The Power of Flowers Celebrated in Paris
FLOWER POWER: As Trump’s tariffs sent the global fashion industry into a tailspin on Thursday, a scene of Franco-American camaraderie and grace played out at the Bristol in Paris as Aerin Lauder and Cordelia de Castellane joined forces to toast each other’s new book about flowers.
One long table stretched the length of the hotel’s ornate, oval-shaped Salon Castellane — more about that later — tall white candles illuminating topiaries and white tulips, irises and jasmine gathered into silver vases of various heights.
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Giambattista Valli, Elie Top, Emmanuel Perrotin, Ségolène Gallienne, Géraldine Guyot, Chloé Bolloré and India Mahdavi were among those who hunted for their name cards amid the dense Dior tableware settings, only to discover their first names embroidered on small calico pillows placed on each chair.
They oohed and awed over a flower-flecked meal prepared by de Castellane’s eldest son, chef Stanislas Lanvin.
Valli, just back from India, was sporting a new lariat necklace dangling a purple spinel as he settled into conversation with Lauder, and marveled at how many women were toting his squishy Airbag bag.
De Castellane, an interior designer and creative director for Dior Maison and Baby Dior, said she and Lauder decided it would be better to join forces to promote each other’s book “rather than be one after the other, like two competitors,” she said.
Alas, Lauder will host de Castellane at an event in New York on April 21, when the beauty executive and lifestyle guru can take command of the table decorations.
“I leave her free for all in New York, and she left me do whatever I want here in Paris,” de Castellane said, citing Bunny Mellon and her own garden as inspirations for dressing the table in green and white and the first blooms of the season.
As for the name of the room, de Castellane explained that her family once owned the historic building, “but we were not good in business.”
“We lost all, the castles and everything, and then we needed to work very hard,” she said with a laugh.
Titled “Flower Couture: Living With Flowers,” de Castellane’s Rizzoli book will come out April 15 in the U.S., and it is sure to induce intense garden, table, pantry and cushion envy.
Ditto Lauder’s Rizzoli book, “Living With Flowers,” which came out last month and details how flowers have manifested in her day-to-day life, home, and lifestyle brand Aerin.
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