My sister will be traveling in July to Paris for a week together. We were wanting to devote about 1 and 1/2 days to shopping and browsing Parisian shops. I've been hearing from many friends and the many family members of mine who live in Lyon that many Parisians (Europeans in general) wear scarves and pashminas quite a lot. Where can you buy or find good quality, nice fake pashmina scarves in Paris for an inexpensive price? Also, where can you purchase sophisticated and stylish inexpensive handbags which are very European/Parisian? Is there anything else pretty inexpensive you recommend us purchasing while were there, and where you found the item? This will be our 10th trip to France, but usually we visit Lyon and that area, and only our second 'real' trip to Paris.

Shannon,

You will find the Pashmina scarves wherever there are street vendors...to buy a "good quality", look for the highest cashmere percentage you can find...usually anything around and above 70% cashmere, 30% silk is fine...once it gets much lower than that, the scarves look great when you buy them, but worn once, they wrinkle really badly and the wrinkles DON'T fall out as they do on the better ones..

My daughter and I bought many scarves and pashmina wraps in a shop just outside of Place du Ter in Montmarte. I think they were about $5 a piece. We bought lots of small prints for souvenirs also - they ran about $2 a piece. You will find little shops in many neighborhoods. I remember there were lots of shops by Jardin du Luxembourg - around the Latin Quarter. Many of those had purses, umbrellas, women's clothes.

Great advice Traviata, I will certainly keep that in mind on my trip! What are the prices for high quality, soft fake pashminas? Is there any specific street or endorsement in Paris where they are sold by vendors or shops?

Thank you very much for your useful post Kbrennan! I posted probably just a moment after you did, and you gave me a wonderful idea about where these beautiful scarves can be found and bought!

I looked at all the supposed pashima scarves - forget it unless you just want a scarf. Go to a top quality store, look, feel the texture, it is not the same. But however some of those scarves with designs and stripes are very attractive and you can't go wrong for the 5€. You can find some nice canvas totes for a few dollars.

The "pashmina" stoles they sell at Paris street markets or souvenir shops are just like the ones you find at about every street corner in all major cities in Europe and US. They aren't pashminas, they are rayon. YOu can't get a real pashmina stole for 5 euro. I was in NY a few months ago and they were selling them at street corners there for about US$10, and other scarves falsely labeled cashmere, but they were not real, they were rayon or acrylic.

I bought a pashmina from the vendor outside Galeries Lafayette for 10€. It may not be real cashmere but I love it nonetheless and it has a wonderful feel to it.

Shannon: I do not know where in Paris you can buy these scarves. One thing I do know is that the labels on these scarves are not to be believed. The label may say "90% cashmere; 10% silk," or any other combination of the materials but these labels are no indication of the fabric that the item is actually made from. It is impossible to buy a new cashmere scarf, for example, for 5 or 10 Euro; there is not likely to be any cashmere in the scarves sold on the street anywhere in Europe or in North America. Nor is the item likely to have been made in Paris, or in Italy, although the label may say so. Just check out the quality in nice shops first and then do your street shopping. Personally I think pashmina has been "over" for a long time.

Oh, silk scarves may be purchased outside Printemps for 15€ (100%soie/silk).

SFowler swears by the silk scarves from the Opera Metro.

HI..
There is a Fab Handbag store on Saint Honore near the Louvre that sells gorgeous Frederic T Handbags for around 100 Euro and they are very French and beautiful!
Have fun..

Beatchick - Are the silk scarves outside Printemps just silk scarves or silk pashmina scarves?

ekscrunchy, they have always been in style but not by that name. What makes a true one expensive is because it's made from the fleece of a rare Himilayon goat under its neck and belly and is extremely soft whether blended with silk. You can slide one through a ring.
Loro Piano is one of the top labels you can look at one in NM or maybe Saks, or Barneys. They go for a 3 figure price and up.

sorry not pashima it's the shahtoosh which is now illegal. Mine is very old.

http://pashminastores.com/faq.htm
this explains better than I.

Thanks, Cigale. I know about shahtoosh but the original poster was asking where to buy a cheap "pashmina' in Paris and I was trying to say that the ones sold on the street are not pashmina, nor are they cashmere, notwithstanding what the labels say. I think it is wonderful that you have an old shahtoosh; they used to sell them in India and Nepal under the name "ring shawls; probably still do." I love Loro Piana; they have a store here in NYC and also run sample sales once a year in another location here. Their things are very classic and of amazing quality; I believe they have their own mills in Italy. But none of this has any bearing on my own personal opinion that the fake "pashmina" scarves sold on the streets in many cities have long passed from fashion. I would rather have a good wool scarf even if it is 20 years old, than one of those synthetic ones hawked on the streets. I am afraid I got a bit off the topic here, and I apologize, as I still have NO idea where to buy them in Paris, although there were piles and piles of them on sale for $5.00 today on Lexington Avenue! Some of them are labeled "cashmink"! They looked pretty cheesy, though.

ekscrunchy, where and when is the Loro Piana sample sale?

the fakes were all over and on the rue de rivoli. I agree with you Ekscrunchy, the only reason, I joined in this is because I don't want someone to buy one and give it as a gift saying it's a pashima, rather than a scarf.
mimi, a scarf lover

Thanks everyone for your wonderful posts, and please keep them coming!

Quick question - are the pashminas in paris primarily sold in one or a few basic colors, or do they come in every shade of the rainbow? Just curious.