Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: Too much good taste can be very boring. Independent style, on the other hand, can be very inspiring.

[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

viennese I use the No 7 BB cream in fair all year round. I just add where I need to (usually dark circles and a little round my nose). I've used it for quite a while, I used to use the tinted moisturiser, but the No 7 assistant told me when I swapped, that it only lasts 5 hours. The BB cream is better.

Things are a little mad chez quirky atm, as mil is really very unwell now with severe heart problems and leg problems (from diabetes). She has had several falls and we're trying to convince her she needs night care. All this lovely stylish and other talk is a very welcome distraction!

I really like those trousers Time. Can't tell - do they have pockets? The khaki ones are a bit like the ones I tried on in Poland from Insomnia but I waived them because no pockets - I need to be able to put my phone somewhere when I'm moving around.

I'm not keen on the leather on leather look. My resistance to this probably means I'll be posting myself wearing it within a year - stay tuned haha.

Sorry about your MIL, Quirky.

I’m sorry quirky, I’m not looking forward to that stage. Hopefully a long way away for us.
Yes pockets bani, my hand is in the pocket of the black pair. I should take a bathroom selfie of today’s burgundy dress too

Thank you for the kind thoughts. Mil is very elderly and up until November was very independent, but it's been a quick decline. Poor dp has been rushing round there most days. She's currently in A & E after the third fall this week.

On a much lighter note and trying to find some respite, some outfit photos of culottes with faux tie silk shirt (blouse?). The spotty shirt is a jigsaw one from the charity shop last year. It's a bit voluminous, so I usually give it a half tuck, but my previous talk of wraparound ballet tops made me think of using an invisible hair tie to look tied up. I think I prefer it to tucked, actually. I've got lipstick on and going to wear red trainers, probably with a raincoat on!

I have been quiet cos been quite busy lately but still reading when I can.
I am loving all the culottes by quirky and times.
That jigsaw blouse also looks great. I do not have any fashion updates from my side I am afraid. I will try to make an effort on the weekend/next week and see if I can contribute

Oh and sorry about mil quirky, hopefully you can convince her of the care.

Oh there you all are!
Saw this & thought of you! xxx

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1MNzIgnW0k/?igshid=17annn5k4if1

De rein 🇫🇷👠🤷🏻‍♀️💋

red I think I have worn these culottes at least once a week since I bought them! A great bargain at £27 in the anthropologie sale. I reckon I could probably wear them into the autumn a bit too. Maybe I need an AW version in wool...

Mil is back home again, but I think something needs to happen soon.

I am very jealous of them culottes actually Quirky. A very wearable and versatile style.

Mamans - Bonjour

Can I ask some advise about French brand Ba&sh?

I adore their stuff for autumn, particularly these gorgeous burgundy boots and dress combi which is a bit of a budget blow.

Does anyone know how often Ba&sh have sales or if they send round discount codes? I have signed up for the newsletter.

DMILs are a constant worry Quirky. Ours is frail and lives with dementia and a host of chronic conditions, but has home visiting carers and SIL around the corner to organise groceries and appointments but otherwise, she would need residential accommodation.

The culottes are very chic right now. Well adapted for the miserable weather we're having. I thought longingly about my boots and thin down jacket last night when we went to the National Fireworks on Plymouth Hoe. Three epic displays, preceded by great Japanese food, but the outfit (Hiut gf jeans and a warm hoodie) was a definite compromise and not inspired.

Talking of culottes for autumn/winter, here is some style inspiration from Style magazine (apologies for the poor light quality in the photos). So, Celine tweed culottes, ££££ obviously, but I would want something a bit longer but love the whole look. The burgundy jeans from Ganni, not sure if they're cropped but love them with the tonal shirt. Last spring, I saw a very stylish woman in navy culottes with opaques, ankle boots and a utility chic messenger bag, I'm thinking I could do something similar this autumn.

Persona, I don't know anything about Ba&sh, sorry, but that dress and burgundy boot combination is lovely. Could you work some sort of adaptation of it? Even skirt and boots with a similar feel might work.

Xing, we have something similar with mil, we have been doing shopping for her and she currently has daytime carers for meals etc. but the falls mean she really needs night care at the very least. The trouble is, not only is she increasingly unwell, she is becoming increasingly confused and thinks she doesn't need it.

I will just point out that the day before I was much less chic in grey leopard print dance harems, grey tank top and pale green cashmere cardi for a day of household chores and taking dd2 to the park! It has been quite autumnal here, much cooler with spells of rain.

I had a quick look through my emails from Bash and it seems like they did a 15% off in mid-August last year before opening their sales in November. They do a private sale first, then heavier discounting so I’d recommend signing up for the newsletter. I don’t know if you have to have purchased in the past to get access. I haven’t seen a 15% off the year, but I’ll let you know if I do. Love the dress and boots

quirky Sorry to hear about your MIL. That must be taking quite a toll on you. The denim (?) culottes look great on you

botemp That menu sounds amazing. I’m so envious. I always mean to try that par-boiled risotto thing too. I actually made risotto last night, just a plain one and served with pan fried prawns and scallops. My sister was over so I wanted to cook something nice. Now I have leftover risotto which I will hopefully turn into arancini tonight and just have with meats, cheese and veg. I’ve been cooking a lot from the Honey & Co cookbook I can’t find many of the recipes online unfortunately, but they’re nice and simple with not too many hard-to-find ingredients forward.com/food/310154/honey-cos-chicken-pastilla/

I’m off on holidays so may have some oufit photos to post that aren’t workwear.

Oh I'm glad the ASOS trousers came up a treat, time. I'm still as to why they're called basketball trousers though, I can't really imagine them being all that useful in a sport...

quirky, it must be very wearing for you all.

Those Ganni trousers look a similar cut to my Ganni white jeans which are only slightly cropped on me. Are the Celine pictures really cullottes? I thought they were just a rehash of the skirts they did in the 70s.

Persona, Ba&sh tends to follow the same promotions as other French brands. They'll have a VIP sale in the weeks ahead of the official sales at around 30-40% off which usually you can only access through the newsletter and then they'll go in at 40%+ come early January/late June. They sometimes will do a code at the end of the sale but not so much before it. Would point out that I do like Ba&sh and sometimes it's difficult to find something comparable that hits the pattern, fit, cut, and finishing criteria, but a lot of it is synthetic and they hide it with industry abbreviations, and that dress is 97% polyester. They do seem to use higher quality synthetics and it never looks cheap but at the end of the day it's still synthetic if that bothers you. Their shoes tend to have a very thin leather sole which looks very good but it does make them more susceptible to damage at the nose and around the sole as a result. I'm sure Zara will do a boot similar to that this A/W, possibly Uterque as well. For whatever reason I don't see the price in GBP, but I do know they push up the price a fair bit in the UK, and with Brexit ahead and a dropping GBP probably more than usual, so it'll probably be a bit cheaper in Euros.

I realised I never attached the pics of H&M coat and Zara linen blazer. I'll have to try the coat on with a thick jumper (which are stored away in air sealed bags so it may be a while) as I was unsure of size, middle pic is size 34 and the last pic is a 32 which felt a bit off somehow. I don't know if it was just the alarm scrunching up the fabric at one end but I also felt the lapels weren't sitting flatly, couldn't really attribute it to being too small/a size down, may just have been a less well sewn one? I think the 34 will probably be the better fit with a jumper anyhow. Although I feel really weird at the thought of buying the first winter coat I've tried on since winter, but I do like how minimal it is with no visible buttons and the contemporary cut and slanted pocket inserts.

X-posted with Elle as MN was being annoying about posting with images. I had been having a look at the Honey & Co cookbook, couldn't decide between that one and another Middle Eastern one whose name has escaped me. It's a bit annoying these days as in years past a cookbook release would have loads of recipes available to try, courtesy of other bloggers and newspapers as part of the pr campaign but it seems most bloggers are now cookbook authors themselves and they'll just offer a praising quote at best.

I still have some pumpkin pearl barley risotto arancini in the freezer. Or maybe it was farro? I'm keeping them for when I accept it really is autumn. For me the secret to arancini is Italian bread crumbs (Impan I think they're called, though not sure that is the actual brand name) which is some sort of magic light and savoury breadcrumb that doesn't go greasy at all and makes anything it covers tastes so much better than without it. There's no msg in it which I thought would be responsible, still trying to solve that puzzle.

I need to start meal planning for next week today actually.

That coat looks very nice Bo, I saw it on the website and I too think the lines are nice. Sadly only 40 % wool, I have little use for a coat like that because if it's not cold it's raining and if it's not raining it's cold. :( Love the colour though. The model on the website looks genuinely happy to be wearing it - don't know if that sways you in any direction. ;)

Those menus You are all goddesses. How do you find the time to think about clothes?

Nice coat. I think H&M often do their best stuff early/pre autumn and then beyond September it all goes downhill.

I've struggled for the last two winters to get into culottes/cropped widelegs with boots, even though I wear a midi skirt and boots without thinking twice. Weird.

The 40% wool annoys me too, though it feels like it's a higher % wool in the flesh. I'm not sure what lycocell offers in terms of keeping you warm, I've only really bought it as a S/S fabric.

No, along with sample sized models I do prefer them to be miserable look or preferably headless, Bani I don't really mind or favour it, although sometimes on the Zara site they go a bit mad with laughing models and they're so cracked up from laughing I can hardly make out the fit of the clothes.

Pfft, Flo, cooking comes quite easy to me so really requires little to no attention unless there's a 'helper' around, yields oodles of time to think of things that are not noodles.

Boots under culottes don't really work for me either makes it all rather solid and formless. I can only get away with it when the boots are very fitted so there's calve definition but they're usually too short proportionally to work in the entirety of the look.

Coat is lovely, I was admiring the slanted pockets. Is it just me or are the blazer lapels very long?

I usually use panko for the breadcrumbs which is probably sacrilege, but it's so handy and always on hand. Impan looks finer; I must try to track some down.

Agree on the Ba&sh fabrics, though they do also do a good few items in silk. I have a nice summer dress from there in silk and I saw this one is 55% silk though I'm not sure I can pull off that Hedi for YSL vibe ba-sh.com/uk/p/celia-dress-noir-3664784134176.html

Flo I'm going to try culottes and boots too this A/W. It's actually a very practical look for our wet weather so I don't know why I haven't given it a go either.

Yes it's very practical. Maybe I just don't have the right boots yet....

I love BA&SH but have only admired in the shops so far.

Bo I love your boots in the coat / blazer photos, would you mind sharing where they are from please.

I'd love to try the culotte and boots look, it would be so practical for the constant rain we have here. Footwear however is the area I struggle with the most, its so hard to find something chic and comfortable.

bo the Celine pic is so small they could be skirts. Style magazine also had a pic of the white Ganni jeans, which might be yours. Very nice.

flo I meant to say your waxed hat looks very Alexa Ching and is obviously ahead of the game.

Elle my culottes are a navy cotton, in quite a tight weave but lightweight twill iyswim. I haven't actually tried the culottes and boot look, but might also try the culottes + opaques + ankle boots I saw, which might stop the tree trunk legs effect.

Elle, yes, Zara blazer is sort of a take on a slimline tuxedo/evening jacket, lapels come very low.

The silks are indeed very nice at ba&sh, the silk camisole I got from them is lovely and as nice or nicer fabric quality than some more highly priced brands I own. There's a lot of Ba&sh on Vinted, it seems to retain its value well on the second hand market along with Sezane.

I think anything not made by an Italian is sacrilege to the Italians. I have some Italian blood in me so I know I have an ancestor somewhere rolling in their grave whenever I cook 'Italian' Panko breadcrumbs are delicious though, not to be sniffed at the Thai and Korean imitation of it is a bit questionable though.

They're from Zara, Name, bargain in the summer sales at €30 (they're leather, burgundy mock crock). I can no longer to link to it, product code is 5134/301. My local Zara did still have them in the dregs of the sales in a size 36 so you may find some in the shops. They're not as high as they look on the Zara pic, not quite a flat but not far from it. Very walkable and miraculously (for me) no blisters or pain with breaking them in. If you find them on eBay or similar I'd probably size up, my normal size fitted but only just.

Nice coats and boots, bo.

flo, I like cooking too (fashion and food, no wonder I'm on a Parisian thread ). I tend to favour simple recipes that yield flavour - hopefully! I used to meal plan, but now have a very rough meal rota of fish, taco/southwestern, fish, wild card/whatever, fish, meat, buffet meal over the week. It's very flexible and is easy to think of something to cook.

Interesting, bo that you say you can't miss meals. I used to do the 5:2 fasting but had to stop when I became perimenopausal. I now do two meals a day, but any hints of hormonal issues and I revert to three meals, as I then can't skip a meal without feeling awful.