Lobe, Kirsten

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Lobe, Kirsten

PERSONAL:

Hobbies and other interests: Painting.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Paris, France.

CAREER:

Former model; former furniture designer and fashion designer for Oscar de la Renta and Calvin Klein; fashion consultant.

WRITINGS:

Paris Hangover (novel), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kirsten Lobe first traveled to Paris, France, as a sixteen-year-old who had gained a modeling contract. She loved the glamourous city, but eventually returned to America, where she became a fashion and furniture designer, and later a fashion consultant. However, Paris still maintained its allure for her, and Lobe eventually moved back to stay. As she explained to Terrance Gelenter in an interview for the Paris through Expatriate Eyes Web site: "I, as virtually everyone on the planet, fell head over heels in love with Paris! But differently perhaps then most people, as I instantly felt, 'this is where I belong' … as the French say, I was immediately aware that I was, 'bien dans mon peau' (good in my skin). So, from the years I started working in Fashion, I would make a pilgrimage or two every year to Paris and that feeling of wanting to live here, became a virtual obsession.… I literally never had a bad day, not even a bad minute, every time I was in Paris."

Lobe's debut novel, Paris Hangover, is a roman à clef featuring Lauren Klein, who closely resembles the author. Lobe follows the thirty-something Klein as she bravely abandons her New York City life to live in Paris, struggles with the language, commits cultural faux pas, and eventually adapts to her new life while finding love. A Kirkus Reviews contributor felt that the "prose could be tightened up, and the overgrowth of parenthetical asides could be pruned, but these rookie mistakes don't seriously mar what is a strong debut." Beth Leistensnider, writing for Booklist, admitted that the novel does not offer much food for thought, but promised it should still provide "good fun for Francophiles and expats."