Style Crush: Marion Cotillard

I have always been in complete awe of how cosmoplitan French women can bring together an outfit with such style and flirty insouciance.  They always look so damn cool with an air of "what this? I just threw it on!".  But it's convincing and it always leaves me wondering what their secret is to making everything they drape their bodies in so sophisticated.

One such French woman is the actress, Marion Cotillard.  I'll always remember looking at the coverage of the 2008 BAFTAS when Marion Cotillard picked up the Bafta for Best Actress from under the noses of Keira Knightley and Julie Christie.  To add insult to injury, she also blew everyone else out of the water on the red carpet.  She wore a short, sequined Chanel number with flowing details (shown below), making everyone else seem stuffy, including Dior-clad Keira Knightley, who is 10 years her junior!  It shouldn't have worked in theory but on Marion, she carried it off beautifully with a defiant confidence.

Marion has a wonderful knack of being able to wear very sexy clothes without ever being vulgar or looking trashy.  She seems to wear expensive clothes in a casual way that makes them look cool.  Her hair is never overly structured and always has a soft wave or laid back feel.

Take probably the most famous of all French designers and fashion institutions, Chanel. French women don't dress head to toe in the stuffy woven-wool skirt suits. They give the designs a fresh, quirky and modern twist that highlights the timelessness of the classical fashion house.  A quote I always remembered and kept in mind was spoken by the French actress, Clémence Poésy, who starred in the film 'In Bruges':  "It's important to be yourself. What you wear reflects what you are, so you need to be strong enough on the inside to ignore what the fashion gurus say you should wear on the outside."

So what is that je ne sais quoi that the French seem to have?  Well, I reckon it could just be the confidence to be who they want to be.  The reason they come across as so cool is because they don't care what anyone else thinks about their fashion choices.  I think that more and more, us girls in the UK are catching up in the cool stakes though with alot of French women citing Kate Moss, Alexa Chung, Sienna Miller, Emma Watson and Keira Knightely as fashion icons/inspirations!

Since we are on the subject of Marion Cotillard though, I thought I would share these images I found of her from Russian Tatler magazine looking A-mazing!

What do you think of French style?

Loads of bloggers have been raving about the new nail polish shades from the Spring collection available at Estee Lauder and I just wanted to show you one of the ones I now have in my collection in case you were thinking of treating yourself.  It's always handy to see what the polishes look like when they have actually been applied to nails (mine are real by the way).  This is the Wild Storm shade which is a pearl gunmetal grey...

I love Estee Lauder nail polishes because they dry really quickly so there's less chance of smudging the polish within the first 5 minutes.  I can't tell you how much that annoys me when that happens!  If it's a bad smudge, I actually have to remove it all off the nail and start again...I told you I had OCD problems!ha ha.  I love the EL polish bottles because to me, they look like little ice cubes!  These polishes also have great slimline brushes that make it really easy to apply the product with precision.

Have you picked up any of the Spring collection EL nail polishes? Which ones are your favourites?