kerouac

In my neverending effort to reassure people every year that they can wear their ordinary apparel from home when visiting Paris and that absolutely nobody will care, I have made another photo report on what people are wearing on the streets of Paris.

This is not to encourage people to dress like slobs but just to try to convince some of you once and for all that you do not have to dress up when walking around, visiting museums, or going about your daily business.

If you want to dress up more in the evening to go to a nice restaurant or whatever, that's fine, too, but at least be comfortable during the day.

These pictures were taken two weeks ago when the weather was reasonably warm -- definitely not hot, but not the miserable cold that we have been experiencing for the past week. Will summer never arrive this year?

These are not photos of tourists, because my neighborhood gets very few. These are working class Parisians.

Here are the pictures: http://tinyurl.com/396m7s9

bdjtbenson

If I didn't know better, I would think they were regular people.

MikeT

These photos really support the various positions of people on this topic. When I look at these pics, I notice:

- very few shorts, especially on people over 25

- the older the person, the less sloppy the clothes

- very few jeans on people older than 25

- lots of dresses

- no fannypacks.

danon

Thanks for posting.
"These are working class Parisians."


Could you sometime post pics. of "ladies who lunch' or other elegant Parisians I keep seeing around 16th, 6 and 7th and part of the 8th. any time of the day.

MikeT

Danon makes an interesting point. Since you live in an immigrant-heavy, "working class" neighborhood, they don't reflect how people dress in the areas where tourists DO go when they are in Paris.

kerouac

I would love to, but it's a lot harder for me to snap pictures of those people. At least at home I have my window overlooking the intersection!

kerouac

Yes, but in the tourist neighborhoods (Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Champs Elysées, Louvre), the majority of the people are tourists to begin with. And a lot of the rest of us are dressed for working in offices (I work on avenue George V, which is a different world, but I spend more time in Paris dressed for my neighborhood than dressed for avenue George V.).

I made a report on looking like a tourist in Paris last year:http://tinyurl.com/2e2cf7w

Surfergirl

I see purses crossing the body are still popular, and capris (formerly known as pedal pushers) are out in force. As are sandals, shoes with no socks, and late 60's/early '70's hippie stuff, which seem to be the norm.

Great cross section, as usual, Kerouac!

sap

Thanks, kerouac. Always interesting.

analogue

I'm wondering which people were identified as the immigrants. And also what is the meaning of "immigrant-heavy" - it doesn't sound very nice.

craisin

Thanks, kerouac.

I lived in Paris for a few months almost four years ago and was flattered when tourists and Frenchies alike would ask me for directions as if I were a local. I have a point. The point is, unless you will be hitting up all the fancy places and attending fashion shows and stuff, the dos and don'ts of fashion in the U.S. are the same everywhere else.

The only thing I had to adjust to coming from Southern California was not wearing flipflops. I compromised and wore nice sandals instead. Since then, I actually no longer wear flipflops outside of my house or the beach.

scatcat

Thanks kerouac, I always love your pictures. For all you women who want to know what to wear, the answer is anything goes. From jeans to leggings(younger crowd), dresses, slacks, just do it.

craisin

I also wanted to add that for the more fashion-conscious crowd, on the other "what to wear in Paris" thread, someone posted a link to the following blog: http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

This one is also of the same high level of fashion: http://www.garancedore.fr/en/

danon

"Yes, but in the tourist neighborhoods (Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Champs Elysées, Louvre), the majority of the people are tourists to begin with'"

Surely not all Parisians live in the North- East.
A French lawyer I met, who lives in Neuilly sur Seine, told me how she likes going to 6th and 7th on Saturdays - to shop and enjoy " her beautiful city".

BTW, she did not wear capris.

MikeT

Analogue, Kerouac has said he lives in the 18th arrondissement
which contains a large African immigrant community--Goutte d'Or--which you can see from the large number of traditionally African clothes you see in his pictures.

Fashionista

I wish I could cure you all of talking about fannypacks!!

kerouac

However, most of those black people are Parisians. I do not live in the Goutte d'Or, but in La Chapelle which has a large community from the Antilles as well (and totally French for hundreds of years). Quite a few of the "immigrants" are actually of European extraction in my neighborhood, because it is attracting lots of Poles and Russians, who may not have the natural elegance of born and bred Parisians.

MikeT

No need to take offense where none was meant. I live in an immigrant neighborhood in Washington, D.C. and I'm very familiar with Goutte d'Or. It's not a sleight. I'm merely pointing out that the the number of people in traditional African or Carribean clothes (as well as a good smattering of South Asians and Muslims) may be atypical for Paris, or at least non-suburban Paris.

sicilyan

,,kerouac,, Where did you take these pictures ? Johannesburg, South Africa at the world cup ?. or were these pictures taken in Paris ?...LOL !!!

Fashionista

Id say that is a typical cross section of the population in any European city these days.

Its hard to see from the pictures but in the UK Id expect to see a higher percentage from Asia (all regions) and a few more headscarf's. Other than that, everyday street life.