Mix + Match series. Paris, café Le Nemours. MPM Cappuccino, Christian Louboutin, Church's, Krug
It is that particular hour at the Palais Royal when the stone arcades start to hold the last warmth of the day and the café terraces fill without anyone quite deciding to fill them. At Le Nemours, a corner table just inside the colonnade, the same couple from Venice has been back in Paris for two days and is talking about paintings: which ones stayed with them, which artists from the Biennale were striking enough to consider, how the Arsenale still manages to surprise year after year. On the table, a bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée 2004 and two glasses. Two bags lean against their chairs.
Her bag is the MPM Cappuccino in orange, a slim full-grain leather briefcase in a burnt orange that sits precisely at the point where the colour becomes an opinion.
On her feet, the Christian Louboutin Miss Z slingback in the same orange patent leather, pointed toe, slender heel.
His bag is the MPM Cappuccino in tan, a warm caramel leather with the same architectural panel construction and silver YKK hardware, carried on the chair beside him with the ease of something used daily.
On his feet, the Church's Burwood Oxford in tan calf leather, its full-brogue perforations in the same warm register as the bag.
The Krug, amber and finely beaded in the glass, holds the middle ground between all of it.
The Mix+Match logic here works on two levels. The first is the internal echo within each person: her orange Louboutin and her orange Cappuccino are not coordinated in the decorative sense, they share a colour the way two sentences in a paragraph share a rhythm, naturally and without insistence. His tan Church's and his tan Cappuccino do the same. The second level is the contrast between the two: orange and tan sit close enough on the spectrum to cohere as a palette, far enough apart to keep the eye moving. Together they pull warmth from the stone of the Palais Royal arches and from the amber of the champagne. The Krug Grande Cuvée 2004 is not a styling accessory, but it earns its place in the composition all the same, the colour, the occasion, the idea of a great year opened at a great moment.
Should they have ordered a Bollinger Grande Année instead? A Bolly, as those who love it call it, would have been entirely respectable. But the Krug has a density and a complexity that suits a conversation about which paintings to buy, and it sits better with orange than most things do.
They will decide about the paintings over dinner. For now, the glasses are full, the arcades are golden, and the bags are exactly where they should be.
Further readings:
A luxury briefcase elegant and functional ?
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