Ok to wear jeans in Paris??

Is it acceptable to wear jeans in Paris? Last year I visited Italy and TA folks advised against jeans if I didn%26#39;t want to look too touristy, which I didn%26#39;t, and I found that to be quite good advice. What about Paris? I%26#39;ll be traveling early April.

|||

Absolutely. Have a look at the google maps thing - loads and loads of jeans.

If you%26#39;re not sure, people on here tend to tell you to go for dark ones that are not too scruffy. But in my experience there are loads of people wearing all kinds of things. Including jeans.

|||

Wear what makes you feel comfortable. Unless your%26#39;re wearing high heels - which is contra indicated for long hours sight seeing on cobbled streets - you%26#39;ll look %26quot;touristy%26quot; anyway.

|||

as long as you don%26#39;t wear them out to a restaurant at night - you will be fine

|||

I live in Paris and spend my life in jeans. Of course I don%26#39;t wear jeans when going to a fancy restaurants or at the Opera or some fancy place but that%26#39;s not only an advice for Paris.

American tourists can be spotted cause they love to wear running shoes (I lived in the US and yeah I wore comfy shoes everyday too!) and that%26#39;s a NO in Paris!!So loose the running shoes and keep the jeans you won%26#39;t look too touristy;)

Have a great trip:)

|||

Thanks for the input. And thanks, shoeaddict, about the info on shoes. That%26#39;s another topic I was advised about for Italy and it%26#39;s good to know the same holds true for other cities. Appreciate the info!

|||

«American tourists can be spotted cause they love to wear running shoes (I lived in the US and yeah I wore comfy shoes everyday too!) and that%26#39;s a NO in Paris!»

I beg to differ. This is just not true. In my neighborhood, Adidas, Nike, etc are the dominant boutiques. Everyone wears %26quot;sneakers%26quot; and they are definitively not a %26quot;no in Paris%26quot;. There is no footwear stigma. Don%26#39;t think twice about wearing jeans or Nikes. They are the new %26quot;normal%26quot; in Paris.

I agree with the evening-ware limitations though.

|||

Of course, wear whatever you feel comfortable in. From observation, Parisians will wear jeans in most casual or semi-casual occasions.

|||

Paris, like any major city, is multicultural and has long been. Parisians come in all sizes, shapes, colours, ethnic origin and drgrees of wealth. Most of them buy the clothes they can afford rather than the ones they dream about. For every Parisian woman that is a lovely picture of beauty and taste there are thousands that aren%26#39;t, as my mother found out wit hmuch relief on her first trip to Paris long ago. She was afraid of looking too drab but was, if anything, a tad overdressed. Do wear what you like and use common sense. One friend of mine in Canada was quite upset, the first time she visited Paris, by the strange looks the locals gave her. She was a rather large woman at the time and favored heavy make up, loads of jewelry AND buggle gum pink jogging suits.

|||

You might want to consider something like Dockers -- but not because jeans are verboten in Paris (anything but! *Everybody* wears jeans in Paris.)

Dockers (or a similar type of tailored lightweight trouser) can be better than jeans because:

*They%26#39;re lighter and take up less space -- you can pretty easily pack two pairs of trousers into the space of one pair of jeans.

*They%26#39;re easier to wash and dry -- whether you%26#39;re doing laundry in the tub and hanging it up overnight, or dropping a few coins in a laverie libre service (self-service laundromat), you%26#39;ll appreciate how much faster the trousers will dry...even if you%26#39;re doing laundry by hand, tailored khakis will likely be dry enough to wear by morning after a night draped over the shower curtain rod. And if you get caught in a spring downpour, you%26#39;ll doubly appreciate not still squelching around in soggy jeans later that day.

*They%26#39;re cooler -- early April won%26#39;t make that big of a difference, but later in the summer (for the benefit of those reading who may be traveling in warmer weather) -- you%26#39;ll appreciate not taking your jeans off and having them scamper off to a dark corner after you%26#39;ve been sweating all day. (ewwwww)

*They%26#39;re much more versatile -- even if you%26#39;ve been wearing them all day, you won%26#39;t have to go back to your hotel to change -- you%26#39;ll look just a little smarter and better pulled-together than just wearing jeans.

Stick with the darker khaki, grey, or other very neutral colors -- remember that there is light dirt, and dark dirt -- light dirt shows up on dark-colored clothes, and dark dirt shows up on light-colored clothes. If you pick something in between, it will hide most of it pretty well.

As far as shoes? It%26#39;s not sneakers in themselves that will flag you as Americans -- it%26#39;s the big white ones. Loads of people wear sneakers -- I saw a very stylish lady of a certain age the other day wearing a pair of purple Chuck Taylor Converse AllStars -- high-tops, no less. Everyone wears sneakers -- they%26#39;re just not white.

But above all, wear what is comfortable and gives good support. You will be walking far more than you ever thought possible -- and much of it you won%26#39;t even realize how far you%26#39;ve walked until you get home and realize how much your feet and legs ache.

so find something comfortable and with good support -- if they look good too, then fantastic -- but if they look dorky, wear %26#39;em anyway. You%26#39;ll be glad you did.

Have a great trip!

|||

I find it very hard to believe that you found that to be %26quot;quite good advice%26quot;.