The 4-5 piece French wardrobe #1

[floodette]

^^ ITA, but doing that for beauty product is much more a challenge for me than for fashion products.

anyway, i am renovating my house, and as a result, i got a HUGE bedroom with closet doubled the size of my previous one. strangely, it doesnt prompt me to binge on clothes and shoes and bags (yet). i'll just use the space to store my bags much more properly (no more squishy lambskin!!!). let's hope it will stay that way.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Sometimes white space is a beautiful thing I would love to have just one really good closet, but I can think of several things I need to do first, top of list being a new floor in the kitchen/laundry room ...

 

[floodette]

heh heh, saw this pic in fashiontribe. it looks sooooo this thread

btw what's the brand of the white handbag?

 

[mermaidsandcats]

Personally, I didn't like A Guide to Elegance. I found it to be outdated, shallow, not worth the money, although I think I am rather conservative concerning fashion and *adore* retro aesthetics. There's more valuable information in this thread than in that book ...

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Certainly it's dated ... the very first line of the book refers to gloves and hats as I recall. And from what I saw on Amazon, there seems to be a bit of a matchy-matchy aesthetic, which was typical back in the day. Still for $10 I thought I'd see what all the fuss is about It looks like there may be some pearls of wisdom scattered in there. I didn't realize she was the directrice at Nina Ricci ...

My aunt gave me a book from when she was young with all these recommendations about "country costumes" and what not ... but now that I think about it that book may be where I got some of my ideas about color schemes, capsule wardrobes, etc. It's so interesting to see how things have changed so drastically in really a short amount of time. Especially when you consider that not much more than 50 years before that, you can't date a garment closer than 10-15 years.

So much change, and more coming

 

[Tiger-lily]

heh heh, saw this pic in fashiontribe. it looks sooooo this thread

It's my goal to have a very simple wardrobe, but I want to have lots beautiful accessories...

I scanned an article on French Style for another forum. I hope it's okay to post it here. Anyway, reading the article inspired me to try to make the most out of a fewer items.

 

[Lina5]

I have put Elbaz last quote in my signature - it is so inspiring and so true.
the thing is that this let´s call it American type of beauty is being pushed down our throats (no offense to Americans, nothing to do with you, but with the media industry) and the thing is that if you ask your boyfriend I bet he loves you because of the way you are, how you behave, what you do ... It´s hard to see so many young women being slaves to looking as good as possible and forgetting to enjoy life, to laugh without constraint, to be eager to learn and experience new things ... and not just thinking do my clothes match, are they good enough, is my hair and make up at its place ...

 

[Lina5]

and I think my comment belong to this thread as this is the essence of the so called French style ... to care about beauty and style but not to care more than about life itself

 

[[vogue]]

I love that article. Thank you for posting!

 

[Tiger-lily]

You're welcome. Glad you like the article.

Sorry fashionista-ta for quoting the photo.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ No problem, and welcome to tFS

Wanted to share a couple tidbits of wisdom that came my way today. The first is from the author of The Soul of Money, who I heard both coming & going in the car today. She was incredible, I want her book. Anyway, what she said that was relevant to this thread is that

"More, more, more" comes from a place of lack, and leads to lack.

"Enough" comes from a place of sufficiency, which is the portal to abundance.

And as we all know, you can have 50 or 500 things and be "More, more, more," and you can have 5 things and be "enough."

This is from a promo piece from Blueprint magazine--26 Things You'll Be Glad to Know:

#2 The best way to make an impact with clothing is to limit your palette. The best way to make your wardrobe budget go farther is to work within a palette. The best way to save time is to have a palette.

#6 Three generalizations about people with great personal style: They know which colors look good on them, they have trademark silhouettes (Peter Pan collars, cigarette pants), or they ignore trends (unless the trend is their trademark).

 

[Nemova]

^I read something similar in a personal style book once - that the people who make the most impact and/or are believed to be elegant and stylish are the ones who can stick to the colours and styles that suit them better, and not the ones who follow trends or change styles everyday. I would add that this habit is not only good to make you stand out more but it also makes a good impression on people, especially in a work environment. People will definitely respect you more if your clothes reflect your work ethics.

 

[fashionista-ta]

PS Forgot to mention, the Bottega sandals I posted earlier came in, and I tried them on today. They just didn't work at all. My SA proposed an alternative, which were fine, but didn't knock my socks off. So I'm holding off on shoes for now ... haven't gotten any this season, and really I probably have enough ... I think I'm going to wait and see how things go as the weather gets warmer, see if I need anything (other than the cream-colored top already identified). But really that's fine too, the navy works ... it's just that more contrast would probably be better.

My Amazon box with Elegance awaits ... will let you know what I think

 

[ElleLesley]

Thanks for the wisdom fashionista-ta

Though lately I've been re-thinking my wardrobe, scattering around a few decent pieces I like and seeing as to how much I really don't care for a few frilly-like tops and old denim pants I have laying around. Got me thinking to renovate my wardrobe a bit.
Anyhow, lovely thread giving me some major ideas.

 

[The_Ida]

I definately agree about working within a palette. I'm getting rid of tops in colours that make me feel...well, slightly uncomfortable. I only like wearing muted colours.

 

[The_Ida]

I finally got the perfect pair of light blue jeans I took some money from my savings...well, Cuba can wait a bit. When I finally gave in...it was so worth it! They're even long enough (of course the shop had to order a longer version, the ones they had were too short)

 

[floodette]

thanks a lot for the good article and lots of wisdom, all....

 

[-Veda-]

Great article Tiger-lily, all very true.

Congrats on the jeans The_Ida, decent light washes can be hard to find. I'm about to go spring/summer shopping and hope to find the perfect black pair of pants. Just classic black, an item that has eluded me for years due to my picky nature and petite size. I'm also looking to incorporate more cool tones, soft blue hues are very inspiring right now.

 

[pucci_mama]

I have been shopping slightly, got a few tops, both really easy to wear I am looking for a pair of sandals... perhaps in a tan colour.

And i would like to get a nice pair of shorts this season..

 

[floodette]

i am a tropical gal, and i need to buy replacements for my beige trench and black wool coat. I wont use them much often anyway (for winter abroad trip only), and I am torn whether to buy a good quality ones that can survive years or buy something cute, trendy and not too expensive so I can discard it when I dont use it for too long. My previous ones are from the second categories, and they do look shabby quite quickly. What do you all advise? Is it worth investing on winter coat for tropical gal?

Anyway, for my daily outfit i still need:
-. good wrap in reddish / navyish color
-. neutral-colored, comfy pumps
-. high heeled sandals
-. good black v neck top

Lets hope I can stick to that list