Ive worn jeans with vintage channel jacket and dined at many fine restaurants. I always wear Repettos, seldom heels.

About an hour ago I received a dinner conformation for my birthday dinner at the Chantecler at the Negresco Hotel in Nice.

"A business and chic dress code is requested, the jacket is desired for men for dinner"

Stu Dudley

Stu, wow, the Negresco! I have only seen the place from the outside. Hope you describe your dinner in a TR. Enjoy!

The usual stereotype (which IMO is not all wrong) would say that the French have a certain talent to spend one minute in the morning to throw on some random clothes and it looks at if a stylist had worked an hour to achieve that "look".
A (male) friend of mine almost always wears bright RED pants (either dockers style pants or jeans) with a sports jacket topped with one of his outlandish designed handkerchieves peeking out of the breast pocket of his jacket. Everyone else on this planet would look like a total clown in this outfit, but for him it works. And when we dine at starred restaurants the waiters could not treat him with more respect.

annhig,

I think I got away with it

yes, but I didn't!

clearly irony doesn't travel.

<i><font color=#555555>"Just google some of the top restaurants in Paris. They all have photos of diners."</font></i>

That's just a tad naive for me. My favorite places don't offer such photos. And I would expect such photos to be "staged." Permission and releases are required for such things, and it's a real pain to coordinate such photo productions using actual customers.

<i><font color=#555555>"Sigh. Another thread to add to maybe 10,000 similar threads on fodors begun by bored fashionistas."</font></i>

I don't think it's the bored fashionistas who start these threads. Imagine the bandwidth Fodor's would save if every tourist had common sense and a reasonably developed sense of style.

<i><font color=#555555>""A business and chic dress code is requested, the jacket is desired for men for dinner""</font></i>

If a restaurant has a dress code these days, you'll find out about it in one way or another. Restaurant owners catering to internationals aren't dumb. They are aware of the changes in airline restrictions. They are aware of the cultural changes taking place in younger generations. I imagine most owners care about whether you can pay the bill. Beyond that, everything else is up for grabs.

<i><font color=#555555>"you can tell they're jeans just by looking at the fabric - denim"</font></i>

A pair of Secret Circus denim jeans can cost $1.3 million. Is this the customer you want to expel from your restaurant because of your outdated dress code?

The fashion world is more insane than ever, and very few on this board can tell moneyed-style from Lands' End-wannabe. Many of the "tasting" hot spots in the U.S. these days, commanding prices upwards of $300-per-person, with month long waiting lists to get in, don't much care about their customer's clothes. The atmosphere is very relaxed. The chef wants his customer to be comfortable (you're more inclined to eat and drink more). But the food and beverage is 5-star. Times are changing, and too many folks on this board are stuck in a time warp, with little common sense and very bad taste.

Recently we dined at a NYC 2 star Michelin resto and and while most were dressed to the nines there was one table of professorial looking men in tees and/or short sleeve shirts. They were treated no differently.

I thought this person was perhaps a 1st time traveler. But I see in a later post Bedar has lived in Paris. I'm sure they'll be able to figure out what to wear once they arrive.

To me it's not about what you could get away with (yes I will still be served in a fabulous restaurant even if my clothes are not so great). Rather if I was lucky enough to be dining in some fine Parisian restaurant I'd want to be dressed nicely, not still in my daytime touring-around clothes.

One very packable but more elegant looking outfit, wouldn't necessarily lose you the packing-light contest ;-)

Well, I would not put it as harshly, but it does seem that there is a wide range of people posting on this thread. I think (talking about Americans here) a woman in her 30s from San Francisco, for example, might have a very different view of what to wear at Astrance than a woman in her 60s from Knoxville. Just as a Parisian might dress differently than a resident of Clermont Feraud.

Pronoucements such as "never wear any kind or color of jeans to a fancy restaurant" (no one said exactly that, of course) seem a little dated to me, but again, a look in the mirror should tell anyone what they need to know about what to wear.

Oh Thin, I always wish we could just meet for coffee daily so I could get a different world view than offered by the lackluster by perfectly nice residents around me.

Actually, let's just meet for drinks. Since age is encroaching, I'm going for broke. I had my first Sidecar this the weekend, and I'm not going back.

I digress.

For those who have not bothered to read OP Bedar's actual comments, she
a) lived in Paris,
b) is not asking what to wear on the streets of Paris
c) has a contest going to see who is packing the lightest and
d) has a fab fashion sense, and is only asking...
e) what's up in HIGH END RESTAURANTS ONLY.

Ergo, this is not the "I'm visiting Paris from Podunk US, have not been out of a track suit since my "Dancing with the Oldies" videotape, do the French speak some English?" person.

To Bedar re shoes:
Since I am now, as my husband calls me as an endearment, "the beloved cripple", I'm pretty up there on shoe expertise since I have an on-call podiatrist who has such rapier wit that she'd be BFF with Thin in an instant.

You are absolutely right, Bedar--flats are killers! Platform shoes, as long as one does not fall off, work darn well because the rise of the heel is offset by the platform under the toe area. Flip-flops--bad! Bare feet--good. Low heel--good. "Orthopedic shoe' without toe room to spread--bad.

Although I am still trying to find a way to wear my Keen Newport H2s through the winter to spare my joints, I steadfastly love my Stuart Weitzman boots and formal dress shoes because the toe-to-heel angle is just right and I have no idea why other manufacturers can't copy their last.

I am dying to hear, Bedar, how this trip works out.
AZ

Okay, totally off topic, but for those who love shoes, this should be an eye opener about what footwear is appropriate for carnival season: http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com...feet-dunkerque

I love the spangly gaiters, kerouac.

mainly I'm just grateful you didn't photograph what they were wearing on their top halves!

Thanks, Alessandra ! I'm sure the trip will be great, a lot of fun. Will report after our month there, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Gosh, I'm from NY, spent 20 yrs in Europe, did 10 in NY, and now 20 in Lake Tahoe. I think I know how to dress. Was amused by the Nina Griscom article in the NY Social Diary in which she, a socialite, was concerned about this subject, too, esp. for her daughter who wanted to wear jeans. She didn't permit it. One has to educate the young. Just had a call from an East Coast cousin who recently dined at Daniel. No one there, at least at his seating, wore jeans. But, hey, if it floats your boat, do so and wear a hula skirt and pasties the next time.

Oh, I did indeed photograph it, annhig, but that will be the object of a completely different report.

But, hey, if it floats your boat, do so and wear a hula skirt and pasties the next time.>>

a hula skirt and PASTIES, Bedar?

last time I looked, a pasty was a food eaten in Cornwall. [and elsewhere]. I haven't seen them being worn very often.

kerouac- I'll look forward to THAT thread - though i may have to look at the pictures through my fingers.

Your daughter is in her late forties.. I wouldn't tell her what to wear. As long there is no dress code she would be violating ( inform her if there is one) I would trust my adult child to know how to dress for dinner.. is she in habit of showing up in sweat pants?? lol

Times have changed. My grandmother lived her entire life in Paris and never once wore pants.
Her last few years we brought her to Canada to live .. and my sister purchased a lovely pantsuit for her. She wore it once and never again.

She also wore her heels till she died including her last year in a nursing home.. where they asked up to get her flats ( even her slippers had kitten heels) .. her tendons were too short for flats though.

Nowadays I see ladies in nice ( not top) restaurants with dress jeans, heels and a blazer and they look very smart.

PS I ate at Les Bouquinistes a few years ago and thought it was very nice.. was going to try again.. maybe not.. but I tend to take reviews with a grain of salt.

Hey stu; We will be in Nice next year for my 80th. Do I get a dinner invite?

Annhig, your vocabulary is quite parochial. Google that word. You'll also get some pix.

Justine, I wouldn't tell anyone how to dress, certainly not my daughter who was a model in NY. This was strictly a discussion.

Very nice, Stu. I haven't been to the Negresco in many years, but I know you'll enjoy your meal and look quite dapper.

Annhig, your vocabulary is quite parochial. Google that word. You'll also get some pix.>>

google parochial, Bedar? mmm - don't need to do that.

Shame that jokes don't travel.