Paris Fashion Week and chic French style
As Paris Fashion Week rumbles on, it is great to see what chic and stylish delights the designers have for us this year. The autumn winter 2010 collections shown at Paris are a preview for buyers and journalists and won’t even be available to buy for months, but they give us a sneak preview of what is to come for the seasons ahead. Paris Fashion Week always has its own unique style. Where London is known for it’s innovative and Avant Garde designs, Milan for its pure luxury, Paris is all about understated elegance and that chic French style.
French women are known for their elegant chic style, what ever their age. Whilst their outfit choices are often not the most exciting and perhaps not the most ground breaking, they know how to choose styles of clothes that compliment their body shape and look great. By avoiding the really high fashion and not following the latest trends in a sheep like manner, they avoid those ‘fashion mistakes’ and sacrifice quirky individualism for classic style. When it comes to French style icons, there are so many to choose from including Fannie Ardent, Jane Birkin,Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Adjani and Bridget Bardot. There are also countless books and articles on how to get that chic French style. But just sometimes I wonder if it is possible to get that ‘je ne sais quois’ of French style by reading a book or if it is just part of the culture.
For this Paris Fashion Week, there was classic and chic French style by the bucket load. With British designer Phoebe Philo proving she can do French chic to perfection for the established French brand Celine, perhaps it isn’t just the French who are super stylish after all. Phoebe, who has also worked with Stella McCartney at Chloe, managed to hit just the right balance of youthful sophistication with her collection of sharp minimalism. To get this look wear a simple sleeveless shift dress in neutral shades of black, navy, camel or beige.
Celine wasn’t the only label to continue with spring’s minimalism for the winter collections. Stella McCartney, another British designer, who can work that French chic almost as well as the French themselves showed plenty of classic and very stylish pieces. Her collection was all about understated elegance and quality with a really desirable mix of nude, blacks and greys with the odd flash of neon. It featured mini dresses, classic coats with a twist and beautifully cut trouser suits.
For more examples of minimalism from Paris Fashion Week, Lanvin was another key show to look at. Clean silhouettes and neutral stretchy fabrics accessorised with rock crystal jewellery were pure glamour as only Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz can do in this way .
But Paris was not just about minimalism, as always there were the theatrical shows which included Jean Paul Gaultier, Victor & Rolf and Cacharel. Vivienne Westwood brought along plenty of her usual quirky British style with over sized blankets and high top trainers and John Galliano had an equestrian theme for his Dior collection which included brown leather capes, pink chiffon dresses and knee high boots.