In partnership with CAMILLA

Paris is a city where romance feels innate yet is often encountered unexpectedly – in architectural textures, details etched into street corners that feel at once deliberate and accidental, or an apéro that extends imperceptibly into dinner as the evening settles in. It was this distinct Parisian flair that found its way to Caravin in Potts Point on Wednesday, where CAMILLA welcomed the arrival of its latest collection, Paris by CAMILLA, an offering shaped by the contradictions of the French capital, where opulence is rendered effortless and decadence reveals itself in the intimate.

The evening became a natural embodiment of this world, alive with the particular spirit Paris does so well. It began on the street as co-hosts, Founder & Creative Director Camilla Franks alongside Australian fashion tastemaker and long-time friend of the brand Pip Edwards, welcomed guests over canapés and bespoke cocktails. Among them were Thomas Cocquerel, Fleur Egan, Helena Vestergaard, Dan Brown, Rachel Tee Taylor and Em Gurr, each dressed in Paris by CAMILLA, offering their own interpretation of the world imagined by the house, underpinned by the brands’ signature colours and embellishments.

Inside, guests took their places around the candlelit table, where Franks and Edwards opened the meal with reflections on travel as a catalyst for creativity – the places, people and seemingly incidental motifs collected along the way, translated into the collections’ pieces. Paris by CAMILLA captures something of its rhythm: expressive and rich, grand yet personal, polished but never without ease.

Three courses unfolded with energy: oysters and charcuterie followed by steak frites, and chocolate mousse, scooped from ornate bowls with spoons etched with each guest’s initials. Australian artist Anouk Colantoni’s illustrations appeared as a recurring motif across table linens and menus, bespoke ceramic ashtrays and even the street bollards outside. Red roses punctuated the interiors beneath the warmth of the lights overhead.

The evening drew to a close over petit martinis before guests filtered back onto the street, bespoke ceramic ashtrays in hand, a keepsake of the evening. One final ritual felt instinctively Parisian: conversations lingering long after dinner, diffusing into the night air beside a telephone booth layered with fragments of the city and collected ephemera. Paris assembled as much from memory and feeling as from place itself.