Try this look for the fall: wear stockings with shorts. I saw a lot of women sporting this style in the spring, but it can be adopted for any season. I had never thought to wear stockings with shorts before, but it's a really useful look, particularly because you can wear shorts when it's cold! Pretty much any shoe works with it--heels, boots, flats...This is a simple but classy way to keep wearing those daisy dukes long after you've put them away for the summer.
I've been spotting fur back on the scene this fall. Well, certainly not in Oakland, but in fashion magazines, style sites, and blogs. I think this look is interesting, because it sets an outfit apart and denotes confidence. Would I wear it to class? Probably not. The style is sweeping France also, as I am told by my french friend in Nantes. I have yet to find examples of this trend on French sites or blogs yet, though I will keep searching. I did come across a blog from ELLE, however, that tracks street style in Paris. Hopefully I will spot something furry soon.
I am going back to my post about French men. I found these photos on my french sister's facebook and hope that she never reads my blog since I sifted through 300 pictures to find them. The bottom one makes me laugh because I assume that every french man has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth with shaggy black hair. The other shows a better variety. I noticed that every guy in the picture is wearing a collared shirt. I don't know if American men realize how much girls value collared shirts. They really class up an outfit, even if it is just paired with jeans. I know when I see guys on the street wearing collared shirts I silently thank them for their effort with a slight nod. I had an ex-boyfriend tell me that he didn't dress up because he said that guys only dress well to get girls. And to this I say precisely. A man who dresses well already has one foot in the door. But I hope that somewhere out there guys may toss aside the gym shorts for khakis and t-shirts for button downs because they value their appearance. I think this concept impressed me the most about men in France.
Eyes and lips are the windows to a French woman's soul, hands down. I never saw my French sisters wear foundation, blush, or eyeshadow. For them, makeup is all about eyes. Think mascara and eyeliner to draw in focus and then stained lips for color. No lip gloss. This look has a dramatic enough effect to work at night too. I don't think you can ever go wrong with simple but sexy. It fulfills that "less is more" quality. I never saw "caked on" or "glowing orange," although this could change in the future if the French become more infatuated with tanning. So show less skin, wear less makeup and you're a true French woman. Harder than it sounds.
I didn't really pay attention to male fashion trends in France, but I know that my female friends and I agreed that the men dressed well. We found that we came to appreciate guys who took time to put together their wardrobes. Sweaters with collared shirts and button downs were the most common outfits that I saw my French brother wearing. Nothing struck me as particularly noteworthy about his style, but he never dressed down. (Aka no sweatpants, t-shirts, gym shorts etc...) I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing. It's nice to see that the French, both men and women, take pride in their clothing. But I like to think that an American style dictates comfort if needed. I know that I love to do my homework on Sundays in my boyfriend's fleece gym pants. It is acceptable to wear sweats out of the house without receiving disapproving glances. I loved admiring dress in France, but sometimes I reverted back to my American habit and relished in comfort spelled "P-I-T-T" across my chest.
Longchamp was the only handbag that monopolized French trends. Instead of encountering designer bags with "LV's" stamped across them (which I thought would be common), it seemed that every female owned a Longchamp bag. The most popular style has a distinct shape, with a narrow square bottom which expands to a zipped top with brown leather straps. The colors are basic, and come in solid black, navy, eggplant, beige, grey etc... They are pretty popular in America as well, claiming a spot among an array of competing designer handbags for 20 somethings. When I met my high school friends in Paris they wanted to buy Longchamp bags, which are cheaper than in the States. So we went to the Galerie Lafyette. As we shuffled through the Longchamp store, I heard a woman ask in a distantly familiar American twang, if they had senior citizen discounts at this store. After trying to decipher what she had said, the manager gave her a blank stare. "Because they have those back in the States yah know," she responded. Needless to say, every time I see a Longchamp bag I associate it with that woman.
Something that I noticed rather quickly, was that French mix brown and black, and make it look good. Once again I was quite impressed by this skill. I feel like mixing those two colors is one of the most severe fashion mistakes that one can make. Worse than wearing white after Labor Day. But they committed this crime without conscience, and I consciously tried to figure out how it was done. I noticed that it involved a lot of layering or accessories. For example, the PR (person of research) usually wore a long sleeve black turtle neck underneath a brown jacket or dress. If they wore the second look, the brown dress was accompanied with black stockings and brown heels or boots. Only the very best can accomplish this style correctly, and since the French are, in my opinion, some of the best dressers in the world, they can pull it off. I'm rather weary if I can do this however, and probably won't try.
