I don’t know when it was I became obsessed with Paris. You’d think that I’d have wanted to see it forever, but it wasn’t like that. The notion of Paris as the heart of fashion seemed contrived to me - an idea long past its due date. I was more interested in the street style of places like Berlin and new designers appearing from Holland and Belgium. Paris was too staid, too clichéd. Then, out of nowhere and on some very ordinary and forgettable day, Paris called to me.

The effects of Parisian style - or at least Parisian-inspired style - are everywhere. Attached to that inspiration are women. The mere thought of Paris seems to pull women out of thin air: Jean Seberg’s short haired gamine in Breathless, a forever Givenchy-clad Audrey Hepburn. It conjures images of wild Colettes and avant-garde expats, strong women like Gertrude Stein (hardly a fashion icon, but certainly a revered force of creativity). The French capitol is the seat of some of the most respected fashion houses ever built: Chanel, Hermes, Dior, and YSL - but it’s the women of Paris that have made those names great. Part of me suspected it was just another cliché - baguettes and cobblestones and an Eiffel Tower of hyperbole. Women are women. But what if they’re not?

Photo by Walde Huth

My best friend and I left for Paris at the start of September. I had two precious weeks to see as much of the city as I could and, at the same time, try and figure out exactly what it was that made a girl Parisienne.

Paris is a tough city for watching Parisians. It’s absolutely crampacked full of tourists (at least it was when we were there). In the first weeks of a warm September, the neighbourhood where we stayed (Pigalle, just below Montmartre) had more Scots than anything. In the metro we heard lots of German. On the Left Bank, Australian accents ruled. There were sight-seeing Italians and packs of teenagers from Spain. The weirdest part was, though, that despite their overwhelming numbers, and even without obvious maps or backpacks, the tourists looked like tourists. Right from the start we could almost always spot the French girls - even though we couldn’t really say why.

An American in Paris:
Jean Seburg in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless

look for Part Deux on December 14th, 2007…
Coco.