Fashion and comfort

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

French women have always been a mysterious nation. In light of today's cynical outlook on life, where everything in the world is examined and measured, including the Bible, the fairy tale of France dims. Probably the legendary France remained in the travel brochures. On the streets of Paris - European France. And this means - living according to the rules of a developed European state, that's all. Stylish looks are far from number one or even fifth on her list of priorities.

On the streets of European cities, you will meet a beautifully dressed woman as rarely as a beautifully dressed man. May this comparison be forgiven!

Fashion and comfort: the idol of today's European fashion for every day is jeans. All shades of blue, light blue, sometimes black, with lapels, cropped, elongated, bell bottoms, breeches, shorts, with laces, with fringes, with rhinestones, with rivets, with a high waist, with a low waist, on the hips … There are a lot of styles, but this all the same - jeans. How did it happen that something that was originally an American work uniform flooded the streets today? Have you ever worn jeans from Chanel? Yes, there are some. To what extent did a massive epidemic have to reach so that the fashion house, which has repeatedly acted as the ancestor of examples of style and elegance, succumbed to the wave of everyday life and appropriated its priceless name to a product made of worn denim? I wonder what Mademoiselle Coco would say about this - her straight-handed handbag on a chain is clearly not in favor.

Meet - scientists of the future, studying our time, will have to come to the conclusion that, developing, the fashion industry has not at all enriched the daily life of Homo sapiens. The more the designers strained their imagination, bringing such impossible elements as a fishing net and bird feathers to the catwalks of European capitals, the more the average consumer went into primitivism.

Let's start with shoes

Next time you're overseas, try calculating the proportion of your sneakers to heels. I think the ratio will be 80-20, but this is a handicap for sneakers. Young and energetic, who can afford to wear any heel height, they still prefer comfortable suede shoes with laces or Velcro fasteners, boots or sneakers. Stiletto heels are worn for evening events - in accordance with the dress code of most companies, the heel of a "female employee" should not exceed 2 inches, that is, five centimeters. However, one does not have to go far for an example. Read any Russian-language interview guide: 9 times out of 10 they will recommend wearing a low heel.

“Two months ago in Paris, I found a fifty percent sale at Morgan de Toi and bought from the heart,” Svetlana recalls. “And the next day I updated my dream skirt - it was black, with a narrow waist and a flying frill just below the knee, with a black just one of the series that this season is considered a squeak of fashion.

Everyone was looking at me. Passers-by on the street, tourists in the castle of Chantilly, shop assistants. At first I was flattered. Then it became annoying. It's just a skirt, after all! Just bought it in Paris, one of the most youthful and stylish stores in the country. Not shorts cut to the very pockets, with laces instead of seams. Okay, along with the skirt were heeled sandals. Another nonsense, according to the European sisters. I started counting the number of women in skirts I met. The fingers of one hand were enough for half a day."

Writer Stephen Clarke noted that French women wear "overly comfortable shoes." Beauty still requires sacrifices, which European women are less and less inclined to make, be it personal relationships, work, children - fashion and comfort.

The French style today means natural beauty, and not emphasized, simplicity of lines where there was an intricacy of style. French women still have their own chic and truly national femininity. Only everyday fashion strives for functionality. There is often no room for a style other than "smart casual".

Paradox

The fact that all shops in Europe are literally packed with everything that belongs to the category of feminine. And in such shops people are constantly crowding - girls from 15 to 45 of all sizes enthusiastically sort out hangers with skirts and dresses and measure ten-centimeter hairpins. Only seeing on the streets the increasing abundance of denim and practical khakis of all shades, the conclusion suggests itself that all this beauty settles on the shelves and is worn only for special occasions. Such as: on a date with a boyfriend, to work or to a disco.

This is where our peers from the other end of Europe surpass all expectations. Snow, cold, wind are not a hindrance. At the disco, everyone is dressed in mini-skirts as one, ending where the legs begin, neckline and stiletto heels of such a height that the regulars at the Place Pigalle will scream with envy (whoever passed by saw these shoes in the windows - you will be swayed from just one sight) … This probably compensates for the unisex style in which European women spend most of their lives.

Is it all the fault of the feminization of Europe - not a movement of rabid male-haters, but the principle of equality and mutual respect of the sexes, which Western girls and boys absorb with their mother's milk, as something completely natural? This cannot but be reflected in the lifestyle and, ultimately, in the manner of dress.

In a European country, the following picture can often be observed: a woman in an office suit, with a haircut, a bag (large enough for A4 sheets), and in sneakers or trampled shoes. Why injure your legs in vain on the way to work? When she comes to work, she will change into office shoes with heels of a decent height of 4-6 cm, and the image of a Western European "working woman" will be completed.

On a day off

Most Europeans don't think about fashion. If a customer in a store is dressed in something stylish and not entirely practical, like a knitted shawl, elegant shoes and large sunglasses on a cold autumn day, then she will probably be very well off.

And that doesn't mean she dresses fashionable and comfortable because there is money for it. Mass fashion in Europe is available at the most average earnings - in contrast to Russia. This has long been known to Russian women, which is why shopping tours to neighboring countries, especially during the sales season, are becoming more and more popular. But, nevertheless, it is in Russia that women try to look good even for a walk with a child to the sandbox.

Psychologists believe that the tendency to always look smart and attract attention is subconsciously inherent in Russian women, as a consequence of the fact that there were almost always more women in Russia than men, and if we introduce the criterion of marriageable age and marital suitability, then much more. The peculiarity of some of us, turned into an anecdote, to paint in the morning before the beloved man woke up - from the same opera. This has been going on since childhood - I remember that I was not too lazy to iron the brown folds on the hem of my school uniform every evening. An important role is played by the fact that Russia still remains a patriarchal country, that is, one where a woman needs a partnership with a man, and men, as you know, love with their eyes.

In the West, the opposite trend is observed - girls are dressed up like dolls in infancy, and the older they get, the more unpretentious their wardrobe becomes. At the age when they put on aprons in kindergarten so as not to stain our dress with plasticine, girls in England wear pink and white blouses and dresses. Nice, no doubt about it. The older they get, the less often a skirt can be seen on them and the more often trousers or jeans can be seen. By the time they turn into a girl, jeans are firmly settled in their closets, forming the basis of their wardrobe.

If long skirts with rows of frills a la Tsaganka Aza, with a wide hem and a wide belt, had not come into fashion last year, then this piece of dress could only be found in glossy magazines.

Progressive - but somehow sad.