quintessential French high street fashion

How do you imagine the quintessential French family to appear?

A guest here recently wanted to take home gifts for family and friends, and asked my advice on where to shop for a quintessentially chic and french look without paying haute couture prices.

I didn't have to think for very long!

I sent her to Cyrillus who for me embodies a very french style and look.

Their catalogue is carefully shot to please the client with growing children, and who loves the classic look with a twist of feminine fun and colour.

They are more than just an on-line site for clothes and home design; it is an invitation to enter a perfect world where everyone is beautiful; children are perfectly behaved; men are gentlemen and the sun always shines.

I should say that, much as I would like it, I am not paid by Cyrillus -  or anyone else for that matter - to write this piece.  I'm simply telling it the way it is, chatting with you as usual!

The sun has finally arrived here in Normandy and I am trying to make up for lost time in the garden.  I leave you to take a look at these pictures and tell me if they correspond to your vision of the French...

all photos taken from the Cyrillus website

what she really wanted to do ....

Marsha at Splenderosa has asked us to talk about "something we really want to do"  - I beg her, and your, indulgence as I tell you about a young girl with greater ambitions and courage than myself and who managed, against all odds, to make her dreams come true  ......

The scene is set in 1895. 

As a 12 year old orphan , Gabrielle's prospects were not good.  From a poor family, her mother had died and her father had abandoned her and left her in France while he set off to seek fortune in America.

At that time a young girl, without any family support or money could either go into service in a big house or learn a simple trade.   The nuns who run the austere orphanage decided their girls should know how to sew, and after six years at the orphanage, Gabrielle is sent to a convent in central France to discover the  needle and thread

But she wanted more.  She was pretty and she had dreams.  Her nature was to shun popular opinion and to seek to create her own luck rather than wait for a young man to marry her and expect her to keep house for the rest of her life.

She tried her chance on the stage, singing popular songs in music hall cabarets.  Young officers visiting the show were quick to notice the slim girl with her dark mysterious eyes, and she found herself  drawn into high society on the arm of a rich  beau called Etienne.  She could have married into his family, but she knew she could only be  unhappy and bored and she ran away from his château.

Quickly she found herself on the arm of a new suitor.   Together they were seen at the races and attending sparkling soirées along with the French high society.  Gabrielle preferred not to depend upon her amoureux to dress her at  the grands couturiers of the moment, she started to make her own clothes and hats.   They didn't go unnoticed!

She had no training as a milliner, so she bought the hat bases and dressed them up to her taste, wearing them perched forward, low to her brow.  They were simple and discreet   alongside the heavy, feathered and huge hats worn by other women.   She also decided to wear her hair short.

She rejected the traditional dress styles; tight waisted, boned corsets, made from heavy silks and brocades.  Doubtless influenced by her years of simple living with the nuns, and her longing for liberty of movement and choice in her own life, Gabrielle designed and sewed free flowing dresses and tunics in soft supple jerseys and linens.  Even her colours were sobre and simple compared to the fashionable rich designs.

Her accessories were also noticed, strings of pearls and  costume jewellery that she designed and made for herself.

She opened a small shop selling hats in Paris, but in 1913, shortly before the outbreak of war, she opened her first clothes shop in Deauville.  The war got under way and women of high society found themselves sent to the coast, out of harm's way, but without their domestic help.  They needed clothes they could move in, that didn't require a maid to button or to lace.  They needed to be able to walk more easily.

Enter Gabrielle with her supple fabrics, loose cuts, hemlines above the ankles, and even trousers for women.  She was an immediate success.  During the war fabric was hard to come by, but she was happy to use the jersey hitherto reserved for mens underwear.

She was soon able to reimburse her lover, Boy Capel,  who financed the first shop, thus fulfilling her dream of independence. 

And when in the 1920's she raised the hemline a little further and created her first LBD, she became an international star and her success seemed to know no limits.  It was in the twenties that she created her perfumes, and opened her door to her Parisian clients on the rue Cambon, next to the luxurious Place Vendome.

The rest as they say is history, her name in Paris became synonymous with good taste, fine fabric, and  perfectly cut tweed suits.    By 1939, at the aged of 56, she was at the head of a company employing 4000 people.   Not bad for a penniless orphan.

You know of course that I am talking about Coco Chanel.

She never owned a home in Paris, preferring to live for almost 15 years at the Ritz hotel, where she passed  away in 1971 at the age of 87.

A girl who knew what she really wanted to do  ...

then did it.

And to see what other bloggers are dreaming of doing, just pop over to Marsha's blog and take a tour!

 all pictures from google images

you may enjoy a video interview of a strong minded  Coco Chanel here

fashion on the streets of paris

How often do you look at fashion shoots and think, "not for me!" .....

I find that with my busy days, I'm more comfortable in trousers than skirts or dresses, and in the summer I tend to favour wide legged linen trousers that always fall well.   

But now we are heading back in to autumn and winter,  I am happy for once to conform to current fashion and opt for the tighter fitting skinny jeans and trousers.

This cut is all over Paris at the moment: it looks fun and feminine, and is really practical for rushing around all day.  Easy to dress up or dress down, especially since they work just as well with brogues as high heels!

This picture is great, yet only French high street fashion.   Just love the detail of the leather trim on the suede coat, and the liberty print shirt peeking out beneath a simple cardigan.

Flat shoes in the summer mean ballerines for me, but they aren't so well suited to our wet autumns.  Luckily this season there is a great selection of brogues around.  Below  pairs from Armani, Church and Gucci, but high street can work well too.

And if  you don't have to run for a taxi, or climb too many stairs, then why not try skinny jeans with high heels.

And for the days when I'm feeling really bright and cheerful, I may even tiptoe into my daughter's closet and borrow a pair of flowery skinnies!  Love them!!

How closely do you follow fashion?  Do you just stick to the same style no matter what the magazines are saying, or do you like to find bits from a new season that work for you, and blend into your favourites?  

I'd love to know just how important fashion is to you today; do you think that as we grow older we need to may more attention to current styles and not be left behind, or on the contrary is it the time to say "this is my style and I ain't budgin'!!"  ?

photo 1 thanks to Gala magazine

women in paris with their dogs and high heels

Today I bring you a little bit of whimsy to set you off for the weekend in the right frame of mind!

These delicious illustrations are by the talented French designer Izak Zenou, who has created his signature style,  specialising in fashion illustration.

I love the very Parisian feel to his drawings.   His women are tall, long legged and happy.  They float around in today's busy world looking happy and carefree, content to be beautiful.  And who has never wanted to do that?!

His pictures make me think of my girls, striding out confidently, having fun with their friends...., preferably in high heels and with a small dog in tow!  :)

But IZAK doesn't only illustrate, he has also designed a line of bags, scarves  and accessories for names such as Celine, Guerlain and La Samaritaine.  Today his products and artwork are available at the New York store Henri Bendel.

And the really cool thing is that you can get customised stationery using his artwork!  Party invitations, greeting cards, Izak's drawings carrying your message - wonderful!

Wishing you all a whimsical weekend, be it in Paris, New York, Budapest or 

Sydney; let us walk as tall  as the girls drawn by Izak.

all photos thanks to the Izak Zenou website

true French luxury

In the heart of Montmartre, Paris, there is a tall building where the lights often burn late at night.  Home to a name that epitmoises French luxury better than and other.   Lesage.  They don't design dresses, they just embroider.

They embroider for queens and princesses, they embroider for Chanel, Dior, Schiaparelli,  YSL, Lanvin and Worth.  Each bead, each sequin sewn on individually and by hand.

This is  the address that the great designers turn to, when fantastic embroidery is needed to make a piece shine and dazzle.   Founded in 1924, the current Monsieur Lesage is over 80 years old.   He says he can't sew, his skill is the interpretation of designer's dreams.  When Yves Saint Laurent called him to ask for embroidery "that would look like the reflection of my chandelier against a dark rainy window",  he knew where to start.
 

Even Monsieur Louboutin requires their services

And the really amazing news, especially to those of you who like to embroider, is that there is a Lesage school, and they run classes at all levels.  So when you're next in Paris, why not do something totally off the tourist track and check in to a 3 hour beading class, in the house of a master of the craft.

Now that would make a good souvenir de Paris!