stripes are not just for zebras

It's almost a week since break has ended and finally I am getting to the end of the pile of clothes I bought in Paris...I ended up coming back with 3 striped mariner tees...one of which was already my own, but still two more to add to the collection.

This sailor stripe, which is in incredibly high demand for the spring are popping up everywhere. It's in every magazine and on every main display in ever department store here, and popping up in the "spring essentials" for every major store back in the US.

In Venezia it is how we recognize the gondaliers, though the origins of the fisherman's sweater are to be found in Brittany the stripes on the item of clothing are what made them recognizable from a distance. Finding this nautical wear was not terribly hard to find in France. Though striped sweaters seem to be a fairly simple concept, it's far more complicated than that. There are different patterns, different types, cloth weight, and everything else that goes into a true mariner t-shirt.



"MERIDIEN" made out of heavy cotton were worn at sea aboard fishing boats under a fisherman smock, a reefer jacket and the heavy oilskins with their fishy smell.

"MINQUIERS" and "LEVANT" are made out of a very fine thin cotton.

"NAVAL" National Navy service men shirt was and is still worn on special occasions by sailors manoevering on deck of war ships together with the "BACHI" with its red pompon.

"GARDE COTE" women mariner shirts are in stretchy cotton adding softness, cotton touch and elasticity or out of an anti-UV material.

It goes a little further than the 4.50 euro cotton smock that I picked up at H+M...probably lasts a bit longer, too.