Saturday afternoon found me wandering in a small part of the 20th between Menilmontant and Jourdain. I took rue Cascade over to rue de la Mare where I ventured into Beau Travail, a studio/storefront of several young French designers featuring printed T-shirts, handmade purses, lamps, jewelry and a few other small items. I read their blog from time to time and was curious to see the work in vrai. I didn’t end up buying anything, but loved the spirit of the place and will be back: great gift ideas. Afterwards I decided to continue down the street, just wandering with no set objective but eventually to make it back to a metro as the sun was setting and it was cold, when I saw a light on, in an otherwise pretty quiet street and made my way across. In the window of Estelle Ramousse were several handmade hats (a minor obsession of mine), and I got a little rush of excitement as I could tell it would be something interesting. I walked inside and into what felt like and which was, an atelier/boutique and living room. I asked to try on one and then another and then the owner came up to help me and play around-we started trying on various hats, many of which had a 1930s feel with a contemporary edge. They were amazing.

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