Deconstructing The "French Girl" Mystique

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Complex Original

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American men perk up when my mom reveals in conversation that she's French. They whip out their favorite French phrase: "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?" and pretend not to know what it means. Fortunately, I speak English with an American accent, so I can keep my je ne sais quoi on the down low.

The mythical figure of the French girl looms large (but in, like, a slender way) in the American aesthetic consciousness. She's an icon of grace and style, like Audrey Hepburn, except she gets dudes more hot and bothered. Hence the kilogrammes of advice prodding American women to be more like the nymphs wandering around Paris with their immaculately done-undone hair flowing out from under their berets. But I'm here to tell you la vérité. Let's deconstruct, shall we?

Emily Lever is a French-American writer who wishes she led a life of adventure. You can follow her on Twitter here.

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We're Poor

Elle and Glamour tell us that French elegance is embodied in the "Five Piece French Wardrobe" of perfect, timeless black basics that you wear everywhere. Cue slideshow of the perfect YSL bag, Haider Ackerman blazer and, for some reason, a trench coat. (We don't wear trench coats. Even we can't pull them off without looking like dweebs, and we're French.)

OK, it is true that French women don't dress up or dress down. We just wear skinny jeans, a blazer and flats to the office, to parties and on the weekends. But the real reason we have minimalist, multipurpose wardrobes is that we have minimal purchasing power and can't afford to "update" our wardrobe each season with some glossy's "Seven Absolute Must-Haves" in, like, five different colors. So we buy a few articles of clothing, always in gray and black so that it all goes together. We're not minimalists, we're just flat broke.

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