All About the Lace

Twice a year, in January and July, all the stores in Paris have big sales (soldes in French). I arrived in Paris in January 2007 in the middle of them. But preoccupied with finding a place to live and getting my life in order, shopping was forced to take a back seat. Luckily, I was still in Paris come July. Walking home one warm summer day I decided on a whim to go into this lingerie store I'd long had my eye on. One hour later, I'd tried on half a dozen night gowns and was leaving the store with a black nightie with lace trim. The next July, back in Paris doing research for my masters, I happily indulged in more sales and more lingerie - complete with lace trim.

It seems my favourite material just might be lace. It is the perfect compliment to clothing of any kind, especially lingerie. Somehow wearing a nightgown or camisole that has lace in it makes me love it all the more. It's very pretty and feels nice as a fabric too. Lace also works well on its own. I already have a lace shirt, and black lace leggings, and my dream is to one day have a lace dress.

But lace and lingerie aside, sleepwear (of all kinds) are my favorite type of clothing. Maybe it's because I really like staying home, in bed and in my pajamas, reading or on my computer. So I want to have a good wardrobe for those activities. I also like how sleepwear is supposed to be both comfortable, but also any number of other adjectives like pretty/cute/sexy/warm. A person can pick and choose depending on their mood. Even though I am asleep the majority of the time I wear any sleepwear, it's still nice to go to sleep and to wake up wearing something I like and that makes me happy.

I sometimes think about and miss Paris, and its (among other things) fabulous lingerie stores. But most fortunately, Toronto has good ones too, one of which (Beestung, see picture below) happens to be about a 7 minute walk from my house. After seeing and falling in love with a nightgown in the window, after walking by it several times over a two week period, I finally went in there on a chilly Sunday afternoon in March and bought it, despite the lack of soldes. I'll always love Paris for (among other things) introducing me to excellent lingerie, but it's nice to know I can still get my fix on this side of the Atlantic.