I recently spent a week in Montreal, Canada, traversing the city and enjoying an enviable amount of coffee, croissants and wine. As I walked the streets I was able to spend a great deal of time people watching {particularly the women and their fashion}. I had always known it was a French-speaking province but was surprised to find their charm is European in essence and it pervades their beauty sensibilities. This got me thinking about how perpetually fascinated American women are by French beauty and how very different it is from our approach to it. Here are three basic beauty rules of French women {and how to easily make them your own} :
1. PERFECTION ISN'T CHIC. Irrefutably, one of the signature styles of French women is the "undone look." Not disheveled, but effortless. Not messy, but chic. This is a far cry from the somewhat mask-like makeup that seems to be so ubiquitous in the States. Instead, they own their looks while neither apologizing for them, nor concealing them. This is certainly the allure : when a woman appears comfortable with herself, she gives off an enviable confidence as well as an overall sense of style that cannot be equaled by a full face of flawless makeup. Perhaps what these women appear to have figured out is that it isn't about the makeup... When a woman owns what is under her makeup, what she wears on her skin then transforms from a mask to a stylish accessory.
2. BE A MINIMALIST. French women are simplistic : they value the easy, the uncomplicated, the casual chic. They aren't walking the city wearing full faces of makeup. They are minimalists who want to make a statement. {They've made a red lip paired with nothing but clean skin a French classic.} I've always loved how Coco Chanel advised women, "Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off." If we began to think of makeup as an accessory instead of a way to conceal our perceived flaws, would it change the way we wore it?
3. MAKE IT LOOK EFFORTLESS. These French speaking women have mastered the art of looking chic with such ease, it’s as is they hadn’t tried at all. They walk this line so flawlessly that they appear to have put almost no effort into looking so fabulously stylish. It is just who they are inherently : perfectly imperfect.
And isn't that what we all really are?