SPECIAL REPORT: live trends from Paris 🥖🇫🇷🚬
Bonjour! And a few cutie things I noticed while in the French capitol for a few days.
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This is a very special dispatch, as I was in Paris for Matter and Shape and noticed over the days that the trends were trending. Thus, some thoughts and general reflections to share that I thought you might want to know, as these are examples of items of international relevance as expressed through the local.
First, some context: I love Paris. I don’t think it’s the best city in the world, but it’s very high on the list. Easily a top contender! Every time I visit, I’m reminded that people are in Paris to do shit. Like Los Angeles, like New York, like London: people are there creating wild and unexpected creations, having a good time, mixing cultures and mixing minds, living up to the idea of a city being a place to melt together in the most fabulous of ways. Everyone is interesting and no one stares at you “for being you.” Don’t change in that way, Pair-É! Is the city literally a little messy? Yeah, yeah, it is. Is the weather kind of shitty? Duh. Can it be a challenge if you don’t speak French? Obviously. Does everything have very rich cheese? You know it. But is there exceptional shopping, exceptional taste, and an exceptionally beautiful place? DUH. Do you know how many fragrances I smelled? Do you know how many teas I drank? Do you know how many weird wine touched my lips? It's very much a spiritual home for me, as it’s a city of Tauruses. This is all to say: this post is love-biased, but also largely based in critique.
Now! Let’s start with the fashion.
Demnacore. I regret to inform you that everyone is wearing black. It’s boring! I don’t like it! This is a very cold weather thing via city people thing (a la: it happens everywhere, every winter), but this current expression of all-black-everything is so uninteresting. When we talk about a lack of color in the world, we’re talking about this. There is a smoking gun though: Demna. Yeah, yeah, blah blah Kardashian blah blah Kanye blah blah: I get it. But what’s missing as the rest of the world is, say, wearing chunky-ugly sneakers is that the city is gripped with hunched over Demna wannabes in floor-length coats and silver-studded boots that look more like hoofs. See this TikTok for an aesthetic reference. It’s not necessarily uninteresting but it definitely is an expression of how some styles make people redundant. It felt like a massive example of the Devil Wears Prada cerulean sweater scene — and that this is going to trickle down to some strange neo-goths in silly places, dressing in heavy nü-goth aesthetics despite climate change taking a hair dryer to their necks. There are variations within this — my friend who lives in Paris said he subscribed more to the alt-accessible alternative gorpcore, thanks to the use of activewear and tech textiles — but the results are all a bit mid. Don’t believe the fashion week street style photography: everyone looks like The Undertaker and that’s not very interesting.
Dark Demnacore. A sub item to the above? The re-rise of Vetements. I mean this less in the sense of the press cycle of feuding brothers and runway theatrics and more that that there seems to be an assumedly affordable raincoat that is all black, floor length, and says in white, boring whack ass Arial font VETEMENTS across the shoulders. It’s like a trashbag poncho dreamt of being a skirt liner to a dress instead of a trashcan. I don’t love it, but I saw them many, many times despite it being technically from 2016.
Work pants. Another thing: neo-workwear. You know those chore coats every dude was wearing in the 2010s? They’re over. I’m not saying they’re out of style or unfashionable (They really very much are classic!) but as a European style they make you standout as a non-European since these are the clothes of literally the people who clean the stoops of buildings and work as property managers. (For the American mind, this is like you wearing a janitor jumpsuit and calling it a serve. Which it can be! But that context is easily forgotten, despite the hard work Bill Cunningham did to appropriate them.) What is emerging from the same space are a new workwear pants that are worn by more technical workers, like street cleaners and electricians. I’ve seen this in Spain and France and the UK but they’re a colorful pair of pant (Ironically!) that typically are fitted cargos that tell a color story, like navy and baby blue or red and gold or dark green and neon green. The accent color is for the pockets and select darting, which probably has a utilitarian purpose lost on young people who are buying these at thrift stores. This and this and this are examples: get ready for these to have a breakout moment this decade!
Broke hats. One that I don’t like: brimless hats like this. I saw so many. They are so Kid Brother In A 1990s Movie About Baseball™ and have me looking for a brim every time. Some people can turn a look with this (The dressed up server with a vest and tie plus this hat? Yes.) while others look like they’re frump-a-dump adult babies (The man wearing joggers and a hoodie? FRUMP.). These are undoubtedly a common something, certainly reviled by the Demnacore persons. Every straight man in US cities this summer will be wearing them, unless they already are (or this is a European gesture that is an echo of America: you tell me).
etc. Also of note that I saw and noticed were: Paraboots!!! These bitches are everywhere!!! I love them!!! But I saw them a lot a lot, which was reinforced by recently seeing them in both Madrid and London. Boys…get you some neo-nun shoes!; cardigan jackets were also a “cool” thing I kept seeing, which seems to be an echo of the army liner, as seen on both genders, now branching into patterns and interesting textures, both in the high and low; Courreges, which I thought was new but, after visiting MAD, I realized this is actually a heritage French brand that is getting some new life. The ads and looks were everywhere! They weren’t bad, but something between the Demnacore and Sandro.
Onto some conversations that I kept hearing or witnessing or participating in!
The lost winter. It apparently has been cold in North America this winter. But for Europe? Oh, we have been in spring and it sucks. It’s less that the weather isn’t “good” but that something is being mourned, that looping fall weather into spring weather means that a fundamental failure has occurred. It rained for the whole of our visit, which certainly is helping France with the drought allegations — but just south, in the Mediterranean? Cities are about to literally be run dry without infrastructures to rescue them. It’s scary, and an echo of what is happening literally worldwide. This conversation happened again and again, to only one person I know mentioning what we’re thinking in specifics: our climates are gone. The climates have shifted. We no longer live in the places that we once lived in or were promised to live in, as the tropics seem to be leaking upward and downward, rewriting what places mean. Are we ready for this? Very doubtful — and very doubtful we will create meaningful change to avert this from happening further.
Fast fascism. I overheard a conversation at Matter and Shape between a German creative and someone who I couldn’t pinpoint a country of origin for. The German was speaking about how the country is quickly sliding toward fascism, that there was a feeling of free fall. Pair this with a conversation had with a few different parties about the US and all the myriad problems we have, which isn’t to also say that these problems aren’t also happening in Italy and Israel and many other places too. Fascism is unfortunately trendy! What are we doing to stop this? It most definitely goes hand-in-hand with the climate change item.
Colonizers as bad parents. This was something mostly on my mind, as a city like Paris is so much more diverse than literally anywhere in, uhh, Spain. I found myself wondering something that I’ve been wondering about the states: these countries — the US, UK, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, etc. — spent so many years colonizing and “spreading” their beliefs, in the name of manifest destinies and greed. Now, as immigration brings the reverse, the roosters are coming home to roost: people from countries touched by colonization are going to the source, to live in the place where the language and governments and armies that formed their homes. This is less to get “back” at anyone but more to go where one can apply learned languages, access easier government entries, and generally live a life that is the evolution of the story of where they came from (a la, X country was taken over by Y country — so the children of X country move to Y country for a better life). It also gets at these countries leading culture and taking pride in being “the best” only to be surprised that people want to immigrate there, that they want a piece of the pie. This obvious shakes the foundation of who a country thinks it is, as a “Do as I say not as I do.” vibe comes with colonizers and colonization. It’s like these countries (US, France, Spain, etc.) are really awful parents, who torture their children only to reject them when they attempt to play by the rules that were setup. I am sure there has been a lot said and written about this and that someone has some very intelligent, geo-politically relevant assessment of this but this is what came to mind for me, someone who identifies stories and isn’t a historian.
Love culture. Let me tell you: people in Paris love to get their fuck on in public. Not literally, but the city of love is called that because people will get a table at a nice restaurant and play pocket pool all night. It’s wild! The last time I visited was in 2022 and found it quite interesting that, at many a nice restaurants, there were extreme age gap couples, who were less “couples” and more transactional, someone-hired-someone-for-the-night relationships. This visit was no different, as we sat through what felt like a live version of Lolita as a man in his late forties to fifties was feeling and kissing on his lady friend of maybe late teen or early twenties — who looked like him and who seemed to be his daughter. It was quite creepy! Not that this doesn’t happen in literally every city in every place in the world, but what is surprising to me is PDA in relationships that are already so disorienting happening so boldly in public. I assume this is just older (white, hetero) male antics at work! Paris, you are wild for this.
Now for Matter and Shape, which I will keep more to a lightning round paired with the collages throughout this story.
Soft woods. Light blonde, almost white woods for any wood trimming. Darker woods are not in right now. Light is right at this moment! Is this Scandinavian vibes returning?
Melted plastics. A few different crafts persons and furniture designers are using melted plastics as a material that seems to suggest a taking back of what is killing the world as far as micro-plastics and the like. This isn’t entirely novel and hasn’t found it’s best form yet but we’re stumbling toward a gesture.
Power pastels. Or pastels with attitude. This was something I saw everywhere, both in and out of the festival. These aren’t pastels but aren’t not pastels, a la soft colors that have a bit of force to them, tilting toward the vibrant but not entirely a “true” expression of the color. They’re mostly used as accents! They also include “hot” khaki, which are khaki colors that skew to pink.
Silver surfers. I only saw silver — Chrome, specifically! — as the metallic gesture of the moment. No brass, no gold, just hot silvers or brushed silvers that suggest the industrial and robotic has transcended into the sublime. Related but very different are polished metallic furniture, which isn’t new at all (and very 2010s). This is all to say: people love polished technology. This is as much of a statement of refined taste as it is a calling out of premature technologies like AI. Give me refined tech or give me nothing!
Droopy flowers. Flowers needn’t be rigid or full anymore. Instead, display a series of drooping lilies or a handful of awkward, hunched over tulips. No one wants a full bouquet! Just grab some dangly ranunculus and call it a day. These flowers are telling us that these aren’t good times, nor is anything straight anymore: enter the drooping flowers, a capturing of these times.
One scent. Perfumer H was at the fair and it was my introduction to the brand. Following this, I saw a store in the Marais along with it being placed in the Jean Jullien x Sara Andelman installation at Bon Marché. This is going to very quickly be an “it” scent and candle brand of the moment, if it isn’t already.
What a wonderful trip! I will miss Paris every day, in some ways — but such is life. As the French say: soo la voo. Until next time!!
