Christmas came early to the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand earlier this week as students from acclaimed local design school Ecole supérieure des Arts appliqués Duperré unveiled some 30 festive creations as part of the hotel's third annual Fashion Christmas Trees event.
Rendered mainly in white and silver using a range of materials, from books to Perspex to cloth, the trees were judged by an expert panel that boasted some of the most distinguished names in French fashion, such as designers Franck Sorbier, Jean-Claude Jitrois and Gaspard Yukievich and renowned artisan embroiderer François Lesage.
Students Floriane Leblong and Milane Pujolle scooped the top prize for their joint design, Fusion Glacée, a technically brilliant plexiglass creation that evoked snowflakes falling to form the silhouette of a tree, with a tiny tree embedded in each snowflake.
Second and third prizes were respectively awarded to A Livre d'Or - a Christmas tree composed of layers of gilt-edged books - by Sophie Allard and Audrey Speyer, and Recto Verso by Cécile Rolland, a lino creation inspired by "the meeting of inferior matter with the noble majesty of the Christmas tree."
As well as their inaugural recognition by Paris' notoriously influential fashion establishment, the winning students also took home prizes ranging from Eurostar tickets to Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne. All those who took part will have their designs displayed in the hotel's lobby and opulent winter garden for the rest of the season, too.
The event has become something of a stalwart on the capital's fashion calendar since its inception three years ago by Didier Boidin, the hotel's Managing Director and Regional Director of Operations, France, South Mediterranean and Benelux - and it's come a long way in that time, he recalls.
"We were adamant that all of the designs should be exhibited and that we wouldn't pick and choose when the students had put in so much effort," he explains. "In the first year, somebody submitted a tree made out of condoms but we displayed it anyway. The standard this year is so high - very, very good - and the event is very popular now."
Picture, large: Designer Jean-Claude Jitrois with his muse, model Sarah Marshall; small: the winning design, Fusion Glacée.
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