I am so bored with cliche blogs that are designed to get me to buy things I don't need - YouLookFab Forum

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I am so bored with cliche blogs that are designed to get me to buy things I don't need

Anonymous

I just have to see the two words in the title of an article on a website for me to click away with distaste. When did this marketing scheme become so ubiquitous? It is so overused, overdone, and saturated, that it is a major turnoff. I now desperately want to embrace the antithesis of the French Woman. Whatever that is .....

I feel the same way about the word "modern." I see it everywhere from clothing blogs to clothing stores to appliance stores. Every time I am in Belks, they play the term "Modern." "Southern." "Style." over and over and over again until I want to puke.

Dressing

36 replies

Latest reply was from Astrid

Sisi

Veteran

Sterling, what is the French Woman thing ?

Jenni NZ

Veteran

Should we ask Isabelle (Skylurker) who really is one? Actually I've just been reading some home magazines and those go on about "Scandi style" and " Hamptons chic" just as much. We are nowhere near Scandinavia or the Hamptons here. When we build our new home Kiwi style will do me

Anonymous

Sisi -- some links that explain it better than I could.

http://www.whowhatwear.com/fre.....rules-2014

http://stylecaster.com/french-women/

http://www.elle.com/fashion/pe.....nch-style/

http://fashiongum.com/womens-f.....nch-woman/

http://www.whowhatwear.co.uk/s.....inter-2014

Sisi

Veteran

Oh, I see. If I were bombarded as you seem to be, I would also be bored and would like to do exactly the contrary!

Staysfit

Veteran

I’m not sure what you mean? I haven’t encountered that where I live. I must not read the same blogs either.

ETA: sorry, I see someone else had the same question and that you answered it without my noticing it before I posted this.

Bijou

Veteran

Yes, poor French women have so much to live up to. Luckily Australian women are only expected to be good at swimming, which most of us are because we spend lots of time at the beach!

lyn67

Veteran

Yes, agree, this is rather a hype:-(.

Jenn

(website)

Veteran

I agree that the marketing term is overblown, but I rather like the articles. It's usually code for a type of unfussy style I can get behind.

RobinF

Veteran

I think it just gives them something to talk about, a way to label a style. I think it would annoy me more if I were a French woman, being stereotyped like that.

LaPed

Veteran

I know exactly what you mean. I get these articles in my news feed too. I also get "Audrey Hepburn style" all the time. I assume this is because I'm perpetually shopping for black ankle pants and breton shirts.

I like to think I'm pretty good at tuning out marketing. The other day a librarian complimented me by telling me I looked very French -- I was flattered, but I'd also just read this article: https://www.theguardian.com/so.....sophobia-b

Reading this profile of Gabrielle Deydier, who's just published a book about being a fat woman in France, has really changed my thinking on French beauty culture, and America's deification of all things French (style, diet, parenting, etc.). That projected image of nonchalant perfection -- what if it's founded on cruelty, denial, and exclusion?

This is not to bash France -- merely to question who benefits when we choose to elevate a notion of femininity that excludes and is unattainable for many, and then universalize that concept and assume it applies to everyone in France. I certainly don't like being lumped in with many common "American" stereotypes which are not reflective of who I am, and I suspect people in other countries feel the same.

cindysmith

Veteran

Well, hypothetically, "French woman" style (or "French style", or "French shopping strategy") is a great idea. However, it's become so ubiquitous/ overused that it's become the new "pumpkin spice latte" or "keep calm and carry on". There's nothing wrong with any of these things, it's just the fashion/style media version of Lindsey Lohan's (or the Kardashians, or whoever is currently saturating the evening news) latest exploits being touted as noteworthy; "breaking news--Kim Kardashian got a haircut! Full report at 10!" I'm bored with the way things get served to us. The media will literally beat a dead horse until the earth beneath the corpse looks like the aftermath of warfare.

Scandi style, shabby chic, Pantone's color of the year, Joanna Gaines of "fixer upper", minimalism, granite counter tops, slow fashion, whatever marketers think they can make a buck off of... It's all starting to become exactly like those donuts that CenturyLink arena in Shreveport used to provide for the stagehand morning break: refrigerator cold, stale, powdered-sugar or fake-chocolate coated, empty calories. As a stagehand, I had a love/hate relationship with those donuts: I needed the carbs to perform, but those donuts were not good (and neither was the coffee). I need clothes to keep from being arrested for indecent exposure, but I don't want some marketer telling me what I'm supposed to wear or how to shop.

Sorry for the soapbox rant. I'll end on a positive note:

What I like about YLF is the way each member here takes what the media is serving up and makes it unique, fresh, and personal. I like how Angie reports on trends and shows us how to take the trends and make them work for a variety of budgets, body types, style aesthetics, and climates. I like how everyone here can take something as overplayed as the "French wardrobe" and make me interested in it. I love how I can come here and see someone post about a "kitchen sink blouse" and I actually like the shirt on that member even though I've hated the ones I've seen on websites. I really admire the diversity, the individuality, the way we make the trends our own. So: well played, Fabbers. Well played

Anonymous

La Ped -- You are so wise. It was the "projected image of nonchalant perfection" I was thinking of when I first drafted this thread. I merely thought of it as a tiresome marketing ploy. I hadn't taken it to the next level of cruelty, denial, and exclusion. You always educate me and take me to the next level of evaluation.

Cindy -- Your soapbox rants are always welcome.

Anonymous

Staysfit -- It is good that miss those articles. It means you spend less time on the internet than I do. Healthier in so, so many ways.

Bijou and Robin -- I hadn't even considered what it must be like to be a French woman and have to live up to the label. I must have assumed it was purely marketed to the American consumer.

Lyn67 -- tiresome and boring!!!

Jenn -- I used to read the articles ... probably for the same reasons you did. But there is a point of market saturation and I have reached it.

Anonymous

I agree to a point - but will admit to being attracted to those words when I see them . However, and this is key, it depends on the source. Crediblity is everything .

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Although I am off the forum for most of the day with a hectic schedule, a few thoughts here:

A gentle reminder to be sensitive about negatively generalizing about countries, nationalities and cultures. YLF is a global community which is one point, and I don't want people's feelings to be hurt. Discussion is good, but please keep it respectful. And second, people are individuals, and should not be negatively lumped into a group as La Ped eloquently put in her comment.

There are wise and sensitive comments here already - which makes me proud.

There is a lot that is overused, saturated and overkilled in the fashion world unfortunately. Words like "cool" and "edgy" come to mind right away. So are words like "obsessed", and " the perfect...". Marketing ploys can be annoying and even undermine our intelligence. Simply laugh at them, and move on if they aren't your cup of tea.

Bijou, you make me laugh. Cindy, thanks for the kind words.

Christina F.

Veteran

I am attracted to elements of what I'll call stereotypical "French Woman" style, but really my taste is a bit too colorful. The current variety of colors and silhouettes I see on the streets on NYC makes me happier than a world of black cigarette pants, navy trenches, and bretons would, though I like all these items and did aspire to that kind of style for a while.

From what I have seen in my short time in Paris, a lot of French women have an innate sense of style that's actually not really easily reduced to the typical formula magazines spit out. It also transcends what they're wearing, a lot of the time. Magazines try to fetishize this as one achievable look, which of course means we're not seeing French women as people with a variety of lives and kinds of styles.

And I'll co-sign as another person who hates current fashion marketing, especially in blogs. I feel like headlines are always trying to tell me how I'm going to feel about certain items, and I almost never agree. (Sorry, but I'm not "amazed" that those ten pairs of booties cost less than $100, and I'm not going to "die" over those 15 oversized sweaters. I guess I'm not the target audience for these things.) It's basic, as Cindy alludes to.

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

I have seen it a lot too - I guess it must say something about what "look" I'm going after. Many books on the topic as well, not just focused on the fashion, but the overall lifestyle of the French -- diet, walking, skin care, relationships, attitude about life, etc. I don't have a lot of personal experience with France other than a brief week visit to Paris, but I have watched a number of French foreign films. It seems that maybe it's an overall idealized European lifestyle thing that many people pine for and strive to bring into their own lives. Not all French women or European women have fantastic skin, thin bodies and great haircuts, but the illusion that they do is a great marketing angle for many. America is such a mixed bag of people, I don't think it's as much of an angle these days as it used to be maybe 40 years ago, but of course it is still being used.

viva

Veteran

La Ped, that article was really powerful. It does adds another dimension to the story of French style.

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

viva!!! I was just thinking of you yesterday and missing your posts. Glad to see you are still around.

I went and read the article too. I hadn't really thought of the implications of someone overweight living in a culture where it was so out of the ordinary.

annagybe

(website)

Veteran

Also I have read that that the idealized French Style is limited to certain arrondissements in Paris, where the tourists and wealthy are.

I wish I could find the source again.

ETA, not the original but something

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyl.....36179.html

annagybe

(website)

Veteran

Also I actually felt more schlumpy traveling in Russia than France.

Laura G

Veteran

I still fall for those articles, but I'm always disappointed--it's always yet another "capsule wardrobe". And I don't even wear black! I think the real problem with those articles is they're written by Americans, so they all just rehash the three or four things they notice about French (actually Parisian) style from the outside. Or worse, they just slap that "French" title on whatever they were going to write anyway.

Really liked the article LaPed shared. Going to be a long, hard slog to change those attitudes, if experiences of marginalized people in the USA are any indication.

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

So, I HAD to look up obesity in various countries just to see the facts and I found this casually on Wiki (I know it's not the end all source of info but other sites seem to back it up).

So it sort of looks like actually there are more than just a few people in France who are considered overweight. Not at all like the US of course.

Source: Wikipedia

Obesity in France is a growing health issue. Obesity in children is growing at a faster rate than obesity in adults.

Based on World Health Organisation (WHO) data published in 2014, 23.9% of French adults (age 18+) were clinically obese with a body mass index
(BMI) of 30 or greater. The data showed the incidence of obesity in
French women in 2014 was 24.0% and among French men 23.8%. Overall adult
obesity rates in France were significantly ahead of the Netherlands at
19.8%, Germany at 20.1% and Italy at 21.0%, but behind the United
Kingdom and the United States at 28.1% and 33.7% respectively.

Based on 2014 WHO data, France was ranked as the 122nd fattest country in terms of mean BMI for adults of both sexes, with a mean BMI score of 25.3.

Adela

Well, I rather like those articles and though I don't like generalizing, French women seem very stylish to my eye- but of course, not only them.
Angie, I love what you said. You are a very wise and mature person.

cindysmith

Veteran

OMG Christina, I too fail to be amazed that those booties cost less than $100. I made the mistake of clicking some thing the other day about items that look more luxurious than they are, and I was left scratching my head wondering why I just wasted all those minutes of my life that I'll never get back. I FINALLY gave up on all of those 'must have' lists because I got sick to death with seeing
*great black trouser
*well fitted blazer
*great white button up shirt
*little black dress
*trench coat
*cashmere sweater
*perfect black pumps
*red lipstick
and whatever other 2 items they threw in. Do you know how many of those items would see use in my closet? MAYBE the cashmere sweater, for the 5 days a year it's cold enough for that here in texas.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

Thank you La Ped for that article. The poor woman! How horrible to be treated like that. I am much more aware of these issues as I have got older, of how people can be discriminated against. I think I had a sheltered childhood! It was pretty mono-cultural WASP at the time, NZ in the 1960s and 1970s. In my suburb anyway. I was not very aware of important stuff happening in the world. Just used to see "Hands Off Vietnam" graffitied in the city. And now my daughter has a Vietnamese American partner, so history has come along to meet me

Sal

Veteran

I think you chose the wrong thread title Sterling, it could be..

Overused blog posts in fashion
I am so bored with cliche blogs

I admit to admiring much of the French and European fashion I see, especially from our forum posters Skylurker, Anchie, Astrid, Karin, Harmonica and The Cat (and others I know....) But I do agree that there are some very lazy article relying on cliches or stereotypes.

While there are some great NZ fashion designers and also some very stylish women here there is certainly no trend in international bloggers admiring our style.....

Anonymous

I think you could be right, Sal. I was genuinely bored of the overused cliches and I was in a "mood." I'm going to change the title. Thanks for the tip.

Laura G

Veteran

While we on the subject, *I'm* tired of "street style" pics that are a blogger who got dressed up and made up and then stood in the street so her boyfriend could take her picture.

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