“Effortless” is the word most often attached to Parisian style, and it is a little misleading. The pieces that define the look have specific, documented origins. Most of them started as uniforms or working clothes. What Paris did was refine them, repeat them and wear them with confidence until they became classics.
Here are three of those pieces, where they came from, and how to make the idea work in any city.
The stripe: from navy regulation to icon
The blue-and-white striped knit known in France as the marinière began as a sailor’s undergarment. According to Cols bleus, the French Navy’s magazine, a text published in the official bulletin of the Imperial Navy on March 27, 1858 formally added “a blue and white striped knit” to the sailor’s uniform. It was made in one piece, without seams or buttons, so that it would not catch on rigging, and the regulations specified the stripes to the millimeter: 21 white stripes 20 millimeters wide and 20 or 21 blue stripes 10 millimeters wide.
The magazine credits Gabrielle Chanel with taking the sailor’s top out of the ports. At her boutique in Deauville during the First World War, her version, in silk or jersey and worn with sailor’s trousers, was considered both practical and delightfully transgressive. Cols bleus notes that the true blue-and-white striped knit only became a wardrobe staple in the late 1940s. Yves Saint Laurent returned to it from his first collections, and Jean Paul Gaultier made it a signature. In 2012, the magazine adds, it was promoted as the icon of Made in France.
How to wear it: treat the stripe as a neutral. It works under a navy blazer, with white jeans, with a camel coat or tucked into a black skirt. One rule from the uniform still applies: the fit should be close but not tight, so the stripes run straight.
The flat: a dancer’s shoe for the street
The second piece came from the Opéra. According to the house’s own history, Rose Repetto created her first ballet shoes in 1947 for her son, the choreographer Roland Petit, in a workshop steps from the Paris Opéra. In 1956 came the Cendrillon ballet flat, dedicated to Brigitte Bardot, whose film And God Created Woman made the pair famous. In 1959, Repetto opened its first boutique at 22 rue de la Paix.
The ballet flat has never really left. Who What Wear’s Copenhagen report this August found perforated ballet flats everywhere, and Harper’s Bazaar styled black ballet flats with balloon pants and a leather bomber at Paris Fashion Week.
How to wear it: a flat looks most Parisian with ankle-length trousers or straight jeans, so the top of the foot shows. With a midi skirt it reads romantic; with tailoring it reads sharp.
The uniform: repetition as style
The third piece is not a garment but a habit. Parisian style has been explained to the world in many style guides, among them La Parisienne by the model and designer Inès de la Fressange, written with Sophie Gachet and published by Flammarion in 2010, and in English as Parisian Chic. The idea we take from the Paris approach is simple: a small number of excellent pieces, worn often and combined with care.
You could see the same discipline outside the shows this season. Harper’s Bazaar described the jewelry at Paris Fashion Week as mostly pared back: silver chain bracelets, gold studs and small pendant necklaces. Times Now noticed guests giving familiar things a new job, wearing a trench as a dress, carrying a tote as a clutch, or using a brooch in place of a blazer button.
Build the wardrobe
- One striped knit in navy and white, close-fitting.
- One pair of flats you can walk in all day, in black, red or a neutral leather.
- One dark jacket with a clean shoulder: a blazer or a short wool coat.
- One pair of straight jeans and one pair of tailored trousers, both hemmed at the ankle.
- One trench or long coat that can, on a warm night, stand in as a dress.
- Small jewelry you wear every day, and one piece you wear on purpose.
Why it still works
The Parisian approach is less about France than about attitude. The pieces are inexpensive to start, easy to repeat and almost impossible to date. For a New York wardrobe, where weather and schedules change by the hour, that is a strategy worth borrowing. Buy the classic, learn its history, wear it until it is yours.
Read on: what Paris wore to fashion week this season and haute couture, explained.
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Sources
- Cols bleus (French Navy), “Mode et Marine : les marins inspirent la mode” (March 1, 2021)
- Repetto, “Repetto Universe: History”
- Flammarion, “Parisian Chic” by Inès de la Fressange and Sophie Gachet
- CiNii Research, catalog record for La Parisienne (Flammarion, 2010)
- Who What Wear, “The 5 Copenhagen Fashion Week Street Style Trends That Are Perfect for Pre-Fall Dressing” (Aug 8, 2026)
- Harper’s Bazaar, “The Best Street-Style Looks From Paris Fashion Week” (Oct 9, 2026)
- Wikipedia, “Inès de la Fressange” (secondary; career)
- Times Now, “Paris Fashion Week Highlights: Street Style Gets Experimental, Eccentric And Effortlessly Cool” (Oct 3, 2026)
Photo: “Marinière de la Marine nationale” by Claude TRUONG-NGOC, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Editor’s note: facts in this article were checked against the linked sources in October 2026. Translations from the French-language Cols bleus article are MOAM’s own. Styling advice is MOAM’s own.
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