One of my birtday presents this year was the book Parisian Chic from Ines de la Fressagne. Advertised and promoted as a personal style guide, it’s really about everything that Ines loves about Paris.
You may already know Ines de la Fressange. She is a French style icon, used to be a model for Chanel and is known for her immaculate style. Very French, elegant, chic and minimal. And that is also what you can expect from this guide. Ines encourages a style that is very much based on the basics: “use half you budget on basics and half on impulse buys like accessories”. Other than that she feels that your main asset is your smile. [click to continue…]
Greetje is the most frequent contributor to my style forum, and although you might have thought that she was already a friend of mine, I had actually never met her until this sunny day in Haarlem. I was very keen to meet up with her since I wanted to take some high quality photos of her and get to know the person behind all the quirky posts and stylish outfits. Since my residential address in Holland was very close to where she lives, I was able to visit her in her house in Haarlem where she lives with her beloved husband, cat and dog. [click to continue…]
It’s finally out! The fantastic book of Ari Seth Cohen which celebrates the exquisite style of women over 60, 70, 80, 90 and even 100 years old. I managed to get hold of (appearantly) the last book available in the whole of Amsterdam. Pity as I had planned to buy 3 copies, 1 for my mother, mother in law and of course, myself. Still it’s a great sign that there is definitely a market for a book like this, which I find very encouraging. [click to continue…]
Photo: F.C. Gundlach ‘Rainweather, party sunshiny. Three poplin coats by Staebe-Seger’ Berlin 1955
In my recent profile on Diana Vreeland, I mentioned this quote from her:
“Style is something you’re born with, you don’t acquire it”
That seems a bit harsch. Does this mean that you can never look stylish if you don’t innately have it? Sure, it will be more of a challenge, but I believe that everyone that wants to, can look stylish. Perhaps with a bit of help and some tools, but don’t we all need a little help sometimes? Here are my top 15 tips on how to look effortlessly stylish, even if you feel dat you have to work hard at it: [click to continue…]
