When Coco Chanel went on vacation to the choppy coast of Brittany (Bretagne in French) with her lover Arthur "Boy" Capel, she was struck by the seafarers' navy and white nautical stripes.
As depicted in the film Coco Before Chanel (2009), Coco starts wearing the stripes too and the Breton shirt is now famously French worldwide. It's the default garment when conjuring up an image of a stereotypically French person, and it has joined the ranks of other French stereotypes like the beret, croissant and baguette.
Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel in the famous sailor's stripes.
Coco shrugged off any snarky comments of her looking like a boy. She, in fact, looked quite spiffy in a mens' shirt, and it's thanks to her that women today can wear T-shirts and pants as casually men.Coco famously said: "Fashion changes, but style remains the same."
Learn that by heart, because French style is not defined by buying the latest brand-name knockoff from Forever 21, but by several classic pieces that you can renew with different clothes and accessories.
Yours truly visited Brittany this October and investigated the fabric of actual Breton shirts used for sailors, and the material is quite coarse and rough. For those of us who don't work on the seas, here's a rendition of this classic item:
French actress Virginie Ledoyen with a boyfriend blazer and a statement necklace
A good bargain I found online is a B&W Breton shirt with snazzy gold buttons at the shoulder from Topshop for $36. But the best bargain I've found by far is at Old Navy for $19.99 available in all the colors of the rainbow.
It's a tangent from the classic navy and white, don't feel like you must wear the nautical colors. Learn from Coco, but don't follow blindly: take your style and run with it!
- by Jenny Cheng
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