Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: Always Have a Ball Gown at the Ready in Celebration of Your Enemy's Demise

[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

Quinze

Seize

Wishing you all a joyful, light-filled Christmas time.

Hiut jeans for £38

That reminds me, I'm all out of sorts with my Community Clothing straight leg jeans. They're only about 4 years old and I was really pleased with them at the time but suddenly they feel so narrow and parsnip-y and are making me wonder what in hell my actual skinnies must have looked like.
As you will know, I'm not a huge believer in 'classic, wear forever' buys, but 4 years for jeans feels all kinds of wrong. I don't want to be that person but here I am.

Sorry for that tangent I only opened the thread to wish you all a happy Christmas

I bought some wide legged high-ish waisted jeans recently. I'm still getting used to the shape of them on me Flo, but I think it's a good thing especially as cropped tops work much better with them. Anything carotty does feel off atm, not that I've ever been a huge fan but it was one of those worked with certain shoes thing.

Happy Christmas everyone 🎄

God I'm shit at having an internet persona. Keep falling off! Thank you for your kind words everyone, I really appreciate them! Teared up a little at Duvet's Irish greeting (possibly also because always felt a little alien when in Ireland with relatives so it struck a chord...) Lovely silk shirt btw!

Preparing Christmas used up all my spoons this year (even though we keep it low-key) so MN fell by the wayside. I hope everyone had a lovely time!

Agree that the grinder, even on the coarsest setting, makes slightly too fine a dust for sprinkling on buns. But I don't care because simple. Offer of cardamom seeds still stands!

Red - bloody children. And bloody us I suppose for catering to their bad taste ;) but I hear you. All black hoodies, so dull, and unoriginal, and lame. I wish to live vicariously through my children thank you very much. At least my daughters are cool.

I bought myself a green top from Ril's. I.e. prob a little mumsy. But like I said, dying for retail therapy and there's fuck all to buy, and I wanted something new for Christmas so there we are.

Closed my eyes for the boots discussion, I still have a hankering for midi skirts/dresses with knee-high brown boots, but can't find the boots!

RIP Vivienne Westwood.

Yes! Another one gone! Raising a glass to her

Oh Vivienne 💔

Pele too.

That's my childhood and my youth all gone.

Bani I hope you're having a more restful few days now.

Sad news indeed about Vivienne Westwood.

Rest in peace Vivienne.
Just read this from an old interview:
“I think if you really like something, then you should try to buy it. And if you can’t afford it, don’t get something that is half the price but that you don’t really like. Don’t do that.” Vivienne looks pained at the thought.
thegentlewoman.co.uk/library/vivienne-westwood

Sad news about Pele too.

Speak no ill of the dead and all that but that's very generic advice from Vivienne Westwood there. She wasn't the best interview subject and always spoke the loudest and clearest through her chosen medium of cloth, far too many of her contemporaries were the opposite. Such a gem. Ugh, she's one of those who you assume will just live forever.

Also had a bit of 'my youth' moment the other day upon hearing that Maxi Jazz (Faithless) passed in his sleep. But he wasn't all that old.

I do like the idea of the three of them nipping on some sherry together up above...

Thanks for the continued offer of spices Bani (prepare for Sweden to be overrun by Dutch ships any day now 🗡️) but I can easily order them depodded online <goes off to Google expensive cardamom grinders again> good to see you back though, honoured we're spoon worthy when you've got one to spare.

I bought this Nina Ricci dress on Vinted but in ochre yellow, but the yellow pictures on Vinted were crap which explained the 400 euro asking price difference 😎 originally it was more than double that. Vinted is being weird though, no more PayPal and limited collection points. I don't know what's going on, maybe a crackdown on all the scammers 🤷

I do kind of like the redish colour though, suppose I can always mess around with Rit dye if I don't like the yellow.

I’ve done a few dye jobs on clothes in the past and never been happy. The thread seldom dyes, previously invisible
stains show up etc. How do you happy dyers do it?

this thread is always spoon-worthy :)

Isn’t generic wisdom the only proper wisdom haha, there are a few simple truths that are universal and the rest is just take a break tips or life hacks ;)

These days I mostly only dye things a shade or two darker / deeper and then it's not really noticeable when the stitching doesn't change. Stains are a bugger I grant you. I'm probably only pleased with the result about half the time but I only dye either stuff I'm bored with or recent charity shop buys so I don't have much to lose.

That said (about having nothing to lose), I've been doing a bit of a sort out (cos we had guests and needed the spare room) and I have to concede, I've made some bad charity shops buys this year that are going straight back. I need to get a grip on it - ok most of them were under a tenner but all those £6.99s add up.

Happy New Year everyone 🎉 I managed a year of not buying anything made in China (well I unintentionally slipped up once or twice when ordering sewing things as they never specify where something is made and for something so small I often forget to check). It was a lot more manageable than I thought (until I needed to replace an electric kettle but Manufactum saved my sanity with a made in Germany one). I've not thought of any new new year's resolutions this year, should probably think of something quick...

Hush, Bani, if we start thinking along those lines what will the grifters/gurus/influencers do with themselves (and moi, what is my raison d'être on here if not for my totally new and never heard before totally secret pretentious advice that is neither generic nor take a break life hack ).

Tbh I've only ever dyed fabric and I've been so pleased with it I'm a bit dye happy and look at everything as something to be dyed. I recently dyed some silk lining in the most perfect shade I had in my head for a tailored coat (it was just supposed to be me messing about trying it with some cheap deadstock wool fabric I've had laying around with the intent of practice before making a 'proper' coat with more £££ material, but it's gone surprisingly well and turned into a proper coat, a properly nice one at that). Anyhow, I've never actually used the Rit dyes before but apparently they work on synthetic fabrics so the thread colours along. I think the dress I ordered is polyester as the pleated Issey Miyake style fabrics always tend to be (although I've seen some old listings say 60/40 silk/cotton but I suspect that's the lining?), hence the Rit dye. I've found a better picture of it in yellow and if it resembles that colour in RL I won't need to dye it (and I've also taken note not to wear it with stupid shoes like that). I would probably keep it in the yellow family anyhow if I were to dye it, some yellows just don't work for me and I paid little enough for it to take the risk.

Buen año!!! Wish you a healthy and happy 2023.

That is good going Bo.
All I can say is that in 2022 I purchased mostly pre-loved and better than before. Not very cheap I grant that, but that is not my main motivation, so happy with it.
Having said that I might get tempted with some new items. I am in Paris and if I get free time I might stop in Bon Marche and Sezane.
I don’t have dye wisdoms or resolutions for 2023.

Bonne Année everyone !

I will try to catch up properly.

I forgot to say that I like the dress, but for me the bit of fabric hanging at the front would be too much of a distraction. But I can see how it would suit someone like you. Hope the colour is good, I am very partial to yellow.

Happy New Year mes amies!

That’s a lovely dress in either colour bo, although I agree with red about the little pleat handkerchief hem.

Impressive news on the coat too - I am trying to clear my pile of unsuitable secondhand purchases a la flo convert a too-large single breasted camel wool-cashmere overcoat into a double-breasted one via strategic moving and adding buttons, and the positioning of a few buttons is messing with my head enough that I can’t even contemplate making a coat from scratch. It’s a lovely old thing that cost peanuts via Vinted so if it goes wrong then no pressure.

love a bit of dye here too, but I tend to be a bit gung-ho about it. Best recent success was toning down a vivid yellow cashmere cardigan using a dye made from turmeric and coffee to a more mustardy shade. Stank out the kitchen but worked beautifully!

bani your idea about generic wisdom made me think of common sense and how it’s not actually all that common, and doesn’t translate across cultures at all well. For such a cross-cultural community here, we seem to do pretty well!

Ah, yes, the window wiper for the knees thing. It's a bit of a bias cut fabric remnant thing but the model doesn't have much in the way of hips so it never quite looks like that on me, if it did just dangle there it would annoy me too.

Having also drafted my coat I can understand the headache with the single to double breasted issue, it's not that simple due to lapel break lines (I drafted mine to look single breasted but it's actually double). I'm not sure how you'd easily do it tbh, but maybe it's easier than I think when my drafting brain isn't taking over.

How did you manage to fix the coffee turmeric dye Shangpie? I've looked into natural dyes and come to the conclusion unless you eat loads of onions and/or avocados or have unsupervised flower fields and woods nearby it's a rather expensive option if you want to dye fabric of any decent length and it doesn't always stay put. I did a trial run with turmeric when the yellow linen for my 'vyshyvanka' (I've sewed more than I thought this year, must do an inventory) turned up looking a sad drab yellow. Just to see if overdyeing would fix that and turmeric was something I already had in the cupboard. While it helped me figure out overdyeing was worth doing, it also pretty much disappeared in the sun in an afternoon.

I've only used Dylon in the machine dye, which usually works pretty well (except some old curtains that went weirdly speckled, so look mouldy 🙄). I haven't tried the delicate fabric ones out.

70sduvet, I'm sorry to hear you've been so unwell.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct3jk2

Listening to the World Service in my insomnia last night, I heard this about Rapt Studios in SF and thought it might interest bo. Hope the link works.

Ahem, bo I haven’t actually tested whether the dye is fixed properly 😱 as the cardigan has an annoying pocket that needs stitching up, so it’s languishing on the pile along with the coat. However, it’s cashmere and will only be hand-washed every now and then, plus I live in the grey northern wastes, so I’m not going to worry about fading too much.

Not sure who was looking for hiking-adjacent boots a few pages back, but this Euro boot brand just crossed my path (ha) They appear to make XingSon-level durable, sturdy boots with some looking much more ‘lifestyle’ than ‘scaling K2’: boots

Thanks Xing, I'll earmark it for listening, I hope it's not too whackadoodle as the SF area workspace philosophy can be sometimes...

I'd shame you Shangpie if my own mending pile wasn't as big either

It was red looking for walking boots but was avoiding proper outdoor brands due to being too wide (I think) but the site you linked looks good and has some models specifically made with a female last so maybe they'll do the trick. I like that they mention that they are easily resoled as well, made in Germany does tend to live up to its reputation of durability and longevity (but don't expect any exciting designs, usually).

Happy New Year to everyone - hope it's a good one for all.

Every time I've tried to dye anything I get an interesting patchwork effect. Even my hair.

I love some of the naturally-dyed yarns I see around - the shades are so beautiful.

I'm having a slight panic as have been invited to a July wedding with an actual dress code - black tie. I do not have any black tie type dresses and have no clue what I'm meant to wear either. Magazines suggesting floor length gowns, diamonds, and pearls are not as helpful as they think they are! On the plus side, it's a good kick up the arse to slim down again (too much stress eating), and at least I can have fun shopping (hopefully not too expensively). Ideas for dressing, very welcome.