One of my all-time favorite books is Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl. Debra Ollivier is a fabulous writer who is poetic, descriptive, witty, and so easy to read. If you haven't picked up a copy, I think you should. She wrote another book on the subject of French women entitled What French Women Know, which focuses more specifically on French women in relationships. I have a copy on its way to me as we speak.

Though it is clear from Entre Nous that the je nais se quoi a French woman has does NOT boil down to her wardrobe alone, there is a generous section of the book with wonderful fashion advice. What do French women wear? How can you dress more like a French woman? What IS French fashion? She answers these questions beautifully and even includes a detailed description of a French woman's dream closet. Note some of the GREAT stuff she has to say:



Back to the "Dream Closet." Though some of the items in the dream closet are specific - detailing the brand, or the boutique at which the item was purchased - there is room for individual interpretation. For example, she calls for a classic suit from Cacharel... But Cacharel provides more than one suit. MY perfect Cacharel suit might not be the same as YOUR perfect Cacharel suit. With this knowledge and nothing but time, I started a quest. I am building MY version of the "French Girl Dream Closet." To summarize the closet:

One suit
One pair of jeans
Two pairs of pants
Two cardigans
Plenty of assorted tees in various cuts & colors
Plenty of black cotton tops
One gorgeous silk blouse
Three pullover sweaters
Three coats
One jacket
Six dresses
Three skirts
Two handbags
Five pairs of shoes
Plenty of scarves
Two hats
Plenty of jewelry
Assorted vintage

I'm going to share my picks for my dream closet here, piece by piece, and even see if I can find some awesome similar pieces on Etsy to share with you! So without further ado:

"What's In Her Dream Closet: If money were no object, (and avoiding department stores because 'we get lost in them and end up buying what we don't really need') what would the French girl have in her closet?

A classic suit and coat from Ventillo and Cacharel, a typical French brand that's experiencing a sort of rebirth these days."

My picks:




The suit is from the Fall 2007 RTW line, courtesy of nymag.com; the double breasted coat was found on my-wardrobe.com and is $250. How about a few Etsy counterparts?




Vintage Kasper tuxedo suit by thevintagemistress; gorgeous vintage wool coat by the wooden spool, both at Etsy. :)

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Labels: cacharel, dream closet, french fashion, french women