Parisian style

Having just got back from Paris following a trip to London, it's been interesting to compare the fashion styles in the two capitals.

First, it must be said, there are plenty of women on the Paris streets who aren't wearing 'Paris style' at all. But there is also a definite, chic, French look that is soignée and pulled together and which is certainly one reason the French are famous for their sense of style. 

Among the issues I noticed were these:

* Parisian women wear flat shoes. Either that or wedges. In general, they don't teeter along in mega high heels - they're built for action and they move at speed, whether walking, on Paris's free-for-30-minutes hire bikes or looking impossibly chic on scooters and mopeds. Many were in ballet flats, and often if an outfit was monochrome or neutral, the shoes were bright colours such as red or yellow. Where heels were high, they were on chunky boots, often with a knitted cuff, so still easy to walk in.

* They show their waists. Almost without exception, women were wearing coats and jackets with waist emphasis. If a trench, it was tightly belted, if a jacket, it was nipped at the waist. Tailored coats had a half belt at the back, and blousons were cropped at waist level, not at hip level. No woman hid her shape under a voluminous coat.

* They do not wear long coats. At the beginning of May, as it is now, the mini-trench was everywhere, in every colour imaginable, but I saw almost no-one in a coat longer than knee-length, and many were mid-thigh, which makes a silhouette crisp and clean. The most popular colours were black and beige. Many jackets were cropped at the high hip.

* They wear their skirts short. Not hugely short, but hitting just at knee length, rather than the frumpy mid-calf so beloved of Brits (yes I'm guilty too).  The shape tends to have some fullness at the hem, so it swings when they walk - a good A line or tulip shape rather than a pencil. This shows the maximum length of the thinnest part of your leg, which has an elongating effect. 

* They wear cropped trousers that are tight on the calf. Whatever the length, from just below the knee to just above the ankle, the silhouette was streamlined, in  capri pant style, often with a tiny vent at the knee and teamed with a mini trench and ballet flats, for a neat, sharp outline. This was a marked contrast to London, where I saw some truly awful, tent-like cropped trousers flapping around the streets with either chunky calves or skinny calves like bits of thread hanging out underneath, teamed with ugly shoes like Dockers. 

* Parisian women wear natural makeup. No false eyelashes, no red lips - instead, natural browns and beiges for eyes, and pink lips. 

* Hair on young women is worn either shoulder length and naturally sleek, or clipped up in a messy chignon that has a 'oh me, I just don't bother...' bedhead look about it, fixed with a simple band, a scrunchie or a butterfly clip.  

* Older women are naturally grey, with fantastic sharp haircuts - bobs, chignons etc - and they continue to wear coloured tights, leather jackets and all the things we're told not to wear over 40. NO bling.

* Women all, but ALL, wear scarves. Ines de la Fressange says two, and I did see many women wearing two - one around a neck (looped and pulled through, never wrapped round and round) and one around a bag, or one used at the waist instead of a belt. I saw one blonde woman wearing the epitome of French chic - a simple black shirtdress, knee length and skimming the body, bare brown legs with black wedges, a Hermes-style scarf at her waist, and her hair up in a chignon. 

Put it together, and what you have is terribly chic, at every price level, and seen on women of every age. The typical Parisian on the streets of the 1er arrondissment on Wednesday was in red ballet flats, with black cropped capri pants, a tightly belted beige trenchcoat, a big satchel type slouch bag, a 'cheche' pashmina-type scarf filling her neckline and her hair carelessly up with a couple of chopsticks shoved through it. Clean, simple, practical, chic. Fabuleuse.