VINGT Paris News

Flics Stand Guard Outside Star Academy on Rue Charlot

The pride of Paris were seen ready to protect the newly relocated venue for TF1's hit show Star Academy on Rue Charlot just down the block from Farida boutique on the night of Vivienne Westwood's album launch party.

With champagne imbibed fashionistas rearing for revolt against the proletariat (one voice was overheard screaming in the street "Star Academy on my street, for god's sake!"), all passersby were eyed cautiously though the scene remained calm.

Paris Fashion Week Spring Summer 2025: Week 1

Daniel Scheffler seeks air, and comfort at Paris Fashion Week Spring Summer 2025.

Tuesday: Over-sized bellowing knits with violins of violet and coffee ground browns encompass the new store collection at Kenzo. The défilé that started this Paris fashion week off was big, floral, and champagne. Attracting intimates from the Rive Droite, the brand, now owned by powerhouse LVMH since 1993 is standing strong and looking signatured and cultured.

Wednesday: Premiere Vision (featured photos) The world famous fabric fair and textile show just outside Paris brought new ideas, concepts and challenges concerning labour issues, sourcing and production to an industry that is rag-drag but bubbling with techno fabrics, ranging from the latest poly, moly, woly to high gloss, semi gloss, and anti-gloss. Sulky sales people covered the boxes of grey luring in the fabric desires of the fashion world.

Friday: The album launch of Vivienne Westwood, our great dame of fashion and leader in off-trend innovation, was taken to the streets of rue Charlot at the Farida boutique. With a bird cage for insanity and hints of sexuality, the great designer has entered a rather authentic area and boutique, a far cry from the department stores that scare us. The album includes hits and classical tracks, all loves of the ex-SEX boutique owner. 

Barack Obama in Paris

Dorothy's Gallery is organizing an exhibition / event in favor of Barack Obama with the support from Democrats both in France and in the US.

Le Comité Français de Soutien à Barack Obama, comprised of 5000 members (such as Bernard Henry Levy, Duhamel, Frédéric Mitterrand, Jack Lang, Richard Serra,…) is an equal partner of the show.

Several cartoonists, from the Canard Enchainé and Charlie Hebdo, will participate. The list includes Honoré, Tinious, Wolinski, Charb, Wozniak, Riss, Jul, Honoré … along with other American cartoonists.

The exhibition will also include paintings, photography, sculptures, video and installation pieces created by a selection of French and American artists.

Dorothy's Gallery
27, rue Keller
Paris 75011

Techno Parade 2025

Photography by Danielle Voirin

Nuxis, Homemade French Cuisine with a Taoist Spin

Adrian K Sanders writing for I V Y paris

Fusion restaurants have settled somewhat uncomfortably in Paris, neither taking the city by storm nor being soundly rejected. And while many chefs end up resorting to styles and trends first discovered elsewhere (see San Francisco and London), certain more adventurous corners of the city are quietly pushing and changing the traditional culinary rules of France into new directions.

Nuxis, a recently opened restaurant in the 14ème, offers no such pretense to its cuisine refraining from labeling it "world food" or "neo-" whatever.

The small restaurant is tucked around the corner of rue Raymond Losserand on rue du Château, with a chic but friendly decor of orange and dark wood.  Neither fusion nor traditionally French, recipes are hand written affairs created and discovered through experimentati on and rigorous training.

20 Bons Plans

1. The steel bridge at Canal St. Martin
2. Little Italy on rue Montorgueil
3. Looking down on Paris from the Parc Belleville
4. La Belle Hortense
5. Your local Mairie
6. Cinématèque Française
7. Bois de Vincennes
8. Librairie Super Héros
9. Palais de Tokyo
10. Picnics on the Pont des Arts
11. Pink Flamingo pizza
12. Bio cleaning product aisle
13. La Perle
14. Le Jardin du Palais Royal
15. Le Latina Cinema
16. Institut du Monde Arab
17. Cruising down rue des Archives
18. The Monoprix down the street
19. Surface 2 Air
20. Your own café du coin

Disco for Babies, No Joke!

Baby Disco at the Palais de Tokyo. That's babies dancing at a discothèque - no adults allowed.

Have you ever danced at the Palais de Tokyo? Talk about precocity.....

No fake ID in the world is going to help you get in here. Busy P will be djing, and Colette is having a dance class for all the clubbin' babies... I'm jealous of six year olds.

Disco Baby: Palais de Tokyo
13, avenue du Président-Wilson
75116 Paris
 

Richard Avedon at the Jeu de Paume

Patti Maciesz writing for I V Y paris

Richard Avedon’s first retrospective since his death in 2025 at the Jeu De Paume, is open for one final week.

If you take this chance to see the last sixty years in black and white, you will find yourself in the company of such greats as Miles Davis, Andy Warhol and of course, Avedon himself.

The show spans two floors, the majority of which are made up of Avedon’s classic bust portraits, shot in front of a his staple white background. They move chronologically from fashion advertisements to portraits of artists, writers, politicians and performers, culminating with his In the American West series of the 1980’s.

Beginning with the elegantly composed fashion photographs of the 1940’s and 50’s in Paris, the silky blacks and pearly whites of Avedon’s early professional work are wonderful compositions of perfectly balanced lights and shadows. They present an idyllic view of the past, of the female figure; the power of the perfect wool coat.

As the show continues the beautiful people from Harpers Bazaar become more complicated and real. The admiration and whimsy gives way to empathy, and if for only a moment, an entry point into the creative minds of the time.

Jacques Villeglé at the Centre Pompidou

Adrian K Sanders writing for I V Y paris

Walls and walls of old walls and walls are on display at the Centre Pompidou. The torn and ripped billboards of Jacques Villeglé have finally found their way to the Beauborg.

For the first time in his entire career, Villeglé, now 82 years old, is being recognized with a retrospective at a major institution in France.

The exhibition is packed full of his lacerated poster pieces, with a smattering of other works displayed towards the end proving that the artist is still active.  But the real stars are the poster pieces. Villeglé's method of décollage can be careful, reckless, loving and violent, with an uncanny sense of how soulless advertising really is.

Like a contemporary street artist, Villeglé aims to shift our perspective on the city's walls and corners. Titles of works like "50 rue Turbigo" affix their meaning and value to the city and demand at the very least, acceptance that the street existed (long before the piece was bought, sold, resold and then auctioned off to some CEO living in Baltimore).

Szpilman Award 2025

The SZPILMAN AWARD is awarded to works that exist only for a moment or a short period of time.

The purpose of the award is to promote such works whose forms consist of ephemeral situations.

The prize winner receives the Jackpot Stipendium. This scholarship consists of three parts: A challenge cup, 10 days of accommodation in Cimochowizna (Poland), and a sum of money in cash.

The amount of money is dynamic. SZPILMAN is raising money parallel to the competition. The prize winner receives the money that is raised until October 15, 2025. The current score may be checked here.

Apply now! Closing date is October 15th, 2025.