Views from a Paris window   +  time

Folle pour les Foulards- Crazy for Scarves

1953 Vintage Vogue - photo from Flickr

Be sure to include your vote on the scarf survey (on right). You can select one answer and then click the VOTE box in order for your vote to be submitted. I will post results on Sunday, March 22nd.

photo from Flickr

Scarves are a mainstay of a Parisienne's look and I can't let the spring season go without doing a post over such a cherished accessory! Trends come and go such as tapered leg jeans, shoulder pads (EWWW), and plastic bangle bracelets, but dress scarves tend to have a timeless quality about them. While they may or may not make an appearance in Marie Claire, Instyle, or Vogue for a season, women all around the world continue to wear them. How does an écharpe (rectangular scarf) or foulard (square scarf) manage to survive in the ever changing fashion world? And why do Parisienne's wear them? As noted in understandfrance.org, "... the main interest of a French woman is to emphasize her singularity... French women seek the object that will express her own personality, the object that will put the personal stamp on whatever she is wearing, whether it is a fancy dress or a pair of jeans"

Of course not all scarves have to be of great quality, I always shop for colors that I like.

However, I found the Hermes pink collection on the Internet and I thought that I would share it with you..

Remember that great vignette in the movie Le Divorce where we learn about French women and their scarves and all of the words they have for scarf? I can't even begin to tie a scarf in that many varieties. I would have to guess that most women, like me, only know a few ways to tie a scarf, and that may be a reason they do not wear them as often. Well, I decided that I wanted to learn. So I found a video by Amy Salinger (click on her name to view video) where she shows us six ways to tie a dress scarf.

I followed Amy Salinger's advice for this scarf above-it's the double bow scarf. My scarf doesn't look exactly like hers because my scarf is a bit shorter. Since my scarf is very light weight, I tucked the loose ends under my shirt.

scarf tied in a French twist

After some research on the Internet for step-by-step directions AND pictures for various scarf styles, I finally found a wesite- Brooks Brothers (click on this link to view instructions).

Most of my scarves are from estate sales, yard sales, my Granny's closet, and a few clothing stores. Believe it or not, the nicest ones (silk Oscar de la Renta and Vera Wang to name a few) have come from yard sales and they were less than $1.00!

As we are all trying to learn how to be more economical, scarves can offer that change in our wardrobe rather than buying a new blouse, necklace, or earrings. Not to mention we may also express our own uniqueness à la Parisienne!

My cat decided to join in on the photoshoot, so I decided that she could also wear a scarf! Don't worry, this is not inhumane exploitation! I also had fun Photoshopping (I made this a verb!) this picture