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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Standing desks?? Christ alive. Do CEOs use them too?
If that ever catches on round these parts then that's it, I'll be getting my coat. Fortunately we's only just caught up with hot-desking so I've probably got a bit of time yet.

All desks in a decent office workplace in Sweden have a button to push so they go up and down. So you can move around a bit during the day, and both sit and stand. For your health. Sláinte.

It's usually the CEOs that are obsessed with standing desks. And bullet coffee 🤢 but yeah any office I've drawn up designs for has standing desks (that go up and down) as standard these days.

Red, I doubt it, they wear them with polka dot vintage dresses and denim jackets and that's probably as close as you'd get to looking like them. They consider themselves very bohemian and unique whilst pretty blind to the fact they're very stereotypical of their sort and all their friends look the same and have a similar background (they identify heavily as city people but come from posh towns but feel they've always belonged in the city and were so misunderstood and down trodden in their idyllic childhood). Say inappropriate things like 'I feel a bit bi' (as in bipolar) and have little understanding for people with actual mental health issues because all you have to do is be positive and have happy thoughts and all will be well... Name their children things like Spijker (literally means nail, as in the one you take a hammer to) and Lola. They like to sniff coke on the weekend during a dinner party and are overly obsessed with rosé wine. Love to virtue signal but don't really act like it when push comes to shove, though any poor sad thing or person to fuss over gets them going quite easily but mostly to show off what a great person they are. They have some sort of job but no one really knows what, usually a webshop that doesn't sell shit. Get everywhere in a transporter bike (huge container in the front) filled with lots of children and dogs, often having forgotten one (usually their own child). They tend to cheat a lot, which isn't all that uncommon with women here, but it's especially messy in those circles. They're getting on in age though, most are in an identity crisis after some live event (divorce, death of a parent, cancer, etc.) so the group as it was is somewhat dying out as they've discovered happy thoughts don't insulate you from much.

Ooh, should I get the Mango dress... (And, yes, grippy soles go without saying Bani, otherwise you're never wear the things in wintery Sweden).

Harrumph. I spend half my working day running around, and anyone who suggests I might like to spend the rest of it standing up will feel the sharp end of my tongue.

This is the great thing about being close to retirement. Provided you don't get yourself fired for gross misconduct, there is nothing they can do, either to you or about you.

Go on, buy the dress! It's such a lovely winter colour and so simple.

I have a pair of black, leather knee high boots that are 9yrs old from Duoboots - not sure if they are still around, they had a rebrand a few years ago. They do boots for different calf sizes, so they fit your calf properly. Mine are still in very good condition with a block heel and grippy soles. My only gripe is they are not really tall enough (but I'm 5'7" with long legs), so the top hits me quite a bit below my knee. They're great for rainy days in the city and pretty versatile.

bo, I like your description of the group of mothers, I think we have some similar groups here. It's a middle class area which fancies itself as a bit bohemian (there are a few genuine old hippies here too).

Ah but if it doesn’t fit that’ll be 40 euro down the toilet you know. More, because I’ll get a shirt for mr bani at the same time and that might not fit either.

Bo that is wonderfully specific 😂😂😂

Flo - you don’t have to raise the desk. But you can.

Yeah but what when everyone else - because they've still got years of supervision and appraisals ahead of them - raises their desk and then I have to crane my neck to speak to anyone. Then what? Huh?

Don't mind me though, I'm just bored. There is no money for new office furniture and, even if there was, it would never catch on. As the great Victoria Wood, once put it, 'We've only just got muesli up here.'

Sure why would you want to talk to anyone. I had six conversations at work today and not one pleased me.

Now that is a very good point.

Flo, I hope you don't need to see a gyno as these days their whole examination thingy seems to be a version of the working desk, it's rather terrifying. My gynecologist told me last time I saw her that someone had left it in a real odd setting the day before and her first patient (an elderly lady) ended up nearly hanging upside down

Yes, quirky, I suspect a version of that group exists everywhere. I think I can be oddly specific about them as my mother and her friends were probably a previous version of it (although different backgrounds and income levels, but similarly happy go lucky, peace and love, isn't it all wonderful shit) so I feel for their children, who when they accidentally get left behind who then don't get consoled as there's just a lot of laughter about the situation. It's an odd dichotomy of an identity centred in motherhood but they often live a life where the children are second to their wants and needs. Gross generalisation, obviously (and my childhood was not some horror show, it was a great childhood with the odd memory that makes you go a bit WTF).

Subcultures are everywhere, I love this photography duo and their work cataloguing it all. Shows you how very much not individual we are, especially the ones that aim for it, specifically.

Didn't duoboots go bankrupt (again) early on into lockdown or am I making this up?

PayPal would reimburse me the delivery return costs, so I'm less concerned, need to find something else to get it to free shipping though. Also wondering if I should see how much damage I do on Thursday before ordering things at Mango...

Oh can PayPal reimburse you? How does that work?

You have to activate it first, here (provided my Swedish is still up to scratch, but pretty sure that's if). Check the details though, I get a far roomier reimbursement than the UK accounts but I have to remember to take a picture of it before posting as sometimes the receipt isn't specific enough (depends on the courier I'm using).

I only very lazily use my paypal account so hadn't noticed that, thanks! Good to know, but not as easy as just free returns

Had a vague memory of Duoboots 2.0 going under again but they seem to be around under the 1.0 name.

Now I'm back to dithering on the dress of course. By the size guide I'm an XL, but by experience they lie and vanity size us and I usually in most shops wear an L. So hard.

Well I ordered the Mango dress this morning but I don't really have an active memory of it I did see I got an email alerting me a pair of shoes I had wanted to buy last year (but didn't because it was really busy at the cash register with some issues over a return and then they were sold out) and I'd spotted on the outlet site but not in my size were now back in stock, so I guess barely awake me decided it was a good idea.

I mean, they are another ideal pair of house shoes that I remember being very comfy, so it was sensible somehow... I'm lucky I managed to get the dress into the basket too, I think

Bo I chuckled on my own at that subcultures photography. I think is genius! I found myself trying to find myself there ... most amusing.

So, did you get the dress, what dress? The one Bani showed us? Looking forward to seeing it!

Yes and what size?! I need to know how/when/if to pull the trigger.

XS, it's either my size or I'll have to alter it if I really like it. Sizing dilemmas aren't such an issue for me when there's only one smallest size, sorry. I'd say Mango tends to run smaller like Zara in comparison to the rest of the high street but I've had the occasional thing that's come up big, but it's a shop where you see a disproportionate amount of tiny women battling over last items so I'd go with a larger size if you don't want to order both sizes.

Red, yes their work is a lot larger than that sampler. Think there's a giant book of it, it's really amusing and also interesting to see how things changed (they started in 1994) as the tattoo girls from the 00s are very different to tattoo girls these days. Apparently they just approach people on the street, it's not cast or overly manipulated in any way, just the pose and how things are put together sometimes or a hairstyle when they feel that's a crucial identifier of the subculture.

I do like that on our little subculture here while there's a lot of similarity there's also plenty of difference and we don't really dress identically but appreciate and like similar things.

Bought it. 8) I bought the largest so guess we can compare notes haha.

I loved the subculture photos too but am too impatient to go through them, the site setup was annoying. Would be a cool book though.

Yay for dress-buying!

Now if we all bought the dress and posted a picture that would make for an interesting advent calendar post...

(whereby every day one basic item most would have in their wardrobe would be the inspiration and the outfit created around it would be posted, might be asking a bit much for 24 days though).

"I do like that on our little subculture here while there's a lot of similarity there's also plenty of difference and we don't really dress identically but appreciate and like similar things."

Me too.

I think I might miss the Jil Sander, depending on what time it opens. Hmph.

While that advent calendar idea certainly is interesting and probably would do my styling a world of good, it does run the risk of pushing us into extreme cult-ness. ;)

*Catherine