FS Style

Guest Blogger: Adrian Fernand

Writer, fashion-aficionado and blogger Adrian Fernand has a razor sharp, tongue-in-cheek outlook on the concept of style.

He has penned a debut novel, The Glamour Never Stops, which is inspired by his time working for Louis Vuitton and is the author of the social protocol and etiquette website, I Do Believe I Came With A Hat. He also has in excess of 90 pairs of shoes.

Here, he goes undercover in Paris and exposes his candid, yet hilarious, perception of French street style…

The supposed arbiter of good taste, Parisian style oscillates between two main streams of thought: fashion-forward and ultra-conservative, and very little in between.

Those whose body mass indices hover dangerously low whilst they mill around the entrances to shows of directional designers like Rad Hourani, seldom wear any other colour than black. Razor-sharp haircuts meet knife-edged tailoring that only the very thin (and very rich) can consider wearing.

Street style doesn’t differ with the vast majority of hipsters, or ‘bobos’—bourgeois-bohemian—congregating in shabby chic arrondissements, swilling 1664 beer and hunting in packs for the latest trend that will disguise their upper-middle-class roots.

Thrift or ‘frip’ store finds are paired with over-priced American Apparel imports, Bata-lookalike school shoes and designer jeans.

As for the remainder, currently they’re incredibly du jour, sporting double (and sometimes triple) denim for Africa. In reality, this trend never left the French and has hung around like strong-smelling gruyere since the mid-nineties.

Likewise cargo pants, black socks with white trainers and floral-print dresses. You can stick an Aussie in Paris but ‘daggy’ is the word that will never cease to leave my side.

image credit: Streetpeeper.