Channeling Chanel

Art critic John Russell once quoted his aunt's advice to a bored friend: “Go to the public library, sign up, and get yourself another life.” And what another life! It is a life in which I get to hobnob with the likes of Rosamond Bernier through her memoir Some of my Lives.

The memoir begins in the shallow end of the pool as Bernier recollects a childhood with such luminaries as Leonard Bernstien, Leopold Stokowski, and Aaron Copeland who visited her childhood home,  but the essays that come at the deep end are a wonder. Bernier writes about art in an immediate and informed and sensual way that must be the reason her talks at the Met were such a hit. 

But her February 1954 article “Listening to Chanel” for both the American and French issues of Vogue was the most fun. Chanel, a chic and bird-like Miss Haversham sitting bejeweled in a Paris apartment over her salon that remained unchanged since the war, was poised at 70 to make a comeback with her timeless and legendary style.

I like to imagine I’m in Chanel’s Parisian apartment  as she imparts advice that is just as relevant in 2014 as it was in 1954. 

A woman’s figure:

“”I want mannequins with bosoms and hips, with a real shape…they must have elegance....To diet and be underfed in order to lose weight – then one looks sad!  What difference do a few kilos make? To be good tempered and young in spirit is what counts.’”

Fashion:

“’An eccentric [fancy] dress doesn’t make an eccentric-a woman is just as dull in an eccentric dress if she is dull without it. ..Women’s clothes must be more glamorous, even Romanesque. Dresses are never gracious and flattering enough…What is Fashion? La mode est un meteir and not an art – it is a don and not du genie. We keep hearing this word genius-everything has genius-a handbag, a pair of shoes. I tell you there is no genie to this business but don and taste…A dress isn’t right if it is uncomfortable, if it doesn’t ‘walk’ properly. A dress must function or on n’y tient pas. Elegance in clothes means being able to move freely, to do anything with ease.’“

Elegance

“'Real elegance means elegance in manners too…Yes elegance in living is very important.'”

How to Age Well

‘”Aging is a state of mind, one must keep enthusiasm and curiosity. I said to a twenty-five-year-old friend of mine, ‘My poor girl, how very old you are! She wasn’t interested in anything. Americans are are wrong to overestimate very young hirlgs-these are not the only beautiful women; for me, women become interesting after forty…

The most important things are health and joie de vivre.'"

Well.

More Elements of Style

If you weren’t born with a talent for great style, you can have the next best thing: common sense.

Strunk and White’s Elements of Style is my common sense bible. Elegant and slim, it is my style rules for life.  E.B. White’s little prescriptive essay, “The Elements of Style” that has been my guide not only for writing, but for fashion, entertaining, decorating, for just about everything.  

E.B. White’s essay has the answers to all questions. Lets go over just a couple more of the rules.

 Work from a suitable design.

“Design informs even the simplest structure, whether of brick and steel or of prose.” Or an outfit. “Sometimes, of course, impulse and emotion are more compelling than design.”

I like clothes that skim my body with long simple lines and reflect an unstudied insouciance . I seldom skew, for example, the silk shirt as dressy, rather I roll and push the sleeves above my elbow and leave the bottom untucked or tucked haphazardly or into skinny jeans.  Add pearls and a men’s watch and a leather jacket and leave for the day.  

 I have, in addition, a collection of vintage suits, cocktail dresses that are mostly for holiday or special dressing.

Despite its simplicity, it has taken me years to refine my look. The choices are easy; the restraint is hard. Knowing when to stop is an art. It is an economic and ethical decision to live a less material life. I use what I save on travel or experiences with friends and family. So I’m having more fun and look better, my choices undistracted by the clutter that use to be my closet. I feel happier.  

Dress Muse's Elements of Style for this Winter: 

1.     Silk shirt with a round collar

2.     Black pants – one pair that is generous and higher-waisted or one velvety corduroy skinny.

3.     A pair of skinny jeans

4.     Black lightweight wool sheath or a black knit wrap dress, both of which can be dressed up or down. I like pairing both with leggings and flats for a more casual look.

5.     Cotton/cashmere sweaters: one is a cashmere v-neck, but the others are lightweight blends for our unpredictable weather. We can experience 75 degrees one day and 40 the next.

Classic style is timeless 

Add:

Leather fitted motorcycle jacket

A “shrunken” wool school boy blazer- I found a Pendleton in a thrift store and it is my proudest gathering moment

Trench: Mine is black, soft and lightweight, yet warm and could almost be worn as a dress. 

A bright raspberry wool rebozo that belonged to my grandmother wraps around my neck or around my shoulders if the weather suddenly turns.

Shopping:

I buy most of my sweaters, tees, and silk shirts at Everlane.com. The prices are nice, the clothes well-made and beautiful. I also buy tees at a very cool San Antonio company:  Richter Co.