Stars in Her Eyes
It’s Paris fashion week. All around town trip stylishly-clad, slender young models, shopping, eating and gossiping between shows. But on this sunny September Saturday, it is an entirely different breed of fashion event that has snared my attention. For starters the models (though edibly cute) are a good deal shorter, younger and – it would seem – hungrier: the excitable mini guests ravage a wheelbarrow full of French bon bons in a way that no clothes hanger-esque fashionista would dare. Of course when said guests are hyperactive toddlers at the opening of a hip Parisian children’s nightwear boutique, Le Marchand d’Etoiles, the picture comes in to sharp focus.
“Hi nice to meet you would you like a glass of Champagne?” It’s Amy Lassalle, the woman behind the boutique selling what she believes to be a new concept in children’s nightwear. She’s open and gregarious, her long and excitable proclamations defying all rules of sentence structure and punctuation. But while she’s eager to chat, now clearly isn’t the time: the small space just a hop, skip and a jump from Le Bon Marchè, the exclusive Left Bank department store, is jammed with stylish mother’s and their mignon offspring keen to take first peek at the merchandise. And so we take a rain check. Slipping out the door, I look back just in time to see her passing off another glass of bubbly to a fellow yummy mummy. Amy is clearly in her element.
It’s a few days later when I return. Just after 11am on a quiet Tuesday, Amy is occupied with paperwork but is clearly happy to take a break. She is a businesswoman, she says, but one who is old enough and experienced enough to revel in the fun stuff. “For me, I’m 35-years-old, I’ve been working for almost 20 years in this field,” says Amy of her time spent in the fashion industry, “and now I just want to have fun with it.”
And fun is precisely what Le Marchand d’Etoiles is all about. Named for the line of fashionable children’s nightwear that it features, Amy says the boutique offers parents more than just a shopping experience. It’s as much about injecting style back in to kid’s sleep wear as it is creating a mini-community for the local French and expatriate mothers and children who populate this chi chi quartier in the 7th arrondissement.
“As a mother, after having had three kids, boys and girls, you see that when you try and put pyjamas on your kids… there is just not a big choice out there. Especially if you want to be branchè and cutting edge,” she explains. “So when one of the designers told me about this collection (Le Marchand d’Etoiles), and I saw the collection, I was just seduced.”
Six months pregnant with her third child and between jobs, Amy began her search for a store front location, finding the two-level boutique in a quiet side street between Le Bon Marchè, a children’s crèche and a well-regarded local obstetrician’s office. The perfect locale, in other words, for an American in Paris looking to bewitch local mothers with a trendy new concept in kid’s pyjamas. Today, a month or so after opening, and the shelves are bursting with all manner of gorgeous onesies, stylish little pyjama tops that could double as daywear, caftans and, coming soon, a range of shoes, winter knits and pint-sized gilets. Designed by three French women, the twice-yearly collections are made from 100 per cent natural fibres (linen in summer, cottons and knits) and – featuring stripes, embroidery and reams of colour – are fashionable enough to withstand the transition from Paris bedroom to Paris streets. This, explains Amy, is the idea behind the collection.
“Spending money on pyjamas is actually money well spent but we don’t think of it that way because they are just staying home in it. I mean, people spend a fortune on their kids (on daywear) and you don’t even see them during the day. So why not spend money on your kids for evening?” she asks. “It’s the only time you see them. And when your friends come over for dinner that’s when you want them to look nice.”
The entrance of a French mother and her seven or eight-year-old daughter momentarily halts the flow of Amy’s conversation. Breaking in to flawless French (Amy has lived in Paris for eight years and is married to a Frenchman), the vibrant Californian pulls out the dusky pink and burgundy striped pyjama set that had caught the little girl’s eye on a recent visit. She’s also quick to agree on the practical appeal of a gorgeous crib, meant for infants, as an attractive and cute doll storage unit. Twenty minutes later the two depart, but not before dropping a few hundred euros in to the store’s coffer.
“It’s hilarious, she bought that for her dolls,” laughs Amy of the 185€ bassinet. “But I’m used to eccentric people.” It’s a familiarity bred during almost two decades working in the luxury fashion market, starting out working at Max Azaria at age 15 in California, moving on to open Kenzo in the States, before working as GM of stores for Barbara Bui, opening Fendi in France and, later, taking up a short-lived position as general manager at Bonpoint, one of France’s internationally sought-after children’s-wear labels. Which is where Amy’s interest in the children’s fashion market burgeoned.
“The thing with working in children’s wear is that there is this really nice ambience, as opposed to working with luxury goods and more fashionista types of women. Even the most difficult of people are much nicer when it’s about their children,” laughs Amy, “it really is the antithesis of high end fashion.”
The store has also opened up avenues for the stylish entrepreneur to delve in to more than just fashion. The boutique, she explains, will also host night time readings in both French and English for children, along with theme-led celebrations for the year’s big festive holidays. “The idea is they come in after dinner in their pyjamas, we do a reading, they have a cookie, and then they go home and go to bed,” Amy says. The mother’s, meanwhile, could enjoy a glass of Champagne upstairs while browsing the racks and “whether they buy something or don’t buy something, at least they learn about the collection.” And who would do the reading? “I will! I do it every night at home.” Breaking off the conversation to retrieve a few of her children’s books from the lower level, she returns to indulge me with an impromptu reading session. It’s easy to see that this is the aspect of the boutique that Amy really loves. She is a born PR hound, and it is no doubt thanks to her irresistibly friendly demeanour that Le Marchand d’Etoiles is already establishing itself as a local kiddie fashion hot spot.
Of course once Paris has fallen for her own particular blend of business smarts, fashion savvy and effervescent spirit, there is little doubt that the rest of the world will become her oyster. “I would love to open in New York, eventually in Los Angeles and even in London,” Amy enthuses. “Especially in America, there’s not really that much choice in children’s wear.” At the same time she will continue to run her family of three. “People look at me like I’m insane for opening a store and having three small kids (aged between 10-years and 6 months) but I wouldn’t have been fulfilled if I was just…,” and it’s here she hesitates. Just a mum? I suggest gently. “Yeah. I need a project.”
And the next minute she’s off again, talking about next season’s new additions, about the creation of a year-round trademark piece (“something with the star, something totally identity oriented”) and the promise of a slipper collection, to appear in store next year. Before I know it nearly two hours have passed, Amy’s lively and intelligent chatter barely having slowed. She is indeed her own best PR.
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