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removed the usual links to recommended shops and other places guides from the OP because I suspect they're getting very out of date at this point)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 know Red, I immediately wanted a bed of it too. Today I learned, if I ever become an eccentric billionaire I will waste my money on bales of fine wool to roll around in...

I would just like to stroke that wool (before making a dash for the door with it). I absolutely loved Mr PLLP’s comment:-

Loro Piana himself has come dressed in a striped suit made from wool in 2008’s record bale — 12 microns that year. “Much coarser,” he says. “Relatively.”

On another note I have three/four days in Vienna next month (Bridget Bones rides flies again, off for another citibreak!) Any advice for what to see and do, restaurants, shops and what to wear to fit in and not make the locals faint gratefully received - I understand well worn Margaret Howell will not cut a dash…

Mr PLLP is my plan B if becoming an eccentric billionaire doesn't work out, but I suspect I'm not his type and I'll have to settle for stroking his jacket when he's not looking <harumph>

Oh Vienna, I can give you a whole list of buildings to look at but probably not all that interesting to you.

In terms of wardrobe, I'd prioritise some stretchy waist trousers because you're going to want to eat all the cakes. The locals are not particularly fashion forward, you can go slovenly academic, normcore or that German take on Anglophiles, it's a bit UK country house shooting weekend wear but everything is shiny and new and pressed to an inch of its life and the shoes are different.

You should really visit an imbiss and have a sausage, the ones near the Opera are fancier and sell champagne by the glass so if you time it right you can be nipping champagne with men in tails and women in gowns who are heading in or out of the opera. Tbh there's so much to see you'll be spoilt for choice, provided you like old school high culture stuff.

Ooh lovely mm47, it's quite a long time since I went to Vienna but off the top of my head, I can remember:
Lots and lots of palaces
Coffee shops - some of the old ones where Trotsky and Freud used to hang out are worth a trip
Klimt Museum
Sigmund Freud's appartment
Musikverein where they hold the New Year's Day concerts - even if the music's not your thing I'd go to something if you can, just to see it.

And lots of Third Man locations if that's your thing

I don't remember that much about the shops apart from a big outdoor flea market and a neighbourhood where some of the shops that sell traditional Austrian clothing are based, which was interesting.

Dress codes were pretty relaxed as I remember but then we had a teenager with us so didn't go anywhere where jeans and trainers weren't allowed.

I forgot to mention there's another new fashion drama, now on Apple+, The New Look. First three episodes available today, it's got a very star heavy cast although. I'm a bit skeptical of Maisie Williams as Catherine Dior, not who'd I'd have cast but happy to be proven wrong. I initially didn't like the sound of it as it was described to be about the rivalry between Chanel and Dior but it's much more tapped into WWII so it probably isn't as melodrama surface level as I initially thought, at least, I hope. Will report back when I've seen enough of it.

Thanks, that would be interesting bo. I read a whole article about that series and didn't realise till I got to the end that it was only on Apple

A PS on Vienna dress codes - I think the Musikverein did expect something a bit smarter than jeans and trainers, but it wasn't an issue as teenager didn't want to come anyway!

I know all these various streaming services are annoying. I am of the old school download sort but I think they usually offer a free trial so you can probable binge it when all episodes are out, I think it's eight in total.

I was in Vienna in November. In any fair world Hunters in the Snow would be over my mantel piece rather than in here. I love that painting.

Kunst Historische Museum

We really enjoyed the Albertina but not the Secession museum. The tour of the crypt in the Stefan's Dome was a hoot. It came with a ticket for the Treasury of the Knights of the Teutonic Order, which sounds scary and well , Teutonic, but it was a charming little museum (and the Knights themselves were banned by the Nazis)

Cafés - too many to mention - all good (if you like cake)

I thought Vienna was dressy ( none of that , ooh nobody dresses up in London) but we were staying at the Sacher and were at the opera house 3 nights so presumably heaving with "tourists".

Every single person we had any dealings with was impeccably polite.

Thank you, bo and flo for replying so quickly.

Oh dear Bo - ”it's a bit UK country house shooting weekend wear but everything is shiny and new and pressed to an inch of its life and the shoes are different.”

… this is precisely what I’m worried about, the Austrians I have met in the past were immaculate, both in behaviour and how they dress. “Slovenly academic” sounds about what I aim for on a good day but without the IQ so I shall just have to go full-on Margaret Rutherford and be damned (she looked like she would enjoy Viennese cakes!). I have some pristine Ludwig Reiter trainers I bought in a weak moment last year (never worn because too new etcetc…🤡) so at least I will have something right 🤞🏼.

I would very much like to know about buildings you think are worth checking out as this is my favourite thing to do, walk the streets and look at them (and also people
watch) - unfortunately not with an educated eye but more “do I like this one and if I were a squillionaire would I add it to my property portfolio?” (a bit like buying a postcard after an art exhibition: the next best thing to having the ability to actually design and/or build or make something is to be able to buy it (or at least a postcard of it).

flo - that’s a real run-through of what I need to find! Am flicking through the Internet and guide books but it’s always nicer to have the recommendations from people I “know” (even virtually).

In about 1985/6 I went to a fantastic exhibition at the Pompidou centre, it was about the century when Vienna was the top destination for everyone (arts, medicine, architecture) - I think it was called the secessionist period, ending with WW2. I found it electrifying, I’d never come across Egon Schiele before and although the images in this particular exhibition were pretty hardcore (total opposite of Klimt) I thought he was amazing. It was a complete revelation so I am very much looking forward to seeing Vienna IRL (even if it’s taken me almost 40 years to get there!)

one fly in the ointment is that my husband loathes really rich food so if there is any modern Viennese food recommendations please do share!

To bring this back to clothes:- one of the very few things I bought brand new last season is this skirt from Cos. Absolutely love the way the fringes jangle about as I walk- hoping to buy some loden so that I might be able to get it copied. Have already found a fringe making contraption!

!Cos wool wrap skirt

Not sure what happened 🤞🏼Second time lucky

castle sorry I didn’t see your post when I wrote mine. Thank you for your suggestions and yes Hunters in the Snow is beautiful, definitely worth having a look!

How so @IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle?

I've read it a few times and can't see an obvious autocucumber, unless I'm skimming over the autocucmber because I'm not anticipating it.

There's loads of excellent content on Apple+ @Floisme, it's worth the subscription.

It's an absolute ball-ache to subscribe if you're not an Apple user though. It took me much frustration and I'm exceedingly tech-savvy.

(Which is one of the reasons I'm agin iOS).

But worth the annoyance for Foundation alone.

Their content is irritatingly good.

The second poem, you quoted, The Second Coming, is by William Butler Yeats, not Keats.

Ahh, yes.

It is.

Mea culpa.

mm, how soon are you leaving? I've been meaning to try out this new software to make your own mini travel guides since most of my Google maps are starting to looking like they've got a case of the measles and I'm lacking a bit of overview and sorting power. Cataloguing Viennese buildings for you would be a good trial run but I probably won't get to it until this weekend (it looks easy enough). Restaurants, I have a couple, just need to sift them out of Google maps , despite central/eastern Europe being the land of stodge there's always been a strong reform/biodynamic movement there, some really nice elevated versions are our there, some entirely vegetarian, should I include those or is some animal protein required?

WRT clothes, don't worry too much, brace your tourist status. No offence, but even if you nailed the local look, I suspect you don't speak that odd version of German dialect that goes with it.

I didn't notice the auto correct either Galiana and I did Yeats for A Level. Or maybe it was Keats...anyway I still passed!

mm47 it'll obviously depend on where you're staying and what you do there but I can't remember feeling uncomfortable in Vienna because of my outfits. I guess people were on the whole conservatively dressed and I don't recall doing a lot of people watching, but I don't think I ever felt out of place. Realistically, unless you're staying with locals, you're going to be mostly mixing with other tourists anyway I'd have thought? So I honestly wouldn't worry. I can't remember any restaurants at all I'm afraid so I'm guessing the food we ate was neither memorably bad or good.

Food - very rich. Everywhere. Conservatively and smartly dressed. Perfect manners. Everywhere.

bo I wrote a reply and then screenshotted it as a precaution before heading out for a brief long walk - got lost - but will lose the will to live if I have to write it up all over again (because surprise surprise even in preview these draft messages get wiped).

flo we’re apparently staying at the Do & Co (“highly rated for cleanliness” according to Booking dot com, now that is indeed a selling point), I think it’s quite central. So you are right we needn’t worry too much about sticking out because we’ll be blending in with all the other tourists! suppose I’m hyperventilating because it’s part of the fun to at least tip my hat towards the local way of doing things- so long as it’s done in the right way and not like a saddo. But that requires more of an in-depth knowledge than I have so I better stick to standard city clothing.

And auto-cucumber is a delicious variant of the term - I want to adopt it immediately!

Smart with the screenshots mm, alright no need for me to rush then. My only warning with outfits now is that your black fringed wool skirt might be a bit too warm come March. It's already very mild now ATM, I suspect it'll be well into the mid teens if not higher this time next month and everyone will be in spring attire even if the weather isn't quite spring like yet.

(Side tangent, I always read Yeats as Yeast and therefore always assume he had an air of must around him...)

gosh I had no idea it would be so warm, so early, thanks for the warning bo because otherwise I think I probably would’ve taken the fringe skirt along for the ride. Back to square one!

Yeats to Yeast brings me on to Keats and to his Ode to Autumn

”… to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.”

This brings me up short every time! Plus I think there are some odd oozings in the poem as well… bleurrgh

(Hurrah for Google because of course I don’t know this by heart.)

Do & Co is right beside St Stefan's Dom. It could hardly be more central, although Vienna is a very walkable city.

Vienna was surprisingly mild in mid November.

Excellent, castle so 20k steps/day will cancel out all the cake etcetc I’m hoping to try! What operas did you go and see and did you go in black tie? (I know they take it seriously.)

Mild weather in November plus bo’s warning about it’s going to be warm in March h’mmm need to rummage through my cupboards.