Les Parisiennes des Mamanset: On the Advent of Newness

[botemp]

Lovers of Parisian style and fashion with a conscious mindset and lots of chatter in between.

Previous thread

(I've removed the usual links to recommended shops and other places guides from the OP because I suspect they're getting very out of date at this point)

I still like Jigsaw for basic tops.

and if I find good quality viscose I am more than happy to wear it, but easier said than done.

I once, around the Y2K mark, bought two viscose tops that were amazing. They lasted and lasted, didn't pill, were quite firm in the fabric and not too stretchy, good, deep colours. I still think of them. I am in no way against viscose in other words. That particular shop is a lingerie chain that branched out with a clothes line of very high quality, but it was too affordable to last. Deteriorated, was decimated, is no more.

bani! Welcome back

Re Askeeeeeet, if the tops aren’t too pricey, it may be worth buying one and dying it in your kitchen sink with Dylon / Rit / whatever small pack of hand-dye you can buy. The only risk is that the stitching contrasts, but it can be quite fun if it’s really obvious.

I like Dylon’s olive green and sunflower yellow, not tried Rit but they have similar options on Amazon. The shades are not too intense or densely saturated, but they are an easy fix and pretty foolproof. I have also used old coffee grounds to change a long sleeve COS t-shirt from white to cream, which makes me look less like a corpse.

It definitely takes less time and effort than actually making a top, and if it’s that or flo’s death-by-navy, it’s worth a shot.

The teamLab's article is fabulous. I have a mini-FT sub, so can look at a few things per month. Thank you bo... now planning a trip to Utrecht to see it when it opens.

Ah see ShangPie, I do dislike the contrasting stitching. On me the effect isn't fun, it's "she's home dyeing her clothes, probably to cover up a stain".

I'd like it known that I have tried Bo's fun "wear a cardigan backwards" thing and everyone asked me "why are you wearing your cardigan back to front". Also I tried a "fun tuck" with half the front tucked in and half out? First comment was if I'd noticed I'd missed tucking my shirt in after going to the toilet. Contrasting stitches just because the dye didn't take is not my thing.

I can't carry these things off, mes amies. I am at best wallpaper. Not art. Not the feature wall sort of wallpaper either.

Thank you, bani! The boots are very conformable although everyday I wear them without the gaiters. Bani, you write very funnily.

To join the chat of tops, I realised I don't understand how to wear tops/shirts in winter. For work, or any event which is a bit official, I recently find that jersey tops are just a bit too homey and don't look as good (elbows stretched out after a half day of wear etc). You put a nice jumper on, then it is too hot, you take it off, et voila. Not so good. Shirts I find uncomfortable under the jumper. I can't contemplate not wearing a jumper Nov/Dec-Mar. What does one do? Do I have wrong shirts and I need to look for super comfortable thin shirts? Do I need to look into wearing gilets and then blazers (ditch the jumper)?

Bani, you must have a solution as where you live, it is cold outside and hot inside. What is it that you do?

Micro, this was why I preferred cardigans but the Parisiennes put me on jumpers instead Cardigans are easier to not overheat in and take off like. The absolute worst is when it’s not actually that cold so you’re perpetually overdressed and overheated but as soon as you remove a layer you freeze ;).

my daughter who is chic is all about the knitted vest top (pullover? Did we decide what they’re called?) and shirts. She looks great! Don’t look to me for style currently. I just pull clothes on these past two years or so, have given up!

bo I’m too busy being idle to work for the FT! Fantastically zeitgeisty to post Murakami in your Advent and then Teamlab pops up at the FT.
i tried screenshotting the article but it was about 12 photos and didn’t upload so I hope MNHQ allow your link asap.

Tank tops, bani, tank tops! Ignore what anyone calls them. I have been shamed and pilloried for liking them so good to hear your daughter approves. A nice fairisle one and then a tweed blazer on top used to be my overheated office solution, although you do risk getting mistaken for the Duke of Windsor.

Don't listen to Flo, it's aaaaaaaaaaaa vest 🧐

I’ve been a tank top fan all my life. Incredibly flattering because they do something (can’t put it into words but it works!)

ps absolutely livid Margaret Howell sale started the day after I left London for the land of mud and more mud. Not so much interested in the sale itself but I seem to remember micro saying this triggered a sale in the outlet shop - micro could you confirm?

I'm a tank top lover too.

I feel the pain of everyone about colours. I have an ancient Margaret Howell t shirt in a beautiful deep turquoise - she does nothing in as rich a colour as that at the moment. I also treasure a Benetton t shirt in an inky blue - not navy but not mid blue: half way. It's such a good summer colour.

For a brief moment I had thought we might be getting out of the black black and more black for coats maybe with a bit of grey or navy, but it's slipping back again. When I'm commuting, it's dispiriting looking round the train. My current coat is emerald green Harris tweed, but it is getting a bit shabby, so I will start wearing my other winter coats. I think I will wear my black coat occasionally but I will add a bright scarf, and my other coats are crimson and the colour of quince paste respectively.

That's the reason Margaret Howell invented a whole new word for them - slipovers! I've never owned or worn one, I have to admit. And I did like cardigans, like Bani, with narrower and less structured, thin shirts, before the silhouette changed and now everything that used to work doesn't anymore.

Margaret Howell has an early sale this year - I think last year the sale didn't start until Feb? I wonder if it means the sales weren't going so well...

I agree about colour, everything is either black, white or beige. What kills me is all trousers being black. Studio Nicholson just outdid herself this year, almost all black.

Tank top seemed to come in, in the 1970s when they were Big fashion-wise. According to Wikipedia it's an American usage.

I always thought they were really called pullovers, and I've found a 1940s British pattern for a rather nice ladies pullover:

vintageknittingpatternarchive.com/?p=3524

But by the 1970s they were known as a slipover:

https://vintageknittingpatternarchive.com/?p=1100

I certainly wear long-sleeved t-shirts (?) under jumpers or cardigans, but often find I am taking off/putting on the knitted layer throughout the day - that may be age related, though.

Today, I made the mistake of wearing an h&m burgundy one under a thick, grey cable cardigan, that I forgot was not actually cotton. After walking outside, I was really hot and I ended up changing it altogether.

poppy back in 1974/5 when I went to school and we were allowed to change into mufti it was the thing to wear headscarves, maxi skirts, blouses and tank tops - a sea of crimplene and tie dye! And somehow although I graduated pretty quickly to being a bit of natural fibre fanatic I never grew out of my love of tank tops and sleeveless dresses - wearing them with long sleeve t shirts or whatever if I was cold / not feeling confident about my arms.

I was pondering what they’re called this evening and googling a little and came to exactly the same conclusion as Poppy already had 😘 Slipover seems very common in Scandinavia I noticed but I remember pullover as the accepted term when I was a lass. Anyway I don’t have one because I always thought they’d make me look dumpy (broad back and all) but I think I’m going to try one out if I see one I like.

Anyway, speaking of tops, let me share with you this top that is one of the few tops available to me easily, also in real shops. I own this top in navy. Quality is not that good, which disappointed me. Pilling on the inside of it, material just a little cheap. But it’s quite a big seller and you can probably tell from the website that it’s a certain kind of women who goes for it. Let’s say middle aged middle management, wants to look good without really trying to hard. The designer has a make over slot on a tv programme and I think it shows.

Now I don’t mind the top. I wear it a lot and it’s easy to wear (am wearing it right now as a matter of fact). It’s just so careful and polite, it annoys me. However it comes in many colours and many are good, I regularly sit here and think hm maybe I should get another one after all I need to wear clothes don’t I. But this is basically it! This is all I can find without shopping from far away abroad.
https://hedvigstockholm.se/products/aw23-q2600-enkla?variant=47310446788949

I agree with you microbius about the chromophobia of Margaret Howell. Everything is brown, black or grey ( with a few exceptions). I’d love a nice basic quality T shirt in blue or terracotta or green. Also re the sale, people must have been online at midnight because most of the sizes seem to have gone.

Just trawled my fave charity shops in Chelsea and Ken high street. Tried on a variety of tops and walked out with a flower vase.

Belated HNY everyone.

@banivani wrote this above

love and adore this thread and you lot but the problem with long running threads is they can become a little bit social media-esque iyswim in that you have to engage more with everyone or feel bad/be perceived as rude? I’ve disengaged from social media I’m not up to virtual engagement any more and sadly i drop away from this thread too when things get too much because like you say, limited energy. I “plop” on some random threads here and there that’s all.

And I’m so grateful, because I can borrow it for my own use. Post-viral cognitive earthquakes have kept me away from any and everything requiring concentration or accurate use of words for some time - so I have swerved this bit of MN, whilst haunting all the TV / streaming threads.

But lying awake worrying and scrolling I saw the word ‘chromophobia’ and couldn’t resist a tentative re-entry. Who knew that 4am on a Sunday in January would be the perfect time for an advent calendar? Or having one’s breath taken by edible Dior creations? I think I own a few things Di Gilpin will have been responsible for - I wore my entire La Fetiche knitwear wardrobe (jumpers and beanies) over the Christmas period. Did I see an embellished green stiletto / kitten heel somewhere above? Reminded me of a pair of green suede Manolo Blahnik shoes, abandoned in a cottage in Ireland when life took a turn a quarter of a century ago … In my next life I’m going to live in @Floisme‘s wardrobe, as stewardship of my own has been one of the great failures of my life.

For several years I’ve lived less than five minutes from a careful and good value tailors. And resolved every week to take in a Margiela skirt that needs attention paid to its deliberately raggedy hem. I’m currently throwing things into boxes for storage before moving out of this building. I have two days left for the skirt mission …

Aha Slipovers! Yes I remember them as a child. Pullovers were jumpers weren't they? Must admit, I hadn't realised tank top was an American term, I thought were called vests in the US?

I was just thinking I hadn't spotted you on S&B for a while @CrkdLttrCrkdLttr. Hope you're OK, post viral stuff can be nasty. As for living in my wardrobe, well all I can say is, be careful what you wish for - I might hang on to my clothes but I don't always treat them well. Good luck with the move.

Is that top clingy bani? If it's a good fit then I can see it would be useful but I think I'd find that slit in the neckline really annoying - such a half hearted attempt at an interesting detail.

I didn't even look at the Margaret Howell sale until late yesterday. I have limited funds at the moment plus I'm probably going to need new specs soon which will clean me out. Anyway pretty much everything under £150 seemed to have gone.

Is that top clingy bani? If it's a good fit then I can see it would be useful but I think I'd find that slit in the neckline really annoying - such a half hearted attempt at an interesting detail.

Head on the nail Flo! It really is the very minimum you have to do to make a top a little bit different and appeal to those of us who are fumbling around for something a bit extra. But just the boat neck would be enough. Not clingy really but with wear and washing the fabric became less structured and now I wouldn’t say it doesn’t cling a bit.

You’ve cured me of getting another one of even if I’m desperate. Last summer I got a tshirt in Zara that fits badly only and purely because it was a great shade of terracotta 🙄

Yesterday my husband showed me posts from a watch forum he hangs out on, where the lads are going gaga over matching their watches to flannel shirts. I remember Bo saying something precise at one point about men being very prescriptive in fashion and how it’s very much about having the exact right thing. Now they are not wrong about the watch and shirt looking good together and here is the link, but I still find it very funny! Watch nerds are a special breed. https://klocksnack.se/threads/tudortråden.17265/page-765

Im listening to Ngaio Marsh’s Artists in Crime and Agatha Troy is wearing “slacks and a pullover” while Valmai Seacliff is wearing “black trousers and a magenta sweater”. Published in 1938 and there must have been some sort of difference?

@CrkdLttrCrkdLttr post-viral earthquake! Consecutive viruses are why I fell off this thread last year. Covid and lockdown knocked my Immune system for six. I hope you feel better soon.