Under the effect of an ecological awareness, Parisian women are turning more and more to eco-responsible fashion: attention to the quality of the fabrics (organic cotton, leather \"vegan\" ...), their origin and the manufacturing process of the garment.  They are more and more attracted to a timeless, quality and sustainable fashion, in short a fashion that takes care of the planet. Here are our little secrets for you too to participate in this wonderful trend!


\"GREEN\"Why is the textile industry one of the most polluting industries in the world?

In our clothes everything pollutes: pesticides for cotton, dyes, glues, oil to make polyester, transport, microfibre rejects at each wash, final destruction. Starting from there, it is enough to adapt this notion to the 80 billion garments manufactured, per year, in the world! As you will have understood, the real problem with textiles is that we buy/consumer too much of them. In France, we throw away an average of 12 kg of clothes every year, and we only wear 30% of our wardrobe! We hardly dare to imagine the figures on a global level...

\"GREENWhy do we \"consume\" so much clothing?

Because we are extremely influential, our relatives, friends, family, colleagues, magazines and ... social networks (Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook and others). And the \"Influencers\" of which I am one! And who influences us influencers? Fashion and therefore brands! And these, understanding the stakes, have increased the number of collections per year. For some brands, fashions even change every week. The goal is of course to push consumption!

Before, clothing was a necessity, today we buy clothes to shine in society and on the networks! Clothes end up accumulating in our wardrobes (7 out of 10 are almost never worn).

How to dress eco-responsibly?

To switch to an eco-responsible dressing room, you must first agree to change your buying behaviour and avoid impulse purchases. But you must also work on your own  wardrobe and look for ethical brands on the internet. Here is a kind of 9-point instructions for use.

1: Consume better

Look at the labels to check the origin, the manufacturing conditions and the raw material. For the \"GREENmaterials prefer organic cotton, hemp, linen and recycled fibres. Buy clothes from Fair Wear factories (where the people involved in making the garment work in decent conditions). Be careful: if the raw materials cost more and everyone in the production chain is better paid, the garment will necessarily cost a little more, so it would be wise to consume less...

2: Consume less

To adopt this strategy, we have to reduce our wardrobe to the maximum, buy what we need and nothing more (hence the interest in buying beautiful quality pieces that please every time we wear them). The rotation in the wardrobe must be perfect! The impact on the environment is already huge.

3: Consume less and better

Instead of buying 10 t-shirts a year, buy 4, but in organic cotton or recycled fibres. Or even better, buy them second-hand (this means that you don\'t have to draw on natural resources again to produce a new garment). A tip: to be sure to keep a piece of clothing as long as possible, you have to make sure that the size and cut are appropriate, in addition to the quality.

\"GREEN4: How to dress for less money

The best expense is the one you make! Instead of buying new clothes, wear them until their last breath, i.e. take extreme care of them (wash at 30°C maximum, no tumble dryer, and as soon as the first signs of wear appear, mend them urgently!).

5: Boycott fast fashion brands

Now that we know that the big fashion brands exploit workers, create a lot of ecological damage and use synthetics that are toxic to our bodies, stopping subsidizing them is the first thing to do.

6: Stop seeing shopping as therapy

We live in an age of materialism and consumerism that promises to make us happy if we buy constantly. To believe that we will forget all our problems by buying this beautiful skirt or this shirt is completely false.

7: Look for ethical brands\"GREEN

This may take a little time, since unlike conventional brands that are within everyone\'s reach, ethical brands are essentially sold on the Internet.

Learning about and finding out about the brands on the fairtrade fashion market is one of the first things to do when you want to adhere to responsible fashion. To get started, just do a Google search.

8: Review your wardrobe

\"images\"Analyze your wardrobe to decide what to do with each piece of clothing: keep, repair, recycle or donate. And... choose the basics: that way, you\'ll always have something to wear. The basics necessarily rhyme with quality and beautiful materials. Having a minimalist wardrobe means dressing sustainably. With time, you start to realize which colours are best for you, so focus on those colours!

9: Watch out for sales and buy second hand

Watching out for special offers from ethical brands is always the right plan when you want to save money. Buying ethically and responsibly also means reusing.

La Parisienne likes healthy and natural things a little bit in all areas and this is also true for her hygiene, beauty products or even the care of her teeth. Before moving on to more aggressive treatments to whiten her teeth, which moreover lose their effect after six months and which are expensive and can damage the enamel, she will first use some of her grandmother's good secrets! Here are some of them, as well as a little lesson on teeth...

Focused on the notion of well-being, the sustainable commitment is essentially part of new codes of consumption for the Parisienne. It is not only the threat of disastrous global warming that motivates her, but also the desire to belong to a tribe concerned by the green attitude. As a result, she willingly lends herself to earth friendly initiatives even if it upsets her organization! Starting with her philosophy in terms of consumption...


\"Make - consume - discard - make - consume - discard - etc.\". Why not put an end to this cycle which will inevitably run up against the depletion of the planet\'s resources? \"is the kind of sentence we often hear on the terrace of trendy Parisian cafés or on the way out of Parisian schools.

\"OUR

Indeed, whether it is a fashion effect or a collective awakening, the Parisian woman has become aware of her negative role with an over-consumption of objects of all categories, from fashion to decoration and food. \"By modifying my consumption habits a little, I can considerably extend the lifespan of my objects, which will decrease production and reduce the quantity of waste\", Martine tells me in front of a window at the department store of Le Bon Marché de Paris.

\"OUROf course Martine but not only… Beyond slowing down the impact of our consumption on the environment, all these actions are very often a source of savings!

But how do you explain this? Concretely: borrowing, renting, buying second-hand rather than systematically buying new, and repairing, giving, reselling, exchanging rather than throwing away, allows us to optimize the use of our objects and postpone as late as possible the moment when we have to get rid of them.

Buying new but responsible? Yes, but how?

Before buying a new product, the first reflex is to ask yourself: will it really be useful? Why not borrow it from those around me, rent it or buy it second-hand? ... If buying a new product finally meets a real need, we might as well make the right choices so that it lasts as long as possible and thus contribute to preserving the planet\'s resources while doing good to our wallet.

In France, environmental labels indicate to the consumer that the products on which they are affixed are more resistant, easily dismantled, repairable, simple to maintain or that they benefit from an extended warranty...

Discover all the environmental labels classified by product category.

https://www.ademe.fr/labels-environnementaux

Ideas received for which we must fight....\"OUR

The list of preconceived ideas that prevent people from changing their consumption habits can be a long one. And yet, avoiding systematically buying something new or throwing away things that could still be useful is within everyone\'s reach! And there is often much more to be gained from it than one might think.

\"Buying second hand is too risky.\"

\"Better buy than rent\"

\"Better to buy than borrow\"

\"Fixing it isn\'t worth it.\"

\"Buying sustainable, it\'s not profitable.\"

\"Reselling things is complicated.\"

\"Barter is outdated.\"

\"Offering, there\'s not much point\"

To all his preconceived ideas, we say No !

Our objects have not one but many futures. Why should they necessarily have to be bought new when they can be borrowed, rented or bought second hand? Why should they have to be thrown away when they could be repaired, given away, resold or exchanged?”… Carole, 21 years old, law student at the University of Assas in Paris.

Long life to our objects!

New mobilization campaign to extend the lifespan of objects!

\"OURIn order to find their way around and adopt the right reflexes, the French Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition and the ADEME agency (1) have created a site with all kinds of practical advice, news, tools for sharing your objects with your neighbours or even diagnosing equipment breakdowns... But it is also and above all a directory through which you can quickly identify the professionals best able to meet your needs, whether it is a question of finding an alternative to buying new or a solution to avoid throwing away anything that might still be useful.


https://longuevieauxobjets.gouv.fr/

And to accompany the action, the site presents tutorials, tools to share our objects between neighbours, to diagnose the breakdowns of numerous devices and a directory giving access to the contact details of a large number of professionals whose activity or service offer makes it possible to extend the lifespan of our objects.\"OUR


The new communication campaign \"Our objects have many futures\", presents everyday objects - a telephone, a toy, a chair, a dress... - in a humorous and offbeat way and shows the multiplicity of choices available to us to consume differently.

Bravo !!!

(1) The Ademe Agency helps to finance projects, from research to implementation, in the following areas: waste management, soil conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energies, raw material savings, air quality, noise abatement, the transition to the circular economy and the fight against food wastage.

Depending on the district, Parisians benefit from a mixture of groundwater and drinkable river water. Whatever its source, the water that comes out of the taps, “l’eau de Paris” is of excellent quality, everywhere in the Ville Lumière. The water distributed is rigorously and permanently monitored, and its traceability is total.

The Parisian stands straight and walks with her head high. Haughty, superb, proud and snobbish? Not more than anyone else. Perhaps it’s just natural, genetic and involuntary? Certainly, the Parisian is aware that she belongs to an elite lucky enough to live in the city of light, the capital of style and romance. Does the way she carries herself have anything to do with this? Or is it a question of upbringing that engenders such haughty behavior? So, improve your posture and borrow an “unwittingly” superb attitude and perhaps obtain this, so Parisian, slightly snobbish charm.

There are several differences between the French table manners and American dinner etiquette. Table manners in France are fundamental to every public dining situation. And every essential skill has to be built on a solid knowledge base. For French’s dining is more than just consuming calories, it is an Art de Vivre, a part of the partimoine culture. There is a proper technique for eating everything from foie gras to salad… 


1. Foie gras

Cutlery: small knife, small fork.

Cut your foie gras with a fork and place enough for one mouthful on a small piece of toast. You can also use your knife (the blades are now made of stainless steel) although a fork is more elegant.

2. Smoked salmon

Cutlery: Fish cutlery.

• With toast

Butter a small piece of toast. Then sprinkle several drops of lemon juice on the salmon on your plate. Cut a piece with your fish knife. Bring the salmon to your mouth with the fork and eat the buttered bread along with it. 

• With blinis

Eat in the same way as caviar with blinis.

3. Shellfish

Cutlery: oyster fork.

Take the small fork found on the left of the forks. Use this very practical fork to detach all of the flesh from the shell and swallow.

You can drink the seawater although delicately without making any noise.

A fingerbowl is required with this dish.

4. Salad

Cutlery: a fork (only).

Never cut lettuce with a knife. Use your fork and a piece of bread to carefully fold the leaves before bringing them to your mouth. In a good house, the leaves should never be too big in order to eat them without difficulty.

5. Cheese

Cutlery: small knife.

Never touch the cheese with your fingers. You should use a piece of bred to hold your cheese and remove the crust with your knife. Never use your fork, even if you’re given one, except for gruyere, if you eat it without bread.

6. Soups, consumes, bisques, fish soups

Cutlery: soupspoon or entremets spoon.

Use the spoon to the right of your knife. Bring it slowly to your mouth and drink out of the end of the spoon. In Great Britain, soups are eaten from the side of the spoon. Never drink from the consume bowl. Above all, never raise the dish if the soup is poured into a soup dish.

Bon appétit, Chantal

© Pictures: front page istock

 

In Parisian tradition, being a first-class hostess is more than pouring drinks and seeing that everyone gets fed. Meticulous attention to detail is very important to us, even after the meal.  Guests must feel pampered and cocooned as they slowly digest and engage in after-dinner conversation. It’s up to the hostess to see that everyone is having a nice time and will have wonderful memories of the evening. It’s time to serve good coffee, relaxing herbal teas, or delightful liqueurs.  If smoking is allowed, it’s also the right time to pass around the cigarette box, and offer the gents hand-rolled Churchills."

At an upper crust dinner, how does one seat guests, in a way that shows respect for everyone and hurts no one’s feelings? Seating protocol is a conundrum for many a host and hostess.

Just as we like dressing up to go out and wearing beautiful jewels, so table bon ton must reflect our elegance and “savoir vivre”. This French “savoir vivre” should never sacrifice simplicity and naturalness for the sake of being elegant. In Paris, the art of setting the table is a very rigorous art, especially when it comes to silverware. 

First things first, the hostess's polite "make yourself at home" is not to be taken literally! You are not at home, obviously. When it comes to the basic rules of manners that have been passed down from mother to daughter for generations, Parisian women are very strict. When invited by friends in France, some basic good manners to remember are:

Prima regola, non prendere mai alla lettera la frase, detta per buona educazione, dalla padrona di casa «Fate pure come se foste a casa vostra»! È chiaro, non è assolutamente così, non ci troviamo a casa nostra! Le Parigine ci tengono molto alle regole di base del “savoir vivre”, che si trasmettono da secoli di madre in figlia. Allora, se siete invitati a casa di amici in Francia, dovete conoscere alcune regole base della buona educazione, eccole qui:

There are several differences between the French table manners and American dinner etiquette. Table manners in France are fundamental to every public dining situation. And every essential skill has to be built on a solid knowledge base. For French’s dining is more than just consuming calories, it is an Art de Vivre, a part of the partimoine culture. There is a proper technique for eating everything from asparagus to fish or dessert… 

Oh yes, Parisian ladies have beaches even in Paris: Paris-Plage. At the core of French manners is the "savoir-vivre" and good behavior. Thus, despite holidays being synonymous with rest and relaxation, one should never forget good manners. Here are some basic rules that a Parisian lady must respect when on the beach, whether she is in Biarritz, Brittany, or on the Côte d'Azur.

Il formaggio è uno dei fiori all’occhiello del patrimonio gastronomico francese ed è il prodotto lattiero caseario più consumato dalla parigina. Ma come tagliarlo secondo la forma come a Parigi?

Così come ci piace vestirci per uscire, indossare dei bei gioielli, il bon ton a tavola deve riflettere la nostra eleganza e il “savoir vivre”. Questo “savoir vivre” alla francese non deve mai essere privo di semplicità e di naturalezza, per essere elegante. A Parigi, l’arte della tavola è un’arte molto rigorosa, soprattutto quando parliamo di posate.

Eh sì, le Parigine hanno le spiagge anche a Parigi, Paris-Plage, e il “savoir-vivre” e il comportamento da avere con gli altri sono fondamentali nell’educazione francese: le vacanze sono sinonimi di riposo e di relax, senza dimenticare mai la buona educazione. Ecco alcune regole base che deve rispettare una parigina quando sta sulla spiaggia, che sia a Biarritz, in Bretagna o sulla Costa Azzurra.

«Grazie a Maria Consiglio Visco Marigliano del Monte per avermi dato la possibilità di partecipare a questa trasmissione che esalta la nobiltà del saper vivere in un'epoca di volgarizzazione e di globalizzazione ad oltranza. La cultura e le tradizioni comuni ai nostri due Paesi, Italia e Francia, sono di eccezionale qualità e devono rimanere presenti in ogni atto della nostra vita», ci dice Nathalie Peigney. Lo sapevate che Parigi ha anche le sue spiagge e le parigine il loro art-de-vivre sulle spiagge? «Anche la spiaggia esige da noi il rispetto di norme e comportamenti dettati da educazione e buon gusto…"

ASCOLTA L'INTERVISTA

In French culture, there are rules about how certain foods are to be served at formal occasions. The most difficult dishes to serve are not necessarily the most difficult to enjoy. Serving foie gras, smoked salmon or fish to Parisian guests? In French tradition, there’s special etiquette for serving these dishes. Here are a few do’s and don’ts for the perfect hostess or host…

For a very long time in France, cheese was considered food for the masses, and therefore actually low-class. Until the French Revolution (1780), cheese was hardly mentioned in French menus. However, for a large part of the French population, cheese constituted the only source of protein in their diets. Nonetheless, certain dairy products, such as crème fraiche (sort of like our sour cream) and fresh soft cheeses (akin to our cream cheese or cottage cheese) were considered worthy of aristocratic palates.

In French culture, there are rules about how certain foods are to be served at formal occasions. The most difficult dishes to serve are not necessarily the most difficult to enjoy. Serving grapefruit, a nougat glacé or a cantaloupe to Parisian guests? In French tradition, there’s special etiquette for serving these dishes. Here are a few do’s and don’ts for the perfect hostess or host…

There are several differences between the French table manners and American dinner etiquette. Table manners in France are fundamental to every public dining situation. And every essential skill has to be built on a solid knowledge base. For French’s dining is more than just consuming calories, it is an Art de Vivre, a part of the partimoine culture. There is a proper technique for eating everything from asparagus to fish or dessert… 

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Edizione Italiana

Edita da RIZZOLI, Sophie la Parigina è una guida di stile moderna su PARIGI. Illustrata dai disegni di Alessandra Ceriani, completata da un elenco degli indirizzi preferiti dalla parigina e arricchita di ricette gastronomiche.

 

English Edition

Published by RIZZOLI New York, Sophie the Parisian'sis a modern life style guide about PARIS. Illustrated with color drawings, complemented by a list of Parisians' favorite locations and enriched with gastronomic recipes.

 
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