Fashion Wire Daily NY May 16, 2003 - "It's a way of inviting all the people we couldn't invite to our party in the Cafe de Flore to share in the celebrations," Chloé president Ralph Toledano explained Thursday night at an informal cocktail gathering at the Chloé flagship store on Paris' Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
The event in question was the unveiling of a small selection of pieces from the Chloé archives over the house's 50-year history, which were chosen and styled by creative director Phoebe Philo.
Philo, however, was nowhere to be seen. Where was she? At home in bed, actually. "She's sick. Sinus trouble," a Chloe spokesperson explained kindly. "We told her she was too sick and it was better she rest, so she decided not to come."
Philo's styling work saw pieces chosen from the house's main designers -- Karl Lagerfeld, Martine Sitbon, Stella McCartney, and herself -- all mixed up together on mannequins placed throughout the softly-hued store in order to demonstrate the "continuity and contemporary nature of the Chloe look."
Upon seeing the pieces Philo had selected, Chloé founder Gaby Aghion was said to have remarked excitedly on a dress created during the house's original heyday under Karl Lagerfeld. Pointing it out, Aghion remarked how the work that went into it was rather astounding, and that no ready-to-wear house does anything like that today. But for Chloé it was nothing unusual.
The mini-retrospective will stay in the Paris store and in its windows until Tuesday, when it will make its way to the Chloé boutique in Monaco as part of the start of its world tour, culminating in the Kuwait boutique just before Christmas.
