Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: For the Love of Well Dressed Women in Repose

[botemp]

Lovers of Parisian style and fashion with a conscious mindset and lots of chatter in between.

---

Favoured Parisian addresses:

Second Hand Shops

Outlets

Favoured London addresses:

Charity Shops, Dress Agencies, and Outlets

Favoured NYC addresses:

Consignment shops, Vintage, and Restaurants

---

Previous threads:

Un

Deux

Trois

Quatre

Cinq

Six

Sept

Huit

Neuf

Dix

Onze

Douze

Treize

Oh that's interesting, I'd always assumed places like that were trade only and never tried to buy

In fairness I was those young people once. I remember I'd show my latest 1940s tea dress to my mum and roll my eyes when she said plaintively, 'I used to have one like that'. But I got out of second hand buying in the 90s when Kate Moss discovered it and the prices shot up, so maybe it's time to jump again. Hmm....

Yes, I think moving into hand made garments is a good move at the moment, a few years from now the youngsters will be gushing about what they made themselves.

Oh I know exactly where this mill is. Before covid I had loosely planned to take sewing lessons from someone who runs classes and uses a lot of their fabric. I might try again when she reopens.

Bo if you want something sent on I can do that for you, it's actually not far from here so if they open to the public I can check it out in person.

Quirky I love your cardigan, what a bargain. Cardigans like that are brilliant as it's always so cold so you really need that type of chunky layer. It looks fab. Glad you have the head honcho tshirt already

A friend and I used to play a game where we'd compete to see whose outfit cost the least with charity shop bargains. Underwear and shoes were exempt. Sometimes I still get or send a text saying £4.50!!!!

I am currently feeling quite emotional. I've had a few days in bed due to rest after an injection and I binge watched Call My Agent....and its over. It was so good. I can see why you were all so attached to green coats in the earlier threads. Can I just give up now and demand to wake up tomorrow and be Andrea?

@Floisme I’ve bought from Baird’s - postage is really expensive but they do sell to individuals. They do a sample book which I bought first as I wanted to check the colours out before committing. It’s beautiful quality, I made some big throws up for my sofa.

That's very kind of you to offer duvet but I've found some great Belgian linen suppliers so it's not like I'm lacking alternatives. I'd love to know if the mill is worth a visit if I ever somehow find myself in the area though.

I'm not sure you'd want to be Andrea, do you? I like that she's very flawed, but it's not really aspirational flawed. I'll have a free grab through her wardrobe though. There's a new French show on Netflix that might have some good clothes watching, I think, it's about a high end brothel Madam who is forced into spying somewhere in the 60s/70s. Assuming it's not 99% nudity though...

Huge linen throws sound lovely Martinis, fabric can get surprisingly expensive to ship, especially linen as it's so heavy.

I've ordered some Céline trousers off Vinted, they're the same as these (did not pay that 👀 for them, thankfully) but those pics are better. Bit nervous though as trousers are a bit of a gamble.

I'm also uhming and ahing over a Margaret Howell jumper in a cotton linen blend, could be good for spring but maybe a bit too blah.

Yes I worded that wrongly. I want to wake up to Andrea's wardrobe.
I'd noticed that show about the madame but "luckily" recovered before I got to spend any more time lounging around watching Netflix, so it's back to fighting with my 8 year old over the remote. I'll see it at some point. It does look like it has promise.

The Celine trousers look very nice, that flash of colour is a treat.

Yes, the flash of colour sold it to me. I found the official photos, it's Resort 2013. Just the one photo though.

And then I got distracted by the Resort 2017 collection with the interesting sort of organic negative space narrative (and the other narrative seems to be to tell the models to do their best impression of a bag of salt). Urgh, when this pandemic is over Phoebe Philo better have some great big announcement to make because everyone else seems to just be doing a paltry imitation of what she's done already.

I really like that flash of colour and look forward to a review of the trousers worn. My worry would be that the pleat wouldn't stay closed well enough but fold outwards, so the pleat opens too much (simply because the flatstiching isn't doing it's job, like when a facing turns out on a dress). At that price one would hope it shouldn't be an issue and like I said I'd love to find out how it works out IRL. Such a great, simple idea. What fabric was it (sorry if you've said)?

They're viscose, I think they're supposed to be a bit baggy and the fabric would suggest flowy but I'm not sure how open they are at the sides. There looks to be a stitch at around hip level but whether that's for added security or its the only point of connection, I'm not sure. I hope it's flattering but it's definitely a bit of a gamble purchase that might ruin my record.

Haha, I think they'll probably look nice enough either way ;) I once had a tencel wrap skirt, way back when tencel was quite new. I paid for me a but of money for it and especially then when I was way poorer. Anyway, the part that folded over the front, the part you saw, had a hem that kept curling outwards, I mean that long front "up the body" hem. I just couldn't cope with that, it did my head in. A better person might have ignored but I ended up not using the skirt.

I wish I could share your optimism, I shall remain a nervous Nellie about it till it gets here. I think I should be able to sell it on easily enough if it doesn't suit so I'm not that worried on the finances side.

Oh I remember early Tencel, it was a bit starched-like in my memory, especially after washing and ironing and had a bit of a mind of its own as a result. Can definitely understand the frustration. I had a red Gap dress from Tencel, bought in London actually (in the sales thankfully) and it was lined with probably a polyester and the two fabrics just did not get along and the dress would just slowly twist itself around me, I got rid of that too.

Yes, my skirt had a slightly twisty lining too, I think it was the lining and the seam that together made the problem.

Pissing rain here today, almost snow. I'd anticipated the snow so stupidly wore a wool coat, not ideal in the rain. I'm so fed up, I just want to pack away winter. Am also depressed about work and loads of other small shite that I'm not coping with. I really need something to do to feel like Progress Is Being Made, so I think I'm in dire need of learning a making skill that isn't too difficult to pick up and resume. Embroidery or knitting, like. But cross-stitching little puppies makes me itch at the pure futility of it. Am looking at pictures of visible mending and thinking that might be it - at the same time don't really have the guts to be covered in boro and massive darns.

I just read Vigdis Hjorth's novel Will and Testament - highly recommended but a punch in the gut [tries to spread the pain by making other people read it].

Sartorial things: The internet showed me this site varana.com/ and I liked very much, in theory, the idea of this slightly padded and quiltseamed skirt (pic attached).

Ah parallel lives, it's pissing down here too and I've been being a bit of a malcontent for reasons and non reasons. I've been working on a dress though (started as a playsuit but I didn't like the toile, but I liked the top half so now it has a skirt attached instead) with a piece of chambray that was really inexpensive but I've had the weirdest amount of cutting anxiety about for months but the promise of 25 degree weather this weekend pushed me on although the weather prediction seems to be shifting down by day so come the weekend it'll probably be done but too cold to wear...

Other crafts have been luring me too, I quite like the idea of needle punching/rug hooking as it seems very easy to pick up and put down without much clean up. But inevitably it's led me down a rabbit hole of rug tufting with a special gun on YouTube but that's an outlay of almost a grand and requires a lot of space and I'm not sure how healthy it all is (strong chemicals to glue it to a base lining and lots of small particles of wool floating about) but it seems to be what all the cool kids are doing

This is that got me interested in needle punching. Varana looks nice but I'm a bit at the prices, I don't mind paying more for good fabrics but at those prices things need to be a bit less basic as I expect that item to do all the heavy lifting where the rest can be basic.

www.svtplay.se/video/30167092/designhistorier/designhistorier-matta?position=50&id=jBMp2p7

Tv series about design, this is the one about mats/rugs and Märta Måås-Fjetterström (see all the mats in Sven-Harry's house for example). Have a peek about 50 seconds in and so on -- the present day designer is making a massive rug using one of those punchers. Is this your dream? Definitely cool. Later in the programme they visit a Portuguese (I think) design (-er?studio? don't remember) that makes massive, very sculptural and 3d rugs about the environment or something, very impressive anyway but "you can't walk on that" as my daughter said.

Varana seems more money than substance but I like the ideas sometimes. Agree on basic.

Programmet kan bara seg I Sverige

But yes, I just want have at it with a gun which sounds really bad out of context

I know you can't always walk on it but I'm really into textural wall art ATM and it's very expensive if you want something nice that works in your space but it's great for acoustics.

I enjoyed this article of fashion forecasting this morning, Burn All The Leggings even though it doesn't predict much.

I've been thinking recently about all those traditional women's crafts and how we used to have a whole raft of making and mending skills that were passed down the generations, and how, if we're really entering an age of sustainability, some of those skills are going to be needed more than ever, except most of us don't have them any more. And it's my generation who arguably dropped - or rather threw away - the baton.

Anyway that's my thought for the weekend. In other news, I've sent for some Uniqlo +J trousers.

Martinis thank you for the Baird's tip. I don't know why I assumed they wouldn't sell to the general public. That's why this is such a great thread, there's always someone who knows something you don't!

Flo how did you miss the Baird's thing it's right there on the front page - I'm now feeling Brexit annoyance at them being out of my EU range. Not that I actually sew.

Tell you what I am doing now, since, like, Thursday -- I'm free-hand embroidering. I just felt this ITCH to do something with my hands with fast results and no pressure so I took an old kitchen towel with holes in it, cut out a good square, stuck it in my hoop and started stitching leaves. It's very relaxing. It's like doodling (I always doodle leaves) but slower and the sound of the needle in fabric is very pleasant. Youtube tells me how to do stitches so I can play around with that aswell.

Since I'm not going to do anything with any of it I'm beginning to get a new anxiety over the waste of materials but I'm suppressing it for now.

In other news I saw a news item about a linen weavery here in Sweden who have a student intern trying out a new technique - something about her creating patterns "with a computer" (so specific), the machines weaving it and then with steam the fabric changes into something three-dimensional. They're not big on details, sadly. More focussed on how impressed the manager is.
www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/varmland/student-chockar-linnevaveriet-aldrig-sett-nagot-liknande

Summer is coming, even to Sweden. I have no clothes. HA.

Oh I don't know bani, sometimes it's right there in front of you but your brain reads something else Anyway having caused all this broohaha I now feel the least I can do is order something from them, although I'll probably start with some samples.

Embroidery sounds cool. Now that I'm an expert sewer (hope I don't need an emoticon here) I'm contemplating knitting, except whenever I do, I start thinking about all the women who'd have helped me get started and who aren't around to ask any more. Then I get sad and annoyed with myself and another day goes by without having done anything about it.

Preach sister, I know what you mean.

I’ve found a Swedish shop with linen fabrics straight from Belarus apparently (the owner has roots there or something). Not that I’m sewing, mind. Found them looking for extra wide fabrics , they have 280 cm wide linen which I’m bearing in mind. Also how ethical is shopping from Belarus?

No judgement from me bani. Uniqlo and H&M both swatted away my email about Uighur labour, so what did I do to? Ordered a load of +J stuff that's what.

Where's everyone else? Do you think they've moved to Netmums and not told us?

I'm still reading but don't have much to contribute.

Although I have now re-found in dh's wardrobe a pair of off white, slightly bootcut jeans in a size 12 that are at least 16 years old (because my mum altered the crotch slightly to make them less low rise, so I know it was summer of 2005 or earlier) - and they fit although could do with losing a few more pounds (Pictures taken for the Boot Camp thread , so not fully styled )

I'm here but sadly I am very boring lately and don't have anything to say. :)

Flo and Bani
I have also been dreaming with doing embroidery… funnily enough … BUT it is still an idea and has not managed to make me reach for the needle. I you Bani, for actually doing it.
Can you share a photo pretty please?

I have just been to the hairdresser and I am happy as my hair is back under control. She told me I have lovely natural waves , I cannot get round with embracing them tbh. I know Bo and quirky are quite good at that.

I got a couple of summer tops on eBay, a silk mix from stories and a coral silk very simple top from French connection. I will try to grab a photo.

No one on this thread is boring!

White jeans - now there’s a summer image. We’re having a glorious summerly warm day today, everyone out and about in their sandals and all people with some sort of connection to the ME frantically grilling as much meat as possible outdoors. #TrueStereotypes It’s pretty great.

I can’t possibly show my embroidery thingies online - you know how a child draws? Well. That’s my drawing and the stitches are of a similar calibre.