Standing Pont des Arts bridge- a love lock bridge – Seine River Paris, France
On my recent visit to Paris I was curious as to what is currently trending, what’s chic, how do Parisian women do their hair and their make-up? Of course there are tons of magazines highlighting the trends of the fashion capitol city but what are every day women wearing? I didn’t know until I made the 8 hour flight over, settled into our rented flat on Il de la Cite’ and started to tool around on foot. Immediately stopping in a cafe to begin our day with a croissant and some cappuccino I noticed our lovely waitress. Her hair was pinned up in back with tendrils loosely hanging down, bright red lipstick and absolutely no make-up on her already flawless skin. From this day forward this is what I noticed about Parisian women. They are simple, they are no fuss and they look gorgeous with just some simple lipstick. I noticed there weren’t women walking around with fake tans, perfectly sculptured hair, frozen botox faces and/or breast implants like trends currently going on in America. No, Parisian women embrace their natural beauty. Their simplistic style is what makes them such natural beauties. They aren’t trying so hard to look like someone they really aren’t. As the week went on I couldn’t help but want to embrace such simple upkeep. As they say, when in Rome… err Paris… I stopped using my flat iron to curl my hair, I stopped putting eye shadow on and just applied mascara and fortunately I already had brought my bright red lipstick. It was liberating to not do all the usual primping. Once I assimilated to the au natural look, I immediately noticed I had more Parisians began to speak to me in French versus trying to speak to me in English. I must admit, I was flattered and attempted to reply in what little French I know.
The trip reminded me that sometimes less is more and embracing the no muss, no fuss attitude is just as beautiful as if you were to spend an hour a day primping. Will this catch on in America? Probably not. We are the country of excess and unfortunately that will never change.
