I’m beginning the fashion issue with a topic that has less to do with Paris, and more to do with Kentucky and the internet. I, along with many, many others, am delighted to have discovered Kentucky’s latest celebrity, a charming 23-year-old man from Paducah, Kentucky who gained a reputation as a fashion commentator by posting videos on YouTube. He’s sparkly, fabulous, and not afraid to use his Kentucky accent to critique outfits that he catches on film at a mall in Western Kentucky. You really, really must go to www.williamsledd.com. He also makes really cute, starstruck trips to New York City. And I totally want one of the t-shirts on his website.
Les Soldes
Clothing stores in France have huge sales for a couple of weeks in the summer, and again in the summer. Discounts range from minor to quite drastic, and progress as “Les Soldes” go on (many items are 50% off and more). For obvious reasons, I thought that you should see this window installation at a women’s clothing store.
People get really excited about Les Soldes, and the shopping districts are incredibly full of people. Newspapers and the television cover them, and in shops, everyone is always trying to figure out what is “soldé” ( on sale) and what is not. I am happy to report that I purchased some very comfortable and very hip new red shoes that were soldés, in addition to the items discussed below….
Un ensemble ravissant and honoring Sonia Delaunay
Two of the things that I’ve purchased here are trendy items whose popularity I initially resisted. In the course of doing so, I also added to my French vocabulary: Les leggings. Just before I left Ithaca, my friend Tara teased me that I should wear my yoga outfit with sandals as a real outfit. I scoffed at the idea as too immodest for my current style. Well, Tara, I’ve done it. I purchased les leggings almost identical to my yoga pants and an adorable dress to wear over it. Thankfully, the dress makes the outfit much less revealing than my exercise wear, but you were so right. It is delightful to get to be so comfy while being stylish. Not to mention, what a relief to know that I’m ready to jump into Trikonasana or a Surinamaskar at a moment’s notice at any point in the day!
The second trendy item: a bubble skirt. I was very skeptical of these babies when I first saw them. Talk about unflattering. However, Becca had an adorable one when I saw her in June, and then I was totally converted when I saw the cute one that I purchased. I like the ones that are not quite so poofy.
And yet again, here I am mentioning Sonia Delaunay. She brought geometric patterns and Cubist avant-garde aesthetics into fashion in the 1920’s, and I just want to point out the strong role of geometric patterns in the tunic and skirt that I purchased:
And I just have to tell you about an incident that occurred when I wore my bubble skirt for the first time. I was just about to go inside a café for lunch, when a very elegant woman of a certain age stopped me. “You have a ravishing outfit!” she told me, much to my great surprise. (This comment, like many things, sounds much better in French: “en ensemble ravissant”). What is hilarious is that she really, really loved the blazer that I had on, which is pretty cute, I have to say. She asked where I purchased it, and was very disappointed to hear the United States—but what I didn’t tell her was that it was just a Gap blazer from Trader K’s, Ithaca’s underappreciated, but magnificent secondhand clothing store. It cracks me up that I was stopped on the street in Paris, France because of a $10 Trader K’s purchase.
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