“They don't make a brace”: We continue to explore the myth of French chic

margarita virova

We have already written about how in the industry of fashion and beauty one of the best-selling images was a collective young Frenchwoman, naturally a slim and seductive lover of sloppy beams, berets and body-pants. The mysterious "Parisian" not only helps to sell a variety of products, but also embodies a not completely harmless set of beauty standards, and even directive ideas about what a woman should be.

In the blogs of Lancôme, one of the most popular and important French brands, one can find a lot of materials about Parisians and their beauty tricks - a whole section is devoted to them in the Russian version. The obsession with the French style combines the oldest fashion houses directly involved in the creation of a cult myth, and fashion-progressive brands like Glossier, conservative gloss and blogs for a young audience. The image that exists for dozens of years has been resurrected in a modern interpretation. The versatility of ideas about the appearance and style of a Frenchwoman allows this phantom woman to become a role model again and again. If our mothers were taught by her example of restraint, elegance and the ability to devote time to caring for themselves, then we are recommended to be like a girl who, upon waking, needs to spend five to ten minutes to look great and be ready to conquer the world.

Articles clones consisting of the same advice for those who want to join the company of carriers of true French charm, always collect their views. It is not so important who talks about this: here you can meet the advice of French models, and materials, the content of which is based on an approximate idea of ​​the life of the average Parisian girl. It seems that the same commandments are listed in such texts: get enough sleep, drink water, wear red lipstick, make a sloppy bunch, flutter like a butterfly, it's a pity like a bee. “Can you imagine a French woman with false eyelashes and obvious contouring? Never,” the beauty authors say. We can only agree with the existence of a whole caste of women who, like one, cut their bangs like Jane Birkin and for whom the choice between false nails and a transparent coating is obvious. Simple and fast care, invisible make-up, or its complete absence and exclusively “natural” beauty are becoming more and more fashionable - and this is all about the mysterious Parisian woman too.

It is difficult not to notice that this sample was forged especially for an audience of slender and white women and contains mostly ideas about women from the middle of the 20th century. Not about the most simple women, but about those who can afford to spend time and money on taking care of their own appearance and buy only expensive, special perfumes. Times change: even Chanel, a brand that is primarily associated with France and its “unique style,” makes Kristen Stewart an American the main face of her advertising campaigns. What is remarkable, by the way, is not the fact that she looks perfect before dropping her legs off the bed, but because she is not afraid to go outside without styling or discard all styling questions altogether, having shaved her hair. Abstract "Parisian", which has become a common place not only for French brands, loses a lot of personality with outstanding talent and non-standard life position. And they seem to be trying to look at the notorious Parisian chic from an angle that takes into account today's realities: it is in its own way revealed by black beauty bloggers, such as Fatou N'Diaye. But in a broad sense, Parisian remains skinny and white - unfortunately, the most "French" cosmetic products and the laws of self-care are designed for her.

All guides for contacting a canonical woman in Paris suggest using a minimum of care products - after all, she needs a good moisturizer - and not to spend money on a tonal basis, because you can always do with a few drops of concealer. Already, these councils are far from working for everyone, but they are capable of making those whom the nature has not endowed with smooth, compliant skin, are ashamed of. Negligent bun, the main "French" hairstyle, it is difficult to do in the selected ten minutes, and not all of them manage to create those natural eyebrows by simply putting what is in the gel. But the problem is not that the possibility of being a Frenchwoman is so deceptive - for justice sake, it is much easier than to make the corporate makeup of the Kardashian clan. It is much more strange that in the age of diversity and attempts to look at beauty, we are offered to focus more broadly on a non-existent archaic ideal. The girl, whom we are offered to be like, has no problems: neither with skin, nor with sleep, nor with existential crisis. Probably, she is good in order to learn from her love for her body - but this body must look a certain way, otherwise the miracle will not happen.

In the desire to decorate ourselves, we are looking primarily for confidence and pleasure, and the eternally lively Frenchwoman comes in handy at the time - both of which imply her attitudes. Under the French stamps, they give us all the same main standards of modern beauty: clean skin, nude makeup, moderate sexuality. And next to them is the ideal way of life, the dream of an easy attitude towards it and the possibility of allegedly doing nothing in order to always be "beautiful." Much has also been written about the fact that the “French ideal” hurts first of all to the French women themselves. The inconsistency of the postcard sample with real portraits of French women pushes the authors of the treatises on the secrets of Parisian beauty to substitute facts: here the book titled “Frenchwomen do not make a suspender” is criticized devastatingly. A lie begins in the name: the French facelifts are very much done, and this operation is among the most popular among them. However, the same turnover Mireille Guiliano repeated in the next book, saying that "French women do not get fat."

It may be worth leaving popular advertising legends where they were born: a French woman will disappear without a trace when her image ceases to increase sales. But it would be good now not to believe the mysterious ideal, which prohibits getting fat, wearing the wrong lipstick and not being able to create careless curls in a few minutes of messing around with forceps. Alas, the "Parisian" earns not on what teaches us inner freedom and the ability to be ourselves, but on the feeling of guilt due to the fact that we are not at all alike. And this is the main flaw in her impeccable image.