Les Parisiennes de Mamansnet: L'enfer c'est les Autres

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Lovers of Parisian style and fashion with a conscious mindset and lots of chatter in between. Feel free to join in

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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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Les Parisiennes de Mamansnet shop

I’d be cheered up by seeing people dressed up! I’m trying to push the button on these today which are realistically as dressy as it’s likely to get! zompoutlet.com.au/collections/size-37/products/sempre-di-maia22-nero

I don’t think it’s all arrogance working when you’re old. It’s driven motivated people and that’s who they are. It’s my dads identity and he’s not being paid or barely anything for his charity board roles, and my very loved grandpa died this year at nearly 95.he worked up to and including the day he died, he’s a chemical engineer, a leader in the Australian industry, and had a new invention prototyped and operating, thats what drove him, we all think he’d just have died if he had to stop thinking. I expect there is a strong element of Supreme Court justices seeing it as a service. They have often taken massive pay cuts to be a judge. Incidentally there is a court case here with one of the big 4 professional services firms challenging their partner retirement age on the grounds of discrimination. Which is a tricky one because yes it’s against the law but taking away the age limit will have a net negative on the profession!

Well indeed and come to that, I'm still working myself But I'm conscious I won't be there much longer and I'm telling the decision makers that it's time they made a plan - which might be to ditch my job as soon as I've gone and that's fair enough. The point is - think about it because none of us are immortal. The end.

Going out where though are night clubs open? Or just to the pub? Do people get that dressed up for pubs?

My GM is well into her nineties and although no longer doing the accounting for lots of charities/union type things that I struggle to translate properly but she's still the one checking all the books and schooling the paid accountants they had to hire to replace her. She's not one for sitting idly either despite her mental capacity not always being what it used to be, the numbers stuff remains strong and unaffected. It is odd how the consequences of an ageing population question seems to have disappeared politically because it's not an easy thing to tackle (which I fear means we're just ignoring it until it's too late and we can't do anything about it). But old age is definitely looking different with medical advancement. I'll be curious to hear what the outcome of that court case will be time.

True none of us are immortal, my mother was rather insistent that anything new you start (applies to all areas of life, houses, jobs, projects, novels, etc.) plan for the end/demise of it first. It's an excellent life lesson that has yet to let me down.

I assume they were just heading for bars / pubs. Clubs are closed (I only know this because my son says so) and it was far too early for that anyway. Basically I think they were grabbing what might turn out to be their last chance for some time to dress up and go somewhere.

That sounds lovely, I'm rather confused as to what's exactly happening in the UK, but that makes more sense now.

So what did you want to buy at Cos? I do think they have some nice things in at the moment but I'm never motivated enough to go try things on (changing rooms are open here, but often only half of them which means long waiting times).

The UK is confusing as there are lots of local restrictions in place so it depends on where you are. Things are beginning to spike again but no total lockdown anywhere as far as I know.

As for Cos, I bought this dark blue hoody which was probably the least interesting thing in the shop, but I'm wearing it today with some Margaret Howell narrow leg wool trousers and it dresses them down just as I'd hoped. It says it's cropped but it isn't - it just doesn't end smack in the fattest part of my thighs like a lot of hoodies and sweats do.

I am delighted to see tank tops are back, e.g. here and here and here. My favourite doesn't seem to be online yet but it was in grey wool with a deep V-neck and a very sharp, Margaret Howell-esqe vibe. If it hadn't been grey I'd have struggled to resist but I've vowed to lay off that colour for now.

(By the way, Cos, please call them by their correct name - a vest is what your mum makes you wear when it's cold.)

Then they had some wide leg grey flannel trousers - not a lot of use in my current life but still delicious. I think these might be the ones but I'm not sure as they looked full length in real life.

A few interesting pleated things

And I liked some of the flat shoes too e.g. these and these Am I getting bored with brogues?

If trying on had been allowed my credit card might have got hammered but as it was, I looked, admired, paid for the hoody and walked away

I then went looking for dark blue, cotton, logo free joggers - not to wear with the hoody but to tone down blazers. But the best I found were in M&S and they didn't have my size. They're all sold out on the website too, so that will have to wait.

Oh I like what they did with the back. 'Cocooning' according to the description, but I imagine it gives it a bit of shape instead of just spreading out shapelessly. Good buy, by the looks of it.

Second pair of shoes I've tried on in black and they were horribly uncomfortable, they couldn't even shift them in the sale with 70% off so save your credit card from those.

Hmm, to my knowledge pic 2 is a tank top, and those are indeed (sleeveless) vests this is surely one of those English/American/rest of the world things but definitely sleeveless vests in NL and Germany, a vest (with sleeves) is a cardigan but in French a veste usually means a blazer or jacket but there's sort of a relationship in a long sleeves buttoned type of thing.

Tank tops in Belgium are Marcellekes (which sounds lovely in a Flemish accent) named after a French Marcel brand from the 19th century (IIRC). Think the French also call them something with Marcel but can't remember the exact term anymore.

Yes it's a good shape - it's why I resisted all the Uniqlo ones and went to see it for real. It's not quite as thick and snug as I'd hoped but on the other hand, that means it'll fit under coats and jackets better.

Good to know about the shoes!

I think the tank top / vest divide might be an allegory for the UK's (or maybe England's) relationship with the whole world? Or maybe it's a generation thing too - I remember as if it were yesterday progressing from wearing a vest to a bra. Tank tops also got tarnished by their 70s association and specifically Gilbert O'sullivan.

Cannot believe I can't find a pic of Gilbert O'sullivan wearing one of his tank tops. Stalinist.
But I see Margaret Howell sidesteps a diplomatic incident by calling them slipovers

I remember slipover, probably a bit old fashioned these days. I've also seen Spencer used for men's versions. You'd think we'd get our act together and just decide on global names already. We can start by getting rid of panties 🤢 although the American 'wife beater' tops (tank top/vest) should probably be the first to go

International words for clothing would be good. The wife beater is beyond words. I think we (in the UK) use vest top to mean a similar style to an old fashioned vest you would wear as underwear. Pants/panties/trousers are too confusing as well.

Tank top is definitely bos pic, isn’t it literally the underwear they stripped down to inside tanks? I thought wife beater was Australian, a dark blue one is classic ocker attire. Oh and my 2yo looks edible in his but I call it a vest! Happy to be wrong about the ownership of wifebeater . Sweater vest is clear , I usually call both the knit woollen outers and the underwear vests.

I like the loafers, not sure I’d like them if I had long feet though.

Wikipedia claims it was named for a man caught wearing one while beating his wife to death in Chicago The Americans seem to win this dubious round.

Tank tops seem to just be cropped tanksuits (ye olde bathing suit) no army tanks involved, just tanks or water, so we're safe using that one.

It's been an educational day today.

*Detroit not Chicago (who incidentally make nicer pizza than whatever that weird thing is that Chicago tries to pass off as pizza).

There really is no hope for world peace if we can't even agree on what a tank top is.

at Chicago pizza! We went to the place that supposedly invented it and it was more like a quiche, except with cheese instead of egg mixture.

American English vs British English, always interesting, two nations divided by one language. Add Australian English to the mix and who knows. We can't even agree on words within the UK, hence those threads about plimsolls, pumps or bread roll, bun etc.

I like this thread and maybe have a little to contribute but you lovelies keep going off track recently to discuss politics, not fashion.

Could you start a new thread on your political thoughts?

I am not being mean but I am interested in the fashion aspect.

P x

Thanks Les but sorry I personally cannot separate the two. Politics often feeds my thoughts about fashion and vice versa. All I can suggest is that you skip the posts you're not interested in. Or you could try throwing in a link to something nice - I'm very easily distracted from worthy thoughts

@LesLavandes

I like this thread and maybe have a little to contribute but you lovelies keep going off track recently to discuss politics, not fashion.

Could you start a new thread on your political thoughts?

I am not being mean but I am interested in the fashion aspect.

P x

Fashion is political and the world is hardly operating as anything resembling business as usual right now. Fashion doesn't exist in a vacuum and these threads have never treated it as such so I don't see the point in suddenly changing that now. Sorry if that bothers you.

It's cheese soup in a bread bowl, quirky 😖

Please please don’t allow Johnnycomelatelies to stop the digressions. I have learnt so much from reading them.

✌️ peace everyone. It doesn't matter how often or how little someone posts. I can definitely understand our political ramblings are distracting especially if you happen to be in the midst of it and think of this thread as a little escape from it all or simply because you're just not interested in it. We'll have to agree to disagree as to where it takes place, the chat goes where it goes and it it's impossible for that to always be to everyone's interests, it's the nature of a forum.

Peace, we come here to muse on the challenge of finding great clothes, and in between we chat about politics and sewing and art and a thousand other topics that pop up. I hope I speak for us all when I say that we like this thread this way.

You are welcome, of course, @LesLavandes. but, please just chip in with your insights and links to great clothes. Please don't wade in and start telling us what to think. This thread is always in free flow.

In my mum's lexicon, a spencer is a vest, Worn by girls only. IDK.

I thought for women it was a very cropped coat, worn with empire style dresses (Regency times, I think?). In South Africa they're thermals 🤷