Mad Vicky’s what? CocoRosie fans know what we’re talking about. Cocowhat? Erm, read on…



If you have no idea what I’m talking about then you are definitely not ‘hip’ or ‘down with the kids’. You may even be ‘square’.

Bianca Cassidy is half of a psychedelic folk group (for want of a better word) called CocoRosie, founded together with her sister. They are adored by the fashion mags for their, erm, ‘special’ sense of style (often using lots of recycled old clothes and incongruous combinations like bikinis and shiny leggings). Go here and press one of the play buttons to sample their style. You could call them quirky. They’d hate you for it.

Bianca has just opened her own tearoom-cum-gallery-shop in Montmartre, getting a lot of press in the process. We had to go down to see whether it is worth the hype.

It’s immediately obvious that this is more a concept space than a tea room; with just one table and only three chairs (not counting the stool missing one leg), Bianca is not counting on serving lots of tea to boost her pension. Also, despite being painted white, the place looks a mess. On purpose. One corner has a sort of organic growth/sculpture of leaves and bottles spreading across the floor and up the wall. If cows drank lots of beer, this is what they would leave behind them.

As for the art and the clothes, it looks like they were made by blind shipwrecked hippies; rough-looking clothes and ragtag agglomerations of detritus hang from the ceilings. Spray-painted polystyrene ‘accentuates’ the corners and pillars of the room.

Of course the whole point is not to take anything too seriously. Hopefully, that is Mad Vicky’s advice for life. Do what you want to do, have fun, try not to hurt people, die happy. We were met by a huge smile and a friendly welcome from the woman looking after the place, and anywhere that plays you a bit of Cocteau Twins can’t be all bad. However, our ‘chocolate’ tea had neither the smell or taste of chocolate…

If you are in Paris for fashion purposes, you should pop down and see them. If you fancy a nice cup of tea, we’d suggest going elsewhere… 🙂

You can check out the rest of our photo’s of Mad Vicky’s here on our rather lovely Flickr page. Or have a quick zap through them below.

Mad Vicky’s Tea Gallery is at 3 rue Nicolet, Paris 18th arrondissement. Métro Château Rouge (line 4) or Marcadet-Poissoniers (lines 4 & 12). Open Tuesday – Saturday from midday to 6pm.

More info about the gallery here. More info about CocoRosie here!

All photos of Mad Vicky’s (c) jasonw

Bigger map here