Observations from Paris

[ParisDispatches]

I was recently in Paris & spent an inordinate amount of time people / fashion watching!

In the spirit of the London thread I thought I'd share my observations.

I was there for several weeks & was based in the 5th but spent lots of time in 6th, 7th, 1st as well Marais, Montparnasse etc

Teens / early 20s were wearing lots of cropped wide legged pale denim with vest tops or cropped tshirts & clumpy trainers or converse. Delicatet gold jewellery.

Or flippy little short skirts & vests. Tanned arms & legs & generally far slimmer than we see here. More natural makeup too. Lots of 90s inspired looks

Around St Germain I saw some incredibly elegantly dressed women 30 upwards
Again generally v slim (I myself have gained weight from 12 to large 14 in past year & so was v conscious )

One woman had an incredible all black outfit. She was in her late 20s & was cool & edgy looking & I felt myself gazing enviously after her...

Birkenstocks abounded . Small cross body bags. There was an hour long queue to get into Polene which shocked me

Lots of beautiful silky shirts at dinner in the evenings.

I don't recall seeing floral midi dresses & white trainers much

Lots of veja on both men & women.

Overall more casual than I'd expected but v groomed

Where are all the vests coming from can I ask? I need a vest top with support..

I don't know generally where people are buying vests. And the ones I saw were regular vest tops not ones with inner supports (that I could see)

In my dds case she bought some in shops like Brandy Melville & Subdued (which is where I observed lots of French late teen / early 20s up close as I sat for what felt like hours whilst dd tried on millions of things,)

Anyway this thread was only a bit of fun to share my own observations having spent 5 weeks in Paris this summer. I am aware that what I saw was a snapshot but I did spend a lot of time exploring various areas & sitting at outdoor cafes watching the world go by.

I love style & fashion so I'm always on the look out for beautifully presented people male or female.

And 100% I would say the French women of all ages are in general slimmer than their UK counterparts.

Try Free People for vest tops, supportive or otherwise.

@ParisDispatches yes definitely agree french people in general are slimmer.

I think teens may be braless, but wear those silicone self-stick nipple covers.
Dd2 ( British) dresses in exactly the same way as those so-called French teens. As do all her friends who are a mixture of Asian/European nationalities.

You could well be right about the teens & silicone nipple shields. I don't know.

However I did see a lot of nipple action happening in women in 20s/ 30s. It was the main giveaway that they were braless. It struck me because I simply don't see that as much at home

The teens I observed in shops & metro were speaking French so u thought it was a fair enough assumption to consider them French as opposed to 'so-called French'..

I also saw (& heard) several groups of German teen / 20s girls shopping in the same shops & their style was a bit more casual - shorts & vests whereas the French (speaking) girls had v short denim skirts or v short tiered skirts with shirred waists & vests..these skirts were in all the shops aimed at that demographic & my daughter bought 2 & 2 vest tops in Subdued..

To be fair, my nipples are visible through a padded bra, fair isle jumper and a duffle coat.

😂😂😂Nork is my favourite word

You all are on fire today

Enjoying your thread, OP.
I recently stayed with friends in southern France and marvelled (silently!) at their portion control! I could easily have eaten 30-40% more at every meal. I wasn't hungry afterwards, but wasn't exactly stuffed either. I'm a tall, slim size 12 but am active and enjoy my grub.

I can’t get on board with the no-bra trend at all. I’m quite small, and don’t particularly need the support, but I need the shape. And I feel weirdly scruffy and undressed without a bra.

@ParisDispatches Perfectly enjoyable thread. Not sure where dd gets vest tips from. More elastine than a built in bra like section I think.

We are in a southern French city for the summer and we’ve seen lots of Stella Mc chain bags which I was quite surprised about.

Plenty of plain halter tops with wide trousers or shorts during the day. A few long linen maxi dresses, nothing floral at all so I’m glad I left mine at home!

@LoobyDop I get out of bed and put one on. Even if it's a soft cotton no underside type. I'm not very big but it feels too "floppy" without.

@Zooeyzo I wonder if in twenty years young women will find us as hilariously incomprehensible as we would an elderly woman refusing to leave the house without her roll-on corset.

Given that it is August most of the well heeled Parisians won't be in Paris. You will be seeing tourists, even if they are French ones.

I wasn't actually in Paris in August....
This thread is hilarious! So many posters trying to contradict what I observed.

DDs ribbed vests were from Zara.

As if everyone in a city is on holiday! Of course some are local. Even French people staff their hospitals and essential services in August. I like looking at who wears what too. DD2 recommends the LV Foundation for people watching. Ditto the Prada Foundation in Milan! Their coffee bar is the best!!

The floral dress trend does seem to be very British. Does anybody know why? I also noticed in Italy that women like to dress smartly on hol.

It’s not entirely. Recently Gucci and Prada have used florals. Versace and Dior too. It’s just that they do them better!!

(Better than some. Not every British designer is average).

Uniqlo has vest tops with built in support! I saw them in store the other day and wish I’d got a couple.

@ ParisDispatches my comment on so-called Parisians wasn't intended to be snippy. The Uniqlo vests are great.
Dd1 lives in them.