The Pastry Box Itself Becomes a Signature Symbol
Circa early 1900 in Belle Époque Paris, it became highly fashionable to stroll down the boulevard with a beautifully crafted pastry box from a prestigious shop, tied with an impeccable silk ribbon. You became associated with refined taste and signaled you were wealthy enough for life’s luxuries. With the rise of Art Nouveau, elegant typography, flowing curves and floral patterns were de rigueur along with ornate embossed lettering, gold leaf and lithography. The unwrapping was special—layers of tissue and more tied ribbons—creating a ritualized gift for dinner party hosts, celebrations and romantic interludes.
The oldest pâtisseie in Paris, Stohrer, used royal blue with ornate gold lettering, Ladurée went with celadon green and Angelina decided cream, ecru and soft chocolate brown were their signature colors. Nonetheless, period pastels—faded lilac, rose pink, mint green and powder blue—were chosen to mirror the color ways of the fashionable salons de thé (tea salons). The circular, cartouche-style frame with floral filigree and vine-like banding on the edges was Art Nouveau inspired and the text on the boxes alternated fonts to mimic the serif letting used by Parisian shops. It took some experimentation to figure out how to make a flat hinged box & integrated lid with the cartouche design correct, but I persevered on the ever-changing Photoshop with my rudimentary outdated skills.
Réglettes and Hat Boxes
Desiring a combination of box styles, I went with the réglette (small ruler) — a long, narrow rectangular box for a uniform line of macarons. Mine does not have a sliding tray base like a drawer, it was officially deemed too complicated. The fenêtres (window) required a lot of precise exacto cuts and a fiddley acetate sliver to glue. The other box is millinery-inspired with an equally fiddley acetate circle. I wanted the windows to add interest to the packaging and reveal the colors of the macarons. Thin gold foil with an adhesive back was cut into tiny narrow strips and applied to the hat boxes. A note on assembling miniature boxes—you must wipe the glue off your fingers continuously to avoid a mucked-up box. Mucked-up boxes have to be tossed.
The macarons left to be put into packaging were the ones with a little character—we shall say— as the more uniform ones went into the display case and the on the towers. They were glued in “best” side up in somewhat random fashion. Apparently the macarons are very exclusive; 5 fit in the narrow box and 6 in the hat box.