December 11, 2013 Aside

Why should you wear vintage?

Vintage is unique

Have you ever walked into a party and realized that you were wearing the same outfit as another person? We all shudder at the very thought of this common social misfortune. On the other hand, if you wear vintage you will avoid such embarrassing moments because vintage is unique. When you wear a vintage dress for example, you are automatically wearing a highly individual and rare piece of clothing that very well might be the only one of its kind. At that certain time, these older items were produced in much smaller amounts than today’s mass produced clothing. This is one of the main reasons why so many Hollywood celebrities wear vintage on the red carpets. Wearing vintage will assure that you will stand out from the crowd in a trendsetting outfit that actually underlines your individuality!

Vintage is an investment

Unless you are willing to spend a small fortune on the newest haute couture, your clothes already lose value the second you take the tag off of them. You can rarely buy a piece of clothing expecting it to keep its value over a certain amount of time. In comparison to that, there is a collectible market for vintage clothing and the value of many pieces raises with time. On top of that, many pieces of vintage clothing are actually collectable. As it becomes harder and harder to find with time, vintage clothing becomes more and more valuable as it grows older. Vintage is definitely money well spent!

Written by: Christina Vasiliadis

http://threesixtyecotique.com/2013/10/top-10-reasons-wear-vintage/
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Why-Should-You-Buy-Vintage-Clothing-7-Great-Reasons-/10000000009769463/g.html

December 11, 2013 Aside

ALAIA – An exhibition that no fashion lover should miss!

A few weeks ago Camille and I visited the ALAIA fashion exhibition to tell you about it on our lifestyle blog. This exhibition, which takes place in the Galliera Museum in Paris, honors Azzedine Alaia, a Tunisian fashion designer. Alaia studied at the School of Fine Arts in Tunisia before moving to Paris during the 1950s. He was excited about Parisian elegance and the beauty of the French metropolis. The young creative benefited from the city’s inspiration to create collections of very chic clothes.

The exhibition comprises a selection of about seventy iconic models presenting some of Alaias most famous dresses. The range of clothes goes from old fashioned cotton dresses from the 50s to highly modern combinations of leather and sequins. You can even see a dress that has been worn by one of his most faithful admires Naomi Campbell.

Within the development of fashion, the exhibition also shows the development of the female outline over the last years, becoming thinner and more androgynous from year to year. The interior-design of the show is very chaste and dark focusing on the amazing items disposed. It is really easy to recognize Alaias device for fashion : ‘When I’m working on a garment, it has to flow over the body, in profile and in back view.’

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures in the museum, but anyway they wouldn’t have transfered the breathtaking spirit of the complete works of Azzedine Alaia – so as a fashion victim you should really not miss this exhibition which takes place until January 26^th!

Katharina Grewing

Based on: http://parismusees.paris.fr/en/exhibition/alaia

http://palaisgalliera.paris.fr/en/exhibitions/alaia

December 10, 2013 Aside

The invasion of blockbusters in cinema ?

Do you know those movies where you already know the end before watching it ? Those are called blockbusters.

The world of Cinema has really changed in the last two decades, principaly with the explosion of downloads. In fact, the only source to make profits is the projection at the cinema, and not like before with DVD sales.

The international market represents 70 percent of profits, therefore, blockbusters. We can see that with “Ice Age“, this movie has generated 175 million dollars in America, and 206 million dollars in the international market for the first one of the saga. We are talking about 200 million dollars in America and 700 million dollars internationally for the third “Ice Age 3“.

Obsessed by the international market, the functioning of the Americain studio doesn’t leave any place for creativity. To be sure of the result, they make a movie only if one hero, one book or one game is well-known enough worldwide. There are only blockbusters that will be sold in mass.

The American studio’s goal is now to create a series of movies, like Iron-man, Spiderman, Superman, which generate billions of dollars. They have realized that the population most likely to watch, are young people less than 24 years old, so they produce movies which are likely to please them.

Aurélien Masurel.

December 6, 2013 Aside

WHAT DO WE EAT AT THE CINEMA?

Cinema-Candy-Bar-1-1

Popcorn came to the United States in the beginning of the 19th century. At this time, cinemas were a privilege to wealthy people, yet “popcorn” was synonymous of “inexpensive” snacks for the poor. During the Great Depression, cinemas became more affordable, and in 1945 half of popcorn consumption took place in movie theaters. However, with the arrival of the TV in most American households, people started watching films at home. Popcorn makers quickly adjusted to this development by inventing microwavable popcorn. Today, some film festivals use popcorn as a symbol in their advertisements. But in fact, eating popcorn at the cinema has grown out of fashion nowadays.

Even if popcorn is easy to eat, and it does not need to be kept cool, there is a big downfall: It is noisy. For some viewers it is just inacceptable to watch a movie next to somebody who eats noisily. In addition to that, the packaging of popcorn might dirty seats and the floor.

In Germany, statistics of 2012 show that people going to cinemas spent 72 billion Euros on tickets but only 16 billion Euros on snacks and beverages. But ever since the new hype of the so-called Jelly Candies, which started in early 2013, between 44 and 57 % of moviegoers cannot imagine seeing their film without Jelly Candies anymore.

Jelly Candies, which are a mixture between jelly babies and candy, are available in several flavors from salty to sugary or spicy to bitter. Thus, there always is the right taste for everyone. In addition, Jelly Candies are not only delicious, they also activate processes within the body that lengthen the time between two visits to the restroom, and thereby guarantee the full enjoyment of the movie without interruption.

Enjoying the cinema means more than just going to a nice movie with your good friends. No, it actually means to see a nice movie with your good friends and to have your own coke and bucket full of Jelly Candies.

Anna Francois

Hamy Nguyen

Sources: http://www.slate.fr/life/78536/popcorn-films-pourquoi

December 6, 2013 Aside

A tie is nothing without a shirt. But a shirt can be weared without a tie

This article will present you an important know-how about the different types of shirts and what we think is important to mention.

There are 5 differents labels of shirts :

a business cut : The intemporal classic shirt with a choice two differents collars : french and italian. This business shirt offers the customer elegance and assurance. Declined in varieties of tisssues : popeline, twill, chevrons, panama and oxford.

a slim cut : Like the business cut but in a slim way. Theses shirts are more contemporal with a choice of three differents collars : french, napolitan and a officier collar.

a « prestigious cut » : these shirts are made with the thinnest cotton of the world. Wearing these prestigious shirt it is wearing the exceptional. It has a french collar and it exists with frenchcuffs or barrell cuffs.
a ceremonial cut : the ceremonial cut answers to the need of a shirt to wear with a tuxedo, it has frenchcuffs (to wear with cufflinks) and a smart collar (to wear with a bow tie).

a casual cut : elegance is an art of living that is practiced on weekends too ! In a more relaxed and sport mood, these shirts offers the customers at the same time a classy and a confortable to wear shirt. The sleeves are short and the cut is a bit slim.

A specialist of shirts is in my opinion Arès. This brand wants to be “the” manufacturer of high quality shirts in France. All the shirts are manufactured entirely from Egyptian cotton, known for its lightness and its silky touch.

The research of high-quality of tissues builds up the DNA of the brand. It’s the case for instance of the « Sea Island Cotton » which is the « cashmere » of cottons. The buttons are made from an australian mother-of-pearl well known for its brightness and beauty.
The brand also launched into tailor-made shirts. This offers the consumer to have a large choice among a dozen of collars, two types of cuffs (barrell and french) and to customize his shirts with embroiding the customet intials or to add a shirt front and pockets.
The real luxous of its products hides in details such as customized embroiderues, the shape of collars, the length of sleeves and buttons.

Hope you’ll enjoy !

Thibaut Muller

Sources :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirt
http://www.figaret.com/
http://www.today.com/video/today/52508049

November 29, 2013 Aside

A suit is not a suit without a tie

Nowadays it is not shocking anymore to come to the office without a tie unless you work in a bank. But a Gentleman 2.0 would never leave the house without. This mandatory accessory is one of the only things that a man can wear with his suit and that can be a real mirror of himself. Which doesn’t mean that you are allowed to wear a tie with piano keys on it just because you like your grand piano or your still stuck in the 80s.

My advice is Arès. You can’t do something wrong with that company. It is a good example for ties and bow ties that are high quality products, without being astronomically expensive. Sure you can spend 200€ for one tie, but does this make any sense? No.

Basically your tie needs to fit with your whole outfit. That means from the bottom to the top, so from the hat to the shoes. Three elements are to be considered to exclude any embarrassing mistakes, which you can also check out on http://www.ares.com.

First: The shape

Big knots and width ties are out. Keep it smart and simple like for example mister Hugh Jackman.

Second: The colour and pattern

Stay decent, nothings against a red one but as a good gentleman you know that every colour has its own message. For long time, black was reserved for funerals but today you can wear it whenever you like. But don’t forget to change. Blue is for example less conservative and younger.
Don’t freak out with the patterns as I mention in the introduction, piano keys are strictly forbidden. Here you can be conservative. Allower-prints, stripes, paisley or the timeless unicolor are safe values.

Third: The Quality

Silk, silk and silk. Nothing is more embarrassing than a tie made of Polyester. Believe me, every human being can make the difference on the first view. It is better to invest in 3 or 5 good quality ties made out of natural fibre, than having 20 made of plastic. Here again, Arès delivers only silk ties.

The next articles will be about the true classic and must have bow tie. So we keep in touch.

370 words

Luc Moser

November 29, 2013 Aside

Autumn and winter collection

The gentleman 2.0 is a sporty, cultivated, modern and before all, elegant man.
The common definition of elegance would be the quality of someone who distinguishes himself through grace in his manners, his taste and his choice in the matter of clothes.

For the Gentleman 2.0, elegance goes further. His choice of garments reflects his own personality, transcending it : the gentleman inhabits his clothes. Elegance is the perfect mix between an ease to wear clothes and a state of mind specific to the gentleman,
The gentleman 2.0 is modern in his attitude but also in his choice of garment, he’s aware of the trends of each season. The gentleman 2.0 team has therefore selected the top ten trends for Autumn/Winter 2013-14, from the designers presented at the fashion weeks of Milan, Paris and London.

This year (2014), we’ll celebrate the 100 anniversary of the trench-coat. Invented by Thomas Burberry in 1914 for the British army during WW1. This coat has become an essential garment in men’s wardrobe. The 100th anniversary of the trench coat makes this one really trendy at this moment, besides it is ideal for this sort of mild weather .
For the colors, this year the designers have revolutionized the head-to-toe look (tone on tone) in suits, especially with gray. We have seen a lot of models dressed up entirely in this color on the catwalks. We advise the gentlemen 2.0 who wants to try this trend to vary the tones of gray to contrast with the suit. A tone on tone without a contrast is in many cases considered as a fault of taste, which must be avoided.
Fuchsia and burgundy colors are also in the spotlight this season, presented or in a head-to-toe style, or in a sporty way mixed with a gray tone. Like we said before, we don’t recommend the head-to-toe style, whereas the mix of gray and “burgundy” as presented by Giorgio Armani is to be worn with pride.
For the trousers, the A/W 2013 collection has something really bold for chinos with color such as blood orange, rust, burgundy, eggplant, tangerine or mustard yellow. In fact, almost all colors are in orange and red tones. If you like to wear bright and bold colors on your trousers, these are the trendy colors. If not, a blue or a camel chino is timeless, like a blue jean for a sporty mood.
Last but not least, the old roll-neck sweater has made its come-back for this season, to be worn under a leather jacket, a suit or even another sweater. This item is the essential piece of knitwear for the season.
This season, designers have decided to bring back old and almost forgotten pieces of the man’s wardrobe, like the trench-coat or the roll-neck sweater, and proposed something new with them. Also, suits and trousers with bright and boisterous colors are proposed, which are the most difficult to wear this season.

We hope you’ll enjoy seeking your purchases for A/W 2013.

Thibaut Muller

sources :

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/style/articles/2013-09/10/2013-autumn-winter-mens-collection-fashion-style-gallery
http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/autumn-winter-2013/ready-to-wear
http://fashionvignette.blogspot.fr/2013/09/trends-fashion-snoops-fallwinter-1415.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tbms7m8yho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9i4tcBr4co

October 11, 2013 Aside

Travel: the choice of modes of transport

How to get from A to B, and from B to C and from C to Z!

There are lots of different ways to travel, or how to get from one place to another; but there is always the question… which one is the best for me and the most adapted one to my voyage? Most people choose the car for shorter distances, the train within one country, and the plane for international travel, but why is that so? In the following article we will elucidate the pros and cons of the 4 principal modes of transport.

First of all, and most commonly used – THE CAR. Probably not the fastest and the most economical way to travel, but certainly the most individual. You can decide which way you take, at which time you start and of course with who you want to spend your time. On the other side you have to see that it can be really annoying to get stuck in traffic jams. Furthermore the rate of accidents is higher than compared to other ways of transport.

So why not go by TRAIN? No traffic jams and way more environmentally friendly. You buy your ticket, get on the train and profit from your time since you don’t have to drive yourself. Ideal to work, read or relax. But of course there are also negative side-effects: faster but more expensive. Good connections but fixed timetables.

If you want to find the best offers for you, http://www.traineurope.fr/ is probably your first internet site to get information.

You want to economise your money? Go by BUS! It is probably the cheapest mode of transport. 19€ from Paris to London or 33€ from Berlin to Paris. So if you are on the hunt after special offers, go for the bus but for the low prices you can’t expect high class transport. Little space, long rides, and of course also traffic jams.

Perfect internet source to find your prices and timetables: http://berlinlinienbus.de/

To avoid spending 20h in a bus you could decide to buy a flight ticket. Going by AIRPLANE is without a doubt, and by far the fastest mode of transport to travel from city to city. 2h30 from Munich to Madrid, 55 minutes from Marseille to Amsterdam. Only the NASA is faster! You voyage quiet and comfortable with a meal and service personnel taking care of you. But all these advantages have their price. The average prices go from 100€ to over 1000€ depending on your destination and the distance. Furthermore, only big cities have airports which means complementary modes of transport such as bus and train have to be used to get to the final destination – extra costs and extra time loss.

Nevertheless, if you are interested in getting special offers and low prices, consult http://www.easyvols.fr/ or http://www.opodo.fr/ which offer flights in real time.

But in the end it is obvious that every single person decides individually. Fear of flying, being uncomfortable in a train, hating busses, wanting to avoid cars… so many reasons, so many choices. Personally, NEVER EVER again I would go from Berlin to Paris by bus. 20h is just too long. But with a charming gentleman next to you, even 20h would be worth the journey. So you see: everything depends on the circumstances and just remember that the road itself is a voyage.

Nadine Witt

EiffelMag

World Wide Way Of Life

Asides