Caroline de Maigret is one of those French women who makes me happy that I live in France: Do we even have an American analogue? She’s over 40, modeling for Chanel, and seems to be consistently on tour with her musician boyfriend. I remember my therapist once asking me: “Are you the sort of person who — when you walk into a room — people would say, ‘She looks like she knows how to have fun?'” Uh, now that I look at that, it seem a little inappropriate, but that might also be because the answer is of course not!! Literally no. I’m the person at the party in the middle of an Important Conversation with a crying friend in the kitchen. I am not, alas, fun.

Caroline de Maigret seems like fun, and I am so glad that I live in a country in which she is possible: not in her 20s, still beautiful, still alive, if you know what I mean, and wonderfully imperfect, not a Hollywood automaton. There a lot of things I have difficulty with, interpersonally, in France: the chill, the emotional intemperance, the selfishness. (Someone once broke up with me, and then months later, when I asked him why he’d freaked out, he said, “I’m French! I can’t help it.” And it was true! They can’t! Or at least any of the ones I have met!)

I couldn’t recommend her first book more highly, and of course her Instagram is a constant source of inspiration.

Some fashion notes: Check out all those oversized coats! On the pants, look for how they’re either quite narrow, with high heels, or slightly high-waisted, with very full legs. Also note the variety of those pants, including the runway-side gold pair and the black vinyl-y ones with red stitching. And that last shirt! Oh là là! 

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