French chic……..can you create it?

MerylStreep

Nightsky
From being an adult I’ve never been without a blazer. I bought my first camel coat ( second hand) in the 60s I’ve never been without one.
With a good white tea shirt/ shirt polo neck jumper, good chinos and loafers to go with the above you can go anywhere.

I favour a similar look Meryl A selection of crisp white shirts are a basic in my wardrobe to coordinate with various trousers, jackets, loafers or trainers. I also have a selection of costume statement necklaces to complete the look I like. The classic camel coat I bought in the seventies is still as good as new. ?

MerylStreep I so agree with you - I love a navy blazer, preferably in good material (barathea wool or wool crepe). It smartens up any outfit and a blazer, jeans and white tee or navy/white striped tee is my favourite casual outfit. I wear it with loafers and always a leather bag (never plastic!). I would rather have 1 decent leather bag than several plastic ones.

Granmarderby10

I just can’t get over any women of fairly average height (is Victoria Beckham short?) and having had children; being a size 6. Do they not eat?

Yes, lots of fish and vegetables.

Having lived in various part of France I only ever witnessed true French Chic in certain arrondissements in Paris, that effortless look and je ne sais quoi air comes with a hefty price tag. It was always noticeable in the south too which Parisians had decamped for the month of August to escape the city. Not only are they very figure conscious regarding diet but their wealth affords them expensive beauty treatments, the best of hairdressers and choice of clothing and accessories. Not a look attainable on a budget? but fabulous to see in my book anyway. There are various pins on Pintrest to follow for a French Chic look too.

I just can’t get over any women of fairly average height (is Victoria Beckham short?) and having had children; being a size 6. Do they not eat?

Nightsky
From being an adult I’ve never been without a blazer. I bought my first camel coat ( second hand) in the 60s I’ve never been without one.
With a good white tea shirt/ shirt polo neck jumper, good chinos and loafers to go with the above you can go anywhere.

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?

I have a lovely collection of silk scarves, which I used to try and co-ordinate with my outfits. I remember the first time I casually tried wearing one, aged about 14, my mum’s friend sympathetically asked me if I had a sore throat! That put me off being trendy for a while.

It's the same with their children's clothes. I'm going back to France next week and have a list of items to buy for DGD's 9th birthday. They don’t seem to have silly things written on them in France or loads of sparkly stuff.

I think that is true Joseanne. The good clothes are very very expensive and I can never find the middle range that is in the UK. I was cut off from White Stuff / Joules / Seasalt by Covid and ended up shopping at H and M here. I used to buy stuff at M and S when in the UK, but it seemed to have all gone a bit strange on my visit in the spring. Happily the charity shops still delivered some nice Jaeger.

It’s just knowing how to put things together. A scarf, and belt
and a good hair cut are a must and at least one blazer in your wardrobe. It can be copied by anyone who has money or if you’ve got a good eye.

Style, some people have it and some don’t and it helps if you’re a size 8/10/12 or a size 6 like Victoria Beckham.

It’s the same with the French food,too. So lovely but often very simple. Served well and matched perfectly with sauces.

I was told once they spend a lot on a outfit and wear it and wear it! I heard that too.

It doesn't even need to be tailored, sophisticated or expensive. It seems to me they can still look elegant in the cool, scruffy sense with pumps.
It's a sort of less is more way of dressing.

When I worked in Paris a French colleague told me that if you didn’t start with good beautiful underwear your look would never be right.

Some do look fabulous, agree with comments already made.

I was told once they spend a lot on a outfit and wear it and wear it! Tbh I have personally notice some are a bit ripe.. Perfume doesn't always cover it.

Notice some add statement jewellery, big necklace or earrings but not too much.

Think some of us buy fabulous clothes pop them in the wardrobe and don't wear that often.
Regardless of your shape, if you feel fabulous you give off that glow.

Worth experimenting, go out fabulous one day, do the same in your "normal" attire, see if you feel any different.

RichmondPark1

Slightly off piste, but in a similar vein, I have just finished rereading a book called Bella Figura by Kamin Mohammadi. It's a wonderful insight into how Italian women live simply, look so wonderful and make the most of every moment of every day. Lots of recipes and good advice all beautifully woven through the diary of a year in Florence.

It’s in my Audible library, it will be my next listen after I finish the Mary Queen of Scots biography.

Just in case it might cheer anybody up ? I must say that in both the big supermarkets close to a BiL’s place in France, where we’ve stayed so many times, I see numerous plump or frankly porky women in very ordinary clothes, and with what I’d describe as ‘any old’ hair.

It’s fairly rural, not far from Dijon.

Some women ( maybe some men) always look as if they stepped out of ‘the band box’. Their hair is always neat, their nails grow immaculately and they maintain weight effortlessly.
Not a description of me!
I do think having the knack of putting colours, textures and the style of clothes together is the key.

it is only a very narrow strata of affluent French women, who achieve that 'French chic'. It requires expensive clothes and the right urban milieu

We have had a house in Normandy for over 30 years and 99.9% of French women we see wherever we go there, in restaurants, supermarket in the street, do not look any different from the average woman in the street or supermarket in the UK.

Overall, I would say that the average woman in the supermarket in England is better dressed than her French counterpart.

You can see women in England who have the English equivalent of French chic, but you would have to haunt the more expensive parts of London and the more expensive restaurants to see them. It is very much an expensive urban look.

Personally, I do not like it much, too inhuman, the expensive equivalent of looking like Barbie, and requires an arrogant frame of mind to carry it off. An assurance of one's own superiority. It also entails far more time, attention and money being given to how one looks, how one maintains it and expenditure on clothes than seems really justifiable on any grounds.

I do have a few Welsh friends who display that chic style. They can place a neck scarf with style or drape a pashmina that doesn’t end up like mine hanging down one side or occasionally ending up on the floor.
Their outfits always look expensive and understated. I admit all have a less Reubenesque body than I do but even so…

Hang not hand. I think my computer is thinking for itself again.

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?

They have no hips. It makes clothes hand well.

Was she Michelle Dubois, Witzend?

I agree that it’s often innate. There was a girl at school, in the year above, who always looked incredible in her school uniform. Part of it was down to the fact that her skirt always had immaculate pleats, but it was mostly just her general air - she wasn’t especially pretty - plus immaculate grooming.

I once read that ‘some girls can wear even a school hat with an air’ which more or less summed it up.

I’ve just remembered that one of the French exchange girls who came to our school in the summer (we’d been to them at Easter) was extremely chic, perfect hair and nails, etc. But what astounded us all was that she found out (to us) seriously horrible brown gaberdine uniform coats highly desirable - and actually bought one! And of course made it look the height of chic.