Standing up, standing out

Welcome back to the Passage! This week's posts are about discovering life in Montreal, through a newcomer's eyes.

The move was as grueling as everyone warned, but here we are, enjoying the city's flavours and sights. Thanks for all your well-wishes, which carried me though long days.

On the train here, a young man in the seat behind mine spoke nonstop to his pretty seatmate. Because I didn't pack my headphones, I learned a great deal about him.

At one point he interrupted his monologue to ask how the woman had enjoyed her week working in Toronto, my former city. Her brief response was inaudible, but his boomed forth: "It's so sparkling there, everything's so clean. Montreal is dirty, but it's good dirty."

Fine with me; the superb people-watching is more valuable to me than a pristine streetscape. 

This is the home city of one of my oldest friends, Ruth, a consummate Montrealaise to this day. "French Canadian women can put on weight as they age", she told me, "but they really pay attention to their posture, so they carry themselves well." In my first week, through a haze of fatigue, this is what struck me among many 50+ women, from the fiercely fashionable to the comfortably casual.

A 50+ woman seems more apt to wear decolletage or tight jeans if she feels like it, despite body type, bien dans sa peau. Isn't that a wonderful physical attitude?

Gap white jeans

White jeans or skinny pants are everywhere; I've bought a pair. (Shown Gap jeans, $40. Why spend more when a splash of soy sauce lurks?) 

The love affair with tall boots continues, leather swapped for spring suede or high Wellies. 

Marinieres are cherished by both sexes. (Fantastic women's spring/summer-weight marinieres, size range US 4–US 20 by mail here.)

Galathee mariniere

The much-vaunted Quebecoise sexiness is on display at every price point. (A local story goes that a young woman congratulated for participating in the local Slut Walk protest march on May 29 said, "Alors, I'm just going to work.")

A certain type like mini dresses, the shortest shorts, and the five-inch heel.But what draws my eye even more is the diverse originality of personal style (at least in my neighbourhood and those nearby).

A woman might dash about in moto boots and a vintage full skirt, wrap her head African style, add mauve tips to grey hair (surprisingly pretty), or mash up plaids and prints: it's all here, sharing the sidewalk with religiously conservative women in black and baba cool college kids.

Future Classics dress

But more discreet looks abound, too with women in well-cut neutrals like Future Classics' LBD from the newly opened boutique Cahier d'Exercises.

To enter into the spirit, relative to my age and stage, I bought a French close-fitting dark denim pencil skirt with pyramid studs on the back yoke and a few on each side seam, quite daring for me.  Sussed out a top-notch salon where a stylist tweaked my cut and said next stop, colour: not quite so red: "Maintenant, c'est trop violente".

There's fascinating freedom and expressiveness in dress here in Montreal, and I'll show you some when my camera surfaces.

And where did I pack that garlic press?