Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: For the Love of Well Dressed Women in Repose

[botemp]

Lovers of Parisian style and fashion with a conscious mindset and lots of chatter in between.

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Favoured Parisian addresses:

Second Hand Shops

Outlets

Favoured London addresses:

Charity Shops, Dress Agencies, and Outlets

Favoured NYC addresses:

Consignment shops, Vintage, and Restaurants

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Previous threads:


Un

Deux

Trois

Quatre

Cinq

Six

Sept

Huit

Neuf

Dix

Onze

Douze

Treize

[XingMing]

Permission to come aboard MV Elegant women in repose?

[Redandblue11]

Fabulous! Thank you once again Bo!!

[timeisnotaline]

Great title! bani did you say you had a pinterest thread? I looked for it, but couldn’t see any. Might be poor pinterest skills.

I like the &daughter cardigan very much, but not the sticky out cap sleeves on the vest. They’d just make me feel silly like I’m dressing up in vintage clothing rather than wearing vintage clothing if you get the difference.
That shirt is very interesting, I can’t deal with that colour but if it were in burgundy I’d think it highly covetable. There has been a bit of black and navy broderie anglaise around, I love it but have resisted due to not needing another navy dress. There was a whistles dress in broderie anglaise years ago with maybe 3/4 sleeves and fairly plain lines I still remember-for me it was the perfect touch of lace crossed with little house on the prairie.
I’m sharing a very poor photo of an eBay item I encountered while buying my scanlan and Theodore top. It’s the most interesting broderie I’ve ever seen, but again can’t do those colours so only investigated the photos closely. It would be in my wardrobe now if it were in burgundys and pinks! It’s another scanlan and Theodore, the fabric is all the one neutral colour and all the pattern you see is from colours in the eyelet embroidery, which is a tiny bit longer stitch length than average. How cool is it?!!
Flo when you say you would still have the white thread If you dyed some, I thought cotton thread will take dye and not polyester?

[banivani]

Nice work Bo, thank you!

Hm the pinterest board isn’t marked secret but pinterest is a bit of a hames of a yoke isn’t it. This is the link anyway pin.it/5LkE75u hope it works! I have already been flexible with the repose bit.

I cant make out the embroidery on the top at all it looks like print to me so ill have to take you’re word for it and appreciate the idea 😁 But too have seen some broderie anglaise in black and navy around but not always as something i want, as i said. There was a pretty skirt last year in H&M that came in two colours, black or orange, buut the embroidery was different in the colourways, the orange was just circles and the black a flower shape. I liked the orsnge (have a black skirt) but the black pattern so got neither and there we are.

Theres a pair of vivienne westwood trousers on Tradera that they want 750 kr for and they might be amazing or not, shity Sellpy photos and no measurements. If id ever tried on VW i might know the fit but I haven’t so very unwilling to take a punt at that price! www.tradera.com/item/1631/455491534/vivienne-westwood-byxor-strl-42-brun

[Floisme]

Oh oh oh my favourite photo, what a great thread already! Love your Pinterest board bani - very inspiring.

time I don't think it was me saying that on this occasion but yes, that's normally how it works, so the broderie (assuming it's cotton) would take the dye but the stitching e.g. button holes and around collar, cuffs etc would most likely be polyester and so wouldn't change colour.

I think there was a thing on the high street for coloured broderie a few years ago - I've got a nice dark green shirt from H&M still - so some of it might have found its way to EBay by now perhaps?

Vivienne Westwood is normally pretty generously sized I think.

[botemp]

Great Pinterest board Bani 🙌

I find Vivienne Westwood a bit confusing as everyone always goes on about how great they are for curves but that hasn't been my experience. Yes it fits on the roomier side but the only curves it accommodates is when you've got a whole lot of breasts, it's not the same for hips. Seems expensive though for secondhand, I think the Anglomania is the diffusion brand, isn't it, it's the Red Label stuff that warrants the big price tag?

Time's picture is too small for me too, it looks like a print that could be hanging in my grandmother's closet.

I think when Self Portrait had its 15 minutes Broderie Anglaise was everywhere. Overall I stay away from it as it can be quite cutesy on me and I wore it a lot as a child (I insisted on white dresses, BA was the compromise as that can stand up to quite some bleaching and washing abuse and doesn't require precise ironing), but I do really like Arket fabric with the play on colour. Is it really originally English though?

[banivani]

It’s not English per se, just a name because it was popular in England during a time when the french noticed ;) on the Mango website you find it by searching openwork. I have a few tablecloths from Poland with this type of embroidery.

I tokd you Sellpy is a bit shite. And my gut feeling is that no designer brand accomodates my current menopausal belly haha.

[quirkychick]

Thanks for the new thread, bo.

I have only dyed things that I would otherwise get rid of, so I have nothing to lose. Polyester thread does not dye, I have heard some people use a sharpie pen to colour thread, but I can't imagine that would be feasible on broderie anglais!

My closest thing to altering clothing is I cut the collar off my pleather biker jacket that was peeling. I had tried layering it with a sleeveless denim jacket that has a collar to cover it up but it still peeled everywhere. I quite like the look and it might buy me some time before I can (go in a shop and try on) a new one.

[ToEllewithIt]

Thanks for the shiny new thread. I love that Pinterest board Bani, amazing work.

I love Broderie Anglais but I feel like cutesy can be hard when you’re tall too so I only have one blouse.

My SR stuff arrived. The blouse it’s great. It has this great structured big silhouette, but it’s very transparent so the effect is quite cool. I couldn’t capture it well full length so have a detail shot.
I also got this tulle dress and to be honest I had buyer’s remorse immediately afterwards. I think I got swept up in the hype and I’d never normally go near something like this in a million years and yet now that it’s here I think I might like it? In a Villanelle-in-a-pink-dress kind of way. That one was Molly Goddard though. I always get Simone Rocha, Molly Goddard and Cecilie Bahansen mixed up. Anyway I’m not sure I have anywhere to wear it, but it makes me feel good in a zero-fucks-given way.

[banivani]

Oh Elle I can see why you like that. It’s def Villanelle vibes but without the murder ;) tough decision! You look great in the blouse, almost has me wanting one for myself! The kind of clothes that have you taking up space. It’s funny how much of fashion through history has been about taking up space and creating presence — big skirts and headdresses and big hair etc. And now we’re almost self effacing with our soft jerseys and minimalism.

I went to a charity shop yesterday and saw a men’s coat in a fabulous brown and white diagonally woven tweed with little flecks of colour. Exactly the sort of thing I gravitate towards... I tried it on and it was too big on the shoulders - apart from that it was just pleasantly masculine-ey oversized. Anyway, I walked away. Told mr Bani about it and he said I was being thick, why not get the coat and have it altered? And I said but you can’t alter shoulder width that easily but now I don’t know. Did I make a mistake. 😩

Thank you all for kind words about the Pinterest board - the algorithm doesn’t understand what I want at all (now it thinks I want Frida Kahlo) so def a work in progress.

[botemp]

I like the blouse Elle, less convinced by the dress maybe it's the black 'mask' alongside it and it's reminding me of my goth friends from teenage years so I struggle to see where you'd wear it except stroppily eating (and throwing) popcorn on the sofa while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer 🤷

Bani, shoulders aren't the easiest fix because of the arm scye, I think, but I do think it's doable by someone competent. I think it's just dolman sleeve/shoulders that are an absolute pain to alter and not worth it. I did recently see a Rokh design that was quite interesting where the sleeves were buttoned on so the coat was convertible (never really understood the appeal of a sleeveless formal winter coat but whatevs) but I liked the look of it and thought it was a nice hack that's probably doable. I'll see if I can find it again.

[botemp]

Found it here.

[banivani]

I don’t see the point of wearing a sleeveless coat either but I def appreciate the nod to history that gives! It’s a really nice coat but prob is best in thinner fabric 🤔

[ThisNameIsDifferentFromTheLast]

I guess it would be handy for those days where it's cold above ground, but roasting in the tube.

Ah the good days of being pressed up against random strangers in a confined space with no worries about viruses.

Although without sleeves it looks an awful lot like those sleeveless tanks with shoulder pads which are popping up everywhere, so will date very quickly.

[banivani]

I guess it would be handy for those days where it's cold above ground, but roasting in the tube. On those days I think I'd rather need the sleeves but not the bodice, IYSWIM.

I've noticed those big shoulders coming back -- a bit Bladerunner.

I don't know a competent tailor for sure. :/

[Floisme]

bani I've had a couple of coats with standard sleeves taken in at the shoulder. But I once asked him about a coat I'd seen (also tweed) with raglan shoulders and he wouldn't take it on. He said he used to do it but there was so much work and time involved that he couldn't charge enough to cover his own costs and that he'd never been satisfied with the results. But if it's just a normal set-in (think that's what it's called?) shoulder then Get In!.

Elle I absolutely love that top. The dress, I won't lie, isn't doing that much for me but the top! The Top! It's fab.

Anyway all this tweed talk reminded me I hadn't done anything with that coat I'd bought in the autumn, the one with the stains. So I took your advice bani (I think it was you?) and stuck it in the washing machine on 30 degrees. Twice.
It looked kind of shell shocked when it came out but you know what, it might just have done the trick. The marks, I think have gone. It's shrunk very slightly but nothing I can't live with it. So thank you!
And now I have to have a serious think about getting it relined and decide whether it's totally ignorant and arrogant to think I can do it myself. Half of me thinks, I only paid £30 for it so I may as well have a go. But the other half is telling me it could be a beautiful coat if someone reasonably competent did it.

[banivani]

Ha, well done Flo! The fabric does change but I'd argue that the stains have ruined it anyway so why not give it a try. If you don't try making a lining yourself at some point you'll never learn how to, but I see your point that it'll be nicer for sure if you get it done ...

I might see if I have time to go to the shop on Tuesday and check if the coat is still there ...

[Floisme]

Go go go! I am so envious that you can still pop into charity shops.

Yes at the moment I'm thinking the worst that can happen is I botch the lining and have to rip it out and take it to a professional, but that I wouldn't do any damage to the coat itself. But it would be quite an undertaking and I probably wouldn't get anything else done for months. I might wait and see if I'm still in a job by the autumn. It could be my first retirement project!

[botemp]

Flo, give it a go (you too Bani grab that coat) a lining isn't that hard, one you set in by hand can look better than a professional one done by machine, it's easier if you have a dress form though but it's not the daunting task you think it is. Anyhow, I'm always surprised how little time and easy it is unless you do it the industrial way with turning it inside out and through tiny holes.

[quirkychick]

I have an eBay coat that needs the shoulders adjusting, I hope it won't be too hard! Last time I looked all the tailors etc. we're still closed.

I missed the link for the Pinterest board, bani.

[banivani]

It's up above there on my first post Quirky pin.it/5LkE75u :)

[banivani]

I'm in a boring meeting. Has anyone noticed that Cos have started a reselling site?

[ShangPie]

Hello all well-dressed reclining ladies!

bani great spot! Sadly no selling in China, just global shipping. There’s a big taboo culturally here around second-hand clothes, although there are a few places doing a slow and steady job of shifting mindsets. Clothing swaps seem to be a growing thing, but I agree with flo - a potter around a charity shop or three is a marvellous thing!

[banivani]

Is there no second hand selling of traditional costumes going on even, Shang?

[botemp]

In Chinese/Asian culture they often believe items hold on to the previous owner's energy and that it's unhealthy and will affect your energy/balance, or something along those lines, anyhow.

My mother horrified my GM with buying things secondhand, although that was more teenage rebellion than anything else and didn't really last. I've inherited some of the hesitance too, secondhand jewellery and shoes feel far too connected to the previous owner (too personal and literally walking in someone else's footsteps) even though I know it's bullshit it's still faintly indoctrinated in me. I still won't buy anything very used either, it has to be barely worn or still new, never worn. There's also the it's for poor people thing, but the whole energy thing seems more of an issue IME.