“Ah, Paris…!” All it takes is hearing one word to be immediately swept away into a romantic whirlwind of elegance, scents, and beauty. There, in the City of Lights, sits the Eiffel Tower. Imagined for the Universal Exposition of 1889, which in turn was organized for the centennial of the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower was the mainstay of the event. It took two years, two months, and five days for Gustave Eiffel and his team to plant the symbol of French progress at the far end of the Champ de Mars – a symbol originally imagined to last only 30 years. Indeed, Eiffel had already subjected the Tower to an onslaught of experiments. In the midst of a “technological spring”, Gustave Eiffel brought France it’s most essential element – originally for meteorological observation, a giant antenna on top of it would later mark the beginning of radio and also eventually aid in the liberation of Paris.
Shaped like an “A” to incarnate the Babylonian immenseness of Paris, the Eiffel Tower was much derided in the beginning. Like many artists, Guy de Maupassant was fiercely opposed to its construction. But after its opening, he claimed to often lunch in one of the restaurants on the second floor. When a journalist questioned him on this about-face, the writer responded in this legendary way: “It’s the only place in the city where I can’t see it.” In the 20s, the Tower became an allegory for modernity and avant-garde. Little by little, its image became associated with that of Paris to the point of becoming a national symbol. Soon, poets, painters, singers, filmmakers, photographers, couturiers, and designers would find in it the muse they were longing for. Parisian chic found its eternal emblem.
And Paris was overflowing with inspiration – artists would turn the Eiffel Tower into an elegant, off-kilter, and dreamy object. In doing so, they introduced the idea of the Parisian woman – in the sunset of the 19th century, painters, poets, and writers would forge the image of an incredibly free woman. Free in thought and in action. She maybe wasn’t born in Paris, but Paris definitively adopted her; she who knew how to live and love. The city became forever dedicated to elegance, to savoir-faire and living well, all of it incarnated by this symbol of the Belle Epoque. This triumphant and beautiful Eiffel Tower that once incarnated all the ugliness of progress. From Louis Vuitton to Chanel, Hermès, Dior, Jean-Paul Gaultier, or Yves Saint Laurent, the great fashion houses have all taken inspiration from it to create an aesthetic all their own. On garments, shoes, or in ad campaigns, the Dame de Fer alone transposes all the emotion of Paris, while the Parisian woman becomes for her part the absolute incarnation of femininity.
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