Do Parisians wear Hermes?

TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others

#121
FugitiveRouge said:
This is a very thought-provoking thread.

It's touching on some fascinating ideas of intersectional racial justice, class struggles, and cultural competencies. Maybe it's just me reading into it? Maybe I'm the only one who struggles with understanding my love for Hermes in the context of an otherwise pragmatic (and maybe even puritanical) world view?

The very question of whether Parisians wear Hermes seems fraught with a slight undertone of cultural superiority.

Kerin16's comment is of particular interest to me in the context of Hermes as a brand and social signaling.
This, to me, is a fascinating example of the entrenched "old world" class snobbery that can look down on new money or flashy signaling. But it could also be a very genuine and self-deprecating way of excusing an extravagant purchase from one's youth. I can't make that judgment. Forgive me if I'm being too serious and philosophical about the discussion here.

But I wonder... Why does it matter whether Parisians wear Hermes?
Click to expand...
dublineuse said:
I really don’t think it’s about looking down on new money - more about transmission, about items of high quality that can be passed on from a generation to the next !
It « matter » whether Parisians love Hermès i guess because we’re (one of) the capital of fashion and home of the brand, that’s it.
Click to expand...
I think both exist and have been manifesting on this forum for a long time. If anybody had the pleasure of reading the "old" Paris shopping thread would know, the snobbery and elitist are well alive and all. But yes, some do appreciate Hermes for its quality but unfortunately the quality is in rapid decline in some categories.

To be more on topic, Parisians certain do wear Hermes. I am a visitor to Paris, mainly for shopping trips and attending Saut Hermes. I feel a lot more excited spotting the odd well worn leather Jumbo bracelet (any Hermes veterans remember those?) or a well patina-ed silver chaine d'ancre bracelet than all the exotic bags I see around the wealthier areas!

Well in South of France, it's a different ball game all together! That's another topic for another day!
 
  • Like
Reactions: NOIRetMoi, FugitiveRouge, lulilu and 1 other person
#122
To be honest, I visit this forum to relax and read interesting tit bits about Parisian fashion and Hermes.
Some people are constantly offended if anyone dares voice an opinion they disagree with. And if you respond to them they can’t take it.
I don’t like fur , so I don’t visit the fur forums, if people don’t want to know about Parisians wearing Hermes ( which is always going to be a little bit tongue in cheek anyway) they don’t have to post here.
Ageism and racism are serious issues and is a disservice to victims of real racism when it gets trivialised into involving laughable fashion stereotypes with twillies, and birkins.
 
  • Like
Reactions: amaretti_, ilovedesigner96, SomethingGoodCanWork and 18 others
#126
The links between fashion and Paris are historical, and the city's shows still create the 'finale' of the fashion week's calendar twice a year. So there is a point to this thread. However, I think the style aspired to by many outsiders, the same that Ines de la Fressange earns her (newest) living writing about, and is the classic Bourgeois style that Jean-Paul Gautier despised i his early career but embraced in 2015 for his runway show. There are so many fine lines of acceptable and not acceptable in the evolving this 'uniform' it is not really inimitable. I'm sure Parisians occasionally wear H but as I said before...

Also, I do think it's more Parisian to wear love-worn items rather than toting their newest whether wearing the 'uniform'. That's why the word 'gauche' is French in origin :D And I'm afraid Parisian chic is all about judgement, that's me making a judgement.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SomethingGoodCanWork, twigz, creme fraiche and 9 others
#128
papertiger said:
Also, I do think it's more Parisian to wear love-worn items rather than toting their newest whether wearing the 'uniform'. That's why the word 'gauche' is French in origin :biggrin: And I'm afraid Parisian chic is all about judgement, that's me making a judgement.
Click to expand...

Indeed! I commented in another post how for my mother's generation, there was a degree of embarrassment in wearing something new, so that when complimented by someone on your latest acquisition you'd lie: oh, this old thing... Saw her doing this a lot. I am not French, but close enough, minutes from Biarritz and is a similar kind of culture.

Also, I am not a Parisian so I only have a partial knowledge of the typical Parisian haute bourgeoise that would have provided the standard clients of Hermes in the past (of course, most Parisians, like most people, do not wear Hermes), via some of my best friends and frequent enough trips. Based on that totally partial and subjective knowledge, I believe there is undoubtedly a sense nowadays in that strata of society that Hermes has somehow become "vulgar", so that it is fine to wear H scarves (which happily have never become trendy), your grandma's (very) battered Kelly, and (perhaps) a under-the-radar top-of-the-shelf H bag (such as a GP or a Plume) but not to play the Hermes game to get a Birkin or such. My mum's friend, for example, who is never without a Hermes scarf says she would not be caught dead in the FSH store, c'est epouvantable!
 
  • Like
Reactions: USCGirlie, zen1965, frou frou and 3 others
#129
allanrvj said:
not really. some are employees from Hermès, some are trolls who like to stir the pot, some are spammers, etc etc.
Click to expand...

I'm sure that is a fair observation and I deplore inaccuracy caused by simplification
so I should have qualified my statement with 'most'.
I was tying to be positive and lighten the direction this thread was going.
If, in your view, I needed to qualify my statement with 'some' (i.e. not the majority) this would truly be a sorry state of affairs and those of us interested in Hermes would better spend our time looking elsewhere.
And if I was going to be really picky, isn't your comment as it stands rather a slur on 'employees from Hermes'? Can they not be enthusiasts as well as employees?
 
#132
doni said:
Indeed! I commented in another post how for my mother's generation, there was a degree of embarrassment in wearing something new, so that when complimented by someone on your latest acquisition you'd lie: oh, this old thing... Saw her doing this a lot. I am not French, but close enough, minutes from Biarritz and is a similar kind of culture.
Click to expand...
In a way, this is the same in English culture also although I mostly use this tactic to deflate anybody noticing my new purchases from Hermes or any other designers, especially from my SO! :biggrin:
 
  • Like
Reactions: OhManolo, Tinn3rz, crisbac and 3 others
#133
papertiger said:
The links between fashion and Paris are historical, and the city's shows still create the 'finale' of the fashion week's calendar twice a year. So there is a point to this thread. However, I think the style aspired to by many outsiders, the same that Ines de la Fressange earns her (newest) living writing about, and is the classic Bourgeois style that Jean-Paul Gautier despised i his early career but embraced in 2015 for his runway show. There are so many fine lines of acceptable and not acceptable in the evolving this 'uniform' it is not really inimitable. I'm sure Parisians occasionally wear H but as I said before...

Also, I do think it's more Parisian to wear love-worn items rather than toting their newest whether wearing the 'uniform'. That's why the word 'gauche' is French in origin :biggrin: And I'm afraid Parisian chic is all about judgement, that's me making a judgement.
Click to expand...

I think the people who are interested in this 'parisian' or French approach to fashion would find Justine Leconte's videos helpful. There's no hermès or focus on brands for the sake of talking about brands, but she basically talks about these things.

I totally agree with what you and dublineuse write. I also think people are more into the story or particularities of an object not necessarily so much the brand which gors along with the love for vontage. I heard lots of bad things said about "flashy" brands 'sold to tourists' in Paris while i was living there within certain crowds that I don't see the point of repeating, Hermès as a brand avoids this to a certain extent because there's an atelier pretty close to Paris (artisanal !) and the relatively subdued branding.
 
  • Like
Reactions: keodi, needlv, dublineuse and 2 others
#134
Liberté said:
I think the people who are interested in this 'parisian' or French approach to fashion would find Justine Leconte's videos helpful. There's no hermès or focus on brands for the sake of talking about brands, but she basically talks about these things.

I totally agree with what you and dublineuse write. I also think people are more into the story or particularities of an object not necessarily so much the brand which gors along with the love for vontage. I heard lots of bad things said about "flashy" brands 'sold to tourists' in Paris while i was living there within certain crowds that I don't see the point of repeating, Hermès as a brand avoids this to a certain extent because there's an atelier pretty close to Paris (artisanal !) and the relatively subdued branding.
Click to expand...
It’s funny that you mentioned Justine Leconte because I was watching her videos for the first time yesterday out of curiosity what to wear for my upcoming trip to Paris in the winter. Back to the topic, I read an interesting Japanese magazine Ku:nel in the summer about Parisienne style of 40+ Ladies and observed that out of more than 100 Parisienne ladies interviewed for the edition of the magazine, there are about 3 or 4 ladies carry Hermes bags and obviously they wear the bags not the other way around.
 
  • Like
Reactions: papertiger and Liberté
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top