Have you seen the pictures of people camping over night in front of H&M stores in Singapore and Toronto. Its really impressive! As the collection they are queueing for is a heavily branded one I couldn’t help but think about “How to be Parisian”. In this book, published in September 2014, French model Caroline de Maigret calls on people not to wear logos. Don’t wear logos you are not a billboard! Kind of confusing, isn’t it? So what about logos at the moment are they in style or a thing of yesterday?
Caroline de Maigret looking fabulous in a Chanel dress and bag, pic http://www.pinterest.com/stylecloseup/citations/
Starting with street wear, the sector Alexander Wang’s H&M collection is targeted to, and the style that more or less defines most peoples everyday clothing there is some kind of change in the logo world. Although street wear is still highly branded longterm players in the field like Abercombie started to move away from the logo while newcomers like NYC based Hood by Air (HBO) continue to build an empire on it. Another thing thats super popular in the street wear field is parodising established logos with the aim of paying more or less homage to the parodied brand. Sometimes especially the high fashion brand parodies can cause hefty fights, like the one between Saint Laurent and Parisian concept store Colette in 2013. After the store sold “Ain’t Laurent Without Yves” parody T shirts the brand stopped any further collaborations! Regarding high fashion there might be a slight tendency away from logos. However, I would consider it as just a tiny tendency when you see LV’s fall monogram ankle boots or all the Chanel Boy and flap bags. And for the bobo culture Caroline de Maigrets book is more or less dealing with? Even they identify which some kind of logo. In their case its the more intellectual one, like the vintage band T-shirt or the linen tote from the last cool art exhibition.
Blogger of the moment Chiara Ferragni wearing LV monogram ankle boots and the monogram Petite Malle while attending Paris fashion week in September 2014, pic harpers bazaar.com
So surely the thesis “Don’t wear logos you are not a billboards” is meant tongue in cheek. But its quite superficial and thus not hitting at the right point. So what about the rest of the book?
Basically its very much the same all over the book. Its heavily dealing with the cliche of the Parisian stereotype woman, which in my opinion does rarely exist within the city! Strange parts include the section on how to cheat on your husband and the advise to “… always be faceable …”????? All in all it surely raised some awareness for Lancomes new brand ambassador Caroline de Maigret, however I am not sure whether its attention of the positive sort as the book tends to present her as quiet a selfish and arrogant person. Or at least thats what I felt while cross reading it!
Did you have a look inside the book? What was your impression?
No I haven’t read the book. Somehow the whole “how to books” from the French style icons start to bore me. I didn’t expect it to be fabulous nor did I expect it to by anything else than superficial!
No I haven’t read this book. I am not too attracted by style guides. Over the years I somehow developed a style that I feel well suitable for my lifestyle, my personality and body shape. Despite of that I like to collect inspirations on what to wear everywhere preferably from the people around me and from strolls through department stores after the new collections have arrived. Reading a book on style is something a little too theoretical for me. And above all being stylish is a very subjective thing!
Yes, I read it and I have to admit that I even kind of liked it. Sure its an easy read, nothing deep, just funny when you have some free minutes and don’t want to make up your mind too much!
Its a thought question Do I need a style guide or how to book? I hope I don’t need one! I feel that I have learned the basics and now I am more interested in trends than further reading about fundamentals of dressing or behaving!