paris: crimes of fashion

Posted on April 4, 2006


by the paris blog 

C’est La Me articulates one of the peculiar benefits of expat life on her blog: the ability to get away with fashion crimes:

I bought a pair of aviatorish/slightly mirrored (only slightly, I promise)/eurotrash sunglasses. I couldn’t help myself. In defense of the French, I think it was mostly the Italian influence. There are so many Italian tourists here, I hear Italian spoken as much as I hear English (I have to assume it’s Italian, it’s a form of gibberish, not French, and not Spanish). I think there’s something about moving to another country that allows one the freedom to wear things they might not otherwise try in their own country because their friends would call them out on it.

It was confirmed the other day when I saw a jackass walking down the street in a massive, even bigger than the one pictured here and her head was smaller, fur-trimmed hunting hat. I thought, wow, when you’re French you can really get away with a lot more. As she walked by, I heard her big American accent and had to laugh because I knew she wouldn’t be sporting that hat in the U.S. Let’s face it; there are only a few people that can pull this look off. Most of them are models in Smirnoff Ice ads or funky college students. She was neither.

Perhaps it was the editor of Amercain Vogue, fur fetishist Anna Wintour?