Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: Do not ask the kock about les préservatifs in the food.

[botemp]

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

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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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Previous threads:

Un

Deux

Trois

Quatre

Cinq

Six

Sept

Huit

Neuf

Dix

Onze

Douze

Treize

Quatorze

"Basically conversations I crave IRL but sadly don’t have anyone to share them with."

Yes!

Real life also has a habit of interfering, most recently with my mother falling off a sofa in her sleep, dislocating her shoulder and smashing up her arm. Surgery, pins, no work for 3 months. Surgeon comment: "I don't how you did it but you've really fucked your arm up." She's back home now, very tired and down but still laughing.

Burgundy and forest green! All the love.

I've had the odd nice jumper from Uniqlo U in the past but nothing's appealed to for ages. Same with the Ines stuff.

We were almost forced to "Kondo" as a 1-bedroom flat does not have endless space. Everything in the flat was something I enjoyed looking at and being there. However, I was plagued by people saying "Aren't you fancy?" in that horridly English way whenever they came round.

@Redandblue11 sorry if this is a little late for you, I have a few pairs of the açai waking trousers and shorts. They look good for walking trousers and the trousers are true to size, shorts run about half a size big. They are also pretty waterproof and the thermal ones are great for colder days. If you sign up they sometimes do special offers. I would say that the legs and waist are reasonably fitted, if I’m having a fat day I feel the fastening digging in as it sits just below my belly button. Hope this helps.
Also I didn’t see this on the thread but @Floisme there is a MH sample sale 23/24 September at the Music Rooms on South Molton St London.

Ohhh Bani the curse of the Irish. You will never ever be told you look nice. Unless you look well, which means you look awful.

I wore white jeans on the first day of the summer break when meeting up with my oldest friends.
"Oh here's Rosemary coming in off the golf course"
(I'm not called Rosemary)
For the whole summer they called me Rosemary and I was always late for my tee time , I'd also aged by 25 years and was only "allowed" to drink g&t fine by me

The PS collection is boot tempting me again. I really want to try the welly type/abattoir boots, but Jesus can you imagine the comments

The fluffy slippers are also reminding me of the only fashion influencing Ive seen recently which was the new Cruella film, which I did really enjoy for the costumes.

Oh I also meant to add.

I got the kindle unlimited app over the summer to read more and surf less. Last night I found out that you can also get magazines on the app as well included "free" in the monthly fee.

It's £7.99 for as many books and magazines as you can read.

I had a flick of red last night and most monthly magazines are on it, no vogue as far as I can see though. Lots of cooking ones too.

Just thought I mention it as I wasn't aware magazines were also available, as they are such poor value/quality to even think of buying these days but sometimes you just want a little nosy through. Definitely not worth the app unless you want it for the books too through

Martinis thank you so much. I've also had an email about this and I'm soooo pissed off as I was actually due to be in London for a few days next week but I had to cancel

I've been mulling over just going for the day on Friday but the train fare's not far off £100 (I really must get a rail card). The coach is a lot cheaper but takes 4 and a half hours and doesn't get in until midday. When I was young and the vintage shops around Islington were amazing and affordable, I used to get the midnight coach which stopped everywhere and arrived around 8am, but I don't think I'm up to that these days.

Plus you can't book for the Friday (I'm talking about the sample sale now) so I'd be almost certainly be queuing. I've a bad feeling I might end up buying something random just to justify all the trouble and expense.

Has anyone been to a MH one? Are they wild and fighty? Is everything size 0? Do they sell fabrics too?

Sorry, so many X posts - I'm talking about the Margaret Howell sample sale in case it's not clear

Your poor mum Catharine, the surgeon sounds 'nice' I don't think the aren't you fancy dig is exclusive to the English, the Dutch are a fan of it too. My mother would always quite gleefully answer, "Yes, I am, we can't all be dreary."

Haha abbatoir boots, I was wondering what they reminded me of. I do like them, I even sent for the Anny Nord goal digger boots last year but they just don't work with my proportions. I've been tempted by the influencer Collab ones (Gia couture X Pernille Teisbek, I think or another scandi influencer anyhow) but they seem a little too insta obvious and there's too many inspired by copies.

I also came to post about the MH sample, there's two days before where you can come by appointment. It's rather annoying they always announce these dates at the last minute but it's usually around the third Thursday of September and I think May?

martini thank you for the feedback on the açai, I have not ordered them yet so is perfect! I will order a couple of pairs and decide on the sizing. I am also tempted by the leggings. For the record I do not count this purchase as buying something new, this is entirely a practical and needed purchase.

Well Catherine being called ‘Fancy’ in that way is a high compliment in my eyes. Always good to have standards.

Browsing away, I saw that Massimo Dutti has some good colours and pattern in their tops, and look like the type of thing I could wear for the office or even more casual.

tops massimo

I just reread my first paragraph and sounds like I am justifying to you all . I tried to write it ironically, but I don’t have bani’s irony when writing

I like the black and white, red, looks very chic and is a favourite combination of mine (I need to soften it a little with another colour, like grey or navy).

bo, I agree about the red lipstick, it's been so long. I did try doing the staining with my finger when the weather turned cooler in August, but stopped again in the recent hotter weather. Maybe it's time to try again.

bani, that twitter feed is hilarious, my dd1 showed it to me a while back. Your linen, mustard scarf sounds perfect for turning, autumn weather. I have a charcoal, cashmere poncho that is warm for colder days and light enough to stow in a bag if it warms up. Yesterday, the weather was really fluctuating, cool in the morning and then roasting hot by the afternoon. This morning it was foggy. You need to dress for all seasons in one day!

Thanks bo - Friday's the only day I could go unfortunately.

It's on on Friday, Flo, just not by appointment.

I’ve sat down to catch up and this new thread is still short enough that it’s feasible! I’ve enjoyed scrolling through - I can’t really do faux leather and I’ve never sat down to work out if it’s more sustainable or not- it feels not as it’s got to be synthetic and plastic and all the chemicals that entails, but obviously if you’re the animal then faux is the only sustainable Lovely to catch up on the thread though and glad you’re ok bani! Slip dress all the way- are you allowed the tshirts under these days like we did in the 90s?

Nothing from me really, a deadly combination of lockdown forever and homeschooling and winter and my wardrobes being packed and just coming out of the miserable first months of pregnancy. Which means there is no near solution for the packed wardrobe as I won’t be able to get rid of stuff until I’ve recovered from final baby and can decide if I will ever wear/fit these things again. So about 2 years away. I shall live vicariously. (But, my london maternity wardrobe might not be adequate for heavily pregnant in the Australian summer, so… )

Surgeon-wise, my mother thought it was funny. Luckily.

I like the "We can't all be dreary" response. Must remember it.

I haven't worn make-up in forever, but really that started before Covid - just no need for it every day. Or for smart work clothes or clothes. Slipper boots are my best friends.

Massimo Dutti always looks so good.

Enjoying a stay in London but will sadly not be here next week for the MH sample sale as I’ll be introducing the small boy to extended family.

I was fortunate to get a lot of MHL ex-factory in China, so am not quite ready to restock especially at UK prices. Maybe next year… May and September, you say bo
By chance, today’s not-quite-beige and black combo includes a MHL t-shirt, worn with a Marimekko x Uniqlo cotton and linen skirt from ages ago. Trying to find the right side of East London casual and avoid the wholesome religious vibe I sometimes get from these voluminous pleats Garish backdrop courtesy of heinously priced Mary Portas STC charity shop in Bermondsey

catherine glad to hear your mother saw the funny side of totally knackering her arm. Anything to avoid helping you move house, eh?

red, the Massimo Dutti tops are lovely. I'm still hoping to go to Portugal and Spain at the end of October so I shall keep an eye out there, as there's no branches near here. Please report back on the acai trews, too, if you get them.

Factory outlet MH, ShangPie?

I continue to heal well and feel fine, but one wound looked dodgy at the weekend, so off we went for a jaunt to A&E, which was at capacity with a 15-hour waiting time. I got seen in the tiny local hospital, and referred on for assessment but not before I'd resorted to swallowing the dog's vet-prescribed broad spectrum antibiotics identical formula to the human version, but harder to swallow which had the various doctors and nurses laughing their socks off!

Welcome back time, poor you, I think Melbourne has had it the worst of all Australia, right? I don't remember discussing faux leather on here though, must have been some time ago... There is some fake leather being created now that isn't environmentally destructive (and chrome tanned leather isn't all that nice on the environment either), Hermes is growing some very interesting leather out of mushrooms and a local company here is making leather out of Mango waste. Although then you get the dilemma of taking things out of the food supply chain, although the mango uses waste only but I struggle to see how they can scale it up.

Poor you too, Xing, although I'm totally imaging you eating the one with the added 'flavour' that makes dogs gobble them down with ease I think you need to namechange to BarkingXing now

The Massimo shirts do look nice in the picture but IME they're a bit like Mango in that it all doesn't live up to the image in RL, their silk tends to be on the thinner side iirc. Lemaire send me a newsletter with their marbling pattern, I really like the dress and coat they made from it but a bit £££

Shangpie, I think the MH sample sales actually March and September, the Antwerp sample sales are May and November, I think I mixed them up. Anyhow, less time to wait

Not a factory outlet, but I found various Taobao (B2C site of Ali Baba) sellers with over-production at cut prices. Got quite a few gems from Toast, MH, theory, plus silk items from DvF, Zimmermann, knits from Burberry, Missoni, Joseph… very sad to say farewell to my finely-tuned Chinese shopping algorithms. On the plus side, buying from sample sales and actual stores means getting guaranteed real items rather than risking a fake, plus I can try on first.

Yet to be convinced by vegan leather time, I can’t quite get past the idea of it being leather price for plastic / synthetic, despite the potential hi-tech behind it. As someone who wears exclusively natural fibres where possible, I feel like leather is more in my wheelhouse. Also, I am a committed carnivore (which seems very unfashionable in UK right now) so I justify leather as being nose-to-tail - rather like xing’s antibiotic access

I can bark with the best I'll have you know. But in a crisis, any antibiotic will do... even veterinary. It wasn't the taste, which may have been modified to appeal to canines, it was the size of the tablets... huge.

Trying to slip back in here. I've missed you all.

xing I was thinking of you. Glad to hear that you are recovering. I hope the antibiotics kick in quickly for you and give you a nice glossy coat.

Catherine, your poor mum. That sounds unpleasant.

Time sounds like we're in a similar place clothes wise. I'm also expecting a very definitely final baby and closing in on the halfway mark. Cursing myself for not doing a better job of culling some of my wardrobe while it still fit properly. Loathe to get out the maternity clothes though so living in those elastic waist Joseph trousers.

Love the burgundy coat Bo. Can't wait to see it on. The marbled Lemaire is pretty special too.

Welcome back Elle, congrats on baby number three.

A commited carnivore that's a very radical notion indeed Shangpie, especially in hipster East End London. There's also a Margaret Howell outlet store just behind the Zara on Oxford Street, it's not very cheap though, especially not compared to Chinese factory prices, I'm sure, it's about half price of normal prices. Might go down with sales?

My glossy coat is arriving today, if I was a dog I'd be sitting by the door and wagging my tail excitedly until the postman arrived 🐕

Tomorrow I'm going to a secondhand client sale at the boutique that has the almond green coat I was uhming and ahing over, I think they still have it so will have a relook at that too.

Good to see people back again. Lovely to hear baby news!

Xing your story made me laugh. Have they said yet whether there's any further treatment in store?

Ignore my delusional babble about the midnight coach to London for the MH sample sale. Yes I used to do that kind of thing, but then I also used to stay up all night and go into work the next day. All in the past. It was just such a pisser when, had plans gone differently, I'd already have been in London next week. but such is life. (I may keep checking the rail fare in case it comes down!)

bani interesting that you find a side zip unforgiving cos I think the opposite. But then I also like pleated trousers so what do I know.

Red I find a silk shirt works pretty much everywhere. I don't buy them new so I'm not much help with current brands, but I've got a couple of M&S Autograph and Boden that are pretty decent. I think some of the less fashiony labels might be worth a try - it's not as if silk shirts are particularly trend driven (or if they are I've not noticed).

I sent for the Uniqlo U cotton trousers as I'm sure you all knew I would. What's more newsworthy is that I didn't get anything else. The hoodies weren't in stock yet so that's for an other day and I heroically stepped away from the ribbed cardigan. There are a few other things I'm still drawn to: I love the shape of the cropped cardigan (although 'merino blend' is a bit cheeky in the light of the fabric composition). There's also a sticky-out shirt/jacket in cotton satin, and a padded shirt thing that was in the review but hasn't appeared yet. A much improved collection, at least from my point of views.

view.

Let one of the multiple personalities slip there Flo

Coat has arrived, as predicted I like it inside out more than right way round. Excuse the outfit underneath, it doesn't really go, I'm busy baking off sourdough so had limited time in between and just managed to try it with one pair of shoes (which I do like with it). I'll have a proper try on later tonight as I need to dig out some seasonal things to try it with. I do find it a bit bulky around the shoulders in the pictures, it's not that obvious when wearing it like a normal person who is not posing awkwardly but there is a bit of bulk there. Also, the shiny side is very noisy 😬

Congratulations on the baby news!

Especially for flo, www-vogue-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/article/margaret-howell-essential-wardrobe-ss22/amp?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D#aoh=16319618214428&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vogue.co.uk%2Ffashion%2Farticle%2Fmargaret-howell-essential-wardrobe-ss22 and all the MH love out there.