Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: Maids Cosplaying as Schoolboys are Going to Get Themselves Cancelled by North Korea

[botemp]

Lovers of Parisian style and fashion with a conscious mindset and lots of chatter in between. Feel free to join in.

---

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

Quatorze

Quinze

Sorry for xpost Flo. Now you say it I can see that vintage is being appropriated by the corporates. It’s certainly becoming a commodity as far as super super high end bags. The kilo sales and so on - I really don’t know, although looking at designers who now only use repurposed fabrics, and this is their schtick, I don’t know how much mileage there is in this (famous last words). The press had started talking about how everyone wants to wear a party dress all the time (gross generalisation but it’s definitely out there) and who expected that wearing sequins to go to the supermarket would become a thing after the comfort of hibernation during covid?
Although given the last 24 hours who knows what’s really going to take off trend-wise.

I also wondered to use flo's expression who these guys are, where is this endless vintage stock they seem to have access to [presumably displacing smaller sellers], and how charity shops circulate excess clothing at high prices.

mm47
Vintage corporates, good expression! I can't see how what is sold in charity shops currently is actually linked to donations; it seems to come from elsewhere. It looks like charity shops become an extension of the selling chain.
My local Trinity Hospice is like an extension line for Hugo Boss, where unsold after sales goes [they try to charge high for it, sometimes higher than sale]

bo very interesting about saddle bags. It's such a manipulation machine. I kind of knew but you never fully know, right. Especially that so much of fashion is so memetic, it makes me so distrustful of my likes and changing tastes. It somehow feels sick to be manipulated like that (not that I would buy a Chanel saddle bag but other saddle bags made an appearance, I wonder if that is a trickle down effect). The question is, in pre-social media times, was it also THAT manipulative and this is just the new round of the same

If I am not on instagram and don't follow influencers, I would still see women wearing specifically shaped bags in town and I would still be influenced through that.

I don't know, maybe it previously also worked in exactly the same way, but more directly (ads, journals, etc); whereas now it is more convoluted, individualised and "personally authentic" but the logic is the same, or there is actually a profound transformation

That's interesting about charity shops becoming a kind of outlet for a designer or brand. I hadn't noticed that so much, other than that the local Barnardos (I think it's them) occasionally get a load of Ted Baker stock in but, if it's happening in London, the rest of the country will surely follow. So maybe my optimism is misplaced.

This is purely anecdotal but a couple of my friends' kids are online second hand clothes / jewellery traders (not hobbyists, as a business) and they seem to travel quite a bit to find their stock: Southern and Eastern Europe kind of thing, although that was obviously curtailed that during the pandemic. This will sound mean and we all have to start somewhere but, when I've tried talking to them, I've noticed that not only do they know very little about what they're selling, they don't seem the least bit interested in learning. And yet they're making a living. I'm torn between applauding their entrepreneurial spirit and being glad I'm not one of their customers.

I don't want to romanticise the old-school traders - there were some absolute chancers. But they didn't have the same corporate backing and they mostly operated locally and relied on repeat custom which limited their scope for dodgy dealing. Once the whole world becomes your market, everything changes, and I don't think online reviews have anything like the same power, especially when you never really know who's writing them.

very interesting analysis, flo. I always presuppose more knowledge than there is

Bo 31st March meet up . Let’s fix that date
mm, microbius hope you also join

Not caught up with posts… not great few days with close family member taken to hospital and DH having to dash off to help.

Oh Red sounds like you’ve been through the wringer 💐🍰🍷🏃‍♀️(whatever gets you through it) and hope your family member is stable and makes a good recovery

31st March perfect and very much looking forward to it!

Eek sorry not sure where that weird emoji came from, it’s not in my recently used emoji list 😱

Talking of fabric shops has anyone come across Bernadette Banner on YouTube. So far as I can gather, she is an American, trained in dressmaking, who recreates historical garments, and comments on garments in historical dramas and stuff.

She now seems to be living in London, and is recreating an unusual and beautiful blue silk dress, which involved a very long trawl to every fabric in London, I think, to get the right fabric.

She has an eccentric way with her, which I rather like in small doses, and packs in lots of information:

Yeah, not a fan of BB, sorry. There's a scant few historical costumers' content I enjoy but for the most part it seems to be a lot of ranting about how things in TV shows aren't historically accurate and then having a tantrum that historical reenactor hoobyists demand period accurate materials and details at their organised events

Poor you Red, that's a lot of one after the other events. Hope it all settles soon

(What is that emoji mm it looks like a man running scared of the ladies' toilets )

Micro were you still on the lookout for a more affordable Senreve alternative? I think you mentioned buying something but can't remember but I stumbled across this Charles &Keith bag (it's a Singaporean brand but I think they have a UK warehouse).

Getting back to the vintage talk, it's not all bad in a manipulative way. When Chloé appointed Gabriela Hearst to make it a circular/sustainable brand they bought up a lot of bags from Vestiaire Collective, an old Chloe model that was never particularly popular, then reworked them for the new collection.

I did watch a short talk with Ellen MacArthur yesterday and she's so optimistically painting this circular ecosystem that would allow and to an extent encourage careless consumption again. I do wonder if we mentally will revert as easily again and is that hyperconcumption really desirable (I get why she does present it as such, as this is what will get business on board).

Dammit just written a post and lost it! From memory:

I'm very sorry to hear that Red and best wishes to your family.

I'm hoping to manage a trip to London in the spring but it's highly unlikely to be before April so keep me posted about any Margaret Howell or fabric shops finds. I was checking out the menswear exhibition and I'll probably give it a go (if it's not sold out) - the V&A must have got hammered during the pandemic so I'd like to support it if I'm in town. There's also an Africa Fashion exhibition in July but that's probably too late.

I was thinking about timelines and I reckon I must have been to those London fabric shops before I'd even bought a new sewing machine! There's something about buying fabric that goes straight to the pleasure centre in my brain and, there isn't even any buyer's guilt because it makes me feel like a proper artisian

Thanks SeaRabbit no I don't think I've heard of her, unless she's the woman on some of the Lucy Worsley's programmes? Looks interesting.

Sorry, cross post with bo!

Catching up with lots on here…still no t-shirts purchased as I’m procrastinating. On the vintage/circular fashion topic I saw a great talk at a festival from Patrick Grant (of sewing bee) who has a lot of interesting things to say about both recycling clothes and also creating sustainable fashion - purchasing one very well made item, from sustainably sourced fabric, rather than many cheaply made items.

www.countryandtownhouse.co.uk/style/patrick-grant/

Ha ha I agree historical costumers can be very um.... intense but I put that down to having to struggle to get taken seriously by other historians.

Is that The Ellen MacArthur, who sailed around the world? I don't know where all the consumption stuff will end really. I'm always a bit when I hear people say the most ethical way to shop is to buy second hand because how long would that work for if no-one bought new any more? Unless you really want to bring capitalism down then the desire to consume is what keeps millions of people in work and puts food on our tables.

And another cross post - sorry Volte! I've not bought any T shirts either yet.

I have to admit it's a bit jarring Volte to have this advertorial for BMW and taking leisurely drives in the country as a frame to discuss the sustainability of his business I'm also not a big fan of this narrative of if we just go back to traditional ways and materials (the amount of water required to grow cotton is a huge issue). Sure, great if you can afford to get all your clothes made by hand on Saville Row but that's not most of us, we're a bit too far gone to go back now. (I thought he was also part of Community Clothing but no mention of that?).

Yes, Ellen MacArthur the sailing one, she's very passionate about it all. I do think she brings something interesting to the conversation that doesn't focus on tweaking the systems we've had in place since the industrial revolution that heavily rely on finite resources. With rising inflation and the continual increase of resource cost well before that (plus global issues like COVID and now the Ukraine invasion) her ideas will become very attractive to businesses. She has some proven track record working with the automotive industry but I'm not sure how involved her foundation is, it might be the case that she's just a really effective communicator (which is nothing to sneeze at).

This was the talk I watched btw

I've not read that yet but, for me the whole Savile Row thing isn't so much about elitism - although obviously that's part of it - but more about buying the best you can afford, whatever your budget, and then making it last as long as you can (especially if it's taken shit loads of water to make it). So more a frame of mind than about replicating traditional methods (interesting as they are). But yeah, Patrick Grant set up Community Clothing and their ethos is supposed to be all about that. I'm also pretty sure it's still his name at the end of my CC emails so it's a bit odd if he doesn't mention them.

Yes, I don't think it's a bad instinct on the micro level, it's just not going to be the solution at the macro level.

That's true.

Cute collection Wendy Morrison x Monoprix that some of you might like; the long printed dress is pretty Paris right now and the scarves are surprisingly good quality for the price (now reduced too).

@Floisme

I've not read that yet but, for me the whole Savile Row thing isn't so much about elitism - although obviously that's part of it - but more about buying the best you can afford, whatever your budget, and then making it last as long as you can (especially if it's taken shit loads of water to make it). So more a frame of mind than about replicating traditional methods (interesting as they are). But yeah, Patrick Grant set up Community Clothing and their ethos is supposed to be all about that. I'm also pretty sure it's still his name at the end of my CC emails so it's a bit odd if he doesn't mention them.

He still does CC as far as I’m aware.

I disagree as to the level of impact that ideas such as buying the best one can afford could have.

A very quick hello from me. I'm enjoying reading along and will hopefully get to contribute again once I'm not sitting under a 10 day old baby. Ell-éline (not her actual name before anyone reports me to the baby name police of mn) arrived a little late but with minimal fuss and is much adored.

Red - how's your family member?

Xing - hope the recovery is going well.

Gros bisous to everyone else!

Congratulations Elle 🎉🎊✨ how lovely to hear and enjoy that new baby smell.

(Ooh I was almost correct on predicting a Valentine baby then)

Congratulations Elle that's great news, please give your baby a cuddle from me.