May 29, 2020
Another book! I actually have a handful of them – some really fun and interesting, some… not so much…
This one is in English, and the author is witty and self-deprecation; she swears that one of the reasons that French women have such relaxed and unstructured hair styles is because they’re inherently too lazy to style their hair! Hmm…
This is one of the few books that I would recommend, if only for her sense of humor!
She starts this book with the same general advice almost every wardrobe or style books gives – start with THIS list of garments. Everybody, even if they’ve never met you, knows what you need…
This, of course, isn’t at all true, and is really nonsense, and will serve to keep you from finding your own style! But in all fairness, this book never claims that you will find YOUR personal style – it promises to dress you like a Parisian! Not sure why you would want to do that – if you actually LIVE in Paris, you already dress like a Parisian (by definition). If you don’t live there, I’m not sure why you’d want to dress as if you were from another city. Paris women can be lovely, but they don’t necessarily need to be imitated by all of us!
That said, there is always something to be learned from these books, if you look at the advice with your personal preferences and lifestyle uppper-most in your mind…
The author’s advice is pretty much spot on for my life – I could easily see these 8 pieces serve as a core for a travel wardrobe, or a cool weather capsule wardrobe:
That square buckle on the ballet flats reminds me of Roger Vivier shoes, at about 10% of the price!
Black silk tee – Blanca Vita; black cashmere cardigan – Lands’ End; velvet jeans – Lands’ End; opaque tights – Hue; pleated skirt – Halogen; ballet flats – Trotters; handbag – Rebecca Minkoff; pumps – Calvin Klein
But this goes awry from the very beginning – despite what we’re all told to the contrary, every woman in the world does NOT wear black (nor should they!). What if you wanted to base your wardrobe on navy?
That’s an easy accommodation – one wouldn’t have to really alter too much of the advice to make this work:
Navy silk top – Snobby Sheep; navy cashmere sweater – J.Crew; cotton pants – L.L.Bean; tights – Hue; lace skirt – J.Crew; ballet flats – ARA; tote – Longchamp; slingback pumps – Bella Vita
But let’s look at this advice to figure out what the real essence of her thinking is…
When you look at the 8 items arranged in an image, you can immediately see that it’s 2 outfits – one with pants, one with a skirt. The appropriate shoes are included, as well as hosiery and a bag.
So…
- 2 tops – 1 more a true “top” and 1 a sweater;
- 2 bottoms – a skirt and a pair of pants;
- 2 shoes – flats to wear with pants, and pumps to wear with a skirt;
- 2 additional accessories – a bag and hosiery.
How might this work for a former blonde, lover of beige, heading to the beach for the next 3 months. What might her “Must-Have” 8 items be?
Tank top – L.L.Bean; natural marl sweater – L.L.Bean; heritage stone pants – L.L.Bean; socks – Falke; shorts – L.L.Bean; sneakers – Vionic; backpack – Frye; sandals – The Flexx
This looks so delicious; I look dead in beige, but if I could be at the beach for the next 100 days I’d try to make it work!
Maybe you never wear skirts, and spend most of your leisure time hiking, or traveling casually with just a backpack for the weekend. Further, let’s also imagine that your favorite neutral color is GREEN!!!!
Fatigue olive tank top – Lands’ End; basil heather sweater – L.L.Bean; dark olive green jeans – Lands’ End; socks – Filson; washed military green shorts – Lands’ End; suede shoes – Lands’ End; backpack – Rains; sneakers – Adidas
Here again, this would be a great starting point for a vacation wardrobe! Toss in another pair of shorts, a few more tee shirts, and you would be all set for your hiking and sight-seeing.
So what do we learn from this? That all wardrobe advice is wrong, on the surface, for most women. But that there is probably a core of truth in all wardrobe advice that might be useful for most women.
How can you get down to (what we used to call, in advertising) “the nub of the gist”? If this advice is in a book, the best approach might be to keep reading, and see what the author actually recommends that you do with the items the insist are essential. I haven’t made it much further into Dress Like a Parisian yet, but I’m quite confident that Ms. Guinut is going to suggest that these garments can be work in all sorts of combinations with other garments. Sort of a “Core of Four,” don’t you think?
Most of us can make very good use of a couple of neutral tops, as well as bottoms. Having shoes that look good with our clothes is just basic as heck, as well as making certain to get a good bag and some tights or socks! (if you wear tights, having enough of them in house is very important)
As I read my books and look for things to share, I’m not deluded by the thought that all of you can wear EXACTLY what’s suggested. But I do believe that many of us might learn something, or at least think of our current wardrobes in a slightly different way.
I personally am impressed that this author placed so much emphasis on tights!
love,
Janice
p.s. SEVEN YEARS AGO (I’m gobsmacked) we helped a friend figure out a multi-country travel capsule wardrobe in navy, khaki, red and turquoise. I still find this wardrobe quite appealing!
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Oh Janice – you’ve had me laughing out loud this morning! ???
“She swears that one of the reasons that French women have such relaxed and unstructured hair styles is because they’re inherently too lazy to style their hair!” My daughter says the same of me as she spends hours putting curls into her dead straight hair with rollers, tongs and lots of hairspray. Apparently everyone who has loose, wavy locks has a Japanese perm to give them a ‘natural look’.I gave up perming my straight hair years ago. Now I just have a layered bob with which I can just wash and go – is that lazy?
“This looks so delicious; I look dead in beige, but if I could be at the beach for the next 100 days I’d try to make it work!” I chuckled over this – perhaps I should try 100 days of yellow or beige because no matter how much beige is suggested as a must-have neutral or yellow as the in-accent, I look dead in both. I have one pair of stone trousers and that’s my token gesture. Not that I can get into them as I’ve put on about at least half a stone in weight during lockdown – less stress, gentle strolls rather than rushing around and too much cake!
I can imagine that faced with such a book of instructions, many people would rush out and buy all things black in exact replicas of the suggestions, whether or not they ever wore black or even if said items suited them or are practical for their life style.
So praise be that we have you to guide us through the ‘must-haves’, adapting them for our favourite neutrals and lifestyles. My choice would be navy for both smart and casual wardrobes.
I’m very tempted to buy the book just for a chuckle. The best book of course for all of us is the one we could write ourselves called Dress for Me!
I see a pair of stone pants in my future – many of my linen pants aren’t going to make it through the summer intact, and I think stone twill will be a nice transition into autumn. Stone and black look great together…
hugs,
Janice
I got stone pants this spring for the first time in ages. I imagined I would wear them with light colors but it turns out my favorite pairing is with a black t-shirt. It is my new “uniform”.
I love this post! It is great to see the various visualizations of the basic French wardrobe list.
As a French woman who is indeed too lazy to style her hair, I can totally confirm the author’s statement. Getting up half an hour early to style hair? No way! I’m blessed with naturally curly hair, so I do nothing.
That’s probably why most French women do not wear long hair, they have great hair cuts and will often go to the salon, which minimizes the styling efforts. And we don’t wash our hair every single day, it’s totally unnecessary and not good for your hair, actually. I wash mine every three to four days. And the hair goes up when it looks too messy. Where do you think the chignon comes from? :-D
Not lazy at all, just sensible to realise there are so many better ways of using our precious time!
As an Italian (and lazy) girl, I can relate! I don’t actually often go to the salon (my sensitive skin doesn’t appreciate them, and I couldn’t afford frequent visits anyway), but I try to keep my hair at a manageable length and choose haircuts that work well with my natural texture. I also only wash them when needed.
Alois Guinut has a blog “Dress Like a Parisian”. I find she offers such practical styling advice along with her fabulous sense of humour. It is not a sales blog in any way. I do recommend it, as I do the “Vivienne Files ” :)
My French women friends of many decades are united on one thing: the very best accessories, and no counterfeits or “homages”. When money was tight they picked up a pair of jeans at Monoprix but the belt, never. Some of them wear subtle, unusual non-basic colour combinations such as taupe and robin’s egg blue; others are firm believers in the neutrals you show.
This is one of the most sensible “essential items” lists I’ve seen, and broken down into the two outfits (and with the variants on color and style you’ve demonstrated), I can see how valuable having this core set of items could be. These all look terrific, but I really love the olive green one! (Olive brings out my green eyes, and I associate the color with hiking and birding, so it makes me happy.) I actually have a full set of olive items (short sleeved T, long sleeved T, pullover sweater, quilted vest, lightweight cardigan, skirt, pants, scarf) but since I bought them piecemeal over the years without thinking of them as a set, they don’t all go together as well as they could. They do not look as harmonious as the ones you selected.
I realize that I’ve been too much of a clothing collector…here is an olive cardigan, I don’t have an olive cardigan, I like this olive cardigan, it fits me, I’m buying it…and not spent enough time looking for the RIGHT item. Part of this is that I’m a magpie impulse buyer (oooh, pretty, it’s different, it’s even on sale). Another part is that is I operate too much in a scarcity mode as a plus size woman. It’s like, OK, I have actually found an item that I like and fits and looks good and isn’t a million dollars, so I should buy it because *who knows when I will ever find one again*. Plus size clothes are still much less available than straight sizes, of course…for example, today LL Bean has 736 items in straight sizes, 283 in petites, and 218 in plus. And the plus items each have more limited color options than the straight size ones. But it’s not really the case that I am so hard to fit (or that my wardrobe is so lacking) that I need to act in desperation. I’m working on being more deliberate…and this blog is helping reinforce the value of doing so.
Well done Sally – it’s taken me a long time to get to the same point too. Being in lockdown has made me reassess my life and whether some of my clothes still have a purpose and function in it. Rather than having a wardrobe of clothes I wear occasionally, I’m only going to keep handy those I wear every day. The rest if i want to keep them, will go the loft.
My main problem are very short legs and petite sizes are also in a narrow range of colours. I’m also borderline plus size. This year I discovered that buying a Regular length in the trendy but awkward 7/8 length was just the right length for me! Likewise midi length is often maxi on me but knee length isn’t long enough. If I find a trouser style that suits me and comes in a range of colours, I’ll buy them all, mainly because ‘my colours’ of pink, blue, grey and purple are hard to find in any quantity amidst a sea of black and khaki with bright colours of red, mustard yellow and green.
I’m also a bit of a magpie when it comes to finding clothes in my colours- I can go a bit mad. I end up with lots of clothes but not quite the right shade. This is when I began experimenting with tonal outfits which are mentioned in this book.
Hope you stay well and motivated.
Beth
What I noticed last summer in both Milan and Paris: women in those cities did not wear fussy hairstyles. They wore simple and elegant and natural looks. Their jewelry was understated. In Milan the look was somewhat tailored and the footwear was very nice–but I didn’t see stilettos on the streets during the day, anyway. In Paris, I saw lots of lovely, well-cut print dresses paired with denim jackets and sneakers. I’ve been in Paris when the weather is cold and the fascination with tights is understandable. I live in the western US, where one can get by wearing nice outdoor wear or exercise wear (well, I even saw lots of women doing that in Bethesda, Maryland!) But, when I want to dress up a little more, I have to say, the simplicity and clean lines of the daily streetwear in Milan and Paris appeal strongly to my classic/sporty self. Oh..and did I mention that here in the western US, we have the fun of being able to slide western wear into our wardrobes because it’s NEVER out of style. (LOVE my boots-and I’d own them in every color if I could.)
Not French, but I love Edith Head’s “How to Dress for Success”. I found it in my local library when I was in high school and found a lot of great tips that has stood me well for 40 years. I recently purchased a reprint to refresh my memory. Much is dated (and occasionally uncomfortable – “how to dress to catch a man”) but most is quite good coming in the days before fast fashion. Looking back, I find it helped me avoid many mistakes. I also really like “Ready to Wear” by Mary Lou Andre.
I don’t have much use for “must have” lists either, but this one isn’t bad, especially after your analysis! I like wearing dresses, so my version would probably feature one instead of the skirt, and a cardigan instead of the sweater. Two of these clusters, with only two/three pairs of shoes and an additional top, would probably be my ideal travel wardrobe for most occasions!
I have this book, and I have read through it more than once. There is much that is workable and some things (and attitudes) that are not. A sticking place for me was when the author wrote that if you find black “too sophisticated” (or too draining a color) you could default to ‘bourgeois’ navy. Having said that, when I’ve been in Paris, I have worn black, but then, I will wear black while in cities since it is a color I associate with cities (and grey and even ‘bourgeois’ navy, heaven help moi). Apparently, I am living a very bourgeois life while I’m wearing navy, a color I have always loved and never felt in any way boring wearing. I do know people who find the color navy triggering; it apparently reminds them of their mother or something, and they avoid it like the plague. The last time I was in Paris, I accidentally fit in, because I had very little with me that one could wear in 92˚ weather, the pieces I had were black and white. I felt very boring, looking around and seeing all the other little old ladies also wearing black and white. We looked like we had come out of a cookie cutter. It might have been sophisticated and acceptable, but I personally felt boring. However, this book is very interesting, albeit aimed at a younger audience than my age cohort. I have found sources for 50+ year old women online, vis-a-vis what one could wear to fit in while in Paris. Ultimately, while I prefer to fit in, I am now more careful when I pack to pick clothes that remind me of me, rather than all the other older women of Paris. It just so happens that the lists the author makes do suit my style, such as it is, but I’m not necessarily comfortable in Paris. It feels rather constricting there, since the fashion sense is pretty much skewed toward the body type that can wear clothes sans brassiere or any other supportive undergarment for that matter.
I found her list of basics to be helpful, but then again, I like black, skirts, flats, and especially, tights! – nancyo
I especially liked the French focus on good basics in this book – an idea Alois comes back to over and over again. If they are well chosen it’s much easier to dress. Yes, good simple t-shirts and well-fitting jeans can make a difference :)
Janice, thanks for pointing out that the core wardrobe can work in different colours than black! First I put the book down because I thought “not just the same advice of black items again”. Reading Alois’ book more carefully I found lots of ideas that actually inspired me.
Just reading you for the first time, looking forward to digging into more posts!
Speaking to the looking dead in beige but wanting that effect (apologies if someone already said this)— This season I’m seeing a lot of pieces in blushy beige, peachy beige, just a hint of warm color. There is a grayed-out kind of beige which flatters almost literally no one (maybe some Asian coloring) but is far too prevalent. I would look into those warmer pale pink-beiges for beachy separates like wide-leg drawstring linen pants, linen sweaters, etc. —Stephanie