Atelier Doré

so true!

check out my giveaway!

http://lavieenliz.com

Excellent comments. Valentina’s, in particular, made me laugh :)

Merci Valentine de faire part de la citation de Lauren Santo Domingo. MERCI MERCI.
Merci Garance de la mettre en lumière.
Ça me rassure car je rentre dans la catégorie vêtements cheap et parce que c’est une situation que je vis au quotidien, je ne prétends pas être chic mais une de mes collègues dépense 10 fois-20 fois mon budget et depuis 10 ans (il a augmenté dans le temps) que je la connais et je ne lui trouve toujours aucune distinction elle n’habite aucun vêtement.
A contrario je me souviens de ma « 2ème maman », mon chère modèle de « femme forte » qui elle débordait de chic avait commencé sa vie dénuée de tout et que j’avais vue à 50 ans avec des moyens généreux (pas luxe tout de même), revenir toute extasiée de sa pause déjeuner parce qu’elle avait trouvé un pantalon de tailleur en soldes chez leclerc « à 10€ avec la ceinture » !!! Et elle était toute heureuse de sa trouvaille et ébahie comme une enfant et pourtant… CHIC !
J’avais une vingtaine d’années et c’est l’expérience mode la + marquante vécue à ce jour.
De la lire parfaitement mise en mots me fait quelque chose.

Love it !

valentine is onto something! ^_*

ces réflexions sont vraiment très intéressantes.
merci Garance de re-partager les commentaires de lectrices que l’on n’a pas forcément le temps de lire.
j’aime bien cette nouveauté, ça fait genre on est toutes installées sur un canap’ et on papote.

Ella is so right!
‘Dress for the job you want’!
Best advice ever!

X
http://dipitblack.com

Barack Obama recently said in an interview that he only wears blue suits and grey suits. Vanessa Friedman of the FT pointed out how interesting that statement was. He didn’t say… « I don’t care about what I wear to work ». He said, « It is important. I have thought about it. And here’s what I thought… » It really struck me because it fully encapsulates how I feel about fashion. I want to be thoughtful about what I wear but I don’t want to be thinking about what I’m wearing all the time. I bet most of Garance’s readers feel this way.

When I finished school, I really wanted to do something in the fashion industry but I wasn’t sure what exactly. After I spent a year taking courses and doing some internships, I decided it wasn’t for me. Mostly because I felt under pressure to dress up more than I wanted to, and I would feel uncomfortable in everything I was wearing. It started to make me really resent the industry, and to hate being judged by my appearance. I decided to continue enjoying fashion as a hobby. I went on to study law, for many reasons, one being that I wanted to be respected for my academic ability and my intelligence not my clothes. Ironically, now that I am lawyer, I dress for work in clothes that are much more uncomfortable than those I wore for my year in fashion! Over the years I have been persuaded that there are few jobs where the way you present yourself and the clothes you wear are irrelevant.

There have been so many interesting comments to this piece (I’ve been intrigued to see how many scientists, medical professionals, academics, etc. that you have as readers…it’s hardly surprising, as perfectionism goes hand in hand with many of these occupations!). Being in my mid-40s and in a male-dominated field (international economics and statistics), and having always loved clothes, there are a couple of observations I’d like to add to the discussion. When I started my career (in diplomacy), I couldn’t afford quality clothes. I pieced together a nice wardrobe by shopping judiciously at consignment stores and vintage shops. I invested a great deal of time rather than money in my look, which I think is the important point. I think that one needs to look good to fit in at the upper levels of many fields, but that look can often be built through good curation rather than in buying pieces one truly cannot afford.

As I advanced in my career, I went through a period in which I started to spend quite a bit more, buy designer pieces directly from the designer shops, etc. I stopped doing that, however, as I’ve found that unless one goes really really top end, these days many designer goods are not as well-made as they used to be (having been farmed out to low-wage countries, and so really not much different from Zara in some respects). I also started to feel guilty about spending my money in that way. Yes, I can afford it, but it felt wrong to spend so much money on new clothes when so many people in the world have so little. I’ve gone back to looking in consignment shops, buying some vintage, picking up well-made shoes when I visit Italy – not from the big names but from relatively no-name shops and artisans who produce quality goods at modest prices. I don’t want to sound high and mighty in this, but I do think that apart from in a few clearly brand-oriented fields, a person can look very very good and sufficiently elegant with a carefully curated and relatively low-cost look. It’s also in my experience more fun/creative to do this.

The final point that I want to make, and I think it is an important one for younger women who have not yet entered the workforce, is that clothes are great but ultimately you have to have 100% confidence in your own skills and intelligence. I’ve seen quite a few cases of younger women coming through my offices who, even though they were quite intelligent, seemed to use looking fashionable as a bit of a « cover » for insecurity with respect to their capabilities. (By contrast I honestly don’t think I have ever seen a man do this…) If you believe 100% in your intelligence and skills, you can play with fashion but not become a slave to it in order to build your career. In a lot of the comments, I’ve seen too much of an emphasis on the idea that to get to the top one has to be dressed to the nines. If that were true, then none of the recent female prime ministers of various G-20 countries would have (had) their jobs. :) And certainly in many international financial institutions and bureaucracies I have seen many a very frumpy but extremely intelligent woman rise to the top. Ultimately, and I’ve seen this again and again, high intelligence and competence and moderate style will always win out over high fashion and modest intelligence and dedication, at least in most of the high-skill professions I’ve observed. An expensive suit may inspire confidence among some, but ultimately it can’t manage the multi-billion (insert currency) budget, or solve that seemingly impossible medical puzzle. The human that can actually perform is the one who ultimately gets picked to do that (well, let’s exclude Italy from this discussion…:)).

Le premier commentaire est tres touchant.
J’ai fait une ecole de mode, a cette epoque je m’habillais constament en robe, depensais des fortunes en Michel Perry, Zannoti, Hardy etc, toujours en robe et en talons.
Depuis, j’ai l’aisse un peu le milieu de la mode de cote, ne me sentant pas l’ame de passer des heures a m´habiller ou depenser des fortunes en shopping, je suis devenue plus « jean noir et t-shirt blanc » (simple mais efficace), puis j’ai change de carriere et j’ai commence a travailler en cuisine : uniforme, mains sales, pas de vernie, pas de bijoux, et les gens qui ne te vois qu’avec ce « non style ». A ce moment j’ai realise que je voulais me remettre en selle, remettre des talons, des bijoux, bref, faire attention a moi, et surtout couper avec cette image forte que je dois donner au travail. Si je parais apprettee, je sens qu’on ne me prendra pas au serieux, d’un autre cote, je ne me mettrai jamais en tailleur pour aller a la banque. Les vetements ne sont pas une raison au serieux pour moi.

ps : desole pour la chasse aux accent, clavier anglais oblige !!

Le commentaire de Valentine est très vrai! Certaines personnes ont la chance de posséder des affaires luxueuses et de très mal les porter tandis que d’autres savent tourner n’importe quelle pièce avec une élégance folle. Quand je m’habille, je pense « Audrey Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn »: une petite robe noire, un panta-court et un tee-shirt…Tout avait une classe folle sur elle! Et en revenant à la problématique « marques cheap » du post original, je ne suis pas tout à fait d’accord avec toi, garance. Je trouve qu’il n’y a rien de plus jouissif que de pouvoir répondre « Zara, H&M… » et surprendre notre interlocuteur quand on nous demande d’où vient une des pièces que l’on porte. Y’ a un petit côté « Et ouais, je n’ai pas eu besoin de dépenser une blinde pour avoir la classe! ». Sinon, je trouve le commentaire d’Ella très touchant: ma mère a aussi eu un cancer et j’ai observé à quel point il lui était important de garder le contrôle sur sa féminité malgré tout! Baisers