Paris Fashion Week kicks off tomorrow, Tuesday 26 February, and while I have managed to squirm my way into one or two events, I really do feel that there is nothing like watching the fashions on the street, or browsing the aisles in the major chain stores of Europe.

Things I’ve noticed? Emerald might be the Pantone colour of the year but mint is to be the colour of the season (Spring/Summer 13). It’s everywhere, together with a healthy dose of lemon.

                                                                          Mint and florals at H&M

Second trend? The mottled colour jumper. If it’s a knit, even better. I command you all to find a speckled jumper immediately – it’s best in pastels.

          
                              The mottled jumper – EVERYWHERE in Paris – at Monoprix

Those runners with a wedge heel, so loved by Isabel Marant, are all over Paris and try as I might to hate them, it seems they are here to stay.

Brights and fluro accents don’t seem to be going anywhere either. Orange and pink are attached to 90% of the clothes this side of the world, so don’t go throwing anything away just yet.

As for on the streets, it’s so cold here, everyone is covered up – today it rained and while the snow was pretty, water pouring from the sky is just miserable. All I can think of is soup and tracksuit pants, two things really not very Parisian. 

We ventured over to Galeries Lafayette today (the architecture of that building alone was worth the trip!) and I may or may not have put us on the wrong Metro back to the Hotel de Ville. All was not lost though; a wrong train means opportunity and this one saw us watching a man with a saxaphone entertain a carriage full of peak hour travellers. You don’t see that in Melbourne!