Les Parisiennes de Mamansnet: Blue Stockings are Back in Fashion

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Lovers of Parisian style and fashion with a conscious mindset to our wardrobes. Occasionally we pretend this is a proper Salon of the non-beauty kind.

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Recommended Second Hand Shops in Paris

Outlets in Central Paris

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I agree tailored trousers are hard to get right. They have to not just fit in lots of directions, but flatter too.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. DMIL is being kept in hospital as her heart is playing up badly. There was a second incident last night, in hospital, when it raced up to over 200 beats per minute but we are told it wasn't a heart attack. Social services are going to get involved now as the first attack would probably have killed her had SIL not pitched up in time. It's definitely time for her to be looked after full time, but she has been intransigent bloody difficult about giving up her 'independence' when, in reality, she has none because she can't leave the house unaided. SIL has just lost her job so may become her full-time carer until the way ahead becomes clearer, but whether it's a long term solution is any one's guess and entre nous I am not sure how long is left to her as she is nearly 90 and has been declining for several years. SIL had suggested selling both their houses and buying something to suit them both, but this was roundly rejected a few days ago. We wait and see...

Some lovely pictures and gorgeous stuff showcased here. Thank you all for providing the welcome distraction!

We had a family excursion for Japanese lunch and a movie yesterday which was a great day out. We thoroughly enjoyed Green Book (though the FT savaged it) but Don Shirley's wardrobe was immaculate throughout.

Elle yes I am a proud owner of the jumpsuitsuit.
I don’t blame you for missing the post where I said so. So many in the last few days, we nam re-reading and realising stuff I missed.
See what you all did to me never since I was 6 I have owned a jumpsuit and now at the tender age of ... shall we just settle in 40...I am back!

Sorry for the spelling and grammar above

Glad your MIL is stabile, Xing, i hope she sees reason about her living accommodations.

A woman at work and I reached the conclusion as we turned 40 that that is jumpsuit age because we both got them then 😁

Feeling a fraud posting here at all because my fashion radar is beneath the horizon at the moment. Between DH and MIL and a kitchen, there's a lot happening. I haven't looked at a fashion website in weeks. The failure...

Xing, I'm glad your mil is stable and I sympathise with how difficult it is. As I said, we had a similar situation before Christmas, mil is a similar age and a combination of pneumonia and a heart condition has left her quite frail. Mil sacked the carers the hospital organised for when she came out and has been through quite a few others since.

banivani 40 is definitely jumpsuit age .

Good morning
Has anyone seen this artice in Vogue about M&S new s/s collection?
Here

A few potentially nice pieces in there I think, including a trench.

I presume M&S paid for that feature in Vogue? It's hard to tell and while we're forcing more onerous disclosure on bloggers (a good thing) I wish that the same standards were being applied to print media. Some of the outfits look good, but some definitely feel like they don't belong in Vogue, even with the models, styling, photographers etc. - the pink shirt, some of the Per Una stuff....

That boilersuit looks cool, but you can tell why the model has been photographed seated. It's the same reason I wouldn't even bother picking it up, the legs are very short on it. Nearly all of the trousers have been photographed on seated models, I suspect for that exact reason. I like the linen shirt pictured with the cream trousers and the plain white shirt. I may check them out. The swimwear generally looks good and in the past the quality of swimwear was decent. There's a chambray shirt with an IM Etoile vibe and a leather skirt that are cool, but wouldn't do anything for me.

Yes, I'm pretty sure they have some sort of working relationship that is questionable to say the least. It'll probably also be disclosed somewhere on the website but burries pretty deeply. They also had a similar relationship with Victoria's Secret for years. It really devalues the Vogue brand IMO.

M&S moved out here, I always thought the clothes were always just somewhat wrong, they attempted something good but then just missed the mark and the fit seemed very unflattering to most.

Xing, glad to hear things are somewhat calmer with MIL. I wouldn't sweat it about the fashion websites, may feel like daily sustenance for some but it really isn't

Speaking of fitted trousers upthread, there was a special stand at Le Bon Marché that did custom fitted trousers. You could try on some dummies in white of five different models and they'd alter them on several different spots (waist-lower tum- twice on the hips) to get a perfect fit. Definitely feel this is the way a lot of brick and mortar stores will be clinging on to their existence. Wasn't as outrageously expensive as I'd thought it would be, €390. Which is still a lot but if you really struggle with it, it can be worth it. Comparatively at full price you'd struggle to find many trousers around that price in LBM from their regular stock, most is around the 500 mark and above.

Ahem I'm yet to reach 40, and been wearing jumpsuits for years. Or does that make me closer to 6 they do have a bit of a footsie pyjama quality to them, which I was a massive fan of as a child.

I think is my wishful thinking with some of those M&S clothes, hoping they will fit well.
You are right in that the fit lacks in general as looking back a few times I tried things on but never managed to buy as the fit was not right.
But I might try again this year.

I saw some of the spring collection in a big Marks and Spencer here couple of weeks ago. Wasn't in the mood to try anything on, but overall it looked promising. Even Per Una seems to have changed, they had some thick cotton stipey tops with a pocket on the side that would be great for weekends, it had a Japanese vibe.

There was also a silk shirt dress that looked nice.

Fabrics were hit and miss but I thought there were a few decent things to be found if one had time for a rummage.

(This is not paid content :))

i am watching a pair of Marni trousers on eBay ... they say size 40.
Is that a 10?
The photos are very low quality but they are allegedly good condition...

An Italian 40 is technically an 8 UK. Ask for the measurements as Marni comes up big on me but I'm very small waisted. If you're more straight up and down it may be more TTS. Also check that it's Marni and not the Marni X h&m collection. Nothing wrong with the latter but it should be reflected in the price.

I like the turn M&S has taken in principle - things that will last, not date quickly, can be worn in different seasons, fewer patterned items, etc. The trouble is the cut is so boxy on everything. Even their cami tops are boxy.

Think you are right Elle regarding magazine disclosure...and wasn't the lack of it one of reasons for the rise of the influencers in the first place, before it was all monetized?

I dunno, 390 euro is quite dear all the same? Quite excited by that concept! My husband told me the day before yesterday (when I was trying on the trousers) that his first idea for Christmas for me had actually been made to measure trousers. But he wanted a female tailor ("someone you'd feel comfortable with" aawww) and he had a hard time finding a name and getting quotes and in the end it petered out I think (he gave me gift voucher for bras instead). He got prices around 2000 SEK anyway and he did think it was a little dear but I told him that it sounds pretty fair actually. Though that might have been cost excluding fabric so in the end closer to 3000 of course!

Today I am wearing

• a Hugo Boss silk blouse with a mad pattern (see blurry pic), bought secondhand
• boring black suit trousers from Swedish chain which are part way to the fit I like so I keep them around, even though they don't have pockets, display my belly ruffles a bit too much (but less visible in black) and are a little pilly by now. They were however a) ironed and b) a secondhand purchase from yonks ago for like 80 SEK so I can put up with some bad fit
• a navy merino cardigan from Uniqlo haha. I scrunched up the sleeves with the blouse sleeves and pretended it's to add interest.

Such fashun, much moment.

I have to say I saw a few things I liked in M&S, I looked now that youse spoke of it. I liked a shift dress with ties in the front and the silk shirt dress without massive big flaps over the boob pockets was nice too. I probably won't order from abroad though. I thought some of the trousers had nice shapes too. I'm a little over all the cropped trousers though. Having to plan what socks to wear gets tiresome, I haven't got the energy for that.

Being of average height, I shall try on the M&S boilersuit; I've always had a weakness for them and the last I bought has been downgraded to painting and decorating. I was so sad I e-mailed the company who made it (who now concentrate on dressy clothes for weddings and posh race meetings in gorgeous but often eccentric fabrics) to ask if they were ever planning to bring them back. Sadly not, but I may ask again.

M&S' fit is hit and miss on me too. I do like some of the items they are showing for SS19 and hope they can find their way back to the form of the mid-1990s.

If I could wear a boiler suit and fly a plane that would be even better. In my mind I image something like Amelie Earhart the epitome of cool

I imagine the blue cardi over the crazy pattern blouse a cool look *Bani+

I waffle between thinking the blouse is quite cool and thinking it’s a bit brash in a sort of American way 🤔

Yeah I'm not in any way saying 390 is cheap but considering the brands that surround it, it was similarly priced, so no high premium for the custom work.

I think M&S suffers massively from its glorious past. We had M&S here in the 90s they left then (the first time) near the end of it. I don't remember it being all that special then so often struggle with the mentioned nostalgia for it on here for that era. My mother was very sniffy about it. My grandmother as well, and that was pretty much the age group that shopped there then. A friend of my mother's was a big fan of their trousers because they came in different lengths and subsequently would travel to the UK or Ireland especially to stock up on them again when they left. She could have just had normal trousers shortened but I think the fact they were already at her length made them more special to her. Granted, the pound was high at the time, so comparably it was quite expensive.

Agree with traditional publishing needing to disclose to the same measure. Problem is that their business relationships aren't as clear cut. It's quite normal for advertisers to just cough a little to get their point across without overtly saying what's needed to keep them as advertisers. I feel influencers have a bit more flexibility to break ties with certain parties in favour of others in a way that traditional can't. To me that's what turned me off of traditional magazines, ads financing the majority of the revenue rather than readers always was troubling. It's for the same reasons I stayed away from the influencer crowd. I'm more anxious now of what advertisers will turn to next, as it will be more subtle and suggestive in order to be effective. 'Dark social' (paid for recs from friends in your WhatsApp groups or known posters on forums like these) is definitely next for expansion of murky practices.

#notsponsered

In other news, in my quick dash to find some practical snow boots (found some fugly ones at the boy's section of Decathlon) I also managed to score a last of the dredges in a dark corner of the department store bargain. Margiela jumpsuit down from 455 to 25 it's very much occasion wear but at that price I'm fine with that. Can also switch the shoulders round. Will probably spend as much on alterations as the legs are scarily long and it's a size up. Though may just keep it a bit roomy as it doesn't look off as it has a nice drape to it. Sorry not the best pics as black on a black background.

Definitely occasion wear in this neck of the woods Bo. It's not an outfit that would fit in at a village pub in east Cornwall even on Friday evening, but it is lovely and for the money I would give it wardrobe space, assuming three wears in three years, it's inexpensive. Heck, it's nearly free and in a city life, I reckon you'd wear it quite a lot. Well, I would have done.

Fashion publications have always had to tread a very careful line with advertisers. In the 80s I worked for the big American business-finance magazine run by the mega-personality and I did advertorials with paid for content. It was used to develop new areas of content that weren't mainstream, so then it was largely IT and regional economic development based. We'd work with the state government of Arizona to showcase the companies succeeding there, or show how defence spending was feeding into consumer products. Interestingly, we brought in lots of new advertising but often they wanted to be in the main magazine rather than in the advertorial. We commissioned our own writers, designed our pages, and sold as much space as we could. In 1984, one fortnight we had 150 pages of the magazine, when a full 4 colour RH page cost $40k. I nearly collapsed when we put it to bed. But it was clearly marked as not-Forbes-editorial, because we changed typeface. That would be the easiest way for bloggers to indicate that content is paid-- it's not hard.

I think M&S used to do good basics for a reasonable, affordable price. They were also very much standard sizes, so you could pick something off a rail and know it would fit. They used to have a great returns policy, for the time too. I remember them changing their sizing to erratic and trying to be "fashionable" so kind of losing that everyman appeal. We have a massive M&S here, I find the clothes impossible to search through as they are all in weird made up brands rather than, say, coats altogether. The food hall is good, though.

I love the jumpsuit, bo, what a bargain too.

I'm not sold on the food hall either. I was really excited to have them back as that was the only thing we ever went to M&S for and it was really expensive back then. Specifically the apple and blackberry pie was a favourite that was fought over for the last crumb. It was more expensive than a fancy cake at a reputable bakery. First thing I bought when they opened here again, and, well, it wasn't inedible but it certainly wasn't as I remembered it, it was rather flat tasting and had a weird mouth feel after. Crumpets and English muffins were also a let down. I was rather tepid about all other things we tried as well but I suspect that's partly down to memory of things and slight adjustments over the years but also the quality and availability of other foods it suddenly had to compete against. Did like the fresh naans though, but a good naan still remains elusive here and it's not something you can easily make yourself.