Mix + Match series. Saint-Tropez Yacht Dinner. MPM Ristretto, Balenciaga, Van Cleef & Arpels, Hublot
Saint-Tropez at sundown has its own quality of light, the kind that turns a marina into a painting without asking permission. The yacht is moored, the gangway is down, and the first guests are already aboard.
Two more are about to follow, golden brown tanned by the days spent on the beach. They were stopped at the foot of the gangway by friends arriving just behind them. She turns three-quarter, her bag catching the last orange of the sky, one hand raised in a wave, smiling broadly. He faces the yacht and turns his head only, one hand tucked in his pocket, the ghost of a smirk on his face. It is one of those moments that happens for about four seconds and stays in the memory of everyone present for considerably longer.
She is wearing a cropped white bubble shirt, black leather shorts, a beige scarf tied loosely at the waist, and orange Balenciaga Triple S Clear Sole sneakers, the monochrome version, all sole and mesh and suede in a single unbroken orange.
At her ears, Van Cleef & Arpels Vintage Alhambra studs in 18-carat yellow gold and onyx, the four-leaf clover motif with its beaded gold border, black at the centre.
Her MPM Ristretto in orange is worn as a backpack, its two straps settled across the white of her shirt. She could have worn it as a handbag, but finally chose to privilege having her hands free.
He has a white shirt worn untucked over dark brown shorts and white boat shoes, his own MPM Ristretto in orange also worn as a backpack, sitting squarely between his shoulders.
On his wrist, a Hublot Big Bang 42mm in satin-finished titanium with a polished peach ceramic bezel and skeleton dial, its warm tone catching the evening light the way the peach hour always does.
The pairing holds, and it holds through contrast rather than coordination. Both bags are the same orange, worn the same way, and that is where the symmetry ends. On her, the orange Ristretto is the third orange in the composition, after the Triple S and, one could argue, the last light itself. Orange is not an accent here, it is a commitment. On him, the bag is the only orange in an outfit of white, brown and ivory, a single warm note against a quiet palette, which means the same object reads entirely differently depending on what surrounds it. Same bag, same colour, same way of wearing it, two completely different statements.
The Triple S sneaker against the Alhambra earring is worth a moment. One is the most aggressively contemporary sneaker of its generation, the other has been made in essentially the same form since 1968. They are on the same person, on the same evening, going to the same dinner, and neither looks out of place. That is, if you want a working definition of what Mix&Match is actually for, a reasonable one.
The gangway is waiting. They will finish saying “ comment ça va?” to their friends and board in a moment.
Further reading:
MPM 96Hrs Special Edition suitcase in Silver
Mix + Match series. Paris, café Le Nemours. MPM Cappuccino, Christian Louboutin, Church's, Krug
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