Inès de la Fressange and Elle Celebrate Parisian Chic
Photo courtesy of Roger Vivier
Robbie Myers, Joe Zee, Inès de la Fressange, and Sophie Gachet at the Inès de la Fressange book launch.
A little bit of Paris came to the Roger Vivier boutique on the Upper East Side on Wednesday night as Inès de la Fressange—“the personification of French chicness come to life,” as described by Elle’s Joe Zee—celebrated her new style book, aptly titled Parisian Chic.
The fete was co-hosted by Elle, and the magazine’s creative director was thrilled to mingle with de la Fressange in the hopes of having a bit of her chic rub off on him.
“I always had this hyper-surreal image of Inès, because I was such a fashion kid growing up,” said Zee. “For me, she was always this really iconic, mythical, incredibly chic French muse that I only read and heard and saw pictures of.”
Sound like a lot to live up to? De la Fressange truly has style, arriving at the party in a sharp navy blazer, white shirt, and white jeans, cut off at the ankle. How did she pick her ensemble, we wondered?
“I shouldn’t tell you this: I panic like everybody else!” laughed de la Fressange. “I get the feeling that I don’t have anything to wear, that I wear all the wrong things, and when I open my closet there are only T-shirts and jeans. That’s why maybe we wrote this book—because we all have this problem of feeling like we don’t have the right things, non?”
“Sometimes we just need a few right things to help us, like white jeans, a navy blue blazer, ballerinas,” she said. And it’s also all about the mix: The model and muse divulged to FashionEtc that she was sporting “a very expensive Chanel bracelet and sloppy Uniqlo jeans!”
It may sound easy when de la Fressange puts it that way—but Zee brought us back down to earth with a little harsh reality. “I could read that book inside and out, 100 times a day, and I will never be like Ines,” he said. “Look at her! She could roll out of bed and look 100 times better than if I spent all day trying.”
Of course, that won’t stop us from trying.
Parisian Chic, by Inès de la Fressange and Sophie Gachet, is available now.
In related news, check out more words of style wisdom from de la Fressange.