French chic……..can you create it?

I much prefer the wonderful visual feast seen in Brighton.. boho, retro, trans, chic, arty, rockstar, trashy, smart office, sporty... it's a wonderful mix... just be yourself and more accepting of difference. what does it matter?

When I’m in Italy or France I can always spot the British tourists - baggy long shorts, floral prints, football shirts, primark tops, clumpy sandals or crocs. Italians - black, navy , white, limited colours, well cut suits, sharp haircuts.

Somebody on another thread refered to having to wear a vest this winter. In Clermont Ferrand there is a very busy Damart
shop, still thriving . Last winter I bought another one for 25€,
a little expensive but they last and last. Maybe that helps the
French woman stay warm and still look chic in winter.

Nearly all the Frenchwomen I know have chewed down nails but still look chic. I can't think of a single Frenchwoman - even film stars - (except on colleague at work, at a pinch) whom I would call pretty, or beautiful but they still all look chic.

As many have said, it is simplicity and quality of clothes and accessories. Only MOnica has used the word "arrogance" but there is a certain amount of that involved, shown in the way they carry themselves and the way they command respect. Funnily enough, a smile will also give you a certain aura - one that exudes confidence and at the same time makes others think they are important. Much of this can also apply to women of other nationalities who have the old "je ne sais quoi".

French food, as some have said, is really not so special - often with no vegetables at all, just meat, potatoes and a very rich sauce or the ubiquitous frites and steak haché.

Of course they’ll have wonderful sun tans and because the weather’s hot they eat far less too so are slimmer than we ‘ northerners ‘ . With a sun tan, you can wear loose fitting white or cream tabards too , and basically, with the true ‘ cafe culture’ the French ARE just more stylish !! When you’ve tanned legs even an older woman can wear short skirts and statement jewellery is a given !
Look at Juliette Binoche in Chocolat !

I went to live and work in Paris when I was 19. I felt like a frumpy bag lady type in comparison to the slender, polished, coquettish, groomed French girls. They seemed to make no effort and look amazing. Of course their language helps. It has a somewhat seductive tone to it.

I had just come from Edinburgh and felt very parochial and like a country mouse arriving in the big city. I never did mange the look. The clothes were tiny...all size 6 to 8 - I was a size 12-14, or they were just far too expensive. I'm a bit more elegant now but not chic and I've noticed that French tourists don't look so different to any body else these days, It's a more standard 'world' look now.

a as

Trained as a child to be judged by others?. Probably not very British although I think some of the upper-class in the 20s and 30s would have treated their girls a cattle in this way. You had to be able to identify the PLUs.

Who exactly are you trying to please, grandtanteJE65?

I followed a Frenchwoman on YouTube out of interest and found the style rather severe and boring. If you wore earrings, take your watch off. Belt? Take something else off etc. Plus she had terrible teeth (which was comforting).
Princess Diana had ‘it’, even as a teenager, she would tie a little scarf round her neck in a stylish way and her honeymoon Balmoral clothes were countrified but not frumpy.
It was nice that we could show countries like France that we could be super stylish.
Jackie Kennedy managed it too.

My 16 yo’ English granddaughter always looks effortlessly chic whether wearing quality clothes or granddads cast offs. It is an innate sense of style. Money, diet, nationality (?) has nothing to do with it.

Thanks Sago, I'm always on the lookout for something other than the usual here - canard, canard et canard.

colliemum It was Cotes &Mer, fabulous food.

HazelEyes No flowery dress and I never eat dessert!

Siptil - since getting my first bra at the age of 12½ I only bought bras, underpants and underskirts when we were on holiday in Denmark in the summer, as the choice was far larger and you were most definitely expected to wear matching bra, pants, suspender belt and slip.

Don't ask me why, as only the mythical nurse in the casulty dept. if you should ever end up there, was ever supposed to see any of all this, until the day you married.

But I will admit, I felt better in matching undies than in Marks and Spencer's offerings. And I could and still can buy bras that fit in Denmark, Germany and Israel. No British made bra has ever fitted except where it accidently hit me -but that is presumably due to my figure rather than the British firms that produced ladie's underwear, back then.

I believe French chic is something that has to be learned at an early age.

The women I have met who had it, or the Spanish or Italian counterpart of it, had been brought up from the age of 10 to make the best of their appearance, which at that age was concerned only with correct deportment, good manners and learning to choose clothes and combine them correctly.

Later, at about 14, they were taught to converse politely in adult company and never, never to go anywhere, in some families not even to leave their own rooms, without making quite sure that clothes and shoes matched and that their hair and nails were presentable.

Mothers, aunts, and more especially grandmothers were quite merciless in their remarks if one slipped up. Girls were expected to look in a mirror and assess their good and bad points, then discuss how to make the good points more noticeable and how to conceal the unfortunate ones.

To a lesser extent, until the 1970s, Scandinavian, Austrian, Swiss and German girls learned these things too, whereas in Britian where I lived for most of the year the attitude was that as long as you and your clothes were clean that was all that mattered, and teenage girls were more or less expected to be shy, tongue-tied and as my scandalised Danish grandmother put it, "Behave like boys and look as if they had dressed by guesswork."

In the British girl's defence, obviously spending 40 something weeks of the year in school uniform hardly developed one's dress sense, nor could the clothes sold by the C&A, Lewis's or Marks and Sparks do anything at all towards making a gawky 15 year old feel confident about her appearance. (Clarkes' shoes did not help either.)

Cultural differences exist for better or worse and I do not believe that you can learn these things, however hard you want to and try to, as an adult if you have not been trained as a child.

Nowadays, only those women who still have their clothes tailored show any difference in the actual clothes, as all the rest of us are clothed by Hennes & Mauritz. Levi's and other international shops - but the woman inside the clothes has still been brought up to conform to one or other country's unexpressed expectations and therein lies the difference.

The first French lady I ever encountered was a young Mam'selle who took our class of 12 year olds back in the fifties. Not chic but certainly earthy as we stared mesmerised by her furry armpits!
Recently I shared a table with two middle aged Parisiennes in a McDonald's near the Gare du Nord. They managed to carry off 'the look', even in that setting, by choosing a green salad and a glass of red wine, as I chomped into some fattening option with a Diet Coke.

Sago

We had dinner in a fabulous restaurant in Pau yesterday evening, there were many ladies of 50+ dining.
The vast majority of them looked effortlessly chic, it’s an incredible look, very little make up, understated but well cut clothes and classic hairstyling and jewellery.
Is this something that can be achieved or are these lucky French ladies born with it?

Sago, I live 45 minutes from Pau - would love to know the name of the restaurant.

Ha! I live 45 minutes from Pau and there's very little French chic in evidence here. Also the myth about French women not getting fat is just that, a myth - certainly in the rural south west. This won't apply to the big cities and the well-off areas such as Provence, but it is hard to find nice clothes to buy here. As I think someone has already said, poor fitting, unpleasant fabrics and gaudy patterns abound. I've been here for nearly 7 years and buy my clothes online from British or international retailers because I still haven't found anywhere to buy them here.

I think that it has a lot to do with confidence, and grooming.
Personally, I rock bag lady chic.

Granmarderby10

Well if to acquire French Chic a light tan is required then there is no hope for me with my natural skin tone being “day old corpse” and the summer “me” is pretty much the same with a few 3D freckles added. Perhaps it is my distant Irish Heritage Chic?

Exactly skin colour and bone structure, not an English rose but darker, however some English ladies have the bones, maybe a throwback of the French refugees.
My second DD has it «the Mediterranean colour» mixed from 100s of years ago and bones from her grandmother from the south of France. She looks great in a potato sack.

Ouch!

Sago

We had dinner in a fabulous restaurant in Pau yesterday evening, there were many ladies of 50+ dining.
The vast majority of them looked effortlessly chic, it’s an incredible look, very little make up, understated but well cut clothes and classic hairstyling and jewellery.
Is this something that can be achieved or are these lucky French ladies born with it?

Oh Sago, just had a vision of you at the restaurant in a frumpy flowery dress eating dessert!!!
Really it's all about having the basics, classic clothes that never go out of style. Wearing good quality clothes that make you feel good. If you are a large lady, Size 14 or over than it's going to be hard to achieve that look. Most people have too many clothes so still achievable on a budget, just choose quality over quantity.

I have just come back from rural Normandy. The people shopping and in the towns were certainly not chic ! Most of the women were wearing awful vest t shirts and leggings and were definitely not svelte . I agree that it’s mainly in the cities . I have a French friend who lives near Paris , she is neither slim or rich but she always looks very chic . She lived in the UK for a few years and loved buying clothes here ,buying similar clothes to me, it was the way she co ordinated with other items that made the difference I think it’s called style !

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esky

My daughter said that French women look in the mirror before they go out and remove one piece of jewellry...hence the understated but chic look which many have mentioned.

The French lady in blue with glasses has been made first woman CEO of Eurostar yesterday. I think she is 55 ish.
The English lady with the cream jacket hopes to be PM. I think she is 47 ish.

Politics aside, I think they are pretty neck and neck in the businesswoman fashion stakes? Apart from the earrings?

One of my sisters in law is Frenc, one thing she said abou the British is that women wear hats at weddings or other occasions, and French women do not
Wonder if there are any other odd little things like that
She doesn't exude chic BTW, and doesn't cook either

My daughter said that French women look in the mirror before they go out and remove one piece of jewellry...hence the understated but chic look which many have mentioned.