Cannes Can

Bardot running along the beach at Cannes...Can I emulate this look whilst not falling over?

Lovely readers, I must apologise for my lax posting of late. A wonderful trip to Berlin for the Boy's birthday, followed by a rather nasty chest infection has made me lazy. Berlin was incredible, we stayed in Soho House, bicycled around the city exploring East and West and met up with some chums who I hadn't seen for ages.  I came back to Spring FINALLY being here...and me being nearly bed-ridden and knackered! However I have recovered form and am starting to think about my Summer style. 

People in London are already floating about in maxi dresses and flip flops and whilst I think this is a tad too far, there's no harm putting together a little fantasy collection of purchases that would be suitable for Riviera chic..what with Cannes being around the corner and visit to a pal in St Tropz on the cards.  When it comes to Spring / Summer, simple is best and I have to say the French have it nailed.  My style is a variation on my fantasy collection. Lots of stripes, simple t shirt or prom dresses, a whacking great pair of sunglasses and French Sole ballet pumps. I also try and switch my colour palette largely based around black in Autumn/ Winter to one of white.  This year I may even invest in LWD..Little White Dress of course, keep up!
What are your Summer staples?x

From left to right: Rag & Bone wide brimmed beach hat, £120 @ lagarconne.com, Repetto ballet pumps, £150; Elizabeth and James jersey bustier dress, £108 @ Net-a-porter; Ruffian A-line cotton skirt, £525 @ brownsfashion.com; D&G sunglasses, £235.

Brig again looking very French and pouty in Repetto flats, a Breton top and capri pants.  Top tip, accessorize with a vintage car for maximum glamour.

‘Easy clothes for difficult women’

Audrey

Vanessa Bruno’s new store opens tomorrow at 1a Grafton Street, W1, something to get excited about methinks as we have been too long deprived on this side of the Chanel!  Vanessa Bruno is a designer who understands the effortless soft-edged style of the 'new school' of French dressing.  This 'new school' is a welcome breath of fresh air in my opinion.  Some of you may remember my post earlier in the year ranting about 'playing it safe' French style.  Well, Carolyn Asome in The Times backed me up today;

 "After years of dull elegance, French women and labels are shedding their conservatism to embrace a new look.  The greatest disservice that Coco Chanel may have done to her fellow country women was to issue the style mantra: “Elegance is refusal.” She meant this as a refutationof all things superfluous. Her fellow country women took it as a rejection of anything new, quirky or daring. It explains why French women for generations clung ardently to a de facto outfit of trench coat, white shirt, ballet pumps, silk scarf and a safe bag.
Elegant? Sometimes. Boring? Mind-numbingly so. In forsaking experimentation for an out-dated ideal of elegance, French women became, for the most part, a nation of staid dressers. That les femmes Françaises were setting trends avidly was a myth largely propagated by Hollywood and Audrey Hepburn, whose chic ensembles in Paris-set films such as Charade and Funny Face were widely admired....."

Now I will happily go three rounds in the ring with anyone who has a go at Audrey but lets's not forget that the outfits we admired were largely in her wonderful films where she often had the helping hand of Monsieur Givenchy and the rest of us mere mortals could largely only imitate.

 So apparently the French have a new way of doing things and spearheading this movement is Vanessa Bruno, the 43-year-old blonde designer who's clothes are understated and effortlessly stylish..  She describes her clothes as “easy clothes for difficult women”— presumably she means demanding. They have become a byword for the predominantly neutral wardrobe staples of many Parisian hipsters. But don’t underestimate the ability of Bruno’s creations to make a statement.

“There always has to be an edge, but it’s a soft edge,” she says. “It’s not aggressive. It’s important to still retain that sense of femininity.”

Being feminine to Bruno is important. French cover girls, rarely sacrifice feminity on the altar of unflattering trends. “I think that’s surely a French thing,” Bruno says. “British designers do cool and edgy but they aren’t clothes that are necessarily elegant. It’s the way you appropriate an item that really counts.”

Bruno may reveal a little flesh in a top but can add a lace insert so that a décolleté is covered yet subtely revealing. “That’s the key to the way these French girls dress; there’s a bit of that idea of a ‘Chic Parisian’, but it’s not classic in a dusty way. They will break up the tailored silhouette with the unexpected; a top with a hint of sparkle, a sexy shoe, the appeal is all in the suggestion. I’d never consciously design something that was too retro: clothes always need a modern twist.” I couldn't agree more.

 

1.Clemence Poesy and the Kaiser and 2. Virginie Mouzat, fashion director of Le Figaro

Geraldine Saglio, stylist at French Vogue.

"Hurray, Vanessa Bruno will now be available in LONDON!"

N.B. This below is for my darling friend and little sister who has moved here recently. Miss you!

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Coco

I don't know if I'm alone in thinking this but whilst I accept that everyone says the French are eternally chic, is this the case? My early experience was no. The French (and to be fair, German) exchanges that used to come to my school were about ten years behind in style (and this was in the 90s making my peers and I 11ish and we STILL noticed, bitchy girls school that it was), had scrotty teeth, on occasion b.o and the only national stereotype they stuck to was being moody and loafing about looking superior or depressed whilst sneaking off for fags behind the sports hall. Albeit this was school and we've all made sartorial errors but as time passes I can't say I've ever gone to Paris and been paralysed by the amount of style, grooming etc. There are of course people you stop and gawp at, wonderfully flung together outfits that have a certain je ne sais quoi but I have seen that in every great city in the world and yet that whole Gallic myth of chic persists.

We can all single out famous French beauties, Coco (Gabrielle) Chanel leading the pack, Bardot, Deneuve etc and the new crew aren't too shabby either (Vanessa Paradis, the Gainsbourgs) but I don't think it represents the general population of the country as a whole.  We might as well say British style is epitomised by Vivienne Westwood meets Christopher Kane meets Dame Judi Dench meets Lily Allen. Gosh, the mind boggles!  The inspiration for this post was three-fold, recently seeing the film L'arnacoeur (Heartbreaker to the uninitiated) starring Vanessa Paradis and Romain Duris, getting super excited about the forthcoming Gainsbourg bio-pic and the realisation that my go-to Summer style revolves around two breton tops (navy with white and white with navy stripes) accessorised with various scarfs, skirts and denim to bring variety but STILL!

The title of this post comes from an epigram by Jean- Baptiste Alphonse Karr in the January 1849 issue of his journal Les Guêpes (“The Wasps”). Literally “The more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.” Or "the more things change, the more they stay the same" if you like.  The big French fashion houses have changed immeasurably over the past few decades, yes they still produce some 'classics' (Chanel tweed and ballet pumps for example) but would these idols we hold up like Coco and Mr Dior recognise them? Do we just cling on to the old ideas they introduced? I think we do.

French style is still perceived as classic..navy blue, Breton stripes, an artfully placed beret and there's nothing wrong with that but just 'being French' is enough to be a bit cool and do you know what? I don't think it's the style, it's the language, something ingrained.  Heartbreaker, if done in English, would have been a schmaltzy cheese-fest but instead was champagne frothy and fun.  The girl who's just as hot as you at the gym but is French (even though she speaks perfect English), the boys will go for her...I did a mini survey about this amongst the boys I know and apparently a French girl is always an extra ten points (so is a Swedish one interestingly).

Sure you can move to Paris, bang on about how much you love Isabel Marant and nibble your way round Laduree but you still won't make it.  I'm always comfortable in Breton tops because everyone thinks they're classic and they are easy peasy.  They are the die hard opposite of the try-hard trendy so can inspire you to play around with your accessories a bit more.  Coco Chanel first elevated the humble striped top to style status. In the 1930s she designed and wore a striped top with palazzo pants - a look she had adopted from French sailors- but I'm never going to be French, even if I wear 100 of them. In conclusion, there's nothing wrong with aspiring to a bit of Gallic chic but I think they could learn a little from us too so let's not be so hard on ourselves. This might be easier said than done after you've check out these hotties..

Bridget

Charlotte Gainsbourg shot for Paris Vogue 2007

Another image from that shoot because I LOVE the suspenders

Audrey Tatou (the boy loves her)

Vanessa Paradis for Chanel

My ultimate French style icon..Marie Antoinette

And as potrayed in the gorgeous Sophia Coppola film...sigh...