ile de re

As per usual Ive been meaning to update you with news of a lovely shop I found on the Ile de Re called Marie & Benoit - an oasis of cool amongst its slightly too glitzy neighbours. The shop was a hub of vintage military clothing and ancient sailor kits ( old Breton sweaters, linen rucksacks and White plimsolls)  all beautifully displayed in zinc cabinets and on top of old work benches. Amongst the vintage pieces were chic upholstered sofas in dark linen, peeling antique mirrors and imposing sideboards.The formula was so simple and so effective it almost had me craving to go into menswear. If you ever find yourself on the Ile de Re I recommend you pay the store a visit.

  Other highlights of the island included a still to be cranked up carousel in Ars en Re -  tiny but still magnificent in its faded glamour and a faintly evocative church alight with rather cool and kitsch Madonna and child tea lights.

In hindsight it was amazing that I ever made it onto the island as my Flybe ( toy town) plane performed an emergency stop on the runway at La Rochelle, causing me to turn the air blue (much to the dismay of the congregation of nuns 5 rows in front) and sending one woman`s water bottle careering down the aisle at 120mph. If it wasn't for the lighting reflexes of the fitness instructor in 6B it would of ended up in the cockpit and god knows what would of happened. Nerves where further rattled by the devastatingly attractive passport control man who reduced the women in the queue to giggling wrecks and left me wondering what on earth I would have to do to get frisked in a side room. I don't know if it is just me or are the officials in France so much more attractive and better dressed than in England? Female airport staff prowled across the tarmac with killer calf muscles and nippy suits, two policemen lounged outside causally smoking in slim fit navy trousers adorned with red stripes reminiscent of a pair I had from Joseph in the early 1990`s.

 I think I will forever love the sweeping cape of the policeman captured in Paris by Robert Doisneau. On the subject of capes look out for the olive green wool version I have coming in from Pyrus for A/W 11. Its magnificent.

Robert Doisneau