Sometimes just getting a meal in Paris can be a titanic battle of wills. Take the steak frites place we tried to go to on a recent night. Though recommended by a seemingly reliable guidebook (plastered on the windows there), it was nearly empty at 9:30. We walked in, walked out to consider our options, then walked back in to give it a chance. “The kitchen is now closed,” the proprietress told us. “We can’t stay open just for you. We are tired.” It was a Friday night, and two in our party had put on five fashion shows in one day. Tired.

On to the next place: Delaville, a newish addition to the slew of Costes restaurants in the city. When we asked for a table in the shabby chic dining room, we were referred to a tall guy who barely paused between waiting on tables, bartending, and managing the staff to tell us that the wait for a table would be at least an hour, though there was no sign of anyone else waiting. We were welcome, however, to eat in the bar, so we settled in there. Our table on the cold, glassed in patio had all the charm of the old Dallas BBQ on 8th Street. Ah, Paris. Continue reading…

Viktor & Rolf took over the tent at the Tuileries and attracted mobs of onlookers on this Saturday in Paris. Editors and buyers mixed with French fashion bloggers and paparazzi. The vast, wide open space and very windy day made the dry grounds of the Tuileries feel like something out of Lawrence of Arabia – with more fashion.

A patterned cape and exaggeratedly long black legs with wedge boots. Continue reading…

With three stores in Paris and another opening in New York’s Soho in April, French designer Isabel Marant has developed quite a following. Her distinctly urban, cool-girl clothes work really well on the streets of Paris or anywhere else that calls for a tough chic aesthetic. A couple of the guests looked familiar for a reason: they were spotted the day before in Marant’s store in St. Germain.

A fluffy gray fur jacket catches the March afternoon light in the courtyard of the Couvent des Cordeliers. Continue reading…

How many generations of fashionable Parisians have taken a turn around the Tuileries to show off their exquisite clothes? The tradition continues, with editors, buyers and chic Christian Dior customers walking from the Place de la Concorde to the tent that housed Friday’s Dior show.

One thing is very different from olden times – there are many more photographers! Continue reading…

By Parisian standards, La Ferrandaise is a very young bistro. Open only a few years, manned by a chef who has yet to see a gray hair on his head, this spot in St. Germain falls into the same traditional category as venerable institutions that have been open a hundred years or more. Yet it hasn’t had any trouble keeping up: it was packed on a recent night, and it won the Lebey award for Best Parisian Bistro in 2006.

Continue reading…

If Maialino is an Italian restaurant that faithfully renders the classics, Faustina is the opposite: It takes Italian cuisine and turns it on its head. Why serve cannelloni the traditional way when you can break it down and reconstruct it as separate layers of pasta, cheese and fresh tomatoes? And the art of crudi here is outsourced to a Japanese chef manning a sort of Italian sushi counter in the dining room. This is what’s happening at Scott Conant’s Faustina right now, and the result is an exciting new take on Italian cuisine.

Bacon-wrapped shellfish are nothing new—until you take prawns ($16), and wrap the tender midsection in the thinnest layer of lardo so that the whole thing dissolves in your mouth. These come on a bed of rosemary lentils. The whole dish is the perfect combination of sea and earth. Continue reading…

Tell someone the address of Almond restaurant, and they’re liable to say: “Wasn’t that Borough/Rocco’s/Caviar and Banana/Commune?” The answer is yes, yes, yes and yes. Walking into the space may also make you experience déjà vu all over again, because interior has many of the same elements of its predecessor Borough – the same tables and chairs, the same posh billiards room  in back, the same rough-hewn wood lining the walls, the same popular bar scene – with a prettified face lift of coral wallpaper and gilt-framed mirrors.

Before you consider the place doomed, know that while this is still El Chod’s space, the owners of the very successful Almond restaurant from the Hamptons are much of the time, making sure things run smoothly. The crowd has gotten a polish too. Gone are those grubby locavores that patronized Borough, now the crowd includes stick-thin women in wrap dresses and big jewelry, men with winter tans and cashmere V-necks. (”They’re not on our team, ladies,” our waitress whispered.) Chelsea Clinton dined there on a recent night. Celebrities, gays, emaciated women, face lifts: Almond is a Hamptons away from the Hamptons, and I mean that in the best possible way. Continue reading…

New York Fashion Week may be over, but Paris Fashion Week is just a few days away! Look for more Paris street chic and restaurant coverage here beginning next Thursday, March 4. We can’t wait!

Though the plot lines of the show may be a little over-the-top, the tony, polished and sophisticated New York world of Gossip Girl does in fact exist. If you ever need proof, you need only go to an Oscar de la Renta show.

Models after the show. The models’ glam hair and the retro preppy looks on some of the younger guests reminded me of that seminal movie about the Upper East Side in the ’80s, Metropolitan. Continue reading…

Michael Kors‘ popular appeal comes from more than just Project Runway: His clothes are both luxurious and wearable. Attendees at last week’s show included the usual set of editors and buyers plus deep-pocketed customers and the stylists who represent them.

Elle’s Kate Lanphear in a chic drop-waist, double-breasted gray coat, black sunglasses and an onyx ring. This is what’s so great about her style: it’s very personal. When everyone else is doing a cinched waist coat, she does a dropped-waist coat. Continue reading…