SPECIAL REPORT: live trends from Paris 🥖🇫🇷🚬

Bonjour! And a few cutie things I noticed while in the French capitol for a few days.

Want to read this full recap of trends from Paris? Become a paid subscriber!

Some trending sights from Matter and Shape, clockwise from top left: power pastel and marble tables by Marbledworks; the soft wood and power pastel RDAI booth; power pastel and soft wood seating from TYP; power chrome from NM3; power chrome lighting from Umberto Bellardi Ricci; cutie silver-natural cutlery from Griegst.

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.

Scenes of black-wearing street warriors from around the city, with a sighting of the Vetements coat to the far right.

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).