Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: JesusFlo Superstar in a Back Lit Kaftan (Toyboy Not Included)

[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

Dix-sept

Good morning! Just to say I lost patience and rang Margaret Howell and apparently they aren’t holding a spring sample sale, the next one will be in September. So now we know!

Photo flo please I love that length

And Poppy just to say I really appreciate you gifting Times articles to the Parisiennes thread. The paywall is so frustrating but there are only so many papers and mags I can subscribe to, so thank you very much indeed for sharing!

Tell us what you find in your errands Flo!
I will also be checking in that jigsaw collab with Lucinda.

Ok who bought my skirt?

Oh no Flo, that's a shame! Probably some 25-year-old doing granny chic, to be honest. She doesn't deserve it the way you do.

Exactly bani - little upstart. Harrumph. I have a bad feeling it might have been a Big Label skirt which was why they'd put it in the window - they're normally on a rail in the corner with only me looking at them. But I didn't ask because I was dismayed enough as it was.

However one door closes but another opens. Don't know if anyone remembers me looking for a leather blazer about 2 years ago? I found one but it was a bit too short and fitted. Well I may have landed it today. It's the right shape and colour, the only snag - because there's always a snag isn't there - is that it smells just slightly of the charity shop. So it's hanging outside right now and may remain there for the next couple of days.

Bin lady chic - make it a thing.

(Sorry, that is in SUCH poor taste.)

I remember the hunt for a leather blazer! So happy that one has finally made it to you Flo!

I need the sun to come out! So I can wear sandals and properly try granny chic dresses. I spotted today in my local charity, love all the patterns but not feeling in the mood for trying on summery stuff. most of them are polyester, but there might be a gem or two somewhere.

Nowt is new in this world, it was called 'bag lady chic' and was from the before times where social media didn't aggregate all these subtext grievances so it wasn't considered poor taste (the phrase, the look was up for much debate). I think Helena Bonham Carter might have been the patron saint of the look.

As the designated young person on here, am I, for once, allowed to go apeshit over the use of the phrase 'little upstart' 😁

Shame about the skirt, but congrats on the leather blazer.

Mm I could kiss you for making a phone call, not that I was particularly invested in the sample sale (although I am currently suffering with itchy traveling feelings) but that there's still people making phone calls. Had to deal with someone who was struggling to reach someone else and it turned out they had phone anxiety and weren't disclosing that and just sat there waiting on an email reply <argh>

And yes, thank you Poppy for spending your share tokens on us.

Before I forget, if anyone's interested, my favourite deadstock fabric shop has a whole bunch of gorgeous Sophie D'Hoore fabrics in, they do ship abroad but I think it's pricey.

I was a nano second away from posting 'young upstart' but came to my senses just in time.

Thanks for reminding me I'm also height challenged (and therefore, naturally, doubly aggrieved).

Some interesting articles in The Guardian these past few days, btw, some more of interest of the now full demographic thread:

A swipe at fashion capitalism’: Telfar’s experiment lets customers set prices

I’ve finally learned how to dress myself. The first step was admitting how clothes made me feel

And Gwyneth Paltrow is singlehandedly rubbing the shine off the row 😑 Billionaire chic: the meaning of Gwyneth Paltrow’s court wardrobe (the related Marina Hyde column is entertaining too).

I have (smug face) a real camel coat, and it reverses to a blanket check, courtesy of my long deceased great-aunt who bought it and a matching skirt for the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival in about 1965. The skirt is long gone, but the coat comes out occasionally when it's cold. Camel hair is very warm. Sadly the collar and cuffs are getting a bit threadbare, so it has to be treated gently. Heaven knows who will get this treasure in the end.

I haven't forgotten the skirt pictures Flo, although I am sorry the perfect one eluded you, but congratulations on the leather blazer. Gor-Ray used to do brilliant reversible tartan/check pleated skirts, I think?

I loved the first Jigsaw/Collagerie colab, but I can imagine buying the dresses in this one. Lucinda C has such an eye.

Imagine her eclectic eye riffing on styling with Phoebe Philo. I would be bankrupt!

Gwyneth's moss-green coat is beautiful.

😊 Now now young bo 😉 don’t take on about my use of olde worlde technology.

When I rang MH in the autumn about sample sale dates they refused to divulge, it was “please refer to the music room website” on a loop (a la BR customer relations manual) even though I spoke to A Real Person. This time I got lucky and they were more forthcoming, but also I think there might be something up with the Music Room (their usual venue) as they don’t seem to have updated about sample sales since December last year.

The tartan exhibition looks totally fabulous but Dundee is not exactly easy to get to from the south of England, (let alone the Netherlands) planes trains automobiles would be needed! Admittedly you need that for London but the distances are shorter (and sorry Dundee but there might be a bit more on offer apart from the exhibition itself). BUT having said this if it were to become an MN Parisiennes reunion… just putting it out there… 😈

Sophie D’Hoore fabrics - don’t tempt me. My only SDH dress is cotton poplin and just the most papery-polpin-y delight so I can well imagine this would be a complete treasure trove even if I wouldn’t know WTF to do with the material once I’d bought it. ( not Teflon coated so sadly it’s badly stained with olive oil / French dressing, sigh, yes I should wear a napkin around my neck and not in my lap! 🐽)

flo I’m sorry about the skirt but 🤞🏼 about the leather blazer. I imagine musty charity shop can be aired out. A few years ago I bought a leather jacket (not a blazer but not quite a bomber) in the most beautiful faded pink, well actually I think it was red that had faded to pink. It was made by Maje or someone and for one morning I felt the smuggest person in the planet… until I realised the reason it had been donated and only cost £1 was because the until-then undetected BO smell was baked-in (how could I have missed it 😱? I have definitely got so much more slapdash with my charity “work” (as my husband calls it) as I’ve got older). Red that is a very pretty photo, 🤞🏼at least one is not polyester!

effortless Lucinda / Jigsaw I’ve only just realised she’s been doing collabs when I saw a florist influencer in IG wearing the most beautiful pale blue suede fringed jacket. Totally sold out of course. I can completely see why you would be looking forward to well dressed bankruptcy 😊 if Chambers and Philo ever collaborated. Your reversible* coat sounds amazing. Btw my mother had a camel coat but she ruined it, she had beautiful legs so she had it shortened to her knees and somehow I always thought the proportions were wrong (I was about 11
at the time…)

Anybody else enjoy reversible clothes in principle (for the ingenuity) if not in reality (you always have a favourite side so you never actually use the reverse)?

bani you can say the unsayable. In the countryside I look like a bin lady except there aren’t any bins. Recently in London my octogenarian friend said “oh I can see you’re enjoying country life, you’re looking very relaxed” trust me from her 🧙‍♀️ this translates to “you’ve let yourself go, girl”. (It didn’t help that someone offered me a seat on the bus on the way to meet her… 🤡)

Whoops sorry forgot * embolden

until I realised the reason it had been donated and only cost £1 was because the until-then undetected BO smell

And now I'm an offensive smell 😱 🐒💩<apeshit emoji

WRT phone calls, they're still the preferred communication method with contractors in my world, so I was rather shocked someone didn't just call them and seemed to think phone anxiety was in the DSM-V. It made me feel like some ancient one when, really, they were the weirdo.

I only know Dundee for a cake name, I think, is it actually a nice destination? Despite the write up in the Guardian I assume it's just a small regional exhibition but I'm not opposed to travelling for a small regional exhibition as an excuse to visit somewhere nice but it's got to be more than a fruit cake 🤢

Dundee stands for Jam, Jute and Journalism, bo. The publishers of The Beano, DC Thomson, started there. And it's celebrated for marmelade (presumably the jam being referred to) as well as the cake. As to whether it's a nice destination, I haven't ever been there and only saw it signposted off the motorway!

mm47 Yes, I always wear the coat on the plain side -- as I think auntie did. The skirt was the checked fabric so it looked better that way. And I have another of her coats, in a bigger bolder black and tan check, which I wear when I yearn for a show stopper coat.

We had several young people in my former workplace who were great at face to face or written communications but terrified of answering the phone or making a call. I'd say, 'But you're on your phone all day long!' and they'd go 'Yeah but Flo, we don't use it to talk!'

There's a lot of blue in that Jigsaw / collagerie selection. I don't avoid the colour but I'm fussy about getting the shade right, so I think I can admire it without being tempted.
https://www.jigsaw-online.com/collections/collagerie

What's going off at Margaret Howell by the way? It's a shame there's no spring sample sale even though I'd be unlikely to get there.

Hmm, so I should go to Dundee for the jute 🤔

Flo, it might just be the organisers issue as mm speculated? Or maybe they're looking at other options, Margaret Howell would fit in well with Otrium.

I definitely didn't like making phone calls when I was young either, but I was teenager young, you get over it pretty quickly when working but I guess no longer so (they weren't that young though, couple years younger not a whole generation down). It's still the quickest way to get something done, I've yet to see that change, e-mail does feel on its way out though.

Thanks for the collagerie jigsaw link, I assumed it wasn't available outside the UK, but it is, so now I've got to contemplate it for myself. It is very Old Marni which isn't a bad thing but the thing that's putting me off is the sleeve lengths. Also, it all looks really alluring in the styled pics but it kind of falls flat in the catalogue shots, fabrics seem cheaper, length of dresses suddenly much shorter (putting them in that indecisive length territory). I'd really have to see it on real people to have a proper idea of if it's actually desirable Old Marni on the cheap or an expensive fast fashion echo of it.