Mlle. Angelique

Inspire Me. I'll Inspire you.

Blogs to follow.

I follow a crazy number of blogs or websites. I read some of them everyday and others more rarely but they always inspire me a lot. Each week I’ll try to post a list of 5 inspiring websites in different areas. I think I have enough resources to survive at least two years. Some will be famous and I hope I’ll make you discover new ones you’ve never heard about. So here’s the first list. 

  • Garance Doré - My favorite fashion blog. I have been following her for years and I’m never disappointed by her posts. The design of her website is very nice, her photos and illustrations are always beautiful and she has a detached eye on fashion and its industry that I love. 
  • Terry’s Diary - An insight in the photographer’s life. He always posts very nice pictures of the cities he visits, of celebrities, models… An iconic photographer of our generation. 
  • Desire To Inspire - If you enjoy stalking flats and houses beautifully decorated that’s your blog. Jo and Kim have never met, one is from Canada, the other from Australia but they share the same passion “for all things beautiful around the home” and post daily amazing inspiration 
  • Pitchfork - A reference in the music industry. I may not always agree with pitchfork but I am definitely thankful for all the brilliant musicians and albums I discovered thanks to their reviews. I always wait impatiently for their yearly staff lists featuring the 100 best tracks or 50 best albums of the year. You may need a bit of indie/hipster tastes in music though. ;)
  • Finding Charlie - Because we’re on Tumblr I feel like I should post an inspiring Tumblr in this first list. Finding Charlie follows Charlie Brophy’s life. She describes herself as a “teen in between, discovering, full of dreams” and I’ll say that her beautiful photos have nothing of a teen. She is extremely talented and I especially loved the pictures she took when she left for three months to India (and was, by the way, greatly missed on Tumblr). 

I hope these websites will inspire you as much as they inspire me. I’ll post a new list next week. As for the documentaries, do not hesitate recommending me new ones or even yours if you feel like they’ll interest me. I’ll be pleased to feature your blog in a next list. 

Documentaries.

I absolutely love watching documentaries, they inspire me, they give me ambition and motivation to succeed.

I watch documentaries about all kinds of subjects but my all time favorite and that I advise all of you to watch is Exit Through The Gift Shop by Banksy. It’s a brilliant satirical study of street art and as Amazon calls it: “a revealing account of what happens when fame, money, and vandalism collide”.  Everyone should watch it even if they don’t appreciate street art or documentaries. It is an actual story, with an ending that you wouldn’t expect. It will make you think a lot and question the necessity of fame and money. 

For me the best documentaries about fashion are the ones made by Loïc Prigent. Loïc Prigent also directs, in France, a lot of TV programs about fashion for the biggest channels. He doesn’t take high fashion too seriously and always gives an amazing insight of the role of fashion designers: The Day Before (Season 1 and 2 featuring respectively, Sonia Rykiel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Sonia Rykiel, Proenza Schouler and Diane Von Furstenberg, Nina Ricci, Jeremy Scott and Alexander Wang), Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton (my favorite one), Signé Chanel… 

I’m rarely disappointed by documentaries. Here’s the list of all the ones I watched (or I remember about…) Some are better than others but they are all very interesting and always taught me something new and useful. They are a great source of inspiration.

Some titles are in French but I’m sure you can find them in English. I only put the title of them because I don’t remember all the directors… 

  • Bill Cunningham New York 
  • Page One: Inside The New York Times
  • Women Are Heroes
  • Inside Job
  • The September Issue
  • Paul Smith, gentleman designer
  • Lagerfeld Confidentiel
  • David Bailey, Four beats to the bar and no cheating
  • Yves Saint Laurent tout terriblement
  • Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Bergé: L’amour fou
  • Empreintes: Sonia Rykiel
  • Vivienne Westwood: Do It Yourself
  • Valentino: The Last Emperor
  • Coco Chanel
  • Christian Dior: Le couturier son double
  • Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Kid
  • Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind TOM FORD (http://vimeo.com/34650337)

I am sure there’s a lot more. I am not at home so I cannot go through my DVD pile but once I’ll get back I’ll update the list. I will also update it frequently with all the new ones I watch. I love them and keep watching them. If you have any recommendations I’m always up for new inspirations.