More From Paris – What They Wore, What Was in the Store Windows, Some Random Street Art!

December 23, 2024

Good morning my friends! I’m feel much more myself, after I slept 12 hours on Thursday night…

What else did I see in Paris? (do you have A MONTH?) It was subdued, more than I can ever remember seeing in December – and remember, before the pandemic, I used to go do Paris every December, so I have some frame of reference.

Maybe the most strikingly uniform thing I noticed was that probably 2/3 of the store windows were featuring party attire that was black with silver – and occasionally – gold accents. Lots of sequins or metallic threads woven in… Things like this:

It’s difficult to see in my photographs, but you’d fit right into the Paris party environment if you had a silver sequined jacket, or dress, or pretty much anything sparkly! The bottom photo was taken in BHV – the big department store just across the street from the Paris city hall. It was described as a “party capsule wardrobe” – yes, in English.

The majority of Parisian women that I saw in my neighborhood were wearing variations of four outfits. One I’m not sharing – black tights, the world’s shortest shorts (seriously, body floss…), and a jacket just long enough to leave everyone wondering if she was even WEARING shorts… Best left to someone else, I say!

But tons of jeans and sneakers, with tons of quilted coats. Most coats were black, but a close second was shades of white, ivory, bone or oatmeal.

And red scarves! Maybe a holiday season thing, but it was noticeable:

Women in Paris are more likely to wear a wool coat that women in Chicago – by a long stretch! I saw lots of sweatpants – I mean LOTS. And UGG boots. And knit hats – many red ones, but also pink, and pretty light blue…

In fact, the second most frequent accent color that I saw was pink. Many pink scarves. But if you wore this every day, nobody would bat an eyelash:

Every time I was in a grocery store or bodega (which was surprisingly often – almost every day; I drank liters of orange juice!), I never saw anybody local take a plastic shopping bag. Never. I saw people with them on the street – maybe 20% of the people? Canvas is where it’s at!

Speaking of wool coats, I saw tons of tweed. Much more than I EVER see in Chicago or New York! And if our heroine wasn’t wearing a bright red scarf, she was wearing burgundy, brick, or rust. Or pink, of course.

Lots of black pants, and black boots. I saw literally only a handful of really wide pants, and they were on very young people. And I saw almost no “ankle pants” which I think of as cold ankle pants… Pants covered socks, with few exceptions. Maybe it was my neighborhood, but trends weren’t a big deal…

Favorite store window – Kanelle Vintage. (English language website!)

I share this with no context except a love of pretty things:

But this is an opportune time to share that I saw a LOT of vintage stores, straight up second-hand stores, and consignments shops. Probably ten times as many as I’ve ever seen in Paris before. It’s clearly a thing…

The winner for best facade and windows – Samaritaine:

Inside, there’s a small gift shop (which was excellent fun!), and the rest of the retail space is the same luxury shops you find everywhere. I didn’t go up onto the roof because the security guy assured me that it was so cloudy that there was no view.

One of my favorite pieces of street art:

And other creative things hanging on exterior walls; the bottom image is of Louis XIV – the Sun King. The cross street here from the Rue de Turenne is Rue de Roi Dore – street of the gold king…

Best store facade – might be Hema, which is a Scandinavian store that sells little things – it’s hard to describe! But this time of year it’s chock full of holiday decorations and stocking stuffers… They had a pretty garland around their store sign, and the building facade was lovely enough to make it perfect.

And that weird thing to the right of the doorway, beside the street sign? It’s a water fountain – for filling bottles…

Street art that made me (literally) jump up and down with excitement? Two installations from Shepard Fairey:

You know him from at least two things – the original Barack Obama “Hope” posters, and the scarf that he designed for Echo, and that we looked at last December. I was wearing that scarf when I found both of these – it was absurdly exciting! But it all felt very much like I was the right place at the right time.

Other art that I saw everyday, because it was literally at the corner of the Rue de Turenne and the Rue de Jarente, where my hotel was located:

Speaking of my hotel (Hotel Jeanne d’Arc le Marais), I slept like the night of the dead here:

So, until your Christmas Gift Present on Wednesday, I leave you with two thoughts from Paris. The first is a lovely inclusive statement from a brand with which I was completely unfamiliar – LR3. Their landing page is more philosophy like this…

I posted this image on Instagram, but I don’t want anyone to miss this:

And my wish for your winter holiday season is that you get to sit close with a friend and sip some coffee (or hot chocolate, or tea!):

much love,

Janice

p.s. Ten years ago, I showed a couple of ways to wear a “citrus bright” winter coat. Still appropriate…