Je ne sais ... not

Paris Street Style - A guide to effortless chic by Isabelle Thomas & Frédérique Veysset is a novel I've wanted for a while now. On my recent trip to Amsterdam, I spotted it in this amazing bookstore we were in and could resist no longer - I ended up getting the book and taking it home with me. You can buy it here. I was incredibly excited to start reading and perusing the pages, filled to the brim with gorgeous photography and what I thought would be interesting tips. Sadly, I was really disappointed ...

Let's start with the tone of the book, which I found to be incredibly stereotypical and offensive. All the people who were interviewed displayed a holier-than-thou attitude, as if being French somehow made you superior to other people. I've had it up to here with that, because I often get overlooked as a blogger (and person) just because I'm from a tiny European country, which I love, by the way. All this malarkey about French women being born with it just got to me, as well as the stereotypes about American and Italian women - how rude! So just because I'm born in a certain country that makes me cheap, not stylish and automatically means I should worship anyone with a French pedigree? Get a grip on yourself, you're not all that.

I also really don't appreciate people telling me what to do. This actually dictates 'rules' for women, despite saying repeatedly you should not listen to anyone. So if you're curvy, you can pretty much forget certain types of clothes, or if you're over 20, get over yourself, you need to start dressing more maturely. I am 22 and my personal taste is still girly, and I see no problem with that. Actually it's this book and the behaviour of certain individuals that has made me completely insecure and led me to believe I should walk around in floor length frocks, cover up my whole body and possibly face in order to be presentable, because I have a few extra pounds and a face that is not all that pretty, and nobody wants to see me on display. This makes me incredibly mad and I'm not taking it anymore.

Besides the often humiliating tone of the book, I did like some of the photography, but even that was a bit lackluster for me. The advice was not useful either. I was just completely disappointed in the book to the point where I really had to ask myself why I let anyone dictate my style according to my nationality and body type as well as age. Ridiculous.

I am all for French style and absolutely love the way women dress in those parts, I also love the ideas for building your wardrobe in a French manner. Do yourself a favour and skip this awful read. Instead I can recommend some amazing minimalistic blogs which take into account the French 'rule' of only buying a few pieces per season. Some of my favourites include Moderosa, Into Mind and After DRK.

Have you read this book? What do you think of it?

Click 'read more' for Slovenian version.

Današnja ocena je precej negativna. Govorila bom o angleški knjigi Paris Street Style - A guide to effortless chic avtoric Isabelle Thomas in Frédérique Veysett. Kupite jo lahko tukaj. Pričakovala sem knjigo o stilu, iz katere se bom marsikaj naučila, dobila pa nekaj čisto drugega. Veliko razočaranje.

Fotografije v knjigi so edina stvar, ki mi je bila všeč, pa še o teh bi se dalo razpravljati. Meni se ne zdi, da je kombinacija oblačil avtomatsko 'fashionable' in šik samo zato, ker jo nosi Francozinja. Mnenje oseb v knjigi je drugačno. Stereotipi o Francozinjah, Američankah in Italijankah so neverjetno žaljivi in mi dajejo vedeti, da je vsaka Francozinja že rojena s prirojenim smislom za modo - očitno je v Franciji nekaj v zraku, kar nam v drugih državah manjka. Italijanke se baje oblačijo poceni, grdo in preveč po modi, medtem ko Američanke slepo kupujejo oblačila, jih kopičijo in nasploh nimajo stila. Druge države so popolnoma nepomembne, saj vendar vsi vemo, da je Francija center sveta. Jaz sem zelo ponosna na svoje državljanstvo, kljub temu, da imam kot blogerka marsikdaj omejene priložnosti zaradi tega, ker prihajam iz Slovenije. Očitno pa sem tudi stilsko prikrajšana samo zato, ker nisem rojena v tako čudovitem mestu, kot je Pariz. 

Omenila bi tudi sam 'attitude' knjige, ki prijazno pojasni, da po dvajsetem letu pač ni primerno paradirati naokrog v mini krilih in celo odsvetuje določene kose oblačil osebam z nekaj več kilogrami. Čakala sem samo še na dobrodušen nasvet, naj si na obraz kar poveznem papirnato vrečko, da ne bom užalila okolice. Najbolj žalostno pa je, da sem dejansko poslušala 'dobronamerne' nasvete knjige in ljudi, ki imajo podobna mnenja. Le kakšen mesec nazaj sem se počutila popolnoma ponižano, ko mi je bilo dano vedeti, da me je potrebno 'zakriti', očitno zato, ker nisem dovolj suha in nimam dovolj lepega obraza. Ker sem precej naivna oseba sem vse to slepo poslušala in dejansko spremenila svoj stil oblačenja. 'Prijazni' nasveti o mojem stilu in videzu prihajajo z vseh mogočih koncev, vključno s tole knjigo, jaz pa se sprašujem, zakaj bi morala kogarkoli poslušati, saj se gre za moj stil in mojo podobo.

Žalostno je, da je vsak moj nakup zadnje čase dolgo krilo, majica z dolgimi rokavi, nekaj, kar me popolnoma zakriva. Dobila sem občutek, da se moram zaradi družbe in okolice zakriti, ker s tem, da kažem svoje zamaščene noge in druge dele telesa žalim ljudi okrog sebe. To me dela neverjetno jezno in žalostno. Kam smo prišli?

Nakup knjige bi resnično odsvetovala, čeprav dobiva dobre ocene je mene izredno razočarala. Sama obožujem francosko modo in tudi njihov princip nakupovanja oblačil. Z veseljem vam predlagam nekaj krasnih blogov, ki so veliko bolj koristni kot omenjena knjiga. Nekaj mojih najljubših - Moderosa, Into Mind in After DRK. Mimogrede, niti ena ni Francozinja.