Laurie Pike's Hexagon: Upcycling in Paris

My friend Laurie Pike (who also runs The Paris Blog), has gone into the upcycled handbag and accessory fashion world, launching Hexagon.

"I got tired of pushing consumerism in my day job as a fashion editrix," she told me in Paris the other day. "So I quit my post and started collecting fabulous vintage items in desperate need of a makeover."

The result is an eclectic line of one-of-a-kind purses and baubles that have been “reverse modernized”—made better by mixing old with new elements.  Methinks this is not only good for the environment but good for folks who like their vintage in choice spots. 


Laurie said: "Now I can sleep at night knowing that my love for style is not promoting landfill. In fact, it is doing the opposite, by rehabilitating castaways and presenting them as an alternative to new."

Laurie's Hexagon is on a few different sites: The Hexagon site for the brand-new Paris Collection, made of items found in French flea markets and vide-greniers.  Click here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/hexagonaccessories

http://www.hexfashion.com

http://hexfashion.com/online-shop

Laurie Pike In Paris

Laurie Pike, style editor for Los Angeles Magazine, enjoys a Martini Rouge at one of her favorite cafés, Le Rouquet, (188 Blvd St Germain 75007). Well, she enjoyed it already and now poses showing off her yellow Gucci suede boots she got on eBay ("A steal!").

Laurie says she always comes in to Le Rouquet when she's in Paris.  "It's a visual ice cream sundae."

The fourth-generation establishment, just down the street from the tourist monuments Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore, features the original 1954 neon decor, glass bar counter, beige and apricot colored marble walls and wooden paneling.  Le Rouquet probably still has one of the first café telephone booths still in operation.  It's made in style with a history of the future attitude – a rocket ship in varnished walnut.

Just behind Laurie, Matisse-type cutouts in glass and neon flower light fixtures hark back to a time when the Parisian surrealists would stop in on his way to famed art dealer Alexander Iolas, just next door.

"Max Ernst came in here all the time," says Monsieur Barrié, who runs the café with his mother.  "My grandfather created all this," he adds, gesturing to the well-lighted interior. "We haven't changed it."  His daughter, a lawyer, pops in from time to time, keeping her hand on the family business, and perhaps the family album.  It's Paris history.