Les Parisiennes des Mamanset: A Sin of Pride

[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:

[[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FdQbdNEUpGqOyH2oqBQZBVsKISieRgxW_F67mgRLSrw/edit?usp=sharing Consignment shops, Vintage, an
d Restaurants]]

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Previous thread

Good to hear you've recovered, Mitso, and found your ideal scarf and just have to wait on the colour. Enjoy your day out at the V&A next week.

Ah the chocolate covered crepe dentelles are the best, Elle. I have feverish dreams of them making me an adult Kinder Bueno, where the milk chocolate crepe dentelles have a center of gianduja inside with a drizzle of dark chocolate and some chopped toasted hazelnuts on top. Ooh and the dark chocolate version would have an espresso praline filling 🙏

Seems like my food detracting on this thread isn't as off topic as I thought btw, according to JCM it's all about fruit and veg prints, so long florals, hello, greengrocer autumn 🤷

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/oct/13/fruit-and-veg-prints-are-a-recipe-for-good-taste

Palava have done fruit and vegetable prints since forever. They currently have, plums, damsons, sloes, apples, winter berries, hedgerows, cacti, artichokes, grow your own, blackcurrant, foraging and greenhouses and allotments.

JCM is a terrible writer.

Hello all, must admit that I am trying to find distraction here from time to time but is hard with all the s** going on in the world.
The whole situation really worries me. I think I need to try to apply some of the tactics to keep in a sane frame of mind.
So, no fashion news from me at the moment.

For distraction and your consideration, mes amies. I bought the following Margaret Howell dress on vinted. I know, I know, curiosity killed the cat. It is a divine wool, fully lined and with good pockets. But it is also a blouson dress, with -kind of- too explicit military references? (double buttons on the skirt). I am taking opinions on 1.whether I should sell it on. 2. remove second row of the buttons (I need to move the buttons a little bit anyway to accommodate more comfortably for hips). 3.Because of the way it is tailored it doesn't make sense to wear it open like a overcoat

[further details: condition like new, beautiful craftsmanship, colour suits me; picture from the original listing]

That is a really interesting dress micro, I haven’t seen one like that from MH.
How long does it fall on you?
I can see that colour working on you (for me would be awful).
if you move the buttons, will it still work? In the sense that will it not do anything else weird to the fit? Best to try it with pins to make sure it will still look good?
I am having trouble imagining what it will do to it if you remove one row and move the buttons… will they end up off centred but in an odd position ? Or will they still work?
I am not helping at all… am I…

Thanks, red, for your consideration! Yes, it's not a "typical" MH dress. I haven't been able to find it in any collections so far.

The top has too much material -> made to fall like a blouson over the belt. Then the skirt is just like a pencil skirt, quite tight. The skirt is knee length on me. The idea I think is the contrast between a tight pencil skirt and a voluminous top. [I think I will probably wear it with a turtleneck as well? and knee high boots would be great]

The dress needs to be worn with a belt, so the first button of the row of the buttons is obscured by the belt, and then all "decorative" buttons can be removed, I think. The buttons that actually fasten the skirt will be off centre, but this is ok I think (in fact I have a MH drill skirt like that, straight with off centre buttons). Or maybe I'll upset some cosmic balance of this garment and will be punished with everlasting regret by the sartorial gods...

In that case micro sounds like is not meant for you.

do you think you will regret it if you sell it on Vinted? I personally would sell it, being MH, you know it will sell.

But of course, it will not do any harm if you want to try amending it anyway. 😀

micro whilst I’m not keen on double breasted coats or jackets, this dress doesn’t have double buttons above the waist so it’s different. Nor does it have epaulettes so honestly I don’t see a strong military influence and I love the idea of blouson top half, pencil skirt(ish) bottom half. I think it would look amazing on you and love how you plan to wear it.

But I think you should wear it soon to try out how you feel. If you’re still unsure after wearing it 2-3 times, sell it on.

I really like that colour micro and I agree with mm47 that it doesn't look military - it's not like the buttons are gold and embossed with the queen's head!

I'm not sure about removing a line of buttons - even if they serve no functional use, MH tends to be quite sparing with her decorations so my guess is they're there for a reason. Without them the skirt will probably look even narrower, so it probably depends on how much you like that blouson effect. It sounds like you're not sure if you do or not?

For me that MH dress is less military and more shades of 80s power dress – in a good way. I think the execution in the somber green is a nice contrast to the more exuberant shape. It’s definitely a dress to my eye though. I think the suggestion to wear it once or twice is a good one.

On a separate note I just read the offering memorandum for H&M’s Green Bond. I think I need a shower. More partially recycled synthetics await us and cotton that might be 20% recycled, oh and less individual plastic bags in factories… and this is what they’re doing with the proceeds of their green bond, what happens outside of that framework doesn’t bear thinking about.

Red, I know what you mean but it's been hitting close to home and the internet has just been too toxic a place in the aftermath so I've refrained from mentioning it. I assume you meant the ME but I did see there was some extreme weather and wildfires in Argentina so hope your family is ok. But, yes, allround, it feels quite bleak atm.

Micro, I'm not seeing military in it either (aside from colour). Tbh, I think we're back to what got you posting on this thread initially, unless it's a runway piece, Margaret Howell proportions just doesn't really seem to work for you and all the adjustments to make it fit are just going to undo the initial design intention. I concur with Flo that moving the buttons is not a good move just from how it's constructed so I'm on team just sell it on.

Thank you, everyone. You put sense into me, in terms of not trying to amend it straight away but to give it a go and then see.

(Thank you Bo, yes was mainly ME comment)

let us know how it goes Micro!

Looking forward to seeing those of you coming along tomorrow.

Wishing you all a very lovely excursion!

Hello all.
Question?
Pre-loved Chanel handbags.
Good investment or better with another brand, such as Mulberry?

I can't comment I'm afraid - I have no experience of either. There is a thread on Chanel handbags that I saw about 2 months ago and there were people with a lot of experience of Chanel posting on that.

I came to post a link to an interesting documentary on iPlayer that I'm half way through, all about Coco:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001qj1y

I don't think it's been mentioned before but forgive me if it has.

It features the lovely silk jersey sailor blouse that we saw today.

Thank you @MmePoppySeedDefage.
I shall look for that thread for advice.

Thank you for the link poppy. I really liked that sailor blouse. I shall watch that.
it was a lovely day with great company 😀

It was indeed a great day with great company. I did enjoy the exhibition. Mind, at the end of the day, all I bought was a toilet brush...

I can't remember who was after simply-patterned silk scarves but I've just come across this site which is offering lots of vintage scarves for sale. From a quick look, they are mostly quite vibrant and/or busy, but you may find what you're looking for:

www.nearlynewcashmere.co.uk/collections/vintage-silk-scarves

Glad you all had a good time. I'm not sure whether the storm made it to London but hope you all got back safely if it did. Looking forward to reading all your thoughts.

Gingerwarthog bags aren't my thing at all and I endorse the advice to check out the current Chanel thread. Or it might be worth starting a new thread and asking - there are some knowledgeable bag lovers on this board although I've not seen some of them posting for a while. The only other thing I would say, as a vintage/second hand buyer of clothes in general (but not of bags) is that unless it's something your grandma handed you in person along with the sales receipt, it can be hard to be confident of the provenance. So although a purchase can turn out to be a lucky investment, you're not necessarily assured of that from the start. Good luck.

Oh dear, poppy. That's quite a treasure chest for anyone who likes scarves. I'm now lusting after the Asprey squiggle.

That was what caught my eye too.

Yes, hope you all had a fascinating day.

BTW - Patrick Grant (Community Clothing / Great British Sewing Bee) is the interviewee on Desert Island Discs right now. Radio 4 or iPlayer at your leisure.

He chose Minnie Riperton for his first disc - clearly a good egg!