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RedScharlach

@redscharlach.bsky.social

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Red Scharlach speaks to the nation, when she isn't engaging in recreational otter promotion or her favourite forms of internet whimsy. https://redscharlach.redbubble.com/

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 59m

True, that’s why his innate wholesomeness is not a massive surprise

RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 1h

What I’ve learned from #CelebrityTraitors is that Nick Mohammed is the purest cinnamon roll in the land, too good for this sinful world. And I kind of knew that already.

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 2h

My hotel TV has BBC 1. I think this is France’s way of telling me to watch Celebrity Traitors…

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 4h

And last but definitely not least, Hector Guimard’s Castel Béranger, an 1895-98 apartment block that’s still being lived in. The door’s especially groovy and you can also peer longingly into the outer lobby!

Exterior of the Castel Béranger, designed by Hector Guimard

Doorway of the Castel Béranger, designed by Hector Guimard

Inner doorway of the Castel Béranger, designed by Hector Guimard

RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 4h

A few more shots of other buildings by Hector Guimard. The guy gave good doorway.

Doorway of an Art Nouveau building on the rue Jean de la Fontaine, Paris, designed by Hector Guimard

Facade of an Art Nouveau building on the rue Jean de la Fontaine, Paris, designed by Hector Guimard

Doorway of an Art Nouveau building just off the rue Jean de la Fontaine, Paris, designed by Hector Guimard

Sign for the Villa Flore, with Art Nouveau lettering

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 4h

Art Nouveau time: there are multiple buildings in the 16th arrondissement by Hector Guimard, the architect best known for designing the lovely Paris Metro entrances. One of the nicest is this 1910 mansion on the avenue Mozart.

Outside of an Art Nouveau building on the Avenue Mozart, designed by Hector Guimard

Doorway of an Art Nouveau building on the Avenue Mozart, designed by Hector Guimard

Guimard’s signature on the outside of an Art Nouveau building on the Avenue Mozart

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 4h

The Villa La Roche was built by Le Corbusier in 1923-25 for an art collector called Raoul La Roche. It’s now open to the public and houses the Le Corbusier Foundation. I’m not a massive Corbu fan and mainly went here to use their loo, but it’s actually a pretty groovy building, so well done, Corbs!.

Inside the modernist Villa la Roche, Paris

Exterior of the modernist Villa la Roche, Paris

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 4h

This afternoon I wandered around Paris’s 16th arrondissement in search of cool architecture, so here’s a thread!

First, the rue Mallet-Stevens, where all five buildings were designed by modernist master Robert Mallet-Stevens and finished in 1927. Sadly people live in them, so you can’t go in.

Modernist architecture on the rue Mallet-Stevens, Paris

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 5h

I’ve made multiple friends from it, so yes!

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 17h

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 5h

Today’s Paris cake was this delicious pistachio gateau. I’ll let you make up your own joke about the patisserie I bought it from, possibly using the words “eating out” and/or “literal cakeporn”.

A delicious slice of pistachio cake on a plate

The outside of a patisserie in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The name on the sign is the name of the man who founded it: Alban Kuntz. Yes, really. Poor guy.

RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 10h

As for Niki’s erstwhile other half Jean Tinguély, he specialised in making mechanical artworks that whirr and judder and spin, but don’t look very impressive in photos. The best one is ia recreation of his 1984 installation Hell, A Small Beginning, which casts cool shadows even when not in motion.

Detail of Swiss artist Jean Tinguély’s 1984 installation Hell, A Small Beginning

Detail of Swiss artist Jean Tinguély’s 1984 installation Hell, A Small Beginning, featuring a stuffed moose head among many other things

Detail of Swiss artist Jean Tinguély’s 1984 installation Hell, A Small Beginning, casting weird shadows

RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 11h

Saw the Niki de Saint Phalle/Jean Tinguély exhibition at the Grand Palais. Only knew Niki’s blobby papier maché sculptures beforehand, and there’s some of that, but her career was long and impressively varied and colourful.

Untitled (1980), a light-up sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle

Maquette for a large sculpture called The Head, by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguély

The Crucifixion (1965), a sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle

A letter with drawings by Niki de Saint Phalle

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 11h

Visiting the Grand Palais this morning. The massive hall (the one that featured as an Olympic venue) is currently being done up for an event, so I could only see it through the window, but the lavish Salon d’Antin is still available for all your architectural drooling needs.

The art nouveau staircase of the Geand Palais, Paris

The ornate ceiling of the Salon d’Antin in the Grand Palais

A staircase at one side of the Salon d’Antin. It looks like a traffic cone and its child are admiring the view from the bottom.

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 1d

If you can’t find a good man in Paris, you can always go here instead.

An antque French street sign for the Rue des Mauvais Garçons. The name means “Street of Bad Boys”

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 1d

Writing a screenplay about spotting an alluring stranger in a Paris café and falling passionately, hopelessly in love. It’s based on a true story but this is the stranger and the place was called Café Miaou.

Fluffy cat with beautiful eyes in the window of a cat café

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 1d

If your taste runs a bit more gothic, the Musée Carnavalet also contains this reconstruction of the ballroom from the Hôtel Wendel, designed in 1925 by José Matia Sert. I think this is what Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is aiming for (and failing to reach) on almost any episode of Changing Rooms.

Detail of the lavish wall paintings from the ballroom from the Hôtel Wendel

Detail of the lavish wall and ceiling paintings from the ballroom of the Hôtel Wendel

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 1d

The Musée Carnavalet in Paris contains an entire Art Nouveau jewelry shop, commissioned by jeweler Georges Fouquet in 1901 from Czech maestro of floral twiddliness Alphonse Mucha. It’s a bit like being in an Art Nouveau TARDIS.

Detail of the fireplace in the Fouquet jewelry store

Ceiling chandelier in the Fouquet jewelry store

Exterior of the Fouquet jewelry store, with stained glass and bas-relief sculpted lady

Interior of the Fouquet jewelry store, with curved wooden counter, mosaic floor and stained glass, plus ornate peacock sculptures

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Reposted by RedScharlach

Jonny Morris @jonnymorris.bsky.social · 1d

RISQUE GALORE

Dozens of sex toys have been found washed up on a Scottish beach.

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 1d

Most fashion exhibitions I see, I usually think “yes, pretty, but really not for me”. But Paul Poiret designed loads of really covetable clothes! Bring back the massive velvet evening coat, I say.

Velvet evening coat and evening cloak by Paul Poiret

1920s day dress and evening dress by Paul Poiret

Shot silk overblouse and velvet dress by Paul Poiret

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 1d

Really enjoyed the big Paul Poiret exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Poiret was an ace fashion designer of the 1910s and 1920s who said no to corsets and invented drapey Belle Epoque glamour.

An evening dress, a velvet evening coat and a headdress, designed by Paul Poiret

Stylized rose fabric print by Erté for Paul Poiret

Vintage photos of women in 1920s dresses by Paul Poiret

Sketch for an evening coat by Paul Poiret

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, he’s prepared for any whisk you’ve got. He’s got a network of defence colanders ready to deploy at the first sign of attack.

RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 1d

Regardez-vous le bear polar with the most “nefarious scheming” face I’ve ever seen

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 2d

Assorted Paris things:
1. The Folies Bergere looking blingy
2. A shop selling antique postcards that I must go back to when it’s actually open
3. Local wildlife
4. The French love naming things after random English words: this is from a vegan bakery chain

The gilded Art Deco dancing girl that adorns the front of the Folies Bergere

Art Nouveau postcards in a shop window in the Passage des Panoramas, a vintage shopping arcade

A stuffed wolf with goose wings, in the window of a restaurant

A cup of herbal tea from a cafe called Land & Monkeys

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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, the very place!

RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 2d

Are you the Andrew Fisher I was at school with, btw? If so, hello! (And if not, hello anyway!)