A Class Photo or a Ralph Lauren Ad?📸

Salut !

It's hard to believe that the Olympics are finally almost here. I remember when around two years ago I started to think about moving here a bit more seriously, and I was excited if I could be in town for this historic event. Apart from the tourists, celebrities and sportsmen and women that will now occupy this city, it is very calm here on the streets because most of the Parisians are gone. Therefore, I'm seeing a completely different side of Paris now ; a very relaxed, sunny version of Paris where it is even more joyful than ever to walk around in the avenues and boulevards while admiring the buildings and parks. Of course the Olympics do bring a lot of inconvenience in terms of public transportation and moving around the city in general, but it will last only a couple of weeks after all. Besides, I think it's much cooler to suffer this sort of inconvenience for the sake of sports history than for example for just basic construction and maintenance.😜

In other news, this week I got to visit some bigger antique fairs with my parents for the first time in France – and it was a fun experience! In addition to finding me a new coffee table, I happened to find a very stylish old photo from a stack of random photos that one of the salesmen had on his table. Of course it is always fascinating to look at old photos, but this one stuck with me from the moment I saw it, because it offers a great glimpse of men's fashion from around the 1930's and 40's.

If I haven't declared my love for men's classic and sartorial fashion before, I declare it now. In fact, I love men's fashion even more than that of women's, and that is why I could look at this photo for hours. I just can't get over the fact that it is a class photo taken apparently at 122 rue Lafayette in Paris and most of the schoolboys look so stylish that they could be in a Ralph Lauren ad.

This picture really speaks to me. And after all, any picture is always worth a thousand words. What intrigues me the most is that each of the boys have their own well-styled outfit, and not a school uniform. So did they all know how to style themselves so well or did they get help? Did they dress so stylishly every day or just for the class photo? Whatever the case, most of the outfits are stylish enough that they could be copied straight into a 2024 fashion ad. I actually remember vaguely seeing an ad campaign a few years back (maybe it was Thom Browne) with similar outfits where the models sat on benches like in a class photo.

I would even go so far as to say that this photo has sprezzatura. Sprezzatura is a similar term as effortlessness, elegance and grace, but often used in the context of (Italian) sartorial menswear, and especially of a few stylish Italian industrialists from the mid-1900's, like the head of Fiat, Gianni Agnelli.

Sprezzatura applies to this photo in the sense that the most of the boys look very well put together, but still they look comfortable and not too 'perfect' either. Most of all, the heaviness of the fabrics they are wearing bring a certain ease and a relaxed look. At the same time they look pristine, but comfortable enough to be ready to play some games on the courtyard between classes. I just wish I could see this photo in color!

Just to mention a few other details, I really like how their blazers have wide lapels and their shirts have quite long pointed collars ; some have a tie, others have a scarf ; some have their tie inside their sweater, some have it on top of their sweater ; some have their hair parted in the middle, others to the side ; some have shorts and knee-high socks, some are taller, some are shorter, some have glasses on, some are smiling and some have ears that are sticking out. The details fascinate me the more I observe the photo!

As someone who loves this kind of structured and tailored clothing, I think it's kind of a shame it's not the norm anymore that people dress in this way, but then again it is quite cool that nowadays we have so many more options than ever before in the way we dress. If someone would like to dress like these schoolboys right now, it's possible, whereas I'd imagine that the schoolboys didn't have as much choice – they maybe dressed more like their parents did and they didn't necessarily have such a global understanding of different clothing styles like we do now. Or maybe they did, and they were expressing their creativity through their outfits. Who knows. There are just so many questions that could be asked based on solely the outfits in this photo, let alone if we start to guess what kind of life each of these boys had and what the class dynamics were between these boys.

Unfortunately I'll have to just leave you hanging there with these unanswered questions! But do admire the beautiful outfits of the photo and let me know if you have any ideas on what kind of backstories we could invent for the boys in this photo.😉

Have a stylish week!

Bisous,

Elle

❣️Recent delights

• While we're waiting for the Olympics, and especially the Olympic tournament of tennis to start, here's a nice highlight reel of Rafa Nadal's match against Cam Norrie from Båstad in Sweden.
• Summer sales are still going strong! Check out for example the sales at The United Colors of Benetton – one of my favourite brands at the moment!