The 4-5 piece French wardrobe #9

[eizhowa]

I have difficulty wearing all black as well. I can do black cropped trousers with black ballet flats and a black shirt, but I feel completely off if I wear black boots, jeans and a coat. I guess it is because when I wear all black I feel the silhouette becomes more important. I esily feel heavy/drained in certain black outfits.

The people who look good in black around the face are so fortunate. Very few pale blondes do unfortunately

I have seen Betina in all balck and I think she can pull it of very well. Good silhoettes as well

Fewormany: Love the grey jeans. They look like the perfect shade of grey!

 

[Nymphaea]

A couple of years ago I was having lunch at Harvey Nichols and I was wearing only black, also my friends with me wore a lot of black. The waiter there was wondering in a funny way if we just had attended a funeral.

 

[floodette]

So funny, as I plan to go back to all black. I love colorful bags and scarf (and red red RED nails and lips) and black is a good backdrop.

 

[Melisande]

That is so interesting to hear all your takes on black. I personally love seeing blondes wearing all black...I love the contrast.

So true about the silhouettes. And yes, red red red nails and lips all the way.
And yes Betina does do black well, as I mentioned before I like how you accentuate it with white.

***I forgot to mention that the reason I felt the need to apologize for wearing black was for cultural reasons, the people hosting me at the party. In certain cultures it actually is frowned upon to wear black for festive occasions, considered sort of like a bad omen. I guess I wouldn't apologize in Europe, certainly not in Paris!

 

[Melisande]

And yes a belated congratulations on your purchases Fewormany! it's true, I love the shade of gray you've chosen. I've started getting socks and tights in that colour as an option to black, and I love it, so soothing and goes with everything. I recently discovered it goes beautifully with burnt orange too. I had an identical grey men's sweater which I loved but I lent it to a friend and never saw it since (it's okay we're still close )

 

[Melisande]

to wear black for festive occasions, considered sort of like a bad omen.

**I mean all black head to toe of course, like I was doing.

 

[barbaraaa]

^ In Portugal it is also considered wrong to wear black in such occasions... especially weddings!

I remember when I was maybe 14 the trends were very... neon like and flashy and I was always into black (I only like maybe four colours!). My classmates would make me feel very inadequate for a lot of reasons, but that was one of them...

I do like the look of pale blondes in black... I'm a pale blonde myself

 

[Jinadaze]

^ Same here (x2!) and obviously I couldn't care less. I think black goes great with my hair (it looks even lighter) and skintone. Also my fiancé thinks all-black outfits looks elegant and sexy, especially if it includes a bit of leather.

 

[Nymphaea]

^Can't agree more! Love black.

 

[floodette]

all-black outfits looks elegant and sexy, especially if it includes a bit of leather.

black leather! yum!!!

 

[Melisande]

Yes! Glad we all love black!

barbaraa ahhh yes exactly, I can see that in Portugal and southern Europe.

I love black leather, I somehow prefer black suede on myself. The important thing in black to my taste is mixing textures.
(Wearing over-knee black suede boots and black Guipure lace knee-length gathered skirt and black tee as I write).

 

[Fewormany]

I've shared my opinion about black before, it doesn't really fit in here in this thread.

The grey really is perfect (grey is my black ), I love your idea of wearing it with burned orange Melisande. I have some orange in my wardrobe but it's mostly bright orange or something between orange and red. I find grey -especially the darker shades- to go really well with most colors.

 

[barbaraaa]

I absolutely love grey and charcoal! And I tried to replace black with it... and one day I realized I had on my Graphite Hunters, my gray winter coat and gray jeans... and it too felt weird I also had a gray bag then and it must have not helped at all!

 

[eizhowa]

^I have also been in that situation. Grey jeans, coat, scarf and top can get a bit too much grey. Even for me.

 

[Fewormany]

There is no such thing as too much grey in my opinion. I think it's like mentioned before (regarding black) about mixing fabrics to make it interesting. I find wearing head to toe grey very soothing for some reason.

 

[Melisande]

Hahaha, I love grey too, and I have not yet had my fill of grey or navy blue.

My sister wears a LOT of grey, likes layers and layers of all-grey too. So much so that at one point, every time her baby son (1.5 at the time) saw an elephant in one of his picture books, he would point with his pudgy little finger and declare "Mama."

I remember waaaaay back when on tFS I posted wearing an all grey outfit with bright yellow suede ballet flats and bright yellow necklace.
Wow, that was ages ago!

 

[Nymphaea]

Adorable!

Besides black, I also like dark colours like greens, blues and greys. To make a monochrome outfit more interesting I like, just like Melisande, mixing different textures. E.g. leather with knit, heavy and fine knitwear, wool/felt, silk etc.

 

[fashionista-ta]

Be careful, or your kids will be doing the same thing ... with a skunk!

 

[Melisande]

Oh no!! Bwahahah!

 

[fashionista-ta]

It may be best to not keep any storybooks with skunks in the house


I tried to order the wallet I mentioned this morning, and I ended up in fraud alert hell because the shop is in London and the parent company is in Milan. I never have a problem with Farfetch, but what I tried today set off all the alarms. Even though I spent most of an hour on the phone with the bank, nothing worked to get the order to go through, despite all their assurances. So I called one of the Lanvin boutiques to see if they had it. No ... but they will be getting the graffiti ballerinas, so with any luck, I'll be getting those next month.


Received my top with the pearls, and really like it. I thought it was knit like a T, but it's really a sweater. They said it was Vanilla, but it's pearl grey. They've put a sticker over the original color name, so I can't really see it--but looks like Shell? Tomorrow's going to be quite warm, so I should be able to wear one of my new tops tomorrow night. Haven't decided which yet ...