French Fashion

I have been in France long enough to notice certain things about their culture and I feel like I can make a judgment on French fashion.  I don’t mean Christian Dior or Yves Saint Laurent, but the clothes that ladies and gentlemen wear on the street every day.

I noticed almost immediately upon my arrival that color is not a big part of the French wardrobe.  Most French students who I saw wore black, grey, or a dark cream/beige.  This includes bottoms (besides dark blue jeans), tops, dresses, and shoes.  If they do wear colors, they are very dull and subtle: dark grey-blue or dull dark green.  As someone who loves color and playing with color in clothing, I was kind of disappointed when I walked around the city and found everyone dressing in the same way.  I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb when I wore my bright red coat amongst a sea of dark colors on the tram on the way to class.  These colors were most often seen in winter and now that the weather is warmer, I am finally starting to see some color (besides in the foliage and flowers) in the French world.  This spring all of the French girls seem to be wearing a lot of coral and orange.  I think I like it. 

Something that I like about the way that French women dress is that they wear pantyhose and tights.  These are marvelous inventions that can dress up anything and can add a lot to a simple outfit and can be worn year-round.  No, pantyhose and tights are not for old women and ballerinas, and if you wear them, it doesn’t always have to be in obnoxious colors.  French women seem to go for a more subtle look than flashy.  Nude and black pantyhose are always classics and French girls wear a lot of them, especially with shorts and short skirts and dresses.  It takes the skankiness of a really short dress down several notches.  American girls, take a lesson from the French!

I have never seen a French woman just out in jeans and a T-shirt looking like a bum.  I don’t mean to say that French women don’t wear jeans and T-shirts, but they don’t ever look like bums.  They dress it up with jewelry, scarves, a nice hair style or makeup.  It never looks like they just rolled out of bed and put on whatever was on the floor.   It’s not that they “dress up,” it’s just that they take pride in their appearance. It's a nice change from the black-leggings-ugg-boots-northface-fleece uniform that half of college campuses wear.  Leggings are not pants!


Flip flops are a no-no in France unless you are at the beach.  I like this.  Flip flops are not shoes.

French men are somewhat similar in terms of color (or lack thereof) of dress.  A lot of college guys who I see around campus dress a lot nicer than the guys back home.  I don’t mean to generalize about American guys back home, but I don’t think I have ever seen a guy wear dress shoes to class unless they had a presentation.  Guys here wear jeans (which are usually pretty tight…blah) but they wear them with a dressier shirt, belt, and nicer shoes.  This is a nice change to the gym shorts/sweatpants and tee shirts that I am used to seeing around American campuses.  It’s nice to see guys actually making an effort sometimes! 

I do have a bone to pick with the way that some French men dress and groom themselves.  Besides the problem of extremely tight jeans, I think that I mentioned briefly in a previous post that I do not like murses (man purses).  These seem to be a plague in France.  Strangely enough, I have only noticed man purses in France.  Never in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Ireland, or Spain; men only carry purses in France!  I think this might contribute to the stereotype about French men being feminine.  When I say purses, I do not mean a briefcase or laptop case that has a strap which the man slings across his shoulder.  No.  I mean a small bag for his wallet and whatever else men carry around attached to the end of a long strap which he then slings across his shoulder.  This is not okay.   Men wear headbands in France.  First of all, I do not like long hair on men so if his hair is long enough to be held back by a headband, there is a problem.  Again, I do not mean sweatbands that guys wear during sports to soak up sweat or keep their hair out of their eyes; I am talking about an exact headband that my mother wears.   I have seen several guys who wax their eyebrows, too.  I know that some American guys (the type of guys you would expect to see on Jersey Shore) wax their eyebrows, but I feel like there are more in France.  I don’t want it to look like a caterpillar is walking across a guy’s face, moderate grooming is encouraged but waxing  your eyebrows?  Really?  Maybe we could go on a date and get our eyebrows done together.  Then we could get manis and pedis together and share moisturizer and makeup tips.  Oh wait, this is what I do with my girlfriends.  A guy who waxes his eyebrows?  RED FLAG.  The next step is eyeliner and fancy shampoo.

Please take what I say with a grain of salt, I am generalizing about my observations and know a lot of guys who do not fit this stereotype!  Similarly, I know a lot of Americans who don't fit the generalizations I make about American style.