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

992 replies

botemp · 19/03/2021 16:26

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


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278
Floisme · 31/07/2021 09:51

I think that's a good call bo, I like it. For what it's worth, I once had a coat altered and the tailor suggested shaving a bit off the sleeve width too, and he was right - it made a big difference. But with jackets I mostly still push up the sleeves like it's 1982 so I doubt I'd bother.

I should have known better than to remind myself about that Uniqlo men's blazer because of course I went back for another look and not only are they now half price but they've got a couple that go down to XXS - which (if I can trust the size guide) means a further 1.5 cm off the shoulders. I also like that icy 'natural' colour and it's different enough from the MH not to feel too guilty.... But again can I trust their colours? And I know already that the fabric's flimsy... This is Uniqlo all over - so promising, sometimes really good, but so often they disappoint.

Going to do some sewing to take my mind off it - finishing another shirt that I started a while ago. I went back to the Makers Atelier boxy shirt pattern which isn't quite as voluminous as the lounge shirt but perfectly acceptable, and also more straightforward to make. Got the fabric from a ClothHouse sale that's finished now.

botemp · 31/07/2021 11:09

Hmm, yes annoyingly it looks MUCH better with the sleeves pinned, it goes from generic to designer blazer in an instant. I have a few YouTube videos lined up to see if it's doable by myself otherwise I'll attempt to bother my overworked tailor.

That Uniqlo blazer does look good but I would say men's smaller sizes are really small so the shoulders might be in the right place but it could mean the rest is a lot neater fitting than you'd want from a men's blazer. I got a very patronising, "You do know men's sizing is different than women's?" When I was trying things on in the Cos' men's section the other day. I was very tempted to give an answer of "No Mr. Man, this stupid little girl had no idea!" Hmm

They did have some very nice looking elasticated barrel trousers in a lovely soft cotton in a great green colour, they're pretty much a presentable version of a jogger. I didn't bother trying them on with my trackrecord and Cos trousers but I might be tempted if we're going for a repeat of lockdowns again come A/W. For once, they actually styled them quite nicely on the website.

The item I saw the greatest glut of in the Paris Depot Ventes were formal trousers, they've really died a death with the pandemic.

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Floisme · 31/07/2021 11:20

I'm going to play chicken with Uniqlo - if it's still there by the end of the day (and I don't cave in beforehand) then we're meant to be together.

As for formal clothes of any kind - that's my autumn resolution right there: find other ways of wearing them.

botemp · 31/07/2021 11:26

I quite like the idea of a poofy ball gown with a hoodie. Converse on the feet in hommage to Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. I don't own a poofy ball gown though...

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XingMing · 31/07/2021 13:27

Poofy ball gowns and hoodies is a very cool look. I have a violet ball skirt that I had cut down from a dress after someone (thanks Auntie Hilda) destroyed the top by clutching a perished hot water bottle to her chest while wearing it. If there is ever an invitation meriting getting it out again, I might look for a nice waist length cashmere hoody in lilac to wear with it....

Back from breaking the news to DM. She took it bravely, but my DSIs thinks she's stressed by the prospect.

XingJr has been promoted from runner to camera store assistant, with a significant pay rise. Cock-a-hoop? Just a bit.

Redandblue11 · 01/08/2021 17:12

I agree with poofy ball gowns and a cashmere hoodie to go with it grin.

I can imagine Xing, your DM she must be very stressed, is quite natural.

Sounds like XingJr is making the right impressions in his job!

Not sure if this the best photo but just sharing a See by Chloe denim top I wore with a Mexican necklace and I got some good comments, I paired it with natural flared trousers. But I didn’t get a full body photo.

Redandblue11 · 01/08/2021 17:13

Here it is

Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: For the Love of Well Dressed Women in Repose
XingMing · 01/08/2021 17:59

I am looking at knitwear for AW and have to keep my trigger finger under control and reminding myself that I really can't predict what my top half is going to look like in four weeks. I think that all the jackets I've bought that were just a touch too snug to be wonderful are suddenly going to fit right. (I am promising myself that will be so because it will make three favourite jackets/coats immensely wearable, that I love but which are not perfect over 32F boobs, but will look great if I end up at 32b/c). I shall have a fashionista chest! Can't wait, but it's an extreme solution to a first world betise.

botemp · 01/08/2021 19:16

I was about to mock that it always is suddenly Autumn on MN in early August but I can definitely understand that Autumn is a time to look forward to for you Xing. And I have no reason to scoff, I've just snapped up a navy Raey bias silk skirt and a green cashmere The Row jumper on Vinted Blush

Congrats to Xingson, and I hope your mother can settle her nerves a bit as she processes.

Back to La Samaritaine, through David Lebovitz's (food blogger) monthly newsletter I read a rather interesting linked blog post on it here, bit of the history, and also why the new iteration is a bit of a wash, helped me understand the overall meh feeling I had, anyhow. It also gives a bit of insight of the type of department store it started as and was in its later days. I'm rather intrigued by the bonkers movie they filmed there, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the trailer, which only left me more intrigued.

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banivani · 03/08/2021 16:42

So interesting with that article on La Samaritaine, Bo, thank you. I can’t remember ever being inside but I’m mourning it anyway. By the by I’m personally not a huge fan of those glass facades. Seems to me they only accentuate that they’re trying to disguise something. A Swedish comedian once did a bit on that in the 90s; “it’s through the disguise you notice the problem”, like middle-aged people wearing scarves, or those long blazers worn open to hide your rotund tummy. I think this statement to a discussion on the thread recently but I can’t find it now?

Very sorry I was so shit at shopping/exploring when I lived in Paris those few months in my youth.

Went on a shopping trip to Stockholm with my daughters and bought only a discounted cashmere jumper in Uniqlo (brown). We went to second-hand/commission shops but I found nothing. Didn’t even go into Cos or Arket because I can’t see anything I like on the website, so I didn’t even bother (and am regretting it now a bit but no no, must remember that not one pair of Cos trousers has ever fit me!).

banivani · 04/08/2021 18:17

Oh just remembered i meant to post this quote from regency times that I just read in a book:

Fashion is the kind of dress which sometimes is admirably suited to certain figures and hence all are anxious to have it under the vain hope that it will become them equally well.

XingMing · 04/08/2021 19:56

Still true 200 years later, bani. Everyone wants to look like X [fill in your style dream] but most never will.

Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley (not of this parish anymore, but her mum is an acquaintance, and she pitches up in the area a couple of times a year) clearly gives her mum some clothes, because she had on awesomely chic dungarees yesterday. Mum also wears clothes well, and is still in decent shape as you'd expect from a former fitness instructor.

I do sometimes wonder, when I read in the newspaper (this morning's Times to be specific) that brands are ever more receptive to a more diverse range of models, why they don't ask today's model faces what their mums are doing. Genetics alone suggest that a super model's mum is likely to chime better with our age group than a willowy 18 year old who hasn't yet given birth, much less completed menopause. MaHW is about 60 and clearly hasn't had surgery as she has all the wrinkles you'd expect; she's handsome rather than pretty now, but she would still photograph well.

banivani · 05/08/2021 08:12

Nope, don't know her. But I see your point although I would say that a pretty/photogenic daughter doesn't guarantee a mother with the same qualities. (I provide myself and daughters as an example.)

I'm off on a weekend trip and there will be a small party sort of and I have nothing to wear as usual. This time because I've gained weight again, in that classic peromenopausal way, so nothing fits well. Oh to be Princess Anne. ;)

Floisme · 05/08/2021 08:33

MaHW does look pretty cool (thank you Google) and yes, far more inspirational to someone like me than her daughter, gorgeous as she is.

Enjoy the party bani - I am still looking up (and translating) FrkWibergby the way. Last week she was wearing this linen shirt she'd made that had me very Envy

botemp · 05/08/2021 09:40

The thing about the supermodel mums is often they'll have similar enviable bone structure but they're usually a good head shorter so they lack the impact of the supermodel daughter. And supermodel mums don't always produce supermodel children (no offence to Kaia Gerber, I'm sure she'll outearn Cindy Crawford but I doubt she'll ever be as iconic). They really are a rare genetic fluke, although I think all the Huntington Whiteley children are ridiculously good looking which is like the rarest of the rare of flukes.

Anyhow, in terms of inspiration, I don't really care about the models all that much and whether I look like them or not. I tend to prefer the headless model shots. I'm quite concerned what that says about me...

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Floisme · 06/08/2021 08:19

I didn't notice models when I was part of the default - I don't mean I ever had a model physique but I was young, very thin and white. But now whenever I see a woman in any public sphere who looks vaguely like me and who's vaguely presentable then I'm pathetically grateful.

So anyway I've sent for that Uniqlo men's jacket. Very silly when we're hurtling into autumn but it was the off-white colour that did it as much as anything. I don't do brilliant white but I still have an inner John Travolta.

Going to atone by trying to make that Merchant & Mills jacket. That'll keep me quiet.

botemp · 06/08/2021 12:34

I never was and never will be the default so perhaps that explains some of it. Think the other half of it is a very ingrained mistrust of blindly following authority and idols that was drummed in from an early age.

I hope the jacket is more Uma Thurman than John Travolta 🤞

I need to get back to sewing again too, I might have the stomach for revisiting the not perfect trousers. Although the pile of Dries Van Noten fabric is also staring at me with impatience but the weather doesn't look great for it and I'm getting quite tempted to make pyjamas out of them Shock

Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: For the Love of Well Dressed Women in Repose
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botemp · 06/08/2021 12:36

(*By more Uma, I meant how it fits rather than colour)

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Floisme · 06/08/2021 14:11

Uma is cool as fuck, but being cool will only get you so far.

Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: For the Love of Well Dressed Women in Repose
botemp · 06/08/2021 14:18

Well, (allegedly) sexually harassing your massage therapists gets you nowhere with me. JT has always given me creepy shudders.

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Floisme · 06/08/2021 14:38

Fair point. But nothing will ever take away that first sight of him swaggering through Brooklyn, swinging a paint pot while Barry Gibb sang falsetto. It's up there with the first time I saw Kate Bush on Top of the Pops - they're imprinted in my head.

Redandblue11 · 06/08/2021 17:07

Did you find something to wear bani?
I also had to google xing’s supermodel…

A Cos archive sale just appeared on my phone… so made me click and saw this jacket, in a pale green , is it Uma enough? Probably not the cut… I don’t want to buy it just because I am really tempted, I am still trying not to buy stuff …
I also saw this dress, which could be useful on those heatwave moments…

Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: For the Love of Well Dressed Women in Repose
Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: For the Love of Well Dressed Women in Repose
botemp · 06/08/2021 17:33

I'm surprised Rosie Huntington Whiteley is an unknown name to some of you. I don't pay that much attention to models, but she's a hard one to miss. I'd assume even more so in the UK. She had a lingerie and makeup line in M&S for ages (may still have it, not sure).

Cos archive sale must be a UK thing as I've received no such email Envy Pale green is such a difficult colour to wear for most people though. I do like the cut of that blazer, feels Uma enough to me. I'm not sure we'll be getting many heatwaves, we didn't even get the one . It's quite annoying though as I thought my summer wardrobe was well covered but since we've had a lot of heatwaves in previous years I've discovered that actually I don't have much for the weird weather we have been having instead now that I have extreme heat covered. Temps aren't high at all in the low twenties with little sun but it's uncharacteristically humid with little wind so the feel temperatures are a lot higher and humidity is generally uncomfortable so can't be too covered up and close to the body but on a bike and early morning/evening you need a bit of insulation.

The Arket blazer turned out to be a really good buy (and the alteration was super easy and it looks great with slimmer sleeves, so much so I like leaving them down for a change of look) as it's a bit lighter weight than my other linen blazer so covers both situations. The stupidly priced shoes have also gotten a lot of wear and help make otherwise quite covered up outfits still feel summery.

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banivani · 06/08/2021 21:42

Kate Moss is the last supermodel I have any knowledge of haha. It’s her and everyone in George Michael’s freedom video.

I wore the H&M Marni silk dress I got ages ago! With white sneakers and a white linen shirt on top to dress it down. It would have looked great on someone prettier but I felt ok, it was the right level anyway. 😉nice to have worn it out for a spin!

Redandblue11 · 07/08/2021 14:15

I don’t remember that dress Bani ! What colour is it?

You are probably right about heatwaves Bo, I think is me dreaming of super sunny climates.
We are on our way back from Cornwall , what a lovely place!! Did think about you xing, fab place to live really.
I cannot report any fashion as was mostly denim mini skirts, cotton trousers
, peasant tops, and wetsuits/rashvests.