We got so much nice mail following the announcement of our Charlotte Gainsbourg winner \ French style icon contest that we thought we’d also go ahead and run the runners-up—like, above, Francoise Hardy. They make us happy. We think it is in part because in large part they are still revered, even though they are now 60+, and we would like to live in a culture like that. And not in the one that thinks Carmen Electra has a lot to offer. So: instead of discussing CE here, we will not, and we will spend all of our time with French style icons, whose relative worth we have already droned on about much too long.
A note from K. about her French style icon selection:
Françoise Hardy … not only was she gorgeous (she still is) in that flat-boot wearing, black turtle necked, somehow-still-relevant French style of the 1960s, she wrote her own music, was photographed with the likes of Mick Jagger and the Beatles, and had a poem written about her by Bob Dylan. She is also new age as fuck, and is still rocking these days. I’m always happy to add a “new” Françoise Hardy record into my burgeoning vintage lp collection.
That is totally it, we think: Somehow French style icons mature, like wine, if you will excuse our metaphor, while American starlets are almost literally disposable. Like bad milk. Honestly, look at this picture, from her website:
Totally stylish and elegant, at 63. It makes us not want to kill ourselves as we age. Vive la France! We are so moving to Paris.
And if we are being completists about it: here is video of her singing.
Levi’s is one of our favorite global-type brands, making, as they do, jeans we like quite a bit. We actually, now that we are thinking about it, own more Levi’s than we do any other brand. Er, more or less. Anyway: We like Levi’s, and we like them even more because tomorrow is their “501 Day” (being, as it will be tomorrow, 05/01) where everyone goes and volunteers somewhere. Making it quite different, really, from Cinco de Mayo. Anyway: We just wanted to say that if you are in New York, SF, or LA and wanted to volunteer with Levi’s for New York Cares, Heal the Bay, or the Foundation for Hospital Art, tomorrow’s the day. We’re wishing they’d throw in some free jeans for the effort while very aware that that more than sort of sidesteps the point.
And above. These are from the organic cotton Eco line, which explains the price. We remain undecided as to whether cropped jeans makes us look shorter or taller. Twisted crops, $190
Tangerine: The whole site’s 35% off. That is the kind of discount we can live with. We’ve already discussed the really-very-big selection of CYDWOQ belts, which is definitely our favorite thing there, but it might also be worthwhile for basic tank tops (like above, Splendid’s shadow-stripe cami, was $42, now $21)
It drives us crazy when stores put reasonably nice pieces of clothing on ugly Barbie-type plastic mannequins, but … 35% off is quite a bit. And in any case, here’s another CYDWOQ belt—though! Going fast!
i just got word that we have a company golf outing in late june – and there will be other sports that actually require movement, like volleyball. what the HELL do i wear? i am not an athletic girl, but i’d like to be able to play volleyball or kickball if the chance comes up – so no skirts. i think shorts, save for american apparel running shorts, are an abomination of all that is holy. i don’t do well in the heat, so i can’t wear pants. also, i work for a fairly corpoprate company (think lots of ny+co button down sateen shirts, fleece, khakis) – so i don’t need to hide the fact that i’m heavily tattooed, but i don’t want to flaunt it, either.
do i suck it up and buy a pair of shorts? how short is too short? my last company outing was with anthro to a baseball game – everyone was dressed nicely, and went and got drunk and passed out in their seats.
And to the stylist:
“So there are really two questions here: One, what is fun to wear to a party where there are athletic events to be had? And the other, What is acceptable to wear with my co-workers? These are different questions, and it’s really difficult for me to judge the latter, not having seen your office mates. So that question becomes, Do you care what they think? If you do, just ask your boss what she’s wearing, and wear something less expensive than that. What I would probably wear would be a pair of not-snug tailored shorts, a cute t-shirt and equally cute trainers.”
“I really prefer these shorts in the black (they obviously do, too, since they’re $100 cheaper in the yellow), but the bright color sort of screams ‘summer work outing.’” Johnson Millicent shorts in yellow ($143) and black ($255)
[BS note: We have overruled the stylist's independent t-shirt pick for this one:
It reads: "New Jersey: We don't pump our gas. We pump our fists." NJ: full-service, baby, 24-7-365. If there is one thing that truly joins us together as a state, besides The Sopranos, and laughing at the people dancing on the decks of summer-only clubs on the Shore, it's the bafflement of 17-year-old drivers forced to get gas in Pennsylvania, staring sort of bewilderedly at the pump. Ha! We love it. NJ tee, $26.99
Obviously this t-shirt can only be worn with cut-off Levi's or similar and has really not very much to do with a company's outdoor athletic day. Moving on.....]
Alternately you could fancy it up a little with a nice jersey—but really only jersey, you wouldn’t want to be any more structured than that—top. I love this one—I’d need to see it close-up but I’m thinking it’s casual enough to ride the line, especially if you’re more concerned with cuteness than, say, hitting the actually being athletic.” Black Halo top, $118
“And then, running or no running, I’d just wear a pair of Havaianas, but if you need to wear something appropriate for dashing here and there, I’d either go with Converse or some fun Nikes or similar.”
“Okay—so that’s what maybe you have to wear, in a reasonably coordinated way: reasonable shorts, cute tee, cute shoes. What I would wear, however, would be this, at the very top. That Karen Zambos playsuit is terrific, even if that is not Kate Beckinsale’s best photo. And so that Charlotte Solnicki version might be a little short, I’m thinking it’s fine for an occasion like this. [BS note: We are totally calling bullshit on that, unless you work ... somewhere other than you work, it sounds like.]
Okay, so … here we are. Have a question for our stylist? She is here, she says, and ready to help. Email us here.
In last week’s Ask the Stylist:
I have an engagement on Friday which I am rather looking forward to, and want to look devastatingly gorgeous for. I am from the Audrey Hepburn school of couture, in which I ususally go for the simple-but-elegant look. I want to wear this black cap-sleeved top (which is lovely on) and was thinking of wearing it with a black pencil skirt…but I fear that may be just a tad too much black. What can I do to break up the black and add a little bit of colour or interest whilst still maintaining the so-necessary-elegance?
It is already our sale of the day, but it’s worth mentioning again: Everything! At Blaec! 15% off! (No pre-orders, or Rock and Republic!) That is a lot. Besides the Nieves Lavi dress we’ve already mentioned, we enjoy—well. We … are somewhat into (and we say that chiefly because we love the Nieves Lavi so much, and also because we’re not finding precisely what we want at the moment) this top: so volume-y, we know, but also interesting, and with super-narrow-bottoms-that-are-absolutely-not-those shorts, we think we’d love it.
First! The winner of the Charlotte Gainsbourg giveaway! It goes to the following favorite-French-style-icon entrant:
Tricky tricky. Of course there’s Audrey Tautou with her impish cuteness, and Charlotte Gainsbourg who is oh so beautiful in that “she’s got something going on up there” sort of way. And then there’s the classics, Brigitte Bardot, who shares the same birthday as me, the lips, the hair, the eyes, goodness gracious she exudes sex in every which way.
But for me, Anna Karina takes the cake. Sure she was born in Denmark, minor technicality. She was renamed by Coco Chanel and not only stared in his films but was married to one very cool French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard. Big cat eyes, that perfect wavey brown hair, a mouth that has not only mastered the pout, but a perfect coy smirk. And the girl makes the school girl look (not the Britney Spears version, but the knee-length skirt, cardigan, and bobby socks one) so chic and endearing.
A.
First of all: We are personally in debt to this entrant, because we found the picture above after we got her email and we are absolutely getting that haircut. Tomorrow. Bangs! Adorable French bangs. She is the antidote to all the Paris Hiltons and Nicole Ritchies and Kimberly Stewart and all the rest of them. Seriously. We know absolutely nothing about her, except for her film bio, and we are just so calmed by it. This is difficult to explain.
Here are a few more pictures:
Bangs! Encore et encore.
We guess we think of it this way: We do believe there is something about achieving style-icon-ness, even in a local and personal way. And it’s not about age or weight or being rich or anything like that—it’s about savvy and cleverness and making whatever you were born with into something uniquely excellent. And we love that because it is completely democratic: Style icon, that’s something anyone can achieve. Now, on the other hand: Heiress-y empty-headed starlet: Maybe that’s more difficult to achieve, in the sense that we cannot all be born heiresses, and more to the point, in the sense that we cannot all be empty-headed, vacant-eyed starlets. We prefer style icon to starlet drug addict.
We have to say, having tried it: not enough vitamin goodness to offset fiddling with non-vitamin-y Diet Coke goodness. We are thinking of it as a non-alcoholic beer, in soda form. Who else has tried \ loved \ loathed?
Holy shit! We totally forgot! It is Charlotte Gainsbourg CD giveaway day! Because we were talking about how we think she is our favorite style icon, which somehow made its way to the unbelievably lovely Christen at Vice Records, who is magically giving us a free CD to give away! Hurrah! And we are not even mailing it, so we will not fuck it up, like usual. Hurrah, Christen!
Okay, so today’s question, and it is … first, we need to say trivia was a lot more interesting \ difficult before Wikipedia. Okay, we will ask this: Who’s your favorite French style icon, and why? Just as brief as you want to be, and we will choose a winner by the end of the day. Email us here!
And by the way, can we say how bizarre \ excellent it is that Courreges is doing something for La Redoute? We’re not even as in love with the dress as we are with the concept, but still. Courreges for LR, $139.99
Beatrix Ong! We walk past her shop every day when we are in London, since it is practically next door to our yoga studio and we can afford to do nothing in London except go to London, and that includes eating at McDonald’s or buying jeans at the Gap. (Fuck you, exchange rate. Fuuuuuuck you.) And we even named her shop one of the 25 best in London, a list that is currently a whopping two stores long. But we mean well.
Maybe we will wear it with this Alice and Olivia dress and go out and be like, “Ha ha! We don’t have any money anymore!” But oh, we would love our clothes. Even if Suze Orman, who is like the imaginary avenging angel of this site, would not approve. Alice + Olivia dress, $279
And okay, so these are about $400 cheaper. We are totally getting these. We are so into the low wedge these days. Klaribel mini wedge, $14.99
And this dress: easy, peasy, $19.99. Empire dress, $19.99
