Garance Dore, one of my favorite bloggers, recently did a
post on the difference between how New Yorkers and Parisiennes go out on the town. Very interesting.
Paris: "
When the Parisian goes out, her goal is to be cool. The coolest.
It’s that simple. She’s not going to a party unless her friends are invited too and would rather die then be seen without her posse. You don’t intermingle too much in Paris. You don’t network and if you do, you do so super discretely: networking means you need others, and that’s just not cool. Don’t even try to do a seating arrangement at your dinner. People will just sit with their friends. She does everything she can to not be in pictures, because wanting to get your picture taken is the opposite of cool. She dresses in her eternal outfit of jeans and high heels and her hair down.
Because really, getting dressed just to go out, pfffff. She’s got better things to do.
But really, in truth, she spends an hour on each smokey-eye. But what she’s really into is having fun in small groups, pretending she isn’t looking at the other little groups over there in the corner. Not surprising that the most popular clubs in Paris are small, darkly lit, and full of hidden nooks."
New York: "The New Yorker on the other hand, when she goes out, it’s because she wants to be seen.
She gets her outfit ready a week ahead of time. She borrows a dress from a friend in PR who can’t wait for the next morning to count the number of mentions her little protégée got her. She books a hairdresser and makeup artist to give her the perfect effortless look and makes sure that she gets to the party with all the right people. If she can’t find them, she just goes alone.
Cause anyway, she’s just there to meet people and shine. So there, even better to be alone in the picture."
