This is what I see on the street, now that the locals have returned:
1. Red pants. For men, women, and children. Not always blue-jean material, but always blue-jean cut. Paired with anything from a button-down shirt and blazer to a t-shirt. (Confirmation, perhaps of what Rosecrans Baldwin says in Paris I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down: that in Paris Frenchmen dress the way gay men do in America.)
2. Scarves. The ends thrown over your shoulders like windswept hair, wrapped around your neck like a muffler, or hanging loose. Almost a requirement for women, but men and some children wear them, too. A $10 blue cotton foulard is the one item I’ve bought so far, and it’s worked so well to disguise me as a native that I’ve had people ask me for directions in French. It’s also one-size-fits-all, which will come in handy, given my new Camembert-with-every-meal habit.
3. Skinny jeans. For men, women, and children. In all colors, many of them bright.
4. Pointy leather shoes for men. Converse sneakers in all colors for boys and girls. (But never clunky running shoes. Only “les baskets.”) Ballet flats with no socks for girls and women. Short, sleek boots if it’s too cold to go sockless. Heels, high and low, even with (or especially with) jeans, for women and older girls.
5. Button-up dress shirts and jackets without a tie for men.
6. Flowered underwear. Even for men (including in the e-mail I just received from my supermarket). In Charlottesville, my supermarket didn’t send me e-mails with lingerie promotions, but in Paris, underwear is everywhere.
7. Speedos and other racing swimsuits. Men and boys are not allowed in pools with baggy suits.
8. Tailored everything. All the peasant skirts and flouncy dresses my nine-year-old daughter packed were charming in Charlottesville but seem rather frumpy here. So she bought three pairs of skinny jeans, her first ever.
9. Tailored shorts with stockings. For twenty-somethings.
10. For older-than-twenty-somethings (like me): Dark skinny jeans; a short, boxy, tailored suit-type jacket; and impeccable shoes. You can substitute a jean jacket, if you have a beautiful scarf. Studied casual is the look. The desired effect is elegant but not too formal or fussy.
11. Even elderly women wear jeans, though not skinny jeans. They may wear loafers instead of ballet flats or heels.
Maybe I’ll buy something today. Or maybe I’ll wait, so I can get even-more-skinny jeans. Because, paradoxically, I’m losing weight, even though for a month I didn’t go to the gym and ate butter and cheese with every meal.
It’s the French paradox, right? Is it something in the air? The red wine? The walking? The frisson of sex everywhere you look? I say it’s all the lingerie ads. You can fill in the rest.
Congratulations on being mistaken for a local, you have arrived!. And thanks for the fashion update. I think I can manage the skinny legs but not the skinny waistline, but perhaps not in red! So girl do wear pants in France; you didnt say if Ella bought any red ones. And she has the figure for skinny jeans; my bet is on all that walking for losing weight, and the incentive of the flowered underwear at the supermarket, and all that it suggests! Tricia
Thanks, Tricia, for your reply. No red pants yet for Ella. Her skinny pants are dark blue, black, and tan. Here’s one fashion item I forgot to mention: brightly colored shoe laces in sober leather shoes. An economist friend of James’s has red laces in his elegant black pointed leather shoes. If this is what economics professors are wearing, then you know it’s gone mainstream. James says he is going to get bright neon laces.
If Jim starts wearing neon laces, I want a picture! I told my book group friends about your fashion report and they were much amused. And the oldest of the group, 80’s, had blue laces in her heavy duty gym shoes. Another, who has been traveling in the US this sumner said she had seen a lot of bright pants on people. They also had a good laugh about the hotdog man. Tricia
I will send pictures, once he gets them. Ella got new Converse basketball sneakers (“les baskets”) and she’s wearing them with sparkly silver laces. She wants to buy different colored laces to match whatever outfit she’s wearing. I told her she can save up her allowance.
Finally a day off when I can read your entire blog! This is my favorite entry so far, of course, because of my obsession with style. I want some skinny red jeans! and I want to see Ella in her skinny jeans too. Please send pictures, and more updates about Paris winter fashion!!