Primer | Tools and Tips for Surviving Paris Fashion Week - New York Times (blog)

Clockwise from top: Stephane Muratet, courtesy of Louis Vuitton; © Drawing by Aurore de la Morinerie – 2013; courtesy of Roger Vivier.Clockwise from top: inside Louis Vuitton’s pop-up store on Avenue Montaigne; Bruno Frisoni’s reissue of Roger Vivier’s 1965 Virgule pump; an Azzedine Alaïa dress illustration, viewable at the Palais Galliera.

Paris Fashion Week began yesterday, and fashion industry insiders and locals alike are in the full swing of things. Here, a guide to surviving (and enjoying) the festivities.

The Accessory: Roger Vivier Pumps

Those of us without round-the-clock drivers have waited anxiously for the return of the kitten heel. The best of this season is undoubtedly Bruno Frisoni’s reissue of Roger Vivier’s 1965 comma-shaped Virgule pump. Wear a pair to the Palais de Tokyo, which will display close to 150 pairs from Vivier’s oeuvre in the exhibition “Virgule, Etc: Dans le pas de Roger Vivier,” starting Oct. 2. rogervivier.fr, palaisdetokyo.com

The Exhibition: “Alaïa”

To mark the long-awaited reopening of the Palais Galliera fashion museum comes the closest thing anyone will get to an Azzedine Alaïa runway show this season: the couturier’s first retrospective exhibition. Sept. 28 to Jan. 27, palaisgalliera.paris.fr/

The Extravagance: The Hotel Shangri-La

The Ritz may be (temporarily) gone, but Paris is not without an extremely exclusive hotel pool. In the shadow of the Eiffel Tower sits the Hotel Shangri-La, which unveiled its 1,000-square-foot, naturally lit, 80-plus-degree heated masterpiece a few months ago. A day pass is a hefty 250 euros, but some of the more extensive treatments at their just-opened adjoining Carita minispa are bundled with a swim and a steam. shangri-la.com/paris

The Getaway: The Hotel Prince de Galles

One of the high points in Art Deco’s moment this summer (thanks in so small part to “The Great Gatsby”) was the unveiling of the newly renovated Hotel Prince de Galles on avenue Georges V. The sober lobby and rooms by Pierre-Yves Rochon have a running Macassar wood theme, while Bruno Borrione’s work on the in-house restaurant, La Scène, dips its toe into postmodernism, with an impressive amount of white marble. Even more impressive is the young chef Stephanie Le Quellec’s cleareyed approach to fine dining, which has critics raving. princedegallesparis.com

The Guilty Pleasure: Lazare

Most of the talked-about new restaurants in town are starting to feel like a movement with their Brooklyn-y décor and extensive, no-choice tasting menus garnished with tiny flowers and dust. Where to go if you just want a perfectly executed steak à cheval? The answer: Lazare, the just-opened brasserie in the Gare Saint-Lazare by Hotel Le Bristol’s three-Michelin-star chef, Eric Fréchon. With dishes like coquillettes pour enfants gâtés (pasta shells with lardons, black truffle and cream) and a killer rhubarb tart, we have only two words: eat carbs. lazare-paris.fr

The Pop-Up: Louis Vuitton on Avenue Montaigne

If Louis Vuitton’s continuing Journeys campaign didn’t make it clear enough, the company’s heritage is luggage. A Tyler Brulé-designed temporary store on Avenue Montaigne offers a curated section of travel cases and other functional wearables as well as a variety of services, including monogramming, custom orders, repairs and a demonstration on the art of packing. Sept. 18 to Dec. 31; 22 avenue Montaigne, 75008.

The Rooftop: Restaurant Le Perchoir

Paris’s Mansart roofs are picturesque but render almost all rooftop activities impossible. When the rare flat-top space opened up two years ago in the bohemian 11th Arrondissement, three locals jumped on it. The result is this groovy, market-driven restaurant with an open-air cocktail bar upstairs, already adopted by le tout fashion. Closed Monday and Tuesday; leperchoir.fr.

The Shop: Shang Xia

Finally, the Hermès-backed Chinese luxury brand Shang Xia has gone west, with its first boutique outside of China now open on the rue de Sèvres. Come here for contemporary renderings of time-honored craft: drapey cashmere felt separates, large-format silk scarves and minimalist eggshell porcelain tableware. 8 rue de Sèvres, 75006; shang-xia.com.

The Workout: Waterbike

Aquastudio is nice and all, but wouldn’t you rather be pedaling furiously underwater in the name of nearly painless muscle tone in private? Better yet, in ozone-boosted water with Jacuzzi jets pointed helpfully at your jiggly bits? Though the first deluxe private cabins for stationary bikes came out of Italy, it’s the French who have turned Waterbike into a craze. Pop into one of 28 centers around town for a 30- or 45-minute session. waterbike.fr

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