French Fashion Faux-Pas

so paris is known as the city of light and the fashion capital of the world....or so the French would like you to believe. now....maybe its just me and trust me, i dont people watch as much as others do, but honestly, ive seen the some of the most questionable fashion and clothing ensembles in the city of la mode. and such questionable fashion faux-pas have been made mostly by men (the women seem to know how to look fabulous without trying)... and i want to scream out..WHAT IN TARNATION IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?? now, you need to understand that French people will say that they are all about appearances and these days, i dont even dare to take out the garbage or get the mail in my sweats (the boy is always super horrified when he sees sweatpants-clad women in the supermarket in the U.S.), and with that aside, they may not be in sweats, but some have questionable tastes....

some of favs so far have been:

(a) the guy in a flaming bright hot-pink sweater with white tight pants (and he was on my tram....and got off in the financial district of paris!),

(b) or this one time i saw a guy carrying a small Coach shoulder with a really tight tight t-shirt (it should be noted here that they don't sell Coach in Europe...so this guy brought it back from the U.S.????),

(c) and the best (and worst) so far was when i saw this guy wearing the exact same light green military-style jacket I had bought from the women's section at Zara.....and the worst part was that he looked better in it than I did!

now i'm all about "to each his own", but aside from the extreme examples i've noted above, i've seen some pretty pretty bad normal menswear choices as well. and i'm talking about mismatched suit pieces, shoes that just DONT go with a suit, thick athlete-type socks in dress shoes, shirts that just dont go with a tie, horribly-patterned ties...and the worst, a nice suit jacket with jeans (and i'm talking about a formal suit jacket on top of jeans!).

seriously, in general, all you american guys can applaud yourselves for dressing much better than the french and in all senses...formal and casual. i can bet a million dollars in most cases, the american joe cleans up better than a french frog....thank god for banana republic and j.crew in the U.S.! and what is this French obsession with converse sneakers and flicking the collar up??? and the ones who do look pretty damn put-together are usually in management-type positions and spend a fortune on their clothes or shop in the U.S....its really the two extremes here....

now, you can probably tell that i have a pretty classic taste in clothes....i love fun clothes and all, but for guys, i'm all about the classic, timeless, clean look. you dont need to look like you are going to meet the president every single day..but come on, some common sense please...even if you are wearing jeans! i know i know i know..i was spoiled horribly as i attended a super preppy high-school where the guys were required to dress-up in a tie and shirt at least once a week and i didnt realize this was strange until i got to college.

but i'm not going to apologize for it, the boy has recently started to understand my views and how the euro look just doesnt fly when we are in the U.S. or when he's just around other americans (and he shopped accordingly during our last visit!!). i dont mean to sound like a clothes snob....but i honestly want to slap my forehead when i see these young guys on my metro getting off at the financial district....and hope to god that they arent going in for a job interview....and this makes me sound like an 80 year old grandmother...but where are these people's mothers and why havent any of them been taught to tie a tie properly??