We meet in her bohemian workshop near Place de la Bastille. She gives me a small beer and the key to the atelier, we chink the bottle necks and she sets off to Thailand for one month.
CLÉMENCE CABANES is a French accessories designer. She creates fabulous accessories with love for details, colors, and elegant materials.
Her eyes follow our steps into the room. A sleepy smile whispers hallo, leaning against a chaise longue on another slow day in De Antiekstraat, a charming place to hunt for curiosities.
We walk for hours through the mellow dunes along the North Sea shoreline until all scattered thoughts are gone.
Over the bay of Cannes some stylish Japanese check the sound systems for tonight’s party.
Her eyelids droop as the sun reaches the zenith. Light breeze blows and the fragile wooden jetty cracks. Two Danish girls next to her sip their cokes in an unhurried manner.
Lord Brougham was on his way to the Italian Riviera when a cholera outbreak prevented him from passing Nice in 1834. While waiting for the quarantine to be lifted he fell in love with a poor fishing village and decided to build the first neo-classic Italian villa in Cannes.
He enjoyed the “delightful climate of Provence…” and romanced it. His influence on his friends and other wealthy aristocrats was huge. Aristocrats all across Europe started to construct winter villas in droves. The prominent politician and chancellor set a trend which has lasted for almost two centuries now. A true word-of-mouth fire starter.
After midnight we meet up with SOLEIL NOIR, a super creative interactive design studio based in Paris. Together we walk up the crowded boulevard to ring a doorbell. The door opens and the elevator takes us up, high above the Boulevard de la Croisette where some friends of Soleil Noir invite us to celebrate the glittering night.
At the bottom of Le Suquet we meet Mimi for the first time and fall in love. She is adorable, funny, fascinating – just as cool as her parents.
Last year, when Mimi was growing to be born, Jopsu and Timo won a Golden Design Lion for their amazing art work URBAN ABSTRACT. As the good news came so sudden all flights to Cannes were booked out and they missed the festival and the ceremony. This year they made it some days in advance to enjoy it all.
Touch down. Nice Côte d’Azur Airport. We roam through the warm hallways of the airport. As the very last double door system opens the dry and hot air strikes our faces. The bright sun dazzles. It smells of pines, cypress, sweet figs, olives, rosemary, thyme…
She keeps circling her hips. As she turns, she mesmerize me with her gaze. With straight legs, she bends forward and looks back at me. I blush. She completes her performance with a gentle kiss on my cheek and moves away.
The people from Soleil Noir are proud, dedicated, humble, honest, committed, impulsive, in the moment. One can feel it every day in the studio but that night the magic is dazzling. Soleil Noir celebrates new projects, new teammates, and a father-to-be until dawn.
The feast starts at the legendary tapas bar in rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, continues after midnight in the night club Pink Paradise and ends in a bistro with a small coffee and a croissant. On the same morning I take the train back to Amsterdam.
In a small backyard over the roofs of the busy 11th arrondissement CLÉMENCE‘s workshop is very quite and sun-drenched in mornings. It smells of leather, books, and incense sticks. The bedroom is filled with scarves, bags, belts, brooches, and other accessories.
We meet in her bohemian workshop near Place de la Bastille. She gives me a small beer and the key to the atelier, we chink the bottle necks and she sets off to Thailand for one month.
CLÉMENCE CABANES is a French accessories designer. She creates fabulous accessories with love for details, colors, and elegant materials.
After the sun sets, Jordaan’s canals turn deep blue. The windows light up in the cosy houseboats and former warehouses with their always open wooden shutters.
People prepare food, read cosy in their sofas, play around with kids, like on facebook or have a beer with friends in comfy pubs and cafés. Another day draws to an end.
“She told me to be still, that the sun was still hours away.…” INSOMNIA by BETHANY NEWMAN
” …i’ve not yet grasped the scandinavian light. its still more magical to me than real. sometimes i find myself entranced by certain shapes. … “ 1710 by BETHANY NEWMAN
Someone muted the familiar noises, the agitated voices, the periodic iterations of comments and fun, eased the tension and scaled up the space around me. It is suddenly over – after ten weeks of work side by side night after night, weeks of devotion, intensity and physical closeness.
None of this was noticed by the aging beauties at the riverside of my childhood. A slow fall into a soft, white void – empty, silent and calm.
