A Breakdown of French Style

I was so very lucky to get to people-watch while strolling the streets of Paris.  I was so enamored with the recurring chic style of the Parisian women.  I was able to distill a few common factors these lovely women all seemed to possess:

1) Slightly messy or imperfect hair.  French women seemed to have lovely hairstyles, but every style I saw also looked touchable and soft.  There wasn't a tight curl or a lacquered 'do in sight.  The "I-couldn't-care-less" hair just added to the overall beauty these women conveyed.

 2) Glowing skin free of foundation or obvious makeup.  Every French women that caught my eye had amazing skin.  It didn't matter what age they were, their skin all was (what appeared to be) make-up and foundation-free.  There wasn't a garish eyeshadow color or severe "contouring" on  a single, lovely Parisian face.  Parisian women's obsession with great skin is apparent in all of the potions for sale in every pharmacy we passed!

3) Aging isn't a beauty-killer.  It's actually a beauty enhancer!  I could not get over how many wrinkles and faces with expression I passed in the streets!  Coming from Utah where everyone is trying to "keep up with the Jones'" when it comes to Botox and cosmetic procedures, it was refreshing to see, well, expression in women's faces!  If Parisian women are getting cosmetic procedures, they seem to be erring on the side of natural-looking, not younger-looking.

4) Hair-tucking!  Fall was just hitting Paris when we were there and letting locks stay warm in scarves was the look to be imitating.

 5) Confidence.  You really didn't get the idea that any of these chic women were wallflowers.  The way these women carried themselves not only conveyed how they thought of themselves, but how the people around them should think of them, as well!

Standing Up

This is Joan Trumpauer Mulholland.  She was nineteen when this mugshot was taken in 1961 for protesting segregation in a non-violent Freedom Rider protest in Mississippi.  She went on to go to college at Tougaloo, as one of five white students.  She graduated in 1964, went on to teach in Virginia  and raise five sons.

I'm looking to Ms. Trumpauer Mulholland for inspiration and fortification, since Utah is moving forward in drafting a bill similar to Arizona's.  I want to be able to tell my kids that I stood up for something when it was wrong.  How lucky are her sons to be raised by such an amazing woman?

From the Breach of Peace blog: She joined the Freedom Riders, she says, “because none of the things I was being taught in Sunday School were being applied in real life. ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ The children’s songs we all learned – ‘Jesus loves the little children … red and yellow, black and white.’ ”