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The Art of Being Seen

Fashion in Paris and how it affects their visual culture.

Marjan Krebelj
Counter Arts
5 min readJan 15, 2025

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In Paris, 2012. Photo by author.

“Ah, Paris, mon Paris,” the city of wide avenues, grand galleries, and street artists — a city where the light is so unique that photography simply had to be invented. A city of charming berets and ballet flats, where even the Seine is spared the rush of other capitals. Above all, it’s a city that always inspires and provokes thought, especially for someone professionally engaged with aesthetics.

About seven years ago, we visited Paris with our university class, rented an apartment right in the center, and spent around ten days pretending to be Parisians. I immediately noticed how thoughtfully everyone was dressed. Not always beautifully, nor always successfully, but always thoughtfully. I’ve seen this in other metropolises (especially New York), but here, a refined sense of aesthetics and elegance stood out. It wasn’t about buying expensive clothes — quite the opposite. In a bar, I once saw a girl wearing a stretched, torn T-shirt and rather ordinary jeans, but paired with her hair, jewelry, subtle makeup, and footwear, the result was so elegant and tasteful that I couldn’t stop looking. Each element on its own was ordinary, but combined, they were perfect. The more I observed, the more I realized something was happening here. “You’re right, people communicate this way with each

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Counter Arts
Counter Arts

Published in Counter Arts

The (Counter)Cultural One-Stop for Nonfiction on Medium… incorporating categories for: ‘Art’, ‘Culture’, ‘Equality’, ‘Photography’, ‘Film’, ‘Mental Health’, ‘Music’ and ‘Literature’.

Marjan Krebelj
Marjan Krebelj

Written by Marjan Krebelj

Once an architect, now a freelance photographer/filmmaker with passion for words.

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