All posts tagged: fashion

woman wearing sezane earrings with white sweater

Sezane Earrings: A Regularly Updated Guide to the Best

Published by Diana

I love Sezane earrings — of all my Sezane purchases, they’re probably the ones I get compliments on most often. I personally break Sezane earrings into two categories: vintage glam and boho summer. The vintage glam are most of what you’ll see below: lots of gold (well, gold-plated brass, for the most part) and resins/glass — shiny! Feminine! Beautiful! The latter vibe is omnipresent in their spring/summer collections, when natural materials life raffia, thread and the like dominate. I like them both equally, though I’ve found that the glammier (read: metal-based) pieces tend to last longer. Let’s say there’s a third category, and that is: Sezane Earrings i Do Not Wish to Buy. These include too-basic shapes (which you can dupe with cheaper brands) and more delicate, demure pieces, which I think are done better by other brands, including Lou Yetu. I’m not paying Sezane earring prices for a pair of basic Sezane earring hoops. I’m getting those at H&M. If you’re looking for the Sezane earrings worn by Kate Middleton — the Dinas — I’m …

sezane marais

Ranking the Sézane Shops in Paris

Published by Diana

Depending on how you count, Sézane has about a half-dozen shops in Paris — but they are not created equally. Let’s rank them so that your shopping time may be well spent. A few things to note: I was surprised by how bad the reviews are for the shops on Google — they all hover around 3.5 stars — and I think most of it is international shoppers colliding with French customer service. For what it’s worth, I actually think Sézane staff is nicer than average. Oh, also, the lines: When I complain about lines below, I don’t mean the lines to pay; those move pretty fast. I literally mean the lines to get in. If you hate lines, go straight to #3. We publish two great newsletters: Sign up for a weekly dispatch about travel and Paris — or for our new weekly email about shopping (mostly French brands but a mix of everything!) Several of the Paris shops are closed on Mondays, and many close for big chunks/most of August, so be forewarned. …

maje pink dress

7 Picks from Maje’s Summer 2023 Sale

Published by Diana

I think of Maje as a meeting point between Sandro (a little primmer/properer) and Zadig & Voltaire (a little more rock ‘n’ roll.) I don’t like everything (like this — what is happening here?), but every once in a while I’ll get something I love here, like my favorite winter coat — not cheap but made to last. Prices are deeply changeable: These reflect a 20% off for the Fourth of July, so who knows how long that will last. FYI the dress above is not on sale, but it’s here if you’re interested. I am hesitant to call this, as Maje does, a “playsuit,” but I guess it’s better than when they were called rompers. Wow, those cowboy boots. Sequined playsuit, was $415, now $199 As a past Maje coat-buyer, I love this coat, though note it’s made from a “wooly fabric” (78% wool, 22% polyamide). Maje single-breasted coat, was $645, now $361 A (pink) variation on a theme. This one is 67% wool, 33% viscose. Maje pink coat, was $715, now $400 Another …

6 Things Worth Buying in Ba&sh’s Summer Sale

Published by Diana

Ba&sh has never been my favorite French line, but it has been responsible for some of my favorite French clothes. This is possibly because they seem to make a tremendous amount of clothing — the new summer sale has precisely 383 items — with maybe a poorer hit-to-miss ratio than other lines. But what I like I really like: I wore Ba&sh to the only wedding I attended in 2022. If you’re not familiar with the line, it’s flirtier and more feminine — in a particular flowy, flowery, that sort of feminine way, with lots of floor-length dresses in dramatic prints. The collection doesn’t always cohere in my opinion, and there’s a lot of what I’m going to call “doodads” that I don’t totally get — why does this jacket have a waist-high side tie? On the other hand, what I like I love, so it’s usually worth sifting through everything to find the gems. Below, my faves from the ongoing summer sale — don’t delay, or if you do delay keep a close look …

Your Challenge: How to Dress Like a Parisian

Published by Diana

If you’re headed over here and wondering what not to wear in Paris, we can help. Paris really is as fashionable as its reputation suggests. I used to work one floor below Vogue, and I can honestly say that the people who go down my street every day are just as well-dressed as those going to the Vogue floor. My sister and I were walking in my neighborhood once, and a girl passed us wearing such a casually perfect outfit that we both stopped, turned around, and stared. Everything — the fit, palette, balance, everything — was perfect.

Want to Shop Like a French Girl?

Published by Diana

It’s not that hard to shop like a French girl (or woman, or child, or man.) French dressing is as sharp as it is because it represents a million tiny variations on a theme (read: uniform). This isn’t New York or London, where anything goes, and personal expression reigns supreme. Even the most spectacularly dressed women are often hewing pretty closely to some well-established ideas about fit, silhouette, texture, and palette. This is a culture with rigorous ideas about how things are done — tight edits, perfect fit, and understatement.

Jane Birkin: Elements of Style

Published by Diana

Jane Birkin: a master of French style even if she was born in London. I don’t even love her vibe so much. What I love about Jane Birkin as an example of the genre is that there’s not much to see here on some levels: These aren’t prom queen good looks, you know? Which in my experience is the essence of French (via London) beauty: You just do the best with what you have. It’s more mystique and attitude than anything else. And anyone can have mystique and attitude. It’s the great leveler, attitude, and thank God for that.

francoise hardy eyeliner

Elements of Style: Françoise Hardy’s Eyeliner

Published by Diana

Françoise Hardy is the sort of French polymath I’m not sure we have in America: She sings, she writes, she provides the soundtrack for pivotal moments in Moonrise Kingdom: Part of her genius is her management of her style: When I read Edith Wharton’s immortal wisdom (“Genius is of small use to a woman who does not know who to do her hair”) and I think of her.