Les Parisiennes des Mamansnet: It's French charm, you know, beheaded people, red wine and blood all over the place - it's romantic, it's normal.

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

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It's the British / Bridget Jones meaning of 'pants' - first pic down in this article.

I don't think Burton's invented the look but I hadn't noticed it on any mainstream sites before. But maybe I've not been paying attention.

https://www.elle.com/uk/fashion/a64099455/sarah-burton-givenchy-aw-25/

Popping on to say hello. I love your shoes @Redandblue11 the heel is a great shape and your whole outfit sounds great. I like the velvet ones too, I have a very bargain basement version of red, velvet tai chi shoes but it's been too cold to wear them yet. They always get compliments!

Your jogger-chinos sound great, @Floisme . I'm currently wearing grey jogg(er)-jeans from Diesel courtesy of Vinted a year or so ago. They definitely fulfil that casual but not scruffy space in my wardrobe, except they're fleecy inside, so not summer wear.

I have some of those - I love them, as they fit very well they are a lovely mid-blue and the material is surprisingly good quality. But why can you only wear them on dry days?!

It's livelier than I thought in here, I am tentatively deciding to pop into just this thread now and then and will continue to ignore the raging dumpster fire that is the rest of the site and see how I'll get on.

Love the new shoes Red have been hankering for something similar, but I'm feeling maybe open back for spring? It's been super sunny here for weeks but still very cold, they'd be just the thing for when temps come up.

WRT Sarah Burton at Givenchy, I was initially put off by the opening looks, they appeared an odd continuation of the last designer (Matthew Williamson) that was very streetwear focused but failed to land. Burton's interpretation felt a bit like a bad love letter to the old McQ diffusion line in ways. Thankfully it got better, exquisite tailoring (which explained the awful tailoring at the new McQueen, clearly it wasn't just SB who moved over), interesting shapes, strong prominent shoulders and silhouettes. Building to some really nice references to the Givenchy archives at the end. Great shoes and bags too (she seems to be reviving some boots I already own and the bags were ruined by Clare Waight Keller and Matthew Williamson so that's two major wins in my book as I've always had a soft spot for Givenchy bags).

As a collection it felt a bit disjointed but overall the highs overshadowed the lows for me. I did appreciate that she bucked the trend and still had a diversity of models both in age, shapes, and ethnicity, and special mention for the use of a lot of flats. So, overall, encouraged by the direction and I'm glad she didn't go too mother of the bride McQueen flounces and peplums with it.

I really liked Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford but agree with criticism elsewhere that it's not very Tom Ford and just HA with a better budget. The lack of overt sexuality, which I consider a good thing, is a part of the brand DNA so probably should be there. Regardless, it was the first show in a long time that had me actively coveting a lot of things while at the same time fearing I'd be far too uncool for them (the model casting of fifty shades of Tilda Swinton didn't help in that regard). Luckily for my wallet I'm boycotting American brands where I can, so I'll stick to secondhand hunting, hopefully the prices won't shoot up.

It's full on musical chairs with designers at the moment, JW Anderson has exited Loewe, rumoured to head to Dior. I don't know what to make of that, I really don't like the current Dior, very much entwined with the most insipid of glossy social media. It would be a real shakeup with him but I still somewhat struggle to envision the marriage of his quirky gallerist takes within the princess-y priss that lies at the core of Dior. Raf Simons at Dior was a similar setup and he only lasted a year or so (great documentary about it, should probably give it a re-watch). On the other hand, there was a column by Marina Hyde the other day sort of dissecting that insipid social media bubble so entwined with the current Dior, firmly declaring it dead. So who knows, perhaps there's more rubble than I'm currently seeing and clearing out its previous incarnation is easily done.

Thanks for all the shoe love.
I tried open back ones and really wanted them … but I did not feel secure enough in them unfortunately.

I cannot keep up with the musical chairs in the designer world. I hadn’t considered a boycott, but I am not buying much new and I actually don’t buy many American brands either so by default I am not contributing to that.

I think there is definitely a change in the air from the glossy social media , or at least that is what is being fed to me 🤔

The musical chairs are bit insane at the moment, I'm struggling to keep up. Lots of free agents and emptying chairs. Demna is moving from Balenciaga to Gucci, which is another one that feels more like a business choice than a creative one and has me pulling the funny face.

I don't buy much American either mostly tech and streaming subscriptions, plus some stocks. Boycotting a few cosmetic and fashion brands is relatively easy, plus some hidden food companies with US parent companies. I'm taking it slow though, especially with the tech stuff, I can't be learning all new software for everything all at once. I do worry about the dependency on US tech and software though and I wouldn't be surprised if the current government would want to leverage it against us in a hostile way or completely ignore the privacy we're entitled to under GDPR over something especially dumb.

As much as I'm celebrating the demise of glossy social media, I'm a little concerned with what's to replace it... not that I have an idea of what is, I get the sense things are mostly moving to private group chats but no idea if that's a larger trend.

I've found myself cooling towards Marina Hyde lately - she's sometimes so focused on being clever that she seems to forget what point she was trying to make. But I think she's spot on in that article about the banking crash and the political failure to either take responsibility or hold anyone accountable. I think what's going on at the moment is just part of the aftermath, which isn't to minimise what's going on but I do feel kind of fatalistic about it.

Anyway Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford - I've read two glowing reviews (apparently Anna Wintour gave him a standing ovation) but neither article had any decent pics which seems a bit bizarre. So the only outfit I've seen is a glossy dark red leather (I assume?) trench coat which I did like. I'm very drawn to colour at the moment, whether that's because I'm craving dopamine or just bored with my usual sludgy palette, I don't know.

I have re-read the Marina Hyde article in view of your comments Flo, having only skim-read it initially, enjoying the bitchiness, and you’re right- Marina always used to be very good at making very serious points under her wit, and that article makes a good one.

Meanwhile in Paris, the Brits are being British:

I’m wearing Tesco on the Paris front row. Who will know?.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/7ebaf86c-348b-4a21-bfc3-9ead62be28c4?shareToken=422b52c54f2a9f3e681fc9930f343f2d

All this HA for Tom Ford chat made me search for a video and found this one, yes I chose this one because is just over 2 min.
I don’t have the mental capacity right now for anything more or very clever speak.

I enjoyed the video and the cuts and colours, also the brief analysis of delayed gratification and those steamed up mirrors.
Although right now I feel like I just need to be spoon fed stuff.
Hayder Ackerman

Oh supermarket brands at the front row! Thanks for the article poppy.
No doubt you can read a lot or little into it. For me personally, is the 100% polyester, I hate the mostly harsh finish of the clothes and the feel of them.
But of course makes an amusing point and article from it.

Thanks for that article and the share token Poppy, I enjoyed it although it did take me back to the early noughties when most of the posh fashion writers were bragging about their Top Shop bargains and the next thing we knew half the high street was going out of business. And poor Lucy Siegle just sounds beaten doesn't she?

It does look like supermarket fashion is having a moment - I enjoyed the Sainsbury jeans thread too. But I used to buy a lot of clothes from Tesco and Sainsbury's and what Anna Murphy isn't spelling out is that she's probably wearing them for the first time when yes, a lot of their stuff does look great. I gave up on supermarket clothes because by the third or fourth outing they'd be looking tired, and let's not even think about a machine wash. I'll wager good money that chunky navy Tesco cardigan will show signs of bobbling on the next outing (except it probably won't have a next outing - I doubt she'll wear it again)..

Also I'd have been more impressed if she'd worn head to toe supermarket but she's mixing them with some high end pieces.

Still a fun read though and I'm probably overthinking..

I tend to head over to Showstudio for runway coverage these days as they have it all neatly together, video plus full picture gallery and don't demand I make an account and then put an ad after every five photos (although video feels like the better medium for most shows these days, the neon pieces in the TF show really gave it a different dimension in video than in the pics) here's Haider Ackernann for Tom Ford on Showstudio.

Thanks for the gifted article Poppy, I do find it a bit of a setup for the inevitable conclusion that of course it's about the effort put into styling rather than money spent. But she glosses over the fact that she's that type of Anglo English that the French adore and that by pairing it with Hermes and Dior bags she's not exactly channeling Vicky Pollard sitting front row. She could have worn her nan's old clothes from the attic and it would have been the exact same article. I don't really want to poo poo over supermarket clothing but from a sustainability pov, if you can afford to do better than it feels kind of an odd choice, bar the odd gem. I assume it's more a sponsorship/collaboration thing than a deliberate, 'stop catastrophising the climate crisis, it isn't all that serious' angle that that paper can be prone to so I'll give her a pass.

WRT Marina Hyde I feel like I've just discovered her, which isn't strictly true, reading her every so often for god knows how long but by accident I started on her The Rest of Entertainment podcast with Richard Osmand. The whole entertainment news aspect of it doesn't even interest me but I find the pod itself very entertaining and distractedly light when the normal news just seems to be a compounding of awful. She does seem to be a very good observer of popular culture and pinning it to something more profound that cuts across society. She's definitely prone to a good rant though at which point she does wander off piste but I'm guilty of that myself so don't hold it against her all that much.

Speaking of podcasts, I've also recently gotten into Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud. I watch it on Youtube though as the art direction is quite nice (bordering a touch on overproduced). I hadn't anticipated her being a stellar interviewer but as the setup is a bit like therapy she actually manages to get the interviewees to open up far more than I'd anticipated.

That sounds interesting, Bo. Thanks for the recommendation. Can you imagine life in the Freud family?!

When I started working in the West End, I went a bit mad buying things from places like Mango that looked really good for the money. I soon stopped, though, when I realised that things that I did actually like a lot either didn’t last long (looking at you, gorgeous embroidered top from Massimo Dutti) or if they got a stain on them, it didn’t wash out (lovely silk cardigan from Mango), so had to be thrown out. It’s so much more satisfying to have things that you can love and wear for a long time.

I didn't realise she was actually related to the Freud, I thought those were all in the US. And then she's the daughter of Lucian. It really must have been a head trip growing up in among that. Tbh it's made me a bit disappointed with her fashion offerings, the material she could potential pull from and all that. But for all we now it was all rather lovely and not at all what we're conjuring up...

Designer musical chair news, Proenza Schouler founders to head Loewe. That rumour had been up in the air a while, although (now former) Jil Sander duo Lucie and Luke Meier were the other rumoured option. I'll be curious to see where they're headed now. I'd probable preferred to see them but I do see why they picked Proenza Schouler, similar arty vibe (not much of the quirk of JW Anderson though), so I anticipate a somewhat more accessible ready to wear in terms of wearability and they have a great track record with bags, OGs of the original IT bag era so I think it's quite a good fit. But it's another that feels like a business calculation rather than a creative one.

I think and Lucie and Luke Meier would actually be great for the now empty chaired Balenciaga. Their design approach and fastidiousness with details and materiality and silhouette really echoes the spirit of the original Cristobel Balenciaga brand. But I don't think they're looking for much change there, so I'm expecting some sort of continuity replacement or another designer that comes with a more viable ready made audience that will buy whatever is on offer.

My sister in law’s parents were friends with the third brother, Stephen, (not Lucian, not Clement), who Wikipedia describes as an ’ironmonger’. I met him a couple of times, with his daughter who looked just like Esther & Bella Freud. It’s enjoyable reading Hideous Kinky:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideous_Kinky

I have just downloaded a couple of the podcasts Fashion Neurosis.
looking forward to listening to them, wondering if is worth watching and not only listening? I normally listen to podcasts on the train and generally just prefer to listen and not watch stuff there.

I've not read Hideous Kinky but I saw the film without realising until afterwards that the two children represented Esther and Bella Freud. I've read interviews where Bella (and I hope I'm remembering correctly) talked about how her upbringing left her with a need for structure and how she loved her school uniform.

I've just been suckered into buying Vogue again. It's partly the gloss and the perfumed pages that do it, plus this time the cover says it's 'The ultimate vintage issue'. I bet I don't get more than half an hour out of it.

Is a Freud the UK equivalent of six degrees of Kevin Bacon? They do seem to be a very varied lot. Surprised there hasn't been some sort of dramatised mini series yet.

I do enjoy watching them Red but I'm usually doing something else at the same time too so it's not like it offers full attention visuals iykwim. Probably worth watching one, maybe? Just to have an idea of the visual format, depends a bit on the guest as well. I feel the whole psychoanalysis setup does mean the guests can be a bit languorous in their speech, maybe that would annoy me in an audio only version.

Structure and uniform in response to chaos does make sense, Flo, I'll ease off on the criticism of her fashion oeuvre accordingly. Never read or watched Hideous Kinky, will have to take a look. Wikipedia tells me he acknowledged 14 children, which means there could be even more? As mentioned above I'm mostly familiar with the Freuds who moved to the US and pioneered a lot of advertising and social manipulation through media, featured heavily in one of the Adam Curtis docs. I want to say Century of Self? I could probably do a revisit of that.

I now have the perfect excuse to watch some of those podcasts while I nurse a cold/flu thing in bed.

and Flo? Did you get more than half an hour from vogue?

I might try to explore that documentary that Bo mentions too…

This ad keeps coming up and I think, where is Bani when you need her? Some basics Ninepine, apparently from Stockholm. Wondering if they are any good, specially the trousers. I wonder if our Swedish rep has come across them.

Get well Red. I could use the comfort of a nice magazine too but I feel those days are lost and any attempt is just another reminder of a long lost era. I found Hideous Kinky is available to watch on archive.org though, didn't know they had video, so I'll give that a watch this weekend. (Although am assuming that's not a nice and comforting watch).

I'm a bit at a loss about this Guardian article. For one it presupposes the latest runway looks are in direct reaction to the current political climate, which would mean they all have time machines 🤔and then the claim it's not political. Something doesn't add up there, and it's leaving me conflicted as I am always up for a strong silhouette but I don't want to be associated with this at all. I suppose there could be an old world, high threshold, elitist counter aesthetic, Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford did have a lot of that air. But then at the inauguration the wives of and other hanger ons of the new administration were all doing a rather poor cosplay of British Royals (but in case we didn't get the memo previously, Meghan Markle is the thread killer of quiet luxury). I'll see how things develop but I think this article is tapping more into flighty Tik Tok trends than actual larger fashion currents.

I am enjoying Fashion Neurosis, thanks Bo for that recommendation. The right level of interviewing that grabs my attention.

yes I am not sure either about that article, probably like you say more tik tok trends… I hope anyway, as some of the stuff they mention is very much my style (with a twist if you like), eg some of that tropical prints you see in white lotus, I have been into that, specially for holidays for ages. Or specially tailored jackets, or silk shirts.
anyhow I will watch the space

That Guardian piece read for me like a writer with an agenda in search of an article to fit it. As bo says, the time line isn't even right. If you like the clothes, I wouldn't pay it any attention whatsoever.

Vogue was OK: short but enjoyable contribution from Penelope Tree on second hand shopping in the 1960s, and interviews with Mary Berry (wearing Valentino) and David Hockney (who sounds like he's in fragile health). But I'm afraid the vintage photo shoot - a group of well connected young people wearing their parents' designer cast-offs - had me rolling my eyes. I don't blame the young people in the slightest and, in their shoes, I'd have done exactly the same, but giving them 18 pages, like they're style pioneers when they might (presumably) have done a shoot with Penelope Tree instead is just

I persevere with Vogue in part because I like Chioma Nnadi - when she writes about haunting the charity shops and hanging around outside St Martins as a teenager to watch the students, I really warm to her. But, with a job title like 'Head of editorial content', she clearly doesn't have full control and it shows.

Yeah, I take the point on wear the clothes if you like them but I do fear with the political climate as it is, that in reaction, identity is going to shift to a lot of other aspects of life and go into overdrive. Far more than previously, even I'm participating in it with my boycott of American owned brands (though I did put in an order for this The Row dress but through a secondhand loophole). I think the feelers in that article are right but the extrapolation and conclusions drawn from them are not.

Ah sounds like Vogue still has an undying love for 'children of', it smacks more of laziness to look beyond one's own bubble than anything else these days. Did The Gentlewoman magazine not get recently launched for spring (they're biannual iirc)? I need to go and see it in store, might be worth the purchase.

I haven't really been paying attention to clothing in the White Lotus. Even though they do have an interesting wardrobe department, but it feels more like an added rich layer than a standout star as it can be in some shows.

I also note the Guardian has ceased the Meghan is a terrible style icon barrage for a What to wear to get the Montecito look (on a budget) feature. Will confess to liking the look of the raffia M+S bag but currently am eyeing one from Ines Bressand that needs to be restocked already.

I am probably one of those people who can only admire The Row, I bet a dress like that would do nothing for me.
I can see suiting you well Bo.
As I am now hooked in Fashion Neurosis, I think Bella mentions there to Rick Owens that the brand does nothing for her, Rick seemed very taken by The Row though.
I loved the shop when I went there with you that time.

Yes, I agree. The white lotus wardrobe is not the star at all. Some of the female swimming costumes and mix matches of prints are mainly my observation, but is true is very much there to be part of the scenery.

yawns … what to wear to get the montecito look. So uninspiring.

Talking about bargains, well it wasn’t a super bargain but I got a good discount. I got the Clyde trench from sezane, from a seller that bought it, and never used it. I wanted a roomy trench, and the sezane for me is a safe bet in terms of the fit.

Yes it looks as if The Gentlewoman is out and the lineup includes, guess who....Bella Freud! And also Claire Keegan who's possibly my favourite writer at the moment. Going to order it - you recommended it to me years ago bo, it's high time I gave it a shot.

I can't see your Row dress I'm afraid as Nordstrom (I think?) blocked me from their website as it said it didn't recognise me as a customer, which is correct but ermm, is this a new thing?

Nice coat Red, have you worn the Vivienne Westwood yet?

I'm a bit short of news of my own as you can probably tell but I'm still following.