French Chic at a Certain Age: Man-Tailored Jackets in the way Ines de la Fressange works them

Master this style: How to pull off classic man-tailored  jacket like Ines de la Fressange’s tuxedo and school boy looks

>> Day  Three of the three-part FoS series Ageless, Age-Appropriate French Chic At A Certain Age

Wearing a jacket can get a bit tricky. If you’re busty, you end up looking boxy (wear it open). If the jacket is too conservative, you just added 10 years to your appearance and, worse, the aura of being inflexible and boring (avoid anything that reads old school banker).

But when you can pull off an offhanded jacket in  just the right way, the result is the epitome of effortless chic. Add the moxie of French Chic icon Ines de la Fressange, and the result is effortless perfection. Here’s how.

Viviane Blassel and Ines de la Fressange at Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2012 – Franck Sorbier – Backstage and Front Row

Avoid wearing matched suits- they are aging. Yes, the pantsuit is making a huge fashion return, but unless it is the RIGHT pantsuit, you look like Hillary Clinton in her not the most photogenic phase. Mix and match the jacket with a bottom that is less expected and more of a contrast to amp up your style.

I’ve been revisiting one of my two YSL Le Smoking jackets and certainly not with its matching bottom. I pair the black gaberdine version with a pair of back jersey YSL palazzo pants (another classic), and it’s instant timeless  and grown-up chic.

Menswear will never go out of style and therefore be timeless. But never take menswear too literally, even if your pile on other otherwise guy touches, like a school boy hat, plaid muffler, classic khakis or jeans. Keep it unexpected and original. Never be too literal or you’ll look like a dragking.  Add too many  feminine touches and you will look gender confused. It’s the right touch of sophisticated accents that creates that special yin and yang to look confident, timeless, and sexy.

Then, mix up the classic guy pieces, like the schoolboy jacket or womanly take on a tux, top photo,with chic and sophisticated accessories. Ines has a penchant for Roger Vivier buckle ballerina flats (yes, she has long thin legs; you may want to try a bit of a heel) and shoulder bags, but you can ry anything else that withstands the test of time and has that extra oomph.

Playing with classics, like either of these two jackets, in unexpected and personal way makes it all very original and timeless as it is not  falling prey to trends- that is really ageless French chic!

Superb Reading:

• More French Chic at a Certain Age
• French Chic Fashion Tips
• How to Dress French
• The French Chic Formula for Everyday Style a la Emmanuelle Alt
• French Chic Style
• Cannes Do Chic posts
• French Chic Shoe Lesson 101: Red shoes pops a simple LBD, a la Berenice Bejo
• More French Chic posts

Get inspired: Elements of Ines de la Fressange’s French chic schoolboy look:

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