful. 

Alaïa said, "I only draw to jot down my work so that I don't forget. I make a pattern on calque paper, and I cut it out and attach it to a piece of paper with a pin. Then I begin working on a tailor's dummy, but I need a person for the fittings. Because a woman walks, her body moves, and I need to see how the fabric behaves on her." He tended to work late into the night and through to the early morning, with models, such as Naomi Campbell, there to try on the clothes as he worked.

I had visited the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation in February 2018, just a few months after Alaïa's death in November 2017. You can read a blog post I did then on my visit for more information about Alaïa. 

His studio is located one floor up, between his fitting room and his private living apartments. Since I last visited, a window was cut into the wall so you could see his atelier. It remains exactly as he left it, with the last dress he was designing on the tailor’s dummy.

Alaïa's Atelier

Today, Sande and I went to the Louvre to see their new Louvre Couture exhibit. It included a classic Alaïa dress that was part of his last collection before his death for Fall/Winter 2017-2018. The dress was stunning and timeless! A beautiful bookend to our day exploring Alaïa and his timeless fashion.

Alaïa Gown at the Louvre

La Galerie Dior

La Galerie Dior opened in March 2022 during the last time we were in Paris. Kate and I went in April 2022 just before we left Paris and we were blown away! It was so new and we didn't know what to expect. La Galerie Dior is in Christian Dior's iconic fashion house at 30 avenue Montaigne. Sande and Mike Krieger arrived from their boat in Turkey last week and this was on her list. I was surprised to find it was sold out for about 2 weeks, but we discovered that we could stand in line for same day entry.

Dior Boutique Window

Bags in Dior Boutique Window

We arrived at 11 am when it opened and there was a line. They estimated an hour wait and we were in by 11:45. So not too bad (except it started raining a bit).

Entrance to La Galerie Dior

The most stunning feature of the Galerie is the wall of color around the central spiral staircase. The blocks of color and the miniature dresses and accessories are a lot to take in!

The Apple TV series, The New Look, about Christian Dior and Coco Chanel during World War II and the establishment of the House of Dior in 1946 came out last year. I think it has created even more interest in La Galerie Dior and is worth watching before visiting.

In April 1946, Dior stumbled on a metal star in the street as he was on his way to meet with his financial backer, the industrialist Marcel Boussac. He saw this as a sign of destiny and he always carried this star with him. He was very superstitious and regularly consulted his fortune teller before making important decisions. As a child, a fortune teller predicted that women would make him a success and this prediction guided him throughout his life.

Dior's Metal Star
Found on the Street

He used a star in some of his designs and his successors in the House of Dior regularly use a star motif in honor of him. Dior opened his couture house on December 16, 1946, with three ateliers and a staff of 85 people. His first collection for Spring-Summer 1947 was presented on February 12, 1947. It included the Bar Suit, and the Corolla and En 8 lines that were much more feminine with a narrow waist, soft shoulders and a flared skirt. Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, declared “My dear Christian, your dresses have such a New Look!”

The iconic Bar Suit 1947

This iconic look has been reinterpreted over the years by subsequent designers at the House of Dior.

1950s Dior

1950s Corolla Line

Dior grew up in Normandy where he was surrounded by flowers. He was very close with his sister Catherine, who was 12 years younger. She was part of the Resisistance in Paris during the World War II and was caught and sent to a women's concentration camp in the Prussian village of Ravensbruck. Amazingly, she survived. Dior's first perfume, Miss Dior, was named after his sister and the flower theme was prevalent in his clothing and continues to be a theme.

1960

1960 and 1959

Field of Flowers

Yves Saint Laurent arrived at the House of Dior at the age of 19 as Christian Dior's first assistant. Two years later, in 1957, Dior died of a heart attack while on a much needed vacation in Italy and YSL took over as creative director. He was only 21!

1950 Picqué Ball Gown

2018

There was so much to take in at La Galerie Dior, both old and modern. The white coat below is from Yve Saint Laurent's first Trapeze line in 1958 and the domino coats are from 2018.

2018

1958

Pre 1960s Magazine Covers

A protype of each design is made in white muslin fabric. One room contained a display of these "first drafts." You could see the pencil markings on some of them noting changes to be made.

A man was busy in this room hand sewing a corset and told us he was happy to answer any questions.

Hand sewing a corset

The corset was to be hand sewn into the bodice of a gown and would never see the light of day. Yet except for the longest seams on the corset with the boning, everything he was doing was by hand. He was sewing grosgrain ribbon as an inside finishing along the top edge. It was a fascinating conversation.

Dior's Atelier

Towards the end of the exhibit we entered a room where we could take a much needed rest on a bench and watch and listen to the room change around a couture collection. It was serene and beautiful.

We had worked up an appetite by this time and luckily there is a café in La Galerie Dior. The star theme was everywhere in the café. We shared a vegetarian lasagne and a club sandwich-both of which were excellent.

Sande with her chocolat chaud

Star Coaster under my glass

La Galerie Dior is definitely worth a visit, even it you can't get a reservation ahead of time and must stand in line. We learned so much about Christian Dior and his genius and saw such beautiful haute couture.