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

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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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There's a bit of a shadow side to those kind of slippers made in Morocco and India. The metals required to tan the leather hides those lovely bright colours are really toxic both to the workers who are literally doused in it all day and the environment suffers too, you can't even use those dyes in the EU. And yes, as per quirky they're not particularly long lasting.

Sabots or babouche style slippers are easy to source though. Just a warning, I sometimes wear mine out and for whatever reason men of Moroccan heritage flip out at the sight of me wearing them, it's not a bad thing they're just really surprised by it 🤷

These are pricey suggestions, although the Venetian ones can often be found on the cheap on Yoox usually. Etsy might have something similar made in Spain or Portugal in veg tanned leather. Problem with this type of footwear is that they have various names like mule/slide/etc that also describe different types of shoes.

Lebanese fabric ones via Paris. I bought some as a gift for my FIL and he's now obsessed with them and has several pairs. Haider Ackermann is also a big fan (they're unisex though).

Venetian velvet ones.

Oh gosh! I didn’t know that side of the story Bo. Thanks for letting us know.
altough mine were just leather not dyed , but thinking about it I am sure the conditions they were produced might have been very questionable.

Those Venetian velvet slippers are such a beautiful colour! That makes sense that those leather dyes are toxic, mine were a very bright pink/red. It's good that we are starting to be more aware of these things.

All I know about Moroccan style slippers is that I once bought some in a hippie shop and didn't realise till I got them home that they absolutely stank.

Despite being several generations away from the zedders, I nearly sucombed to the yellow craze this weekend when I tried on a sherbert lemon coloured Jaegar linen shirt. Great colour and shape, fabric nothing special but ok. It didn't suit me at all but I'm craving colour at the moment and I might have taken a punt if it had either been old school Jaegar or if they'd priced it properly. But they wanted nearly £20 for what was effectively a second hand M&S shirt so I walked away.

Helloooo everyone I’ve waved our guests off so am now free to correspond before midnight (🤡)

Bo the Zara dress looks amazing (trouser love too). flo I adore sleeveless shirt dresses not because of having spectacular arms - I wish - but because they make me look taller (am 160cm) and slimmer (classified 😉). In colder days ie most of the time I wear them with long sleeved t shirts underneath and they look great. Maybe that would be a way round sleeve/less (at least when it’s not properly, seriously hot)?
microbius have just received the same Bellamy skirt. Maybe you have a different shipment but mine feels scarily like ramie and not linen - it’s got that scratchy thing going on, which in my experience is not linen-like at all, whatever the fabric composition label might say. Nonetheless it’s a glorious colour so I’m soaking it in hot water and white vinegar in an optimistic attempt to soften the fibres. Would you consider finding a t shirt in the same colour, it’s the sort of thing American Vintage sell (be careful they don’t offer refunds only credit notes) - it would look wonderful. Or else white is also fabulous, not at all 🍳 looking (and so is turquoise). It’s just the material is rather flimsy I think even navy blue would look too hard against it.

waving at red and quirky and sorry micro to prick the 🎈 but am totally in agreement with flo about the smell of the leather for those sorts of slippers (best case scenario is that it’s camel pee!). I would love the yellow and white version of your FIL’s slippers, Bo and the cherry velvet ones are wonderful. I do like velvet slippers, having found some from Next in a charity shop years ago. Sadly I loved
them to death. Fantasy shopping I think these are amazing

Just popping back before bani sees my post cos I did it again didn't I? JaegER.

The Matthew Cookson slippers immediately made me think of rapper Kendrick Lamar at Glasto (in a good way). He made a huge impactful show wearing the crown of thorns.

Thanks for your help with the slippers! Lots of shops seem to emphasise "artisanal" production which now sounds sinister and it's not easy to find any that use vegetable dye. And am now fearful of the smell, too.

And sending my admiration to flo for resisting to buy the shirt for £20. I bought this MIMCO bag yesterday for £30, and would like to ask you if I should really return it? It has lots of interesting detail, colour very dark brown cherry, can be worn three ways (cross body, tucked under arm, in the hand), magnetic closure on top of zip, and a W kind of shape in the profile but I am really not sure. Honest opinions, please. Also, it smells of a charity shop and I don't know if I'll ever get this out of leather.
This is my local charity shop and another bag they had was old press sample large and heavy Burberry for £500! They said they are prepared to negotiate 😵

mm yes, the skirt is quite flimsy, not the brora kind of linen. I think I actually have something orangey from American Vintage that could go with it. Good idea

microbius I've found charity shop smells in fabric can often be fixed with a good airing outside, but leather is another matter. You could try sealing it inside another bag with some bicarbonate of soda and, if that doesn't work, you could take a chance on soaking it in white vinegar followed by a machine wash. But to be honest, unless you're completely smitten, I'd probably cut my losses and return it. And if the smell includes cigarette smoke then, in my experience at least, it's probably beyond all help, sorry.

micro I am really not convinced about that bag. Looks bulky / awkward from the pictures, also the leather on the side does not look great. I know sometimes to wear worn leather is ok as gives a vintage etc vibe, but in this occasion I am not so sure (I am thinking that third picture).
the second photo looks also weird shape to me, it would annoy me the cross body strap as is big (but I am easily annoyed with bits of bags or clothes…).
not sure how much I have helped!

Thanks, flo and red, I think it is one for return

Bonjour, I'm reporting from Paris. Have yet to enter a Zara though and instead am having my head be preoccupied by an actual Jil Sander dress. It's this one but in a sort of muted cornflower blue (very Vermeer) and with a far steeper discount. However ideally it would be a size or maybe even two smaller. I kind of went whatever it'll be oversized but the shop assistant really insisted it was too big so I went away conflicted as it doesn't seem an easy dress to alter but I just loved the way it felt on and moved so what if I look like a whale... I'm not posting pics as you'll all tell me it's too big too. But I'll probably just end up going back jus to try it on again...

Less indecisive, I did pick up a great pair of Lemaire trousers in a sort of light greyish green clay lime (the building material not the fruit) colour, a Rick Owens T-Shirt and some Rick Owens trainers. Not sure I took pics of anything as they were all no brainer things at attractive prices. Am on limited time as this is more of a stopover in our travels and today is shit weather so I'll see what today brings.

Added some promised overdue pics for Flo from the Dries van Noten fabric sale, this is the only one worth photographing. The rest are plain colour (and all navy) but I'm excited for them for other reasons. Difficult to get a good picture of it with accurate perspective and scale, I draped some on my mannequin. It's from a men's collection more info on it here, I think this fabric was to make silk bomber jackets. Those aren't really my thing, having played around with it a bit I do prefer how it looks on me when it's draped on the bias like on the mannequin but you lose a lot of the pattern and it's a bit evening wear to my mind. I saw the third pic in the current season, looks to be the same printed silk, I could do something like that too.

The other fabrics were (all navy) a really nice cotton drill (no project in mind yet, probably trousers), I finally found some nice cotton poplin (they also had a really nice one but at €30 a metre I was very confused what warranted that price), I also got some wool with the most beautiful drape to it, I looked it up as it had Tasmania woven into the selvedge and apparently it's what's traditionally used for lawyers and judges robes (though they seem to call them togas) in Italy, hence the lovely drape. I'm thinking of making a winter maxi dress, bit minimal The Row/Jil Sander style with that but am currently stumped on how that'll work with winter coats...

Bo , you’ve been busy! The silk is beautiful and would look amazing sewn into a dress like the third picture. The Jill Sander dress sounds so tempting, a very pretty colour and style with a steep discount. Are you sure you couldn’t tweak it yourself to make it big-but-not-too-big (enabling)?
love the sound of all those fabrics esp the toga fabric.

That fabric's beautiful bo. I've never tried sewing silk - I'd be too scared, but I'm sure you'll think of something fabulous to make with it. I love the sound of that wool too although I know a photo wouldn't do it justice.

I have to admit, I'm not quite feeling the love for that dress but it sounds like you have to feel it and try it on to really appreciate it. I was going to add that, if a sales assistant is advising against, then it's probably worth listening to them, but then I remembered you're in Paris - I've had sales staff there look really pained when I've bought something, even though they were probably on commission!

I don't think they work on commission here but either way I think probably is good to head a sales assistant's opinion depending on the shop and SA. I'm fairly sure she'd refuse to have sold it to me she was so insistent and she's probably right. I'll see today, it's not really tweakable, I think, too complex, to my eyes anyhow.

I haven't bought anything else, did see some things but nothing that I absolutely wanted immediately. I did really like this orange Nina Ricci shirt but was dismayed to discover it was polyamide and not silk (it legitimately felt like silk) and even with 60% off it was still expensive, I'd have paid it for silk but not synthetic. I think I'll just steal the giant pocket design, I just finished up my first silk shirt with a similar blind placket before leaving so I'm feeling far more confident about being able to make one. I have more pics but I'll post them later tonight when I have more time. There was also a cream jumper form Nina Ricci with a crossover back that I sort of liked and was really well priced but you kind of had to twist and pull everything in the right direction to sit properly and I think that would just annoy me if I have to do that while wearing it too. Might have been down to my bra though, it wasn't as annoying without it.

That's a gorgeous colour bo, I'm not surprised you were tempted. I didn't notice the extra large pocket at first but it's definitely stealable. I'm obsessed by colour at the moment. I used to wear loads but fell into a grey period and still haven't quite managed to climb out. I'm wearing a green silk shirt today with a big rip up the sleeve that I daren't try and repair as it's so fragile I'll just make more holes with the needle. I probably bought it in the late 70s and it was old then but the fabric's still beautiful, a really heavy, matte finish silk. I remember my mum once telling me her school uniform shirts were in the same fabric. I used to ask her 'Are you sure?' as this would have been in the 1930s at a state school but she insisted 😮 Just as well they were all seamstreses.

I came on here planning to post about something else but, after that epic ramble, I've forgotten what it was...

Beautiful fabric and thank you for your report from Paris, bo! Joseph has very similar looking silk shirts in 100% silk - now on sale, I believe

As flo, I am not feeling the love for the dress, but maybe it doesn't show well online. What a rarity, a shop assistant advising against purchase! My London experience is that they always try to sell you whatever even if its very clearly small or big. My most favourite was when I was trying to choose between black and burgundy small and very plain cross body bag, and was explaining that I just want one bag to go with everything, and the shop assistant suggested that I should buy two! And it was an "ethical, slow-fashion" shop! I almost dropped dead laughing

Flo, I also have a small kimono that is slowly separating at seams and I don't dare touch and wear as it is

Was browsing through what now looks dated thread [waves at flo] and I want to ask mes amis here as I don't quite get it. Posters say knee boots are "out". Is it that the lower hem skirts, midis and maxis require ankle boots and knee high boots only work with skirts just below the knee? Can't you have knee high boot under a longer skirt / wide cropped trouser? I was just thinking about the riding boot kind of boots and bang I am now doubting myself.

Also, please, enlighten me, is there anything in between knee high and ankle boots? And how would people make it work as obviously everyone has different length/proportion/shape of length and boots can't be altered to required length unlike skirts or trousers. Sorry if this is obvious. and thanks

<waves back> I tried to hang on in that thread but it was like trying to hold a conversation in a bar while there's a brawl going on.

I rarely wear skirts / dresses at the moment so I'm probably not best placed to advise but I went back to knee boots a couple of years ago. I just got bored of ankle boots. I didn't buy any new ones, just dug my old knee highs out of the cupboard. They're flat which I think helps. When I wear them, it's with a midi skirt.

I haven't looked at the thread but is this why there's a parallel cardigans are out meltdown thread?

Things to keep in mind, whenever a thread on S&B takes off it attracts a different crowd and becomes very aibu with very black and white thinking/opinions. It happened with the initial thread of Les Parisiennes too, it was a veritable shit show, it's amazing we ploughed on.

Boots, wear whatever suits, no one's going to keel over because you're wearing boots some arbitrary person on the internet declared dated. The whole concept of dated is pretty much dated now as we all live in neat little silos thanks to algorithms.

It's less of an issue of figuring out the right boot and more of how to wear it now so it feels new/exciting/different/adjective of choice.

Yes there's a boot length between ankle and knee, it's mid calf but they're rare. I always seek them out because they're more like a knee length on me but for the great majority of people who do not have chopsticks for legs they tend to hit on the widest part of the calf and don't look great. Some higher ankle boots are mid calf on me, it's not pretty

Yes there are at least 2 subthreads now. I thought parts of the 'dated' thread were really interesting until the door slamming and chair throwing took hold. One poster was talking about that moment when your clothes 'turn on you' which I think is brilliant cos it totally nails how, just as I'm feeling all smug because I've got my style sorted, something starts to look wrong. It's happened to me so many times: 1930s dresses, tube skirts and ankle boots (shortly pre-Parisienne). And now this summer, my cropped wide leg trousers don't feel quite as good as last year. I'll carry on wearing them while I work it out but I'm going to try and avoid buying any more.

I'd love to figure out what's going on - oversensitivity to fashion, a premonition that my body's changing again or just common or garden boredom? Whatever it is, it's why I've never achieved a 'signature style' even though I really admire people who have one.

I have a lot to catch up! I will do, but now if anyone there can you tell me opinions in this jacket?
genuine vintage Levi’s, made in USA, I really want a summer coat , to the waist to wear with some of my dresses or stuff that otherwise with a blazer feels a bit too formal.
Yes, this look has been done to death but I feel it can potentially be quite useful.
I have another olive/khaki jacket but the tone is more autumn to me and I wear it loads, so I hope this will plug the gap for more summery?
the condition is great , it is £38.
I really do not want to buy new denim unless I have to.
The trousers I was wearing are almost the same colour, I will probably not wear it with those trousers.
Third photo is what I was wearing , a preloved Chloe denim top and sailor trousers I had for a few years.

I'm willing to bet £38 that denim jackets are top of the list on the dated thread. Ignore, I'd say but it does look a little big on the shoulders, maybe that's the whole trying to photograph it thing though? I've never really understood summer jackets though, aside from a rain coat, a denim jacket sounds far to warm for summer to me 🤷

I know Bo! Totally agree on the dates lol … but I never owned one (there might be a reason …) and now somehow I like it.
in the uk, when it goes around 18 degrees or is a bit windy … I really need one … and I have plenty of blazers and other fancy stuff … not something that brings it down.
yes is a bit big on the shoulders, I kinda like that? But maybe is going to the too big territory…

Flo, yeah clothes turning on you is an odd one. I have it with very thin soled sandals/flip flops at the moment, it looks off to me now and even more bizarre when I see it on other people, half the time I'm thinking they're not even wearing any shoes. It makes no sense but I'll surely feel like this again in a couple of years about platform sandals.

I think some things are quite easy to spot, anything that gets mass adopted quickly is going to feel overdone due to ubiquity at the same speed. But that's the entire commercial fashion business model and those who dress by replication keep it churning and though it would be good to change this cycle I'm not sure what a commercially viable alternative is.

Clothes turning on you I feel is more silhouette changes related imho. That's why all the gen z-ers in their push up bras in Antwerp caught my attention, that will change the silhouette, it's been so (big) bottom heavy for a long while, the push up bras means we're moving upwards again.