French chic……..can you create it?

Sago this thread is just up my street and I am sure will be of interest to other GNs.
I've ate, drank (lots!), slept (loved) like a French lady but never achieved that certain look you speak of.
Maybe it's my British shape, my fair colouring, my deportment? I'm off to give this thought and look forward to a lovely thread.

I hope this thread continues.
I once bought a book by Inès Frèsange on how to look chic. I'm still trying!!
There are lots of YouTube videos on this. (I have watched many! ?)

PS, Sago, I misread your post and thought you were in Peru, not Pau! ?

Born and brought up with it but I have to say mostly those with a decent income !

It’s things like good quality, a really good dark navy, less is more etc

A good figure due to good home diet

It is partly the clothes. A french friend appeared on one of the hottest days recently wearing a loosely fitting, understated patterned dress and a sun hat, neither overpowering but just right, not overly expensive but purchased in Paris, where her son lives. We were all wearing creased linen.
Effortlessly chic.

Sadly I think I’ve been too greedy over the years so ‘chic’ will have to pass me by. I do try to dress well, apply make up (well, plenty of mascara and a pop of geranium colour lippy in this heat!) and my fuschia sandals set off my pedicure. I like colour!

I think ‘chic’ is more about ‘understatement’ really as in clothes cut from beautiful fabrics, short manicured nails, not much jewellery (but maybe expensive), a light tan only - a healthy sun kissed ‘glow’ rather than mahogany wrinkled skin and an expensive coiffure. Large sunglasses for a bit of ‘chic mystery’, a silk scarf (natch darling) and a leather handbag would complete ‘the look’ I think.

Hmm. I must try harder....
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You just can't buy it- it is passed down from generation- you got it, or you haven't. Most French women do not have it btw.

Ha ha. Undoubtedly true of the posh bits, but not rural France. I do notice nice clothes when I go to Spain or Italy, but I find everyday clothes here very dull. There still seems to be a lot of crimplene type fabrics, too many patterns in bizarre colours and an overall fussiness to the design. I would happily buy clothes in Sainsbury's but if I buy them in supermarkets here they shrink, go out of shape or have holes after a few washes.
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I do wonder if having money (a good disposable income) adds to the ‘je ne sais pas’? A somewhat carefree attitude to the cost of things in life. I think money gives a person extra confidence and it shows, in my opinion.

Ps I haven’t got much!
Never mind, I’m never envious as my riches in life lie elsewhere and I’m genuinely grateful for them.
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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.

I prefer the Brighton hippy look, or ageing rock chick - easier to achieve ?

Fleurpepper
Thank you for putting that up. Very true. There are many areas in Paris where they are not all so chic.

Fleurpepper

You just can't buy it- it is passed down from generation- you got it, or you haven't. Most French women do not have it btw.

I think it's innate, too.
I don't have it, my cousin did.

And I agree, not all French women have it, many are comfortably plump and not at all chic.

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.

Thanks for that info. I'm off to have alook. I love all things Italian!

My sil, British but born in warmer climes, is 'plump' but definitely got it. In her 80s, she still turns heads and commands respect.

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.

Was she Michelle Dubois, Witzend?

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.

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

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.