More on Parisian youth fashion.

Last Friday I stepped impulsively into Biba, a shop near Sèvres-Babylone, and just as quickly bought a pair of jeans and a scarf. (Wikipedia tells me that Biba has a long history in London. This boutique is probably unrelated to the original Biba except for the name). The jeans are made by LTB by LittleBig (a Turkish company). They are marketed for people who "want to be themselves without any prejudices, strong personalities who trust themselves as well as their appearance." For some reason, the company's whole business plan is published on their website. Apparently there is a LittleBig shop in NYC.

One print that is exceptionally trendy here in Paris is the skull motif (not necessarily with crossbones). Usually the scarves are black and white. Mine has a similar design, but the skulls look more like those found in Mexico on the Day of the Dead. Also, it is beige and cobalt blue.

I asked the salesgirl why the skull design was so popular. She said she didn't know, that she thought it was pretty gross and terrible, but that it was cool. It was cool because it was "très rock."

And so we have it. Youth fashion derives from what is rock 'n' roll. Paris has a rather sketchy local music scene, so the look is most likely imported from London. This would also explain the abundance of '60s-inspired black dress boots (think of the Beatles), skinny jeans, bangs, drug-addict figures and androgyny. According to the cover of this season's Vogue Hommes International, Pete Doherty is quite popular on this side of the Atlantic.

Without going into it too much, I find this quite contradictory (no, not quite ironic) to Parisian culture.

I've also been seeing loads of gray, V-neck American Apparel t-shirts (of which I have three and a half), but none of their new jeans.

Men and women alike wear large, lightweight scarves. Styled if you're gay, aloof if you're rock. It sounds like these little pieces of heaven have already hit shelves in America via Urban Outfitters.


The local music of Paris (and the rest of Europe, with a slight exception for London) is electronic-based, whether this is executed through post-rock/electro-rock (yes, please!) or trance and trip-hop (no, thank you, not without four hours of steady [or unsteady, as photos prove] dancing already behind me).

The point of all this instruction? Well, my goal is to get as much of a taste for local culture as I can stand (seriously, head cheese?). This adaptation entails a change of my personal style. Ultimately, this means that you have to keep loving me regardless of how euro-trashy I may become.