Dress code for Paris restaurants?

[M.X.Hassett]

Agree that a blazer/jacket much more flexible than a suit, but I'd go with a tweed or houndstooth check rather than a plain navy blazer: more forgiving of those inevitable scuffs and drips along the way, and easier to dress up or down.

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Ah yes, I was going to suggest this but they(tweed/houndstooth) are a little bit harder to match .

[therese]

Ah yes, I was going to suggest this but they(tweed/houndstooth) are a little bit harder to match  .

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Okay, so that is a little winking face there, right? Because that's the whole point of that sort of fabric---as long as the trousers (or jeans, as my husband ends up dressing this sort of jacket down as well as up when we travel) pick up one of the colors in the coat you're good to go. Plain navy will only work with gray flannel and khaki/tan chinos (a combination that my husband might choose to wear if he were also choosing to dine in my absence) and shows dust and drips instantly.

[John Talbott]

John, I know this is bordering on off topic chat but what is this "Euro-jacket" you speak of. This born at the wrong time curmudgeon would like to know.

Cheers, Matt

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I wondered about that phrase; I originally wrote "Eurotrash jacket," but thought it too un-PC. Your question is OT, but let me bring it back to food. In the 1960's and 1970's, if you dined at say Lucas-Carton, you wore a suit, shirt and tie. Today, at its successor - Senderens - one sees black tee-shirts and black leather jackets - on the men, mind you; the women are still elegant. As the subsequent posts have said, houndstooth (as wonderfully shown in "The Family Stone") or tweed jackets work well. I have a closetful of dreadful jackets acquired over the years at places as disparate as Daffy's and C&A that Colette tries to put in the recycle box that seem to work.

[Bux]

As this is all related to dining in Paris, I believe we're still on target. Yes John, the Brooks Blazer with brass buttons along with khakis clearly marks me as an American at the airport, especially when I want to avoid wrinkling the jacket by keeping it out of the suitcase. I've yet to enjoy wearing a fabric that doesn't wrinkle. No Therese, gray flannels and tan chinos are not the only option. Corduroy trousers of many colors work excellently and afford a great chance to dress up, down and even sideways. While the khakis mark me as the mid level management type I'm not, the cords apparently send the signal I'm an intellectual--or so I was told by a jitney driver coming in from the airport once. More precisely, he asked if I was a professor. I replied "No," and asked why he asked. He said it was the "velour" pants. I said I was an artist and he shrugged as if to say "the same thing," meaniing he was right the first time. The French love intellectuals. They must, or they wouldn't have so many TV programs where people do nothing but talk. The French, of course, recognize intellectuals by what they wear, rather than by what they say. Most importantly, once you've established your intellectual credentials with your pants, you are then allowed even greater ecentricity in what you wear.

One more point in favor of the blazer. I don't think I own a shirt that doesn't go with a blazer. Even if my last clean shirt is plaid or checked, it will work. I resist sometimes only because it does look like a corporate uniform. In truth, one of the things I like about traveling in the warmer months is that I can wear a well wrinkled linen jacket.

[cigalechanta]

Brooks Bros Blazer and grey pants shouts American. Casual wear is so common now that I laugh when I think of Brooks Bros on Saturdays when almost all the men were wearing Blazers and grey pants(I sold men suits and blazers there)

Beachboy, Zegna like Loro Piano have beautiful fabrics.