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

I'm going to catch up a bit and re read people's posts. Some attempts at outfit shots, I'm wearing a fitted vest which I said previously I find much more flattering than a cami. I tried to show from the side how it fits around the shoulder and the wide straps cut up my wide shoulders. The colour looks a bit flat in the photo, but actually the vest is more flattering. Worn with my wrap around linen trousers and voya tevas.

methen I tuck looser tops in like that to create more of a waist too.

My mum has always been quite classically stylish and a bit flamboyant too. She taught me to apply liquid eyeliner when I was a teen.

We are staying in Sopot now, in a place with no WiFi and my data plan is almost empty. So this is from a restaurant with free WiFi 🙄

Methen, we have the museum ion a potential list now, thank you! Unfortunately I’ve come down with the cold me bani has suffered from the whole trip so I’m not at my best. Me bani wasn’t opposed to it though but Minimus is being a bit of a shit tbh (prepubescent eejit) so we’ll have to humour him a bit. We’ll see!

FlixBus wasn’t as comfortable as they make out and I was stiff as you’ll never believe by the time we arrived. But train from Paris to Berlin cost me 300 euro (late booking I’ll admit...) and the bus Berlin to Gdańsk was just over 50 so still - worth what I paid.

I read somewhere/heard somewhere that the reason for the wide harem trousers of the Middle East of yore was because when some prophet or other was reborn he’d come so suddenly the trousers would catch the miraculous baby coming out. I don’t know if that image is better or worse than turds!

Am enjoying the totes . I use cloth bags for food shopping though and the long handles annoy me then because full bags don’t go over shoulder. Ideally each tote should have short and long strap options

That cami must be doing a really good job qyirky as I cannot see wide shoulders! I like the silhouette of the trousers.

Bani i had to google sopot and is now on my travel list. Let me know how is it.

The harem trousers take me back to the 90’s (the good bits and this is a compliment).
Talking Harems, I saw these haremish ones at the dior window, I am not sure about them.

I know I said you might not hear from me but is so hot that we came back to hotel for a rest. Today was sightseeing in some religious sights so I went for my white shirt Hobbs dress (eBay) , the only full length mirror was the lift so a bit of my child is included there.
Tomorrow we go to the seaside for a few days swimming in the sea so I will be less prude.

Sorry typo Quirky!

red, I like qyirky . Thank you, I find the thinner strap/looser style is less flattering with wider shoulders, as I was saying to bani. The trousers are very ancient, but favourite La Redoute linen ones. A few years ago I was stopped by a chic, younger french woman in the street to tell me I looked "cool" in them. . I quite like harems too, if they fit right, I have a grey leopard print dance pair, but they're not natural fibres so far too hot for the present heat. Nice white dress.

I'm enjoying bani's travels too.

That Dior window looks an awful lot like Gucci... Are you in Rome, Red, make sure to pass by Panificio Bonci for some fantastic Pizza Al Taglio Roman style.

Those are some great trousers quirky, vest top is nice too. How are the Tevas treating you?

Ahem, I'm having a bit of an identity crisis now Bani, as my entrance into the world was not dissimilar to that prophet, shot my slippery self out and the midwife only just managed to catch me but it was a very close call OMG I'm a turd...

I'm having an actual bag conundrum. I put in an order with 24s (formerly 24 sevres) this weekend and the by Far shoes I also ordered will definitely go back as they're far too dainty and it's too hot to try on the clothes but at first glance I think they'll go back too. But the bag has left me thinking, I thought it would be bigger and a brighter orange as in the pics but it's actually smaller and more of a terracotta leaning to cognac, quite unusual but more subdued than the pictures. So I've had to readjust away frok expectations. I think had I seen it in a shop I may not have been as drawn to it as I had to the online pics but it's a surprisingly good match with bright colours, and lifts everything up a notch without stealing the show but this heat isn't doing my decision making skills any good and I should give it a spin with coats but temps are not allowing that for now. It does come with a longer strap so can be worn cross body and on the shoulder, and the smaller size actually works better with my proportions, size is more like in pic 3. I'll continue to churn on it for a while I fear. I don't think I'm mad to like it, but maybe it is just the heat

I just lost a long post, aahhh.

I like the shape of that bag, bo, and the trousers in the first picture. My trousers are probably at least 15 yrs old from La Redoute, they used to do a variation on them each year, no longer, sadly. I also have the vest top in cornflower blue.

Sopot looks lovely, bani, one of my friends in London was Polish and used to say how beautiful Polish beaches are. I love Berlin, too, though it's a long time since I've been, a really interesting city.

Not Paris, but New York, this is part 2 but some seriously stylish and not at all boring people on this video by KarenBritChick m.youtube.com/watch?v=WJwGFkT4F-k

The tevas are great, thanks bo. Really cushioned, in a good way, for lots of city walking and they go with everything.

We stayed in Sopot last year, we got the train a few stops along to the forest which was covered in a light coating of snow and filled with woodpeckers. We walked back to Sopot via the suburbs and the beach, it was really memorable. The sand on the beach was such a strange consistency (like the magic sand you get for kids that clumps) and was dusted with snow too in parts. I was prepared to be gnawed upon by the bitter cold, but the reality was that it was a different cold, and far less bracing than the beaches on the North of England on a windy day. One of the highlights was ice skating at night just off the pier, but imagine it is very different in the summer.

There is a fab chocolate shop on main strip (can't remember name but always queues) that does amazing deserts and hot chocolate. The shop I was trying to remember the name of was this one:
byinsomnia.com/?___store=en&___from_store=pl There is one in Sopot too. I was interested mainly in the really structured cotton, quite unusual and nice if you like the lagen look.

Love the totes, got a real lump in my throat when I saw the Aunty Larry mock up.

Quirky and Bo both pairs of trousers look ideal with current heat and Red I love the white Hobbs dress. I'm less keen on the bag Bo but I think it's because it would bug me that it seems a bit 'wonky' with the handle being off-centre. I'm sure for most though it makes a point of interest.

So today I had a skirt and top on, looked okay in the mirror but wanted a photo for here, looked bloody horrendous from every angle in camera! So much so that I changed...twice! Has anyone else come across that? Would you say the mirror or camera gives a more accurate reflection?

Anyway, I was going for afternoon tea with a friend at a somewhat funky bar and then a walk on the beach after, still determined to subject the public to my legs, I wore these shorts (bought for LA last year, only kept for gardening in the UK). I'm not sure about the outfit though, I added the earrings to snazz it up for the pub, but something about the outfit didn't feel quite right. I'm not sure if this is just still my discomfort/ being new to putting together outfits that show so much leg. I have worn short skirts etc before without tights, but that was late 20s/after one child. Please excuse odd posture, awkward trying to get close enough to show outfit reasonably clearly without chopping myself in half.

I'm still trying to catch up with some earlier posts. I do like those Chloe sarouel trousers, bo, they look like a good shape and great in the heat. I think either toast or plumo often do sarouel trousers, but a much simpler style.

I like your outfit, methen, it looks very cool and chic in the heat. I know what you mean about showing your legs. I had a dvt after my first pg and stopped going bare legged. After last year's heatwave, I started again and mostly alternate to every other day in hot weather, partly to stop the chance of sun burn, and feel more comfortable with it now. Monday, I was wearing a loose linen tee and cropped, thin jeans, but was too hot and changed into denim shorts. I think in the heat, so many people are bare legged, no one's really scrutinising your legs anyway.

Once again I'm struggling to see anything but great legs Methen then again I think my legs look crap when I know they're really not all that bad.

We surely differ on our interpretation of heat though. It was 30° here yesterday and will be 34° and 36° today and tomorrow, I'd be overheating in your (otherwise lovely) outfit. Don't think the Chloe sarouel trousers would fare much better in this heat, quirky, that's a 25° max pair of trousers. It's all flowy lightweight fabrics only here for now.

Ha, yes, hot where I live is high 20s. There was a cracking storm last night but still seems close today.

Quirky I think you're right, now I've done it, after years of not, I've realised it's not such a big deal and nobody really cares. Bo they look fine in photo (taken at start of the day), but as I walk on them or get hot, you can see the big blue/green bulges that look like fat worms just beneath the surface of my skin. My mum, despite having two operations on her varicose veins, has legs riddled with them so I feel I know my fate so I should be grateful for how they are at the moment.

Today we are off for a walk in a nearby forest so I may be getting my legs out again as I doubt the trees will object.

I like the bag botemp. The right orange can definitely act as a neutral IMO. Count me in for a tote! I’ve emailed Moda to ask about the final sale as I saw a Theirry Colson linen mini dress in the final sale with 20% extra off. It could be nice as a cover-up or could be ghastly so I don’t want to risk final sale. I ordered the MF shirt , thanks for the steer.

I love your outfit methen it has a lovely casual vibe and the shorts are the perfect length IMO. I think it depends on the item which is more accurate – photo or mirror. Photos can definitely distort proportions especially depending on how you hold the phone. I find them good for looking at an outfit dispassionately, but treat them with a bit of caution. I took a picture of my outfit the other day and didn’t post it because it looks so boring and shapeless. It’s that silk t-shirt dress from Cuyana and it’s really nice in real life. The camera doesn’t capture the soft sheen and fluidity of the silk or the way it moves as I move and instead just renders it as a black rectangle. Unless you’re the sort of person that suffers from the slight delusion that photos of you are always terrible, then you’re probably all right to trust your judgement! I like the Boden swimsuit, but in the black.

Today's outfit is the Farhi dress from tkmaxx. Excuse the weird front on pose, I was trying to show the shape, which is slightly tulip. I took the sleeves down, so they are not cap sleeves any more and took the hem up slightly. It could do with being slightly higher maybe, but with movement the hem comes to mid knee, so I'm still deciding.

Aunt Larry sounds fab . Thinking of influences, my mum was a drama student in London in the early sixties, who had a penchant for Egyptian eye makeup, long, black wigs and purple. By the time I was a child in the 70s, the wigs had gone (one lived on a "head" at the top of my wardrobe along with my dad's vintage French wine ), but the sixties eye make up and purple were still there mixed with a more classical style, suited to suburban living. My maternal grandmother had been a "mannequin" for a department store in her youth, still loved racy underwear into her sixties and had an old fashioned dressing table covered in different bottles of perfume and a huge box of costume jewellery. She had very strong, old fashioned rules for dressing, earrings were common, pink and red clashed, blue and green should never be seen etc. I can remember dressing up in some of her clothes (not the underwear), jewellery and covering myself with perfume.

Love the Larry totes! Will catch up later it hit 35 c here yesterday (in my house was 38) and we're due for worse tomorrow and I'm flagging. Will catch up now. I ended up watching lots of videos from The Way We Wore channel on YouTube overnight.

I love a busy thread! So much to catch up already.
First - big mistake of mine the horror window was not Dior as I said was Gucci! The heat got to me probably.
I thought of something and wrote something else (I suspect myself as dyslexic )
elle I am on the “really like” the shape of that cover up side of fence.
Bo the bag would annoy me but I would be envious of someone pulling that off.
Quirky I imagine your teva sandals working good with the dress too.
Yes photo, mirror , irl, tricky as some outfits look dreadful thru a lense. Use caution.
methen that combo short and shirt is fab. I noticed you have a hood earring collection. I need to experiment more with that , I always keep it really low key unless going out out I have many out out nights

red, my tevas do look good with the dress too. I agree that camera + mirror can seem weird, some colours can look flatter or shapes look distorted.

I've got a few long earrings, mostly from Etsy. I find I wear them more in summer as it can be too hot to wear necklaces. My favourite are ones that are not too heavy.

Red, I don't think Dior/Gucci qualifies as dyslexia 🙈 but probably an indication of an associative memory.

I'm in the 'if it looks frumpy already, it probably is' camp with that dress, but things go frumpy on me easily Curious to hear what their final sale policy is like, Elle.

Camera definitely distorts, in both directions. I'm out and about today in search of lovely cool air conditioning and just tried on these Ganni trousers, which got overruled in RL for being too cat whiskers at the crotch which isn't as apparent in the pictures, but depending on posture and whether you angle the camera forwards or backwards it looks completely different, but cramped dressing rooms usually don't give much choice. The reality was somewhat in between, closer to pic 1 but that pic is heavily distorted as well, I'm not that top heavy or broad in relation to the bottom regardless of horizontal striped wide legged trousers that do plenty of distorting all by itself.

I did decide to spend a bit more on my new phone for a better camera, and it has some AI features and suddenly you're not a nose with a face attached and it captures the light really well and I look bloody luminous on camera now in the raw images. There are some beautifying filters on it too but in comparison they're all a little too suspiciously smooth. Great for your self esteem though, know plenty of cheaper cam phones do the opposite by turning you into a blotchy mess.

I know psychologically we like our mirror image better as that's the way we're used to seeing ourselves but photographs show the flip side which doesn't feel true to us.

Sending cool thoughts to you bloomed, thankfully our ground floor stays pretty cool so long as all windows and doors remain closed but the other floors not so much...

Methen, well if it helps, I think most people just look at varicose veins and only really wonder whether someone is in pain from them. That's about the extent of my thoughts about them anyhow.

Tevas are just right, Quirky. I have some Rieker walking sandals from last year that I'm wearing almost every day in the heat which are equally good with dresses and everything else.

The bag is lovely, especially the colour, Bo. If the pictures are yours, rather than from the maker, then it's a cute size for your proportions, but only you can decide. And the cami is so dainty.

Methen, the shirt and shorts combination suits you well. It's just right for down time in hot weather.

Thunder and torrential rain overnight here, and it's relatively cool and windy today but off to the torrid zone for the weekend, so planning my half a bag's worth carefully. We are taking DH's little ragtop to Silverstone for the Classic Car event and the boot's so small we are sharing a weekend bag... eek.

Mirror v photos... I trust the mirror but suspect that's because I don't like the extra weight the camera adds, or the wrinkled face it reveals. And I fail at self-portraiture even using filters.

Varicose and thread veins are unsightly but if you inherit them (like I did) then I think you view them more sympathetically. I rarely notice them on others, unless they're so severe as to look painful.

My Chloe turd catchers trousers have arrived, quickly snapped a pic between pick up and dinner and trying on a really ill fitting cotton shirt. Light wasn't the best but the general silhouette is visible and at least it hides that it needs a really good steam. I'm very pleased with them although I have to figure out the bottom ties, currently knotted quite tightly. Not as transparent, thankfully, as the white ones posted above.

Bonus points, hipster Parisian grocery bag languishing on the floor of bottom left corner in the second pic

Lovely trousers, bo. You could always auction of the hipster bag to put towards the other trouser fund .

Today's Thai fisherman's trousers with voya tevas, the front view + camera + mirror seems to have erased any waist definition I have, but they look less up and down in rl. The tee is to cover sun burn from the beach yesterday . Weirdly, it's on the backs of my shoulders and chest, but not my neck, arms, front of my shoulders or face. Dd2 was on the beach all afternoon and covered in sunblock as much as me...

This no WiFi at the Airbnb is killing me! Sitting at a “multimedia gallery” now (basically a library with films and games too). I have bought two totes haha with handprinted arty things, when I’m home I might post a pic. (Presents for my girls if they’ll have them.)

Stop talking about how ugly you are, I see the pics you post, everyone looks fine. Meanwhile I am blotchy all over from eczema, my skin is terrible (I didn’t think it was that bad but the bathroom here has excellent daylight - also my husband is taking black and white photos and my face still looks blotchy as hell .) Also my hair is a holy mess. Considering braving a polish hairdresser today even.

Anyway I just popped on to say thank you for the Insomnia shop tip, I popped in yesterday and it was fun. Tried on a few things but unsure of silhouette so left it. Also colours not great - navy (most popular, sold out in many sizes), hot pink, yellow, grey marl, black, white and khaki. Tried on wide slightly cropped trousers in khaki that I quite liked, but M a little small and L a tad big. Since they didn’t have pockets I left them but can’t stop thinking really, maybe I could alter the waist a little on the L? We’ll see I have some hours left. Home tomorrow.

I was reminiscing about Thai Fisherman's trousers on another thread recently. I used to be always bringing them back from festivals, only to wonder as soon as I got home, what the hell I'd been thinking, not I hasten to add, because of the style - yours look really nice - but because they were always 'one size' i.e. wouldn't fit anyone, and in a shiny, sweaty fabric so not even comfortable.

That Gucci window made me smile. We used to pass their store on holiday last year and always stopped to point and laugh. There was a Chanel store immediately opposite and the expression on the mannequin's face was like

As you can probably tell from this post, I have no style news whatsoever. Can someone wake me up when it's autumn please?

Sorry cross post. bani I get trousers taken in on the arse seam when they're too big. From memory it costs between £10 and £15 (although that's not helpful as you're not in the UK). I've even thought about trying to do it myself.

bani, I think sometimes we are our own worst critics, I can assure you my sunburn/heat-shaving rash are not pretty - just covered up! Seriously though, I hope you're eczema gets better, I had horrific eczema on my hands after dd1 was born, you have my sympathy.

flo, these are posh Thai fisherman's trousers from plumo . Though, they were actually very affordable, they're also cotton and very breathable in this horrible, sticky heat. Upstairs in our house is 30° even with fans and window open.