The actual cardi needn’t be fancy. The magic is in how you wear it and the attitude you bring
To dress “like a French girl” means to look not just chic, but charming too. Allow me to try to translate (I dress French better than I speak it these days). The “girl” bit matters, because it softens the Gallic hauteur. Our French girl is not a Parisian madame, ribs rattling against her Chanel suit like ice in a glass. The FG’s hair is a little messy (though her fringe is somehow always perfect) and her clothes are not box-fresh (neither are they scruffy). Her outfit never does too much (Emily in Paris is not an FG) but its details – jewellery, a scallop-edge scarf, a vintage bag – make her intriguing. You will find the FG doing something perfectly prosaic – reading her book on the metro, buying bread – in a way that is irresistibly alluring.
The latest prosaic thing the French girl makes bafflingly charming? Wearing a cardigan. When an English woman wears a cardigan, it’s a vibe, but not a hot one. On the internet, it is called “frazzled English woman”. Her cardy is one of a hodgepodge of layers assembled for practicality and warmth. She grabs a cardy from the back of a chair and yanks it over her shoulders with all the grace of a woman slinging a tea towel on the peg.
