Nostalgia

Home for the summer, looking at a lot of books that have to do with Paris from around 1850 (the time of Baudelaire), 1900-1930 (the time of the Montparnasse avant-garde) and the 1960s and 70s (the time of revolt against capitalism), I came across a photo of a Marion Cotillard look alike from another era. The women in the photo are Dutch sisters who came to Paris to be a part of the artistic and literary movements that were going on in and around the neighborhood of Montparnasse. I was not only struck by one of the sister's resemblance to Cotillard, but by her lovely outfit.


Pleated skirts are back, and I did indulge at American Apparel in New York last weekend where I purchased a mid-length orange one.
(Photo from American Apparel's web site)
 




I've also been looking at my old pile of French fashion magazines that I have accumulated and kept from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. I'm always looking back at them, for a variety of reasons, including the fact that I was young back then, and the women in the magazines corresponded more or less to me in terms of age.

I dislike their contemporary transformations, perhaps because I've aged and the women in the magazines have not, but also because these magazines are really out of touch with women, certainly more so than they were twenty years ago. Aside from the bright monochromatic blues and yellows that I really never liked... ... and the style of cars ...  
...the fashions from this June 1988 issue of Marie-Claire are not all that different from today's styles. If anything, they've come back. Like the high waisted shorts and the little sneakers worn with ankle socks.

The current love for all things vintage has to do with nostalgia. Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing, as it reflects an inability to live in the present and a preference for living in the past. But what if one is nostalgic for an avant-garde of the past? Is that still dangerous as in reactionary and conservative, or is one simply yearning for a time when people were experimenting in a more authentic, direct and difficult way? The men and women of Montparnasse look good in the photos of the book I'm reading, and the text does embellish if not idealize an almost utopian community that thrived until the depression and the war put a final end to all that partying.


Many of the artists and writers who were part of that avant-garde died young from all kinds of horrific illnesses and diseases, they partied hard, they had multiple sexual partners, they lived in under heated places and had very little money with a few exceptions. I do hope though, that a movie will come out, better than Woody Allen's, so it's not asking a lot, with Marion Cotillard playing that Dutch woman who modeled for Paul Poiret. A movie about the way Montparnasse really was. And how I wish it still could be.