How do some people manage to look so effortlessly cool?

[NotBigBrotherAgain]

Is there a secret to it or do you have to be born with some kind of special 'coolness' gene?

I'd love to be able to chuck on something vintage with a pair of Levi's and look cool, but instead I'd look like I had no decent clothes to wear and had just gone out in the first thing I grabbed off the ironing pile!

Is there anything I can do to make myself look a bit more edgy and cool?

I think interesting looking rather than good looking. Most of the people I think of as having cool aren't classically beautiful. Take The Good Wife - I'd say Diane and Kalinda had cool but Alicia - arguably more beautiful - didn't.

I always thought she was cool when I was younger - I had this poster on my bedroom door. I loved her style. In later years she seems to have followed younger mainstream music and dress style. She was grubbier and had more rock vibes in the old days. She is a quite a lot more polished today for her work. Still love her though.

The coolest person I know is tall, with big boobs and curvy not skinny. She has messy blond curly hair which she doesn't brush, she dresses up for everything which I just love, she wears lots of make up but not in a perfect way. She's got a great personality which draws you to her. She isn't classically beautiful but of course she is though, she's the type of person men want to be with (if they are brave enough) and girls want to be. Whenever we have rare nights out they are always really fun because she just doesn't care.

^ in real life!!!

I think not following fashion and also not caring about anyone's opinion of your look.

Looking a bit unusual and confident about it. Hard to fake.

Like maybe Patti Smith

Sorry, I too think Audrey is a bit too coutured and manicured to be cool. Cool people just pick up the closest item that will do and leave the house; somehow, even if it shouldn't work, it does. I don't think that it is any accident that so many artists/musicians are cool, because part of it is about the aesthetic arrogance to choose an item that is ugly.

Having a stylist rules you out altogether.

Money has f* all to do with it, and may even make it harder.

It's that kind of just rolled out of bed/ come out from the back of the bike-sheds look.
Kate Moss c1995 is cool but Vicky Beckham is not. Debbie Harry 100% but Madonna, no.
Helena Christensen but not Cindy Crawford.
It's the opposite of polished or well-groomed, so you must be able to run your fingers through your hair and your make-up should look like it's been on an hour (if not a day) too long.
Rules are different for men - Bryan Ferry is cool, Bryan Adams not.

Skinnies and a vintage band t-shirt = cool
Skinnies and a stripy Joules top with pristine Converse or Stan Smith = uncool

Dunno I think Diane Lockhart/Christine Baranski has cool and her character is always impeccably groomed.
I'm coming to the conclusion that it's more than a look. I think clever people e.g Mary Beard have got it and also anyone who make me laugh.

makes

A lot of it is attitude.

Charlie Watts cool/ Paul McCartney not cool.
Bob Marley cool/ Stevie Wonder not cool.
Bruce Springsteen cool/Bryan Adams not cool.
Kendrick Lamar cool/Eminem not cool.
Miley Cyrus is cool now she's calmed down, Taylor Swift never will be.

It's about bien dans sa peau, innit?

If all else fails; a leather jacket has your back

Re vintage band t shirts. I think there should be a law that if you're not an actual fan you're forbidden to wear them. ASOS are constantly trying to recommend me band t shirts. I'm not wearing a Def Leppard t shirt, sorry ASOS.

I think that some people suit the artfully dishevelled look, whereas other people just look dishevelled.

It's partly to do with attitude but also to do with bone structure, features, body type etc. Grace Kelly and Kate Middleton - both beautiful, but in a way that suits a more classic, groomed style.

Admittedly, they are/were both princesses, so would have had to dress fairly formally whether it suited them or not, but I really don't think either of them would be flattered by an edgier look.

Christie Hynde was cool-looking. Not so hot on some of her opinions, but she looked ace.

A lot of these people who posters are referring to as cool and a bit scruffy are just total caners and probably are just massively hungover/ coming down. like heroin chic- might work for a celeb but some scruff bag on the street can't pull off being a cool alcoholic

Claudia Winkleman is definitely cool. She has awesome boots and big coats. But it's her personality too.

But it also strikes me that it takes more than leather and biker boots. Alex Gerrard loves her leather, loves her biker boots..... but is too preened and salon fresh to be cool.

Emanuelle Alt.
Sienna Miller.
Cat Power.
Edith Bowman.
Frida Kahlo.
Cate Blanchett.
Patti Smith.
Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Jane Birkin.
Joanna Lumley.
Anna Kendrick.

All quite cool, I think.

Debbie Harry - long ago
Alexa Chung
Tracey Emin
Chrissie Hynd
Vivienne Westwood
James Dean
Stephen Hawking
Hugh Grant

Steve McQueen
Frank Sinatra
David Bowie
Prince
Nureyev
Noel Gallagher
Muhammad Ali
Samuel L Jackson
Gene Kelly

I've been told I look cool. I think it comes from a confidence to wear what you love and put unexpected clothes together that works.

I live clothes and in another life I would have been a stylist.

Today-
Dark denim wide culottes with braces, vintage grey deep v T shirt tucked in, very old converse high tops in white leather. Hair is very dirty and up in a bun. I wear 3 stud type earrings in one ear and 2 in the other. My old faithful Casio watch, a couple of bangles. I have a vintage beige trench coat in case of rain, and my mums old mesh shopping bag. It's all a bit ramshackle! But it works, you know?

Dakota Johnson looks cool whatever the occasion and so does her dog

And she wears a lot of the same things but mixes them up in a different way each time.

Poverty, you sound awesome!