Les Parisiennes de Mamansnet: Be More Aunt Larry

[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

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We’re ten threads old! To celebrate we’ve got thread merch.

Les Parisiennes de Mamansnet shop

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Love it. I'd wear 1 and 3 everyday!

What on Earth is “carefully archived fabric”? Was looking in this website and thought I like the look of this shirt (me dreaming for when my shopping curfew is lift in January) and saw that has %61 polyester and rest cotton ... but archived??

Archived = deadstock, I think. There's actually quite an interesting new French (I think) brand that is sourcing deadstock fabric from luxury houses and then making limited numbers collections in factories within so many Kms of the fabric. It's here Excess only. Pricey but for the effort they go through probably reasonable and quite trend resistant designs.

Word of warning, apparently that Palones brand is spamming the S&B boards. Saw a comment exchange about it the other day but the poster posting about Palones got rather defensive and claimed not to be spamming and being a long time poster (not that that proves anything, I've been offered free stuff through PM by companies twice on here) so not sure what the deal is.

Thanks Bo
Had a look at excess only and you are right (nothing new there ) some timeless pieces at what looks a very good quality.

I haven’t thought a lot about what will buy in January but I will not rush. A couple of things I will invest on are 1 or 2 trousers (no jeans) maybe one black and one in a colour / checked, also a skirt that can be worn for work / dresses slightly down with a jumper . Trend resistant designs, good quality , up to about £100 per piece or less even better (hoping the sales will let me grab something good)
Also a S/s dress
Any ideas welcome!

So many fabulous pictures - I need a new word for fabulous. Very much my style, at least in my head.

Well today was a day off and I've had a jeans cull. Not something I normally do but these are the kind of lengths I will go to in order to put off Christmas cleaning. I tried on all my skinnies and girlfriends, took photos and disliked what I saw so much, I took them straight to the charity shop Not like me at all but I didn't want to put them away and then be tempted to get them out again in a few years time.

So I think I'm left with 3 pairs: the Uniqlo U curved legs I bought in the autumn which I still like but I don't think of them as winter wear - too wide and too much ankle gap. Then there are some old Not Your Daughters straight legs which I like but they date from my pre menopause days so are a little tight unless I'm at my fighting weight, which let's face it, means they're no use over Christmas. And some Whistles narrow, straight legs which I also like but which are a bit big on the waist. So I guess my first purchase once my mini austerity drive is over will be some new jeans. But it'll have to wait until January at the very earliest. And meanwhile I still haven't done any cleaning.

Flo I am the same the other day tried my skinny jeans / narrow and thought; what the hell is that?? But I haven’t taken them to charity just left them in a bag far from my reach. I do not like at all the look of that .

I know Red. I normally put stuff in a cupboard for recycling (years) later and only get rid if it doesn't fit or it's worn out. But these looked so bad I just wanted them out of my life.

[santa]

Sorry, I thought I had posted the AC post yesterday morning, but apparently I haven't I wasn't all that happy with it rereading it the night before so totally feasible there was some unconscious sabotage at play. Busy day again today but I'll get to today's AC entry later in the afternoon.

DAY 19 - DAY 19 - DAY 19

Dude

Or ‘Dudette’, if you prefer. We need a new label anyhow since Gillian Flynn’s ‘Cool Girl’ monologue in Gone Girl singlehandedly exposed cool girls aren’t quite as cool as we thought. With every downfall, there’s opportunity, where Flynn painfully exposed the Cool Girl as nothing more than an imagining of socially awkward men in popular media that women then imitate, there’s now room to explore the accompanying aesthetic outside of this male gaze.

The main difference, there’s no covert striving for hotness here, the underlying USP of the Cool Girl. It doesn’t mean it falls into the ‘modest’ trap either which arguably concerns itself as much with the male gaze as the Cool Girl did. There’s no avid rejection of the male gaze either, it’s just not very concerned with it.

There’s a certain hint of awkwardness that exposes a fragile uncertainty, rather than it being dressed up as ‘quirky’*and ‘edgy’ it hints at a sense of intimacy. Somehow it makes the idea that an outfit is the result of random pickings from the floordrobe a little more authentic than the stylised idea of it.

For so long we surrounded ourselves with faux personalities, social media quickly became corrupted by curation, of imagery but more concerningly, of personality. Resulting in high pitched voices catering to the lowest common denominator. Subsequently, the idea of ‘they’re just like me’ is no longer washing and once again this cycle of yearning for authenticity starts again. The dudes and dudettes may be the next well to delve from, so long as they remain rather unaware and oblivious to it (and no, performative dishevelled insouciance doesn’t’ count as that), and some ‘dudes’ are actually dudes (M), there may actually be some depth there.

No offence meant, quirky*

Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl.

Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men – friends, coworkers, strangers – giddy over these awful pretender women, and I’d want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who’d like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them. I’d want to grab the poor guy by his lapels or messenger bag and say: The bitch doesn’t really love chili dogs that much – no one loves chili dogs that much! And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: They’re not even pretending to be the woman they want to be, they’re pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be. Oh, and if you’re not a Cool Girl, I beg you not to believe that your man doesn’t want the Cool Girl. It may be a slightly different version – maybe he’s a vegetarian, so Cool Girl loves seitan and is great with dogs; or maybe he’s a hipster artist, so Cool Girl is a tattooed, bespectacled nerd who loves comics. There are variations to the window dressing, but believe me, he wants Cool Girl, who is basically the girl who likes every fucking thing he likes and doesn’t ever complain. (How do you know you’re not Cool Girl? Because he says things like: “I like strong women.” If he says that to you, he will at some point fuck someone else. Because “I like strong women” is code for “I hate strong women.”)

Extract from 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn.

I used to be a cool girl in a ridiculously abusive relationship which kept me insecure. My dude dressing came later with freedom

Well done Bloomed you do your name proud

But I still haven't found the right trousers ...
Can someone call Emmanuelle Alt and ask her for a donation?

They're long instead of cropped but are these any good? Can't tell if they're stretchy waist all the way round or just at the back. Tiny pic on phone not being helpful.

Ooh they are very nice. Tbh not cropped is even better as I'm becoming less keen on them.

Harmony has some lovely high quality items, it's another one that started off as mainly menswear then just adapted it to womenswear. Just bought a scarf recently (they're having a pop up shop here and 🤞if successful they'll open a permanent shop) but they switched their financial model a year or so ago and now only sell directly and they don't do sales anymore, prices are a fair bit cheaper now as result. Randomly they'll have a small discount code but they're really rare. I hope it works out for them, I do love a bargain or a sale but it's also kind of nice knowing you're never paying over the odds.

(Claps in admiration) to Bo for yet my favourite advent theme so far, well put and to bloomed you did so well to get out of that.

Now clicked to see those trousers suggested by bo and they are fav and also got trapped looking at others and I am taken by this pair

I don't work for Harmony, promise but they are currently offering free shipping until the 25th which is worthwhile since it's otherwise high (€12).

I like those red trousers and love that they give the weight of the fabric and manufacturer name. I've been contemplating red trousers (from Jacquemus, tried them on in navy and questioned if I needed another pair of navy trousers) but I feel I need red shoes with them for some reason

The fabric of those looks amazing.

I actually got a lot of mn help under another user name to get out of that situation. I still take many precautions with address/online identity trails.

Gosh, I love them so much I just emailed them to ask about sizing ... i assume a 38 could be potentially my size.

I haven’t bought anything new since August and the intention was to last until January, but to be honest I wasn’t necessarily thinking of the sales, I tend to find the sales too much and too confusing if I am honest and don’t like the feeling of pressure...
Anyhow, I think I rather buy 1 pair instead of the 2 I wanted and then I can buy the other one later.
I will be in paris mid January though so I am sure I will do a couple of purchases then, but I am not sure if to wait (potentially not be able to pop there) or order them, I know I will wear them for work or going out now.
...

No offence taken, bo, my username is supposed to be somewhat tongue in cheek .

Bloomed that sounds pretty awful, glad it is behind you now.

I have also been bagging up things for the charity shop. 3 whole black bags of mostly old baby/kids clothes and some of my stuff . We are going to sort out our storage early next year and redo our rubbish cupboards in the bedroom into proper fitted wardrobes, so decluttering in advance. I did find a lovely, burgundy, textured, leopard print scarf that I must have though was too dark, but contrasts nicely with my silver hair. I have kept some sentimental dcs stuff and some of mine. We've done so much decluttering at late mil's now I've got much more ruthless!