I thought it would be fun to talk about times where we travelled somewhere/went away on holiday, and expected the locals to be dressing in a certain way or to wear certain items (perhaps you even packed that item in your suitcase thinking you'd blend in, or that you'd wear it every day), but that turned out to not be the case.

What was the reality?

My most recent example would be when I was in Paris around Easter this year. Based on social media, I was expecting to see "fashion girlies" everywhere - you know the look - low-rise jeans and denim bermuda shorts, loafers, crop and bra tops, and over-sized leather jackets.

Because Paris is traditionally one of the big two fashion capitals of the world (the other being Milan), there is this assumption that Paris is always "ahead of the curve" in the fashion world, and on social media and in clothing brand marketing, those are the items that are still being pushed on us even though they've been "hot" since roughly 2024. So my train of thought was that "fashion girlies" would be what I would see (in spite of the fact that it conflicts with the other great stereotypical notion that French womenswear is timeless and unconcerned with trends).

When I got there, high-rise jeans and trousers (the sort that were hot between 2019-2022) were definitely still everywhere.

I was also surprised to see a lot of girls on their day out in block heel sock boots (I haven't seen those in Britain in a long time), and a few commuters on the Metro still wear their high heels to and from work, I even saw one lady in stilettos. I was in awe of her. Obviously dress codes for workplaces in Paris are still relatively strict inasmuch as they expect the individual to make some sort of attempt at styling themselves well, which stands out when I compare it to the UK. Here the bottom line is that you look clean and orderly, but employers don't take it further than that.

Only the teens in McDonalds and the odd university student were in crop tops and low-rise jeans.

I did see people in tracksuits and crocs, running errands. In the past, continental European friends had led me to believe that in more southern European countries (e.g. France, Italy, Spain), that just isn't done and immediately marks you out as a tourist, but that's obviously not the case in Paris at least.

I was also surprised to see how much the old ladies had jumped on board with the leopard print trend for their accessories. I assumed that that would be a bit too "trendy" for them, and dare I say it, too "British/Hollywood glam trashy" but apparently they really did dig it. Also, the old ladies still wear berets! I thought that would be an old stereotype/cliché and so I wasn't expecting to see any berets, but it was delightful to see that they are still worn.

So overall, the picture was that Paris is definitely influenced by trends, but it's on a separate timeline of trends to... the UK for example.