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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Checking in to bookmark this thread. I don't post but I love reading the posts and getting hints and tips on styling.

You're welcome to join in Wine although I think lockdown is getting to us in useful tips and hints on styling. Probably best to ignore my MAGA styling advice of late

I have fallen back into dressing like a children’s TV presenter - today was a polka dot corduroy dungaree dress over a long sleeved black tee. Comfortable, at least! It seems fairly certain I’ll be working from home for at least another six months - and never going back into the office five days a week again - so I am steeling myself to Kondo the smart clothing I put away at the end of March.

Good to see you back Viennese. Beware the Kondo regret.

Do I need dungarees? Definitely not corduroy though, I've yet to look good in that.

Anyhow, I've decided to embrace autumn as the weather would suggest as much. Kept the new bag as I just love it too much with this coat (also works with my winter coat in a similar colour and it sort of works on a navy coat too).

Now I want all the orange things, well maybe not Trump 🤢

I’d only been back in formal wear since the start of January so there won’t be that much, luckily. There’s a lot that’s just worn out I think.

The change in weather certainly makes autumn clothes more appealing. The bag looks great, bo.

The windy weather has brought out my fisherman's cap, in an attempt to not look so windblown. I've swapped sandals for trainers too.

It's brought out those weirdly short I think something nautical hats that look like an unrolled condom here 🤢 it really doesn't help when it's paired with a 70s porn stache underneath... It's the proportions that irrationally annoy me though (completely my issue) and I just want to yank them off heads and tell them it was making them look like a boiled egg with the top neatly serated off. #Ihaveissues

Hello again, Mariannes! I have returned DM chez elle, as she's much improved. My DSis and BIL have sorted out the practical side of life for her and fingers crossed, all will settle back down again for long enough to get DS off to uni next week.

The weather has changed (for the worse) here too. Autumn now feels just around the corner, so I bought some new Ilse Jacobson Chelsea boot wellies... 30% off, but in white. I must be mad but it was a coup de foudre!

Lord Xing I'd forgotten about your son going off to uni. Good luck to him - what a time to be going!

I don't think we've seen the last of Office Wear. It'll be too late for me but I can see super-smart work clothes making a comeback, probably not next autumn but maybe the one after that. Or at some point. A bit like Dior's New Look in '47.

Xing, glad your dm is improving and things sound more settled. Good luck for ds at uni. I really like those Ilse Jacobsen boots, a friend has a black pair that she wears loads (dogs, allotment, walking).

viennese, I would (and do) have a store of clothes that I don't currently wear but don't throw away, I go through these every so often. Things come back into favour, particularly if they still fit well and are well made. Obviously, anything tatty and unflattering is a different matter.

Glad to hear your DM is doing better and in her familiar surroundings again, Xing, good luck to your DS at uni.

People keep mentioning a Dior '47 look version 2.0 but I'm struggling to envision it, Flo. I think everyone is just going to go on the fashion version of a cocaine bender in a post Covid19 world. Not sure what that will look like either but I don't envision highly tailored with interesting volume placement 🤷

Uniqlo has not snubbed me for a change as the new Ines de La Fressange collection popped up in my inbox. It's usually not my thing as very country and nostalgic but there's some nice things in there which are aptly suited for our weird circumstances (like the cashmere jumpers with an interesting casual/formal detail at the neckline and choice of colours), I like the dropped waist look on the long skirts although that won't suit all. There's also this dark green coat, 58% wool so not completely terrible but not very warm likely either.

I agree it won't be identical but I still think the pendulum will swing away from dressing down. Once this is over (and assuming it does end and the squirrels don't get us first) I can envisage a desire to forget and to dress up again in some form or other.

Which reminds me, I'm finally starting to see leather jackets that aren't bikers! I'll rummage for links later but I need to finish some work first - I'm not quite ready to be sacked yet!

Thanks for Ines - I'd forgotten to look.

But I acknowledge, I might just be struggling to accept that I may never have call to wear my Margaret Howell blazer again

quirkychick I agree with you about the store of clothes - especially my new suit I bought last autumn! I think I will have the same amount of need for super formal clothes - suited and booted occasions will remain that way - but I just won’t need five days a week worth of office clothes ever again.

viennese, I keep a few formal/occasion things for when I need them. For instance, I have a black, silk skirt that I probably only wear a few times a year, but I've had it for years and it's super useful for those odd, more formal occasions. I can wear it with tights and boots in winter or bare legs and sandals in summer. I'd keep some and review it every so often.

I did go for my denim blazer today, flo, as a kind of halfway house. But very dressed down with coated jeans, t-shirt and trainers. I have a taupe, cotton blazer that's very casual that I might break out soon. I think it's lurking at the bottom of an ironing pile.

@botemp Styling for me has gone completely out of the window. I've either been living in comfies (yoga pants and t-shirt) or jeans, both of which are feeling decidedly tighter due to the lockdown belly.

Out for a pre-birthday lunch with friends tomorrow and discussion has been had about what to wear. Me and my friend have agreed that jeans are too tight to eat in, so have settled on loose tiered denim tunic dress with trusty black tights and flats (there will be lots of wine involved which makes heels a no no). Cannot believe that I will be wearing black tights in August

I am finding all closed shoes horribly uncomfortable since they're back on I used to think at the beginning of lockdown that I'd be 'safe' as I didn't own any true comfies and got annoyed with my inbox being spammed with them. However, that turned into me just rejecting any sort of bottoms in favour of silk pj shorts...

Early September is looking very warm here, I'm still holding out hope I can wear my own made silk tulip trousers (still need to finish it but it's just machine work all the hand work is done) this year.

So today looks like a good day to talk about autumnal things like leather jackets wonder aloud and whether the biker stranglehold might be finally loosening?

Backstory: I had an email from Arket featuring an oversized leather blazer which enticed me onto their website, where Lord Above I also found:
Leather anorak
collarless leather blazer
cropped leather blazer
leather coat
leather trenchcoat
quilted leather coat

Not a biker to be seen
I particularly liked the anorak although that's a shocking piece of cultural appropriation as it's not remotely anorak-ish

Not quite as many in Cos but still a few - sorry I tried to link them all individually and lost the lot so you're getting the whole page: here

Can I just say that I've been looking out for a vintage leather blazer for a couple of years now without spotting one that was quite right. So I now feel insufferably smug, although no doubt they're about to double in price so I won't be smug for long.

And I mean no harm to posters - I know there are a lot of them - who love their leather bikers, and I'm sure they will be around for a while yet. But boy is it good to see a bit of choice again.

Sorry the first couple of lines looka bit mangled but hopefully you get the gist.

Doh!
look a bit

Oooh Flo! Some of those are lovely... I like the first jacket and the wrap belted dress from COS particularly. It's a pity it's not available in the olive colour used for other garments.

The oversized blazer is a ringer for an ancient Steven Marks suit jacket I bought when I returned to London from NY, except that only has a leather collar; the main jacket is tweed. That may be due a seasonal whirl for autumn.

And I must get my nubuck booties resoled before I wear them again.

Ooh, flo, very nice selection. I love my black biker but it's pleather and starting to peel on the collar . I do have a black, leather blazer that I have had so long it must be vintage now. I would like a leather or suede trench and had been looking last winter (I used to have one years ago).

I have only managed trainers as closed shoes, either my blue Adidas or converse. I have seen quite a few people in boots, though.

On the subject of leather jackets, I have JUST bought a biker. I’ve wanted one for years and finally found one I liked enough to justify the cost - which wasn’t hard as Oasis have a 40% off everything code. It has a nice pleat detail and a nice shape, and POCKETS. So now I can be the woman floating around in a dress, leather jacket, and boots. Á la Alexa Chung perhaps.

All this delicious leather, is veganism finally over? I did worry for a bit we'd be subjected to acrylic jumpers and pleather soon. Also, I did a whole leather feature in the advent calendar

Second hand September is coming up. This might just be the easiest year to do that did order some Chloe sandals online in the dregs of the sale this morning and I've been buying up a storm on Vinted (mostly sewing related stuff, I'm now a very proud owner of a vintage Stockman haute couture mannequin 😍 which had almost exactly my measurements). I guess I've had my binge beforehand (unintentionally, only remembered it when reading an article about it this afternoon) but I'll give it an effort again. Anyone else joining in (accidentally or not)?

You know what, I don't remember leather in an advent calendar The last one? The one before? So is that where my leather blazer hankering came from?

Very jell of your couture mannequin. It's something I might have to think about if I carry on sewing, as I've been reminded of how my shoulders bear no relation to standard pattern sizes.

It was a couple of days early for second hand September but I found myself in a swanky-ish neighbourhood with time to spare yesterday and did my first charity shop run in months. They had some high end work wear which, as we've discussed, looked kind of odd and pointless and had me contemplating retirement and mortality, till I pulled out an old, grubby, moth eaten tweedy jacket for a closer look and spotted the WW2 CC41 Utility label. I cannot tell you how exciting that was. Also the price - £1.50 (which I feel a bit guilty about later but they get loads of money from me). No photo as frankly, it looked a bit disgusting and I took it straight to the dry cleaners (who told me 3-4 weeks ).

But otherwise, September/October is probably the one time when I routinely buy new - and not even the the sales - so I'm afraid they will have to do without my endorsement.