Girl Stuff Fashion in French

The whole concept of dressing/eating/child-rearing/what-have-you “like a French girl stuff” has caught a fair amount of flak recently girl stuff. Lynn Yaeger even made the case for not gravitating to that now-cliché, effortless je ne sais quoi: “Will you ever stop wondering how it is that a Parisienne is able to sail into Monoprix, drop 100 euro,” she questions, “and emerge looking like Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour?” No, Lynn, no, we won’t stop wondering! We’re screenshotting her as we speak and putting it in a folder titled “French Girl Style Inspo.”

Girl Stuff

Plus, who are we kidding? It’s nice to dream girl stuff. No matter how hard one tries to embrace their homegrown style of girl stuff tank tops and boat shoes or Independence Day–appropriate American-flag bikinis, there’s always the image of that one Parisian girl that is très transfixing: She’s sauntering around the city with a two-day-old, tousled unwashed mane and teeth that are just perfectly imperfect, one of those mesh supermarché bags in tow, and then immediately heading to a hazy, underground club where she is flanked by gyrating, beautiful people all night long. And she looks great—always while wearing a vague mash-up of something loungy, something dressed-up, something baggy, and something tight. Look: There’s no shame in wanting to possess that French girl shtick, because what that French girl shtick comes down to is basically “looking hot but never trying.”

So why not just embrace your amour for the messy French belles and all of their devil-may-care descriptors already? Love how they gracefully chomp down on escargot while wearing a beret? Purchase a can from Stop & Shop and a topper! Love how Brigitte Bardot always manages to maintain a come-hither pose with half-pursed lips in every photo—and every film? Buy a mirror and get to practicing! Or maybe you simply like how Françoise Hardy slouches but still has an enticing allure? Get your Quasimodo on (he’s French, too)! (Just kidding, please stand up straight: You can sling a leg over the arm of your chair or something for some of that trademark insouciance.) Or maybe it’s social media’s modern-day human #FrenchGirlStyle Pinterest board, Jeanne Damas, and how she wears lipstick that never smudges off. Well, try a waterproof swipe yourself girl stuff.

It’s easy to get obsessed with the nation’s leading ladies or girl stuff—old and new. But they don’t care! So neither should you—in that chic, slightly unattainable way. So emulate them as much as you want, and don’t listen to anyone else: Is that not, at its core, the most truly American thing to do? Throw on a loose boyfriend-style button-down, a tight pair of skinnies, low-heeled booties, a neck scarf and call it a day with your perfected, laid-back French girl uniform. Even if you find yourself far away from Le Marais this Fourth of July, sipping on a bottle of something domestic and holding a hormone-injected hot dog, you’ll still look chic—just try to avoid getting ketchup on that marinière while you capture your Bardot pout for Instagram.