I've just got back from five days in Le Marais, and I've decided I want become Parisian, s'il vous plait.

[TossDaily]

So there.

EVERYBODY looked fantastic. EVERYBODY. DP and I just sat open-mouthed in fascination. Whatever their age, they looked amazing.

So I'm sitting here on a diet, wearing an Isabel Marant jumper and frantically googling 'How to turn French.'

As far as I can tell, the rules are:

1. Be thin, despite the fact you are walking down the street at 11am gnawing a cheese and ham baguette the length of your forearm.

1. Have your hair the colour and texture of natural hair.

1. Have the most amazing skin, despite the fact you have a permanent Gauloise on the go.

1. Never get pissed and lairy, despite the fact you are having a glass of red wine with your lunch and it's Tuesday.

1. Wear shoes you can walk in.

1. Have an amazing coat.

1. Know how to tie a scarf so it looks like you have slung it on and it's just choosing to snuggle up to you because you are SO FRICKING GORGEOUS.

1. Have a pharmacy on every corner that is just an Aladdin's Cave of miraculous skincare delights for less than a tenner each.

Anyone else have any tips? Joking aside, I loved the style - the shops, ohmigod the shops! It was like I'd walked into my internet shopping history.

I could actually walk around in my biker jacket without feeling like a twat.

I want to be French. Aidez-moi.

I spend a fair amount of time in my company's Paris office, and work with my Parisian colleagues on a daily basis

My fashion icon has been Emanuelle Alt for a good few years, but working in Paris has definitely encouraged me to up my game a bit! The females in my office are mainly girls in their 20s and are much more rock chick -they ALL smoke, but somehow look make it look really cool (I think smoking is deeply unattractive, and women in the UK tend to look like fag ash Lil with a cigarette in their hand - yet they manage to make smoking look sexy. Don't worry, I'm not about to start, for that truly authentic Parisian look)

My capsule wardrobe is a bit Parisian to start with - rolled up jeans, 7/8 skinnies, looser fitting shirts, fitted breton tops (though I don't wear them when I go to Paris for fear of looking like I'm a try-hard / stereotype), Merino wool or cashmere round neck sweaters, pointy flats, ankle boots or stan Smiths, biker jacket etc. But since I started working with the French office I've upped my game by treating myself to a few investment pieces (Classic obscenely expensive trench, genuine leather leggings - thanks @botemp ! - and leather skirt) and experimenting with different make up (smudgey eyeliner for a slightly smokey eye OR wearing next to no eye makeup but a bolder red lippy)

I'm definitely not Parisian chic, but I am enjoying having stripped my wardrobe right back, and building out my capsule wardrobe so anything I buy can be easily mixed and matched with what I already own.

WRT how the French eat - the Paris office take lunch VERY seriously. They insist on taking a full hour and are exceptionally disapproving if anyone books a meeting that's over the lunch break Paris time - and never ever eat al desko. After work drinks always always include going for food first - whereas in London we'll head straight to the pub and have a packet of crisps in the boozer for dinner, they go and get some dinner first before they start drinking. And they definitely do get pissed!!

I have recently stopped smoking and it most definitely does suppress your appetite. I’m loving it because I want curves.

Distancecall what do you love about Italian style?

Oppressive, fat-shaming women sucking on cancer sticks are not something I will ever aspire to be. Not all French women are like this of course, thank goodness.

Pimsy , if I ate like that I would be chewing my elbow. Completely envious about living in Paris though.

I lived and worked in Paris a few years ago. Found French women rude and sulky and so happy to be in London now. Plenty of fat women as well as fussy kids in Paris.

The joke in our Paris office is if someone is rude and sulky it is because they haven't eaten enough.
I think the French are, in general, much healthier and have a better attitude to food.

The only French woman I know with a typical Parisian look has an eating disorder.

Tossdaily I loved your original post - I’d love to be able to do that ‘French’ look. I’m sure I won’t pull it off as I’m much too fat but it’s nice to think about!

I don’t really understand why some people are now piling in with attacks on French women. It really isn’t what the thread was about and changes the tone. Unnecessary.

Hmm. I so wanted to experience this amazing Parisian style but mainly what I saw in Paris were very frail looking women dressed in black. Noone was rude to me however and my French is appalling - in fact they were nicer there than the UK! I thought the women in London where I worked and lived were more stylish (I'm not British!).

Inspired by this thread, I'm off to work in red lipstick and perfume with notes of tobacco (I don't smoke)! i have the natural (= scruffy) hair already, but my coat isn't nearly nice enough.

I didn't want to start a thread for women to call other women names

What counts as a good French coat?

I'm currently living in le parka, but I expect that simply won't do. Although I am rather too wide of derrière and grande of boob to ever be a French shape. Not even in my twenties when I weighed a stone less and smoked.

Good coats I observed were wool, crombie or cocoon-shaped, quite long, in tweeds, herringbones or plain sludgy colours.

I wore my Christie coat from Hush, but somehow I don't think I hit the mark even if the coat did.

For a basic grasp of coats look at Comptoir des Cottoniers, Soeur, Ba&sh, Paul & Joe (Sister), Sandro, Zadig & Voltaire, and Maje (or when in doubt go to Max Mara, any coat will do there). There's a lot of emphasis on the collar, shoulders are sharper (raglan sleeves aren't as common), again they're Anglo inspired but somehow sharper but the riding or trench coat influence is legible. Some parkas are worn but they're very different, more exuberant on the fur (though often shearling) and more fitted or extremely oversized. Usually plain cotton as outer finishing, they're not as practical, though sometimes it's waxed cotton. The ones from Maje and The Kooples are oft coveted.

Browns and sludge colours do seem more of a staple colour in France than elsewhere and it suits their colouring, especially in winter. Also navy and bordeaux (not burgundy). You're more likely to see black in leather or in a drapey satin trench than in wool coats. Pied-de-poule and herringbone also seem to be patterns pretty much immune to trends there.

@bananafish81, so glad to hear you're still happy with the leather leggings, they looked great on you in those pics! I like Emanuelle Alt's sense of dress too and secretly kind of like Carine Roitfield (and her daughter too, who is a bit closer in age) even though she's so heavily associated with the Tom Ford 90s look but I feel that's due a good old revival anyhow.

I think French women are generally not very pretty so perhaps they have to focus on their clothes - those who do although there are more who do not, in Paris and elsewhere.

As for smoking as more seem to do, well that is batshit crazy from a health point of view. What is the point of eating healthily - although I will take that with a pinch of salt - if you negate it all by risking cancer?

As a nod to Parisian chic I am today sporting a bold red lip (plus navy skinnies, breton blouse and burberry mac shamelessly nicked from my Mum's 80's wardrobe). Went and had my eyelashes and brows done, the lady went "ooh you do look fancy" while my 6 year old went "Mama, what's occurring with your face?". He'll be left behind when I move to France.

I do love the undoneness is that a word? of the Parisians and I think so many of them pull it off extremely well. Last time I was there, I was shocked by some women's skin - all the parapharmacie stuff in the world will not make up for a 20 a day habit.
We have a lot of uber-chic Chinese and Japanese tourists where I live and I literally cannot get over them. The best wardrobes ever - although clearly costing thousands- and their skin ... OMG! How does one achieve such radiant luminosity?

Lived in gay paree for years.

You're right - the notions of "treating oneself" and "letting your hair down" simply do not exist.

The role of women is to intrigue and be mysterious!! Not to crack jokes and swear like a sailor/drink like a fish.

When I go back to the UK, it seems to me that everyone is yelling, and drinking prosecco all the time. But I bloody love it.

Also I am tall and a UK size 10 but next to these mysterious, nymph-like creatures I feel like a galumphing giant. Also good luck getting a boyfriend - I am the one who makes all the boys laugh and then they go home with some silent intriguing beauty.

Saying that, i'm still here. Hoping some of it might rub off on me one day.

Hey tossdaily come and say salut on the Franglais thread, you have juste the vrai vocabulary! We parler a lot a about food and vin.

What is this French scarf thing? What do you all mean? Pictures of beautiful scarf wearing French people please

Thanks for the coat advice. Is grey Parisian?

I can't do a cocoon shape. I think it only works well on a stick insect. Me in a sludge cocoon coat = a human potato.

I did try to (not) eat French style, but after 20 mins in the fucking entertainer I was ready to punch a furby. Maybe the wine softens the hanger.

DameDoom, wrt to the Asians and their miraculous glass-like skin; sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. They're obsessed with it, wear SPF50 every day rain or shine and topped up every two hours out and about (they're even categorised as indoor, commuter, and outdoor sunscreens) as well as wearing freakazoid helmets, gloves and similar, umbrellas, clothing with UPF, high SPF makeup (worn over sunscreen and specifically designed for topping up), and giant sun hats and I'm pretty sure they live in crypts. And a bit of hydration. Good practice for skin health, delaying skin ageing, and cancer prevention regardless of whether you're Asian or not. Also, they eat a lot of gelatine in their diet which helps with elasticity somewhat but you need to eat loads of it and they haven't been on the highly processed, high sugar, high salt, high saturated fat, food train for long, but it's only a matter of time. Terrible rates of gastrointestinal cancers though.

That look is rarely seen in Asia though, it's very much the look of the affluent abroad, they purposefully dress up and most likely it's bought especially for the trip. Unless you go to very specific neighbourhoods most Japanese/Chinese look pretty average. The men wear nude coloured pop socks as socks though which I still haven't managed to get over...

Speaking of the Japanese, has anyone ever read about "Paris Syndrome"? It's specific to Japanese tourists coming to Paris for the first time and being disappointed (and ultimately sinking into some sort of mental meltdown) that Paris is not as they imagined it to be as portrayed by the sparkly images in magazines and movies. The severe lack of models in haute couture is also a massive letdown. The Japanese consult apparently has an emergency line for it and everything . Thought it was an urban myth or April fool's story when I first heard about it, but apparently it's a genuine thing.

The French and their scarfs, a quick visual search but there's a lot more variation, especially seasonally. The Palestinian scarf (as worn by Arafat and similar) worn a certain way revives itself in a 5yr cycle, it's usually an interpretation of said scarf in less political colours. They also do the very thin slinky scarf around the neck at night but I think you're going to have a neck like in a mannerism painting to pull that off.

Thanks botemp that is really interesting. Who has the time for such slavish dedication even if it does lead to poreless, ageless, alabaster complexions?
Do you think the whitening creams they use would work on Celtic roseacea- raddled skin?
Am [shocked] by your reference to Paris Syndrome - their lives must be so disappointing. Off to google more about it.

botemp I hadn't heard of that. I wonder what they say to them on the phone?!