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.

---

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

Seize

Dix-sept

Ha ha I don't think I've cycled since I was about 10. Despite how it sounds, I'm exercising much more systematically as I'm hoping for an active and annoyingly long old age, but no cycling, no yoga, no swimming and no countryside.

Certain garden centre cafes, I am discovering, do very good cake. Who knew! Not me for sure. Every day's an education I tell you. (The coffee is invariably shit mind. ) And then everyone else goes to coo over the plants while I check out the clothes. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be invited along.

Apologies to all gardeners on this thread by the way No disrespect intended and I fully accept I'm the one who's missing out. (And I'd never dream of dropping into a gardening board to ask why they bother...)

this is a good way to catch up on a Monday morning.
I don’t wear heels, but those Dries ones would really get me into wearing some. The back cut of that dries top is (crkd ‘s photo) is really good, speaking of which I am have been wanting summer tops with back / sides cut outs or strategically in the low rib cage type thing.

Radamanth is a thought one, sending you good wishes for your daughter and you. No apologies for finding a place to voice to say how you feel/what you are going thru here, we have pretty much all done it at some point.

the red of that coat Bo is fab, did you get it?

I am not certain I can accept your apologies Flo 😜, here I am the nutty plant lady and yes once again Chelsea Flower show is just round the corner and I will be making my annual pilgrimage there. Maybe this year I wear a non obvious flower attire…

(Btw, I prefer you lot to have a chat, I have never been able to hold a conversation in the gardening forum)

I've been meaning to start a gardening chat thread red and blue. There used to be a nice one on ANOther chat forum, but a load of us decamped here a while ago to escape the misogyny, and a few of us were regulars on that garden thread and miss it. Shall I call it Gardeners' Chat, so it's about gardening but people can go off piste and chat about, oooh, things like clothes, maybe, without being told off?

Poppy I would absolutely join in 😀 let me know if you make your first post!

I’ll go back and catch up soon, but just wanted to drop this here:
Chloe x Teva
I feel like they really could have designed a much more interesting and thoughtful collab collection for the price, kind of shocked by the laziness of this tbh

The link doesn't work for me but I've had a Google. I'm not all that surprised, Chloé colabs tend to be on the lazy side since GH took over (the main focus seems to be ticking some sort of sustainability box, but I dunno a gazillion colabs don't feel very green to me 🤷).

The Teva site only seems to want to show me the most boring linen ones, the colourful look a bit more fun and the black and white ribbon ones didn't look all that exciting but they look good on Katie Holmes (who also seems to be playing around with a dropped waist). They do look like proper walking sandals though, I'm curious how much style over substance they are.

(Also, as a plant killer I shouldn't be allowed near a gardening chat thread but I'm morbidly curious about this mysogynistic other place because at the moment I'm imagining you were chatting plants on piston heads and continually being interrupted by men wanting to chat about ride on mowers 😂).

Had the Chloe Teva email earlier. Was underwhelmed at best.

If they're made by Teva, the substance won't be compromised. I just don't think they're terribly exciting. For me, the fact they're so heavily branded makes them something I won't buy.

My favourite Teva collab was their one with Cotopaxi.

The other email that landed in my inbox was one from Toteme launching their travel collection. Mytheresa has some additional items too.

Definitely more me than the Chloe x Teva.

Still working my way through this thread...

Just a note to say some stores do stock it. In London, it's the Regent street store.

I did buy a coat, but waited until it went on sale as I didn't think it was worth full price. There were a few other items I liked, namely a padded coat, but that sold out while I was mulling it over. Nothing from their most recent collection caught my eye.

Although I have bought less in recent years, I have been shopping with them since they launched. While the brand isn't as directional as it once was, I do feel the quality is still good. (But maybe that's because quality is declining elsewhere, so Cos still seems better in comparison?) I do agree about the lack of depth of colour in the dyes.

They're clearly trying to refind their feet after the pandemic as Cos is now more trend focused than it once was. The store manager of my local branch was saying that Cos are wanting to reach a younger market. I have no doubt their will come at a cost of their loyal, older customers.

Teva’s quality is good but last year I ordered 3 pairs in my search for perfect comfy-on-trend sandals and they were not for me. In the end I got some birks. But I cannot see any difference on that collab , other than they have slapped the logo on it …

The only thing I purchased recently is this dress from jigsaw archive sale, it is in pure silk and I wore it already for an occasion which was perfect. With slim trousers is good on winter, but on its own good when transitioning seasons.

Yes, on closer inspection it looks identical to the non Chloé branded version of the sandals (though probably less sustainable material choices). Not sure it's worth the increased price for the Chloé branding but those bags with similar Chloé branding are very popular so I'm sure it makes good business sense.

The ruffle coat is very nice bunny, it reminds me of a blazer that Sidse Babett Knudse wore in the recent reboot of Borgen (the costume department was excellent on that) that I was admiring, it was a nice detail of a ruffle cutting through the more masculine tailoring without it becoming prissy. Didn't realise the atelier stuff made it to the sales, I shall hold out, then.

WRT Cos quality, comparatively, yes, still better than the rest of the high street but I've been shopping with them for forever (we had the first store outside Sweden) and it's definitely not what it used to be. They definitely seem to be embracing a blander aesthetic with a nod to current trends (which TBF is a popular riff on classics with a twist everyone goes on about on here).

I think what's most disappointing is their eschewing the creative class, they always commissioned interesting stands at Salone Di Mobile and a few other major fairs that saw a lot of designers. I think a lot of people also got to know about Cos through a designer type friend and it somehow felt less age defined than anywhere else (there was always a mix of very young and old) and the creative class connection gave it a sort of underground cult status. I'm struggling to see how they're going to differentiate themselves from Arket with the current path they're following.

Ah bunny the toteme is very chic.

They should be the base Teva sandal, so excellent quality for walking or hiking, but I guess I expected less branding text and more of a luxurious material mix like the attached sneaker (trainer) especially for the price.

I've set up the Gardeners' Chat thread RedandBlue, and all are welcome to chat about gardening and gardens and other things besides:

Gardeners' Chat
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/4807698-gardeners-chat

LN-CC is now stocking The Row!

I blame myself. It used to be all safety pins and studs - a perfect home for Chopova Lowena, for example. But their sales were so ridiculously epic I started mentioning the store, cautiously, here. Now they’ve turned fully respectable (and are probably negotiating with Boden as I write).

The editorial photos are just huggable. The Row plays no part in my current life, except as a time waster during various stores sales - when I ponder whether my huge flat feet would be enhanced by a glorified flip flop. But just occasionally I do something exciting (and may even be paid for it) so I keep them in mind, so I might look modishly louche and troubled in a grainy black and white photo.

Was a bit disappointed with the Toteme travel-wear - I cannot imagine what my friends and colleagues would think if I appeared before them in the chest displaying top …

Oh, excellent, I've abused their faulty extra discount codes many times (they work on discounted items when they shouldn't and when they're out of date). I did spot on (Matches I think) that they've now made the leather Ginzas without the platform in burgundy. I'm very tempted but they're more expensive than the Ginzas and purchasing those was already a head fuck (I don't regret it though, they're brilliant).

I had one bad customer service experience with LL-NC which I will keep repeating (worked out in the end and I was never out any money but it took forever to rectify) so that people will be put off using them and leave more for me.

They do seem to have mellowed from being a European Sense, but they've yet to reach the schizophrenic approach of Eraldo, so there's that. For a bit of old LL-NC but a little less avant garde you might like Labels which is a small boutique in bumfuck nowhere here, I don't know who shops there locally but they still manage to exist, I'm half tempted to believe it's a money laundering business. Good sales though.

Just read an interesting article on the FT Edit, some of you might have it / have the free trial?
Norman Foster: ‘It’s not about the building but about the city’
it is obviously about architecture not fashion, but I thought of you Bo, and wondered what you think about his work.
I personally enjoy the Foster buildings and I did not know he left school at 16 and managed to eventually get into Manchester uni by showing his sketches, he did not do A levels.
there is an exhibition about him in the Pompidou Centre.

Here is the link but behind a paywall
foster

Hmm, I've yet to read it but going by the headline, my response would be bit late to the party, Norman 🧐. But not that unusual to see that attitude from one of Starchitect set. He was already considered a bit old hat when I was at uni (approach rather than style, the latter is more down to personal interpretation/preference).

He mostly does the big projects and seems not overly discerning where these projects are and who funds them.

It's a bit like any other field, the ones that chase fame are usually not the ones who get the most admiration internally from their peers (and vice versa, those most appreciated by peers rarely get recognition outside their field).

I thought that might be the case Bo, as I only can see the aesthetics and really do not know anything about how he constructs stuff.
good point about the fame chasers … and happening in all fields …

Apologies for backtracking but I'm just catching up and the Cos chat the other day reminded me that I was in a store recently and had a strong sense of
J Crew circa 2015, not because the clothes were similar but because of the sheer nice-ness of it all. I don't get to their shops very often and it felt like a real change, but I couldn't decide whether it was a conscious decision to go blander or whether that Cos look has itself become mainstream and so less distinctive, or a combination.

It also seems a bit odd to go seeking a younger market - yes I suppose I would say that but surely the owners have already got that demographic covered with H&M, Monki and & Other Stories?

True, Flo, and tbh of all the H&M brands I'd assume &Other Stories would be the one in need of rejuvenation, or a bit of new life anyhow. But perhaps that's just my perception and the business numbers say otherwise.

I definitely think they've gotten a touch less mad with the more interesting take on pattern design at Cos. It's not as bland as Arket yet, but it definitely sits a lot closer to it than it once did.

Ahh, so much to catch up with, gardening, Norman Foster (have met, is a dick, as @botemp correctly posits, as are most 'starchitects', have met a few. None disabused my general feelings. Also see all 'star Creatives'. Wankers, one and all'.

I truly think there's a sweet-spot with creativity that happens when all the good stuff is coming forth, and people really see it, and creatives feel validated, and then, and then, lionisation.

You are creatively fucked then because you start to believe your own hype.

And that's when you either get deep in addiction or sell-out to the money men.

That is slightly tongue in cheek.

Just slightly though.