Paris Street Fashion - Fall 2009

The fashionistas have come and gone. Anna Wintour is no longer here 'doing lunch' at Le Voltaire. That leaves us normal street urchins to fend for ourselves. Not a snakeskin trenchcoat to be seen for miles.

What really tickles me is the way fashion magazines try to impose a trouser style or shape for the season. - For the past few seasons, I've been reading about how jeans were supposed to be taking a relaxed form (you may remember that from some of my posts last Fall on Parislogue) but street fashion follows the mood of the moment - and the mood is ANYTHING but relaxed.

I may be in Paris in 2009, but it could just as well be New York in the mid-eighties because the look is all about leggings, slim jeans and boots. Of course the boots have been here for aeons (as well as the indefatigable faux leopard skins) but the super tight jeans (called 'slims') are really slim. Which means for us borderline Size 38s, forget about 'slims'. Trust me. You don't want to go there. Get yourself quickly off to Camaieu where you'll find a pair of perfectly acceptable stovepipe jeans for a more than acceptable price.

But the look that REALLY brings back the eighties are mini dresses served up with opaque leggings. This look was really big in NYC around 1984-85, a particularly cold winter for NY - it snowed abundantly. So if you plan on bringing out leggings for your visit to Paris, be sure to look for that fur-lined mini-skirt to accompany the leggings!

P.S. Note the lack of street fashion photos. I've been refraining this season from stopping strangers on the street to take their photo for a blog. Such an invasion of privacy. But if you're a Parisian that LIKES to have your photo taken, than I would be more than happy take a photo for future posts.