French Fashion, part II

I don't know how I did it, but I somehow forgot both the manbag and cowboy boots in the first fashion post! This has to be remedied.

I'll start with cowboy boots. This semester particularly, but over the past couple as well, I've noticed that something about Texas fascinates Europeans. They make fun of it, but they are also just interested and ask me lots of questions about it.My knowledge of Texas does not run very deep, so I'm not much help, but that doesn't stop them from trying.  I think they've all seen too many Westerns or something. But anyway. I find it funny that people who love so much to make fun of Texas simultaneously think it's ok to wear cowboy boots. Doesn't compute to me, but that's how it is! The cowboy boots here aren't usually of the weird material (skin other than cow), crazy embroidered, funny colored type. They're pretty classic, like the ones below. But they've definitely got a cowboy boot shape.

stylehive.com

 

Now enter the man bag/murse/man purse. I can understand why guys would want a bag (have you ever seen a guy's wallet?? Can you imagine sitting on that thing all day?), but it unfortunately just seems odd to most Americans. Here, however, the manbag is allowed.  I see a lot of crazy artsy ones with interesting prints (Jimi Hendrix and Che Guevara are two of the faces I've seen on bags), but a lot are just relatively plain messenger-bag style things, like the two below.

kolobags.com

The thing that really makes me laugh, though, is the fanny pack slung over the shoulder. Wait what? People wear fanny packs?? They do. Only not around their waists (except the tourists). They wear them like cross-body purses. I had trouble finding a picture that did this one justice, but imagine the one below is a fanny pack instead of whatever it is. Then imagine that since it's a fanny pack, the strap is too short to be used as a cross-body bag and so it sits just below the person's armpit... it's very strange.

dinodirect.com

I also forgot scarves. People wear scarves all the time. Men and women wear them, which again seems weird to me as I think most guys in the States only wear scarves if they're in danger of neck frostbite. I had never worn scarves before I came here, one because it's not usually cold enough in Georgia for winter ones, and two because they're not an accessory I would have ever considered. It's nice though--I have a lot of basic clothing pieces, but with a scarf, all is good. You can change things up a lot. A scarf-related story I like is from one of my classmates--when she first came to Europe she spent a few days in Oslo, and at first, everyone immediately knew she was a tourist and spoke to her in English, but as soon as she put on a scarf, they started thinking she was European and speaking Norwegian to her! It's really that common to wear scarves here.

Ok, and I thought of one more thing--weirdly shaped pants. I'm not talking harem pants, but mainly ones that have enormous hips (?) cut into them but then taper to normal/skinny size, like the ones below. This may be just a changing fashion thing (and could be in the US now too I guess and I wouldn't know), but they're here now! And odd...

newfashionware.com