A Look At The French Style

With the French national day, we thought that it would be appropriate to celebrate fashion the French way and to look at why France is is so strongly connected to fashion and style.

Jean Paul Gaultier, Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Thierry Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Pierre Balmain are just a few of the names associated world-wide with French fashion.

For the French, fashion has always been part of their cultural and social life. Their history of fashion goes a lot of centuries in the past, but it became prominent during the 15th and 18th century, when France was at it’s peak in terms of artistic development.  So, what we notice is that the French have a big history when it comes to fashion and that they identify with it.

During the time of Louis XIV, who was also known as “le Roi-Soleil“, meaning “the sun king” and who reigned between 14th May 1643 and 1st September 1715, the French court was the arbiter for European taste and style. In the 1670s, fashion began to become more popular, with the appearance of the Fashion press. Of course, this led to the expansion of French taste and style across Europe and by extension, across the whole world.

But, French fashion didn’t go downhill from there. In the 19th century, French fashion reclaimed its status as one of the central fashion identities of the world with the haute couture concept, or high fashion. La belle époque as the time is called, was the time when Vogue magazine was launched (1892) and when fashion shows started to appear. This expansion of fashion, continued until World-War II, when many fashion houses had to close down.

After the war though, French fashion regained popularity with Christian Dior’s “New Look”, the launch of Elle magazine in 1945 and the return of Coco Chanel in Paris.

And from there, the rest is modern history: fashion became diverse, from the hippie look, or as the French call it baba cool, to today’s Paris fashion week, which is one of the most important fashion events, along with Milan fashion week, London, and New York City fashion week.

The French did not look only at women’s fashion, they are promoters of men’s fashion since very early times (just look at what Louis XIV wore). Moreover, the French style is expressed not only in clothes, jewelry and perfumes, it’s also a feel, an attitude and a spirit that is to be found in paintings, cinema and music too.

We inspire ourselves from the French style a lot, because it is not just a physical expression and a continuously working machine, it’s a spirit and a feeling. And we wish everyone found their own feeling and vision of life.

Fraquoh and Franchomme

P.S. What do you think about French fashion? Share your comments and contribution in the comments below!