Chanel’s Chandelier

This chandelier, made in 1921, hangs in Chanel's apartment at 31, rue Cambon in Paris.

As part of my DIY Chanel jacket project, I’ve decided it’s high time to read a few biographies of Chanel, and I’m really enjoying the one I’m working on this summer, Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life by Lisa Chaney.

In a recent chapter I read, Ms. Chaney writes about the chandelier that Chanel had the crystal maker Baccarat make her in 1921, which still hangs in her apartment in Paris.

From Ms. Chaney’s book I’ve learned Coco was both superstitious and fascinated by symbols and had Baccarat include certain symbols in the chandelier that were important to her—metal figures of the number five (which she believed was her lucky number), B for Boy (Arthur Capel, her lover who financed her first boutiques) and double C’s for her name.

All of this has me thinking about my own personal symbols, which currently would include the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings, my two favorites in New York, a champagne bottle, an Hermès box (with a silk scarf inside!), my tiny black and white Chanel bag, the Eiffel Tower, a chocolate truffle, and a pen for writing.

I may have to  include nail polish as one of my symbols too.

I am terribly addicted to these truffles.

I am super picky about pens. This style has been my favorite for over 10 years.

What would your personal symbols include?

Don’t forget that for the August “How I Wear My” post, Adrienne of The Rich Life (on a budget) and I are going Chanel! If you’d like to join us, send me a picture of yourself in your Chanel-inspired outfit by July 31 at 5PM EST. I would love to include you in our Chanel party!

O’doodleDoo’s Donuts

I am visiting my family in Virginia right now and when my sister-in-law mentioned a little donut shop in Suffolk called O’doodleDoo’s Donuts, that made odd donut flavors like Blueberry Pancakes and Bacon, Red Velvet Cream Cheese, and White Chocolate Pretzel, I knew I had to check it out. I was not disappointed, this place is amazing! It’s a single location right off Bridge Road in Suffolk, Virginia, and if you ever find yourself anywhere nearby, you have to stop here!

Clockwise from top right: Sour Lemon Coconut, Chocolate Fancy Pants, Key Lime Pie, Maple Stripe.

O’doodleDoo’s changes its menus daily so the day we went we tried Sour Lemon Coconut (I love anything lemon), Key Lime Pie, and Maple Stripe. My son tried Chocolate Fancy Pants, which is easily the most beautiful (and glamorous) donut I have ever seen. Unfortunately he wanted it all to himself so I didn’t get to try it. I loved all three flavors I sampled but my favorite was easily the Sour Lemon Coconut, which had a perfect balance of sweet, tart, and coconutty!

One of my little assistants and the O'doodleDoo's Rooster.

I predict a return visit before we head back to Brooklyn. With so many nationwide chains these days, I love little one-off food places like O’doodleDoo’s. I find them special, inspiring, and wonderful!

What a gorgeous donut!

O’doodleDoo’s Donuts
1601 Bridge Road
Suffolk VA 23433
757-745-7323

DIY Chanel Jacket: The Fabric Swatches

For my DIY Chanel jacket bouclé I am turning to Mood Designer Fabrics, which has stores in Manhattan and L.A., and also a website. I have visited the bouclé section of Mood in the Garment District in Manhattan several times. It goes for the better part of a long aisle, shelves filled from floor to ceiling with bolts of the most lovely bouclé. Todd Kelly, one of the very friendly and knowledgeable staffers there, told me plenty of bouclé Mood carries comes from mills in Italy and France and is created by designers such as Oscar de la Renta, Marc Jacobs, and Carolina Herrera.

This fabric is available at Mood in NYC, but not online.

The three swatches I have narrowed it down to are all by Oscar de la Renta (I love Oscar!), and all are $40 a yard. I’m a little partial to the black bouclé shown in the last picture, with off-white threads woven in. Some of the threads are champagne-colored, some are dove gray. The effect is gorgeous.

I love the tiny sequins woven into this fabric.

This fabric is my current favorite.

Of course I want the jacket to be special and the fabric to be unique. I plan on wearing the jacket with jeans or black pants so I’d like to keep the color in the black or blue range. But because it’s my first time sewing a jacket of this kind I don’t want to spend the serious money I’ve read you can drop at a place like Mendel Goldberg, another NYC fabric store, where bouclé can run you (I read over at Frabjous Couture) $300-900. At that price I might as well buy a vintage Chanel jacket and save myself all the trouble. Which could still happen but until I’ve saved up that little pile of cash it’s DIY Chanel all the way.

Which of these three swatches do you like? And if you are sewing this jacket too, where are you getting your fabric?

MZ Wallace Hamish Stars & Stripes

I am normally not an impulse buyer, in fact I will even overthink the buying of J. Crew T-shirts (Do I really need another one? Can I find it on sale?), but when I got an email from MZ Wallace about this limited edition stars and stripes Hamish pouch, I couldn’t resist. It was on July 3 so I’d just posted “How I Wear My: Red, White and/or Blue,” and of course the 4th of July was on my mind, but that doesn’t entirely explain why I had to have this bag. I think it was also because of its practical size, great design, and perfect price ($25!). I have been using it even more than I expected, to hold my phone, keys, lip-gloss, Tic-Tacs, and a full-size wallet in my gigantic totes like my J. Crew Farmer’s market tote and my Louis Vuitton Neverfull so I don’t have to dig around in those bags like I usually do. I’ve also been using it as a clutch.

Louis Vuitton monogram and American flag stars: Two of my favorite patterns!

My silver Mae wallet is also by MZ Wallace.

I love only having to reach for this clutch to find my essentials.

Because of my military upbringing I typically have an allergic reaction to seeing camouflage. I practically break out in hives. I have never understood why anybody not in the military, especially women, wear camouflage, but I have to say, the packaging MZ Wallace sent the pouch in knocked me out. Because of my childhood, I have a soft spot in my heart for military servicemembers and their families and the camouflage bag with the stars and stripes pouch reminded me of the symbols I was surrounded by in my youth. It was perfect.

MZ Wallace is the NYC-based handbag design duo of Monica Zwirner and Lucy Wallace Eustice. Their bags are chic, functional, and affordable (especially on sale!) and I hope to add one to my closet this fall. If you are in the market for a bag, I highly recommend taking a look at the selection on their website. I don’t see the Hamish pouch offered there, but if you are interested in one, it might be worthwhile to email MZ Wallace and see if they have any left to sell. It’s a great bag for summer (and beyond).

DIY Chanel Jacket: The Resources

I don’t know about you but I need to have lots of nice inspiration around me when I am starting a new project or setting a lofty goal for myself. For my Chanel jacket I have found a lot of information online from generous and talented bloggers (listed below) who have gone on this path before me and I want to add to that body of knowledge by sharing with you a list of the inspirational and technical resources I am using.

The Books

CHANEL: Collections and Creations by Danièle Bott

I love looking at this book for inspiration, it shows different versions of the famous Chanel jacket in different decades. Apart from that it is a great book for any lover of Chanel.

The back of the book. Look at the gorgeous fabric of this Chanel jacket!

Coco’s favorite model Marie-Hélène Arnaud. By Sante Forlano for Vogue France, 1958.

CHANEL: The Couturiere at Work by Amy de la Haye and Shelley Tobin

I just bought a used copy of this book on Amazon and haven’t yet had a chance to delve into it but hope that I will get to read about the nitty-gritty of Chanel’s working methods.

Couture Sewing Techniques by Claire B. Shaeffer

Shaeffer has a whole section devoted to “Chanelisms” which I plan on referring to often.

From the section on Chanel jackets.

The Magazines

Vogue Patterns

Featuring the six-part series Claire Shaeffer is writing about sewing the jacket, based on the pattern she designed. This particular issue, August/September 2012, features the second article in the series, with a piece about fabric selection.

Vogue Patterns, August/September 2012.

Threads, No. 121, November 2005

This was not easy to find. Taunton, the publisher of Threads, is sold out of the back issues online so I turned to eBay. The issue I wanted eventually turned up after a two-week search. The article, “Inside a Chanel Jacket,” was written by Susan Khalje, whose online “The Couture Dress” class I took earlier this year on Craftsy. The article is wonderful but I have to say it scares me a little because I feel it is for advanced sewers (which I am not). Still, a great resource.

Threads No. 121 from November 2005.

The Videos

Signé Chanel

I am probably most excited to have learned about this documentary, made for the Sundance Channel in 2006. I had never heard of it before and it features something near and dear to my fashion-loving heart—haute couture atelier seamstresses. Oh how I love watching those ladies at work! I will do a separate review of this show in a later post. This was another eBay gem.

I'm getting a peek into the Chanel atelier watching this series.

Chanel.com’s “The Jacket”

Chanel’s quick video showing the seamstresses making a jacket is one I have already watched several times. I need to channel the offhanded confidence, not to mention technical know-how, of the head seamstress (herself in a Chanel jacket). And are Chanel jacket seamstresses really that good-looking?

You can watch this little black jacket being made on Chanel.com.

The Bloggers

Erica B.’s DIY Style

Seeing Erica’s finished jacket has been a big inspiration for well over a year and her sewing blog is one of my favorites.

Frabjous Couture

Marina took Susan Khalje’s Classic French Jacket course (which costs $1,195) and her posts and pictures on the class are fantastic, I felt like I was there. I plan on re-reading her wonderfully detailed posts as I make my jacket.

Restless Grace

Grace is the reason I found out about Threads No. 121 and Signé Chanel (Thank you, Grace!). She also lives in Brooklyn and said she is making the jacket using Claire’s pattern (V8804) too. I hope she will blog about her experiences. I also hope we get to meet and compare notes on our muslins!

Another Technical Resource: Mom

My mother has a lot more sewing experience than I do and it’s so helpful to be able to ask her questions. It’s a lot better than consulting my Vogue/Butterick Step-by-Step Guide to Sewing Techniques, or feeling my sewing dyslexia coming on (What are selvages again? How do I lay out pattern pieces?) and dissolving into a DIY panic.

Next time I will show you the three fabric swatches I’ve narrowed it down to. Until then:

Valentino Blue

Red, of course, was Valentino Garavani’s signature color when he was designing for his own house (and God knows I always love to see a Valentino red dress), but be still my heart for the midnight blue that Valentino co-creative directors Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri showed last week during the Paris couture shows. I really love the direction they are taking Valentino, it’s true to the heritage of the house and yet they are starting to find their own way too. Their Valentino seems very ladylike and beautiful (qualities Mr. Valentino has always believed in), yet modern, and with the slightest bit of edge. Maybe this gorgeous shade of blue will become their signature color. Here were some of my favorite looks from the show:

I love the dress and is that a cape?

So elegant, so ladylike. The back of the dress is below.

I adore this navy and black plissé dress.

I love the different textures shown here.

This almost feels medieval to me.

Somebody should get married in this dress.

Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, Valentino co-designers.

That shade of blue is absolutely one of my favorite colors so I had to pull out my Revlon nail polish from a couple of years ago, Midnight Affair, and also my blue rectangle sequined tank I bought last year at Kohl’s.

This is one of the reasons I love watching the couture shows—I’m always inspired by the colors the designers feature and sometimes seeing couture makes me shop my own closet!

All Valentino couture pictures from Style.com.

Schiaparelli Kisses

Schiaparelli often worked in collaboration with famous artists of her day and this 1937 coat is jointly credited to her and Jean Cocteau (who also worked with Chanel).

This is one of the photos I took during the preview of Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, now on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and one of my favorite Schiaparelli pieces. It is paired with a Prada ensemble from Spring/Summer 2000 of a light brown cashmere and silk cardigan and a skirt of white silk crêpe printed with lips.

The gallery text says the Schiaparelli coat was originally blue but has faded to lavender. I adore not only color the coat has become, but the quirky romance of the roses and the lovers.

Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations runs through August 19, 2012.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
New York NY 10028
metmuseum.org