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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Isabel Marant et Moi

***As you read the following frivolous post, I will be blissing out at Jazz Fest****


The other day, the New York Times featured an article on a chic New York store featuring the chic designs of the chic Isabel Marant:

ALL the hot girls are going berserk for Isabel Marant, the young Frenchwoman whose label has mastered the jet-set bohemian look associated with carefree Parisian chicks: that thrown-together, cigarette-hanging-from-pouty-mouth style that pretends to shrug off effort. “Quoi, this? Pfff. I slept in this shirt, you silly child, and these pants were on the floor.

This is a fun article, very well written, with some good advice. For the writer realized that she could approximate the general look of the line--army jackets, sweatshirts--for very little, albeit in less amazing fabrics.

I'm sure my regular readers know where this is going. Yes, I am the proud owner of an Isabel Marant glazed linen anorak/raincoat/not sure what it is. It jumped out at me at Goodwill last year. I had never heard of the label, but there was a je ne sais quoi about it. It is, I must confess, Isabel's cheaper Etoile line. It also has a care label that says "Do not wash. Do not dry clean. Do not iron."

I haven't yet figured out how to wear the garment, but it looks neat--and very French--on the hanger. This is a typical thrift store tale: you see something amazing, you have to buy it, it IS an expensive treasure, now what the heck do you do with it.

At least I won't yearn for an Isabel Marant item. I have one.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Post a picture, please! You're honestly not supposed to clean it--at all?? Call me proletarian, but that's crazy.

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com said...

Agreed re: article's tone

When I read the prices for those items, all I could think was: $850 for that? I could go to the thrift store and bu an already well-worn item for $10.

I guess the fabrics and the designed artfulness of being not too fussy and casual, is what her (rich) clients are paying for, without wearing someone's castoffs.

Me, I'm not so proper that I'd fork over my budget for a month for one item to look like an Olsen Twin Hobo

Frugal Scholar said...

@Velma--Posting a pic is for me a major endeavor. Will do, as soon as I can. Might be a while. I am embarrassed.....

@FB--The clothing is neat and of beautiful fabrics. You need to be very confident to pull it off well. I would look like a person who shopped at the army surplus store.

mette said...

I have never seen an Isabel Marant original, the name rings some bells though. I admit that I too have bought something ( clothes ), which at the moment called my name, but then never worn it. I might keep such items for a time, and then suddenly get rid of them quickly. A free translation from Finnish- away from sight away from mind.

simple in France said...

Wow! very nice find. I was just watching some women in town with that kind of nonchalant look when I went out for coffee this afternoon. . .now I need designer resale places in France . . .um for tall people.

But I'm with FB--I don't like the idea of spending a lot to look rumpled (if that's the word). . .I like the way you did it!

Oh, and may I take the opportunity to say I'm really jealous that you are at Jazz Fest and that I've always wanted to visit New Orleans!!!

Duchesse said...

That article is by Cintra Wilson ,the same writer who dissed JC Penney for carrying large sizes. IM is very jeune fille (or worn by women who try for that) and ubiquitous in Paris.

Overpriced, for sure. You have a find and now the fun of coordinating the rest of your outfit.

materfamilias said...

I have a richly-embroidered long slim black skirt I bought at The Gap perhaps ten years ago -- not a typical GAP item at all, really. But the similarity to your brilliantly-thrifted IM piece is that it is not to be washed nor dry-cleaned, leaving one to puzzle . . . and to be very careful around food! I don't wear it often, and a skirt doesn't come in contact with sweaty body parts as much as other garments -- I think I managed five or six years before I finally chanced it in the gentle cycle of my machine. Thankfully, it survived, but as I still quite like it, I won't subject it to water much more often than twice a decade.
Of course, this approach isn't feasible with a light-coloured raincoat -- good luck with that!

Duchesse said...

I'd was your raincoat on delicate, maybe in one of those mesh bags (or make a supersized mesh bag) and use your machine's delicate cycle. Because if it is part of that distressed look, what is a tad more 'distress'?

The only disaster I have had with this method was when I put a black/white print in and the fabric ran and once when I forgot to use the mesh bag.

It IS crazy not to clean it, and the fabric will deteriorate- not to mention how you will feel in a grotty coat.

Frugal Scholar said...

@metscan--In English also: out of sight, out of mind. Usually referring to a love interest.

@simple--Jazz Fest is great, but there's lots of good jazz in France too.

@Duchesse--Oh, good memory. I hated the Penney's article, found it very snide. Loved this one though.

@mater--I'm going to put my "whatever" in the machine too.

@Duchesse--Thanks for the tip. I don't think it's a raincoat really--I don't think it will repel water. It's kind of a useless piece, now that I think of it. WHO DONATED IT???