A French Woman’s Closet: Learn the Essentials

Simplicity is what makes French women exquisite. There are certain rules to follow – they are tradition. French women are all about tradition when it comes to their basic wardrobe, but at the same time, they always strive to make each outfit unique and authentic.

If they wear an attractive, chic or extremely elegant outfit, they will choose discreet makeup. On the other hand, if they wear a simple shirt and jeans, they will often complement the look with accessories and makeup.

The Foundation: Neutral Colors and Classics

A French lady’s wardrobe is incomplete if it doesn’t contain pieces in black, gray, white, navy, and shades of beige. Red is a classic and it’s used to emphasize the outfit, so accessories will often be in this color. Intense shades of red are more common, and here you can see a bag in the color of brandy, as well as an inevitable red lipstick.

When it comes to clothes, a blouse or a shirt in a shade of red is also common.

With these pieces, it’s easy to create timeless outfits for different occasions. For a more formal look, they will elevate the look with classic heels.

The Little Black Dress

The “little black dress”, or its two-piece counterpart, is a must in a French lady’s wardrobe. They combine it in both formal and casual outfits. Complement the dress with light shoes and a denim jacket, or a shirt with rolled-up sleeves, and a casual outfit is ready for morning activities.

On the other hand, wear simple black flats instead of sneakers and add an accessory, such as a scarf or a headband, and a new “chic” look is ready.

Comfortable Shoes

High heels and uncomfortable shoes are a big NO for a classy French woman. Shoes, like clothes, must be comfortable, yet chic. Flats, Oxford shoes, as well as classic leather shoes, are a common choice. But if it is an everyday heel, it needs to be comfortable and allow for easy and quick movement.

Patterned Dresses

Fluffy, light-patterned dresses are a common occurrence on French streets in summer. Most often, they are made of viscose or other pleasant, light materials. The pattern and model depend on the lady’s style, but it is usually romantic, casual-romantic, romantic-classic or romantic-eccentric.

Most commonly, they are discrete, such as tuffs, stripes and smaller floral patterns.

French women will wear these dresses on different occasions at all times of the day.

Younger generations don’t shy away from combining patterns of similar, as well as completely different structures, as long as the materials are in the same colors. For example, if they wear a sleeveless dress, they often combine it with a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up or tied around the waist.

Less is More

Two bottoms and four tops make eight combinations. Combine each of them with a coat or a denim jacket, and you get sixteen more. In addition, if you have two dresses as in the example, you will have around a dozen more combinations – depending on your choice of jacket and accessories.

Some of those combinations are great for casual walks or a get together with friends, while others are suitable for work. However, depending on the accessories, any one of them can become more elegant, and be worn to the theater or for dinner in a restaurant.

With ten clothing items, a few handbags for different purposes, a pair of flats, shoes and sneakers, a French woman gets enough different outfits for more than a month.

The choice of models of dresses and blouses depends on personal style. Also, whether it will be a “real” little black dress or a two-piece, as well as what kind of model, depends on her build and the silhouette she likes. They used to consider a classic black skirt mandatory, but now they often replace it with black pants.

Only when she has this foundation of the simple, basic clothes she needs, does she start playing with colors and patterns that she might not be able to combine with everything else.

At the same time, this is a good basis for any fashion capsule. It is instilled in French women from a young age and it is their lifestyle that can give us an idea of how to organize our clothes. Instead of the neutral colors they traditionally choose, we can opt for another group of colors and achieve a similar effect. We will show you such an example in one of the following posts.

The photos used in the text are from the Everlane range, so we will provide a link to each of them here. We were also inspired by the videos you can find on the following channels: Marie-Anne Lecoeur – The French Chic Expert , Parisian Vibe. Lipstick and scarves are our drawings.