Artist and quintessential Parisian Fifi Mandirac designs everything from origami papers and stationery to cards and cabas (shopping bags). This is one creator whose life was changed by the Internet. When she gave up professional graphic design to focus on papeterie, her website and blog made her a star. Fans across the world now commission wedding and birth announcements, enter her quirky competitions—and even pay virtual visits to her studio. In December Fifi will open an online store; below, she shares her thoughts about la vie parisienne.
When do you find Paris friendliest and most lovable?
On those first sunny days when we don’t know how but, within hours, people have all abandoned their coats and put on their summer clothes, with sandals! We rediscover both our city and the pleasures of wandering aimlessly with no goal other than to laze about on the café terraces.
In your everyday life, what do you enjoy most?
What I love is to take advantage of a rendezvous in any quartier I don’t know well, in order to nose about and make my own discoveries.
What is your favorite area and why?
I love the Marais. I did my studies there. It formed many of my habits, and many places there still draw me back—in particular, the Place du Marché Sainte Catherine.
Designs by Fifi.
Tell us a little about what inspires your designs.
I always loved to draw, create and imagine. What were at first the games of a child are now an adult business, but to me it's still the same. When inspiration grabs me, that’s the time I rouse myself to leave my studio and see the world—the corner of my street as much as the other side of the planet. I come home to the city, breathe its air again, and inspiration always returns.
You create with opposing things: paper and a computer. What has this changed for you?
I never thought it possible, but I am addicted to my computer! I have a Mac laptop that I lug around everywhere. My whole life is in it: my work, of course, but also my personal life (photos) and my hobbies (my music and my movies). Thanks to this, even in my studio I am connected both with my closest friends and with the furthest worlds. But I keep the tactile pleasures of paper. I adore the moment when my computer file comes to life, when it becomes a genuine object or a real card.
For you, what things make up "a perfect Parisian day”?
A perfect day inevitably starts with a good breakfast! After that, for me, everything is an improvisation. That’s actually what I love most about Paris: without even having to organize yourself ahead of time, there’s always something interesting to see or to do. There are so many secret gardens, so many museums, so many exhibits and cinemas.
Designs by Fifi.
Which of your little sins do you consider most Parisian? The warm croissant that satisfies the munchies I always end up with when I have walked too long!
What is your favorite cultural spot?
The bookstore of the Beaubourg, the Centre Pompidou. I can spend hours there.
What cafés or hangouts are special to you?
I love to settle in on the terrace of Café Etienne Marcel just to watch the people passing by. I treat myself to Japanese at Azabu or superb French at Les Saveurs de Flora.
Which artists have most touched you?
I may be a graphic designer, but I have many more books about photography than about graphics. It’s a talent I don’t have but one I admire very much. I love equally the work of Jacques Henri Lartigue
and that of Martin Parr. Also the poetry of the universe of Jacques Tati. Everything is so well constructed in his movies. These are not very avant-garde influences, but they are artists who have moved me for a long time.
As a mother, what in Paris do you most like to share with your daughter?
At almost three, she is still too small to take long walks. But I try to show her all the possibilities of this city. Already I've taken her to the cinema and to exhibitions tailored to her age. When she grows up, I know all the little tricks of Paris to teach her!
Do you have a favorite French proverb you share with her?
I prefer "Do what pleases you," and I hope she will follow that precept.
If a girl visiting Paris asked you to name one thing she must see, what would you say?
I would tell her real Parisians rarely visit the Eiffel Tower! She should lose herself in the streets, soak up the ambience, see beautiful buildings, go to cafés, to markets, to shops. One becomes much better acquainted with Montmartre by nosing around Marché St.-Pierre than by visiting Sacré-Coeur.
If Paris were a song, a movie, a painting or a work of art, what would it be?
A cliché, of course! I think straight away of Robert Doisneau’s photo Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville or of the movie Amélie.
FIFI RECOMMENDS
Centre Pompidou Place Georges Pompidou, in the 4th Arrondissement. 01 44 78 12 33.
Open Wed–Mon, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closed May 1. Nocturnes, or night openings: Thurs until 11 (certain exhibitions only).
Café Etienne Marcel 34, rue Etienne Marcel, in the 2nd. 01 45 08 01 03.
Mon–Sat, open till midnight; Sun, till 11:15.
Azabu 3, rue André Mazet, in the 6th.
Mon–Sat, 12–2:30 p.m., plus 7:00–10:20 p.m. Tues and Sun. Closed Aug.
Les Saveurs de Flora 36, ave George V, in the 8th. 01 40 70 10 49.
Mon–Fri, lunch and dinner. Sat, dinner only. Closed Aug.
Marché St.-Pierre 2, rue Charles Nodier, in the 18th. 01 46 06 92 25.
Mon, 1:30–6:30 p.m.; Tues–Sat, 10:00 a.m.–6:30 p.m.
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Fifi Mandirac
by Web Master
Friday, November 27, 2009 at 07:30 AM
By Cynthia Rose
Fifi Mandirac.
Artist and quintessential Parisian Fifi Mandirac designs everything from origami papers and stationery to cards and cabas (shopping bags). This is one creator whose life was changed by the Internet. When she gave up professional graphic design to focus on papeterie, her website and blog made her a star. Fans across the world now commission wedding and birth announcements, enter her quirky competitions—and even pay virtual visits to her studio. In December Fifi will open an online store; below, she shares her thoughts about la vie parisienne.
When do you find Paris friendliest and most lovable?
On those first sunny days when we don’t know how but, within hours, people have all abandoned their coats and put on their summer clothes, with sandals! We rediscover both our city and the pleasures of wandering aimlessly with no goal other than to laze about on the café terraces.
In your everyday life, what do you enjoy most?
What I love is to take advantage of a rendezvous in any quartier I don’t know well, in order to nose about and make my own discoveries.
What is your favorite area and why?
I love the Marais. I did my studies there. It formed many of my habits, and many places there still draw me back—in particular, the Place du Marché Sainte Catherine.
Designs by Fifi.
Tell us a little about what inspires your designs.
I always loved to draw, create and imagine. What were at first the games of a child are now an adult business, but to me it's still the same. When inspiration grabs me, that’s the time I rouse myself to leave my studio and see the world—the corner of my street as much as the other side of the planet. I come home to the city, breathe its air again, and inspiration always returns.
You create with opposing things: paper and a computer. What has this changed for you?
I never thought it possible, but I am addicted to my computer! I have a Mac laptop that I lug around everywhere. My whole life is in it: my work, of course, but also my personal life (photos) and my hobbies (my music and my movies). Thanks to this, even in my studio I am connected both with my closest friends and with the furthest worlds. But I keep the tactile pleasures of paper. I adore the moment when my computer file comes to life, when it becomes a genuine object or a real card.
For you, what things make up "a perfect Parisian day”?
A perfect day inevitably starts with a good breakfast! After that, for me, everything is an improvisation. That’s actually what I love most about Paris: without even having to organize yourself ahead of time, there’s always something interesting to see or to do. There are so many secret gardens, so many museums, so many exhibits and cinemas.
Designs by Fifi.
Which of your little sins do you consider most Parisian?
The warm croissant that satisfies the munchies I always end up with when I have walked too long!
What is your favorite cultural spot?
The bookstore of the Beaubourg, the Centre Pompidou. I can spend hours there.
What cafés or hangouts are special to you?
I love to settle in on the terrace of Café Etienne Marcel just to watch the people passing by. I treat myself to Japanese at Azabu or superb French at Les Saveurs de Flora.
Which artists have most touched you?
I may be a graphic designer, but I have many more books about photography than about graphics. It’s a talent I don’t have but one I admire very much. I love equally the work of Jacques Henri Lartigue and that of Martin Parr. Also the poetry of the universe of Jacques Tati. Everything is so well constructed in his movies. These are not very avant-garde influences, but they are artists who have moved me for a long time.
As a mother, what in Paris do you most like to share with your daughter?
At almost three, she is still too small to take long walks. But I try to show her all the possibilities of this city. Already I've taken her to the cinema and to exhibitions tailored to her age. When she grows up, I know all the little tricks of Paris to teach her!
Do you have a favorite French proverb you share with her?
I prefer "Do what pleases you," and I hope she will follow that precept.
If a girl visiting Paris asked you to name one thing she must see, what would you say?
I would tell her real Parisians rarely visit the Eiffel Tower! She should lose herself in the streets, soak up the ambience, see beautiful buildings, go to cafés, to markets, to shops. One becomes much better acquainted with Montmartre by nosing around Marché St.-Pierre than by visiting Sacré-Coeur.
If Paris were a song, a movie, a painting or a work of art, what would it be?
A cliché, of course! I think straight away of Robert Doisneau’s photo Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville or of the movie Amélie.
FIFI RECOMMENDS
Centre Pompidou
Place Georges Pompidou, in the 4th Arrondissement. 01 44 78 12 33.
Open Wed–Mon, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Closed May 1.
Nocturnes, or night openings: Thurs until 11 (certain exhibitions only).
Café Etienne Marcel
34, rue Etienne Marcel, in the 2nd. 01 45 08 01 03.
Mon–Sat, open till midnight; Sun, till 11:15.
Azabu
3, rue André Mazet, in the 6th.
Mon–Sat, 12–2:30 p.m., plus 7:00–10:20 p.m. Tues and Sun. Closed Aug.
Les Saveurs de Flora
36, ave George V, in the 8th. 01 40 70 10 49.
Mon–Fri, lunch and dinner. Sat, dinner only. Closed Aug.
Marché St.-Pierre
2, rue Charles Nodier, in the 18th. 01 46 06 92 25.
Mon, 1:30–6:30 p.m.; Tues–Sat, 10:00 a.m.–6:30 p.m.