When I Grow Up... - floatykatja

When I Grow Up...

Dior New Look
I long to be elegant, but it's one state that I don't think I will ever attain. I can do well-dressed and fashionable if needs be, but elegant has always been a tad beyond me. There's a certain je ne sais quoi about some people that marks them out as being that little bit more striking than us mere mortals. It's not necessarily beauty - Leslie Caron, for instance, is not beautiful, but she most certainly is elegant. Nor is it the actual clothes that they wear - my friend Liz manages to look elegant even in cropped trousers and a teeshirt, damn her! It's something about the way they hold themselves, the way they move, the way they wear clothes. Being slim helps, as does being tall, but neither of these are enough if you don't have that certain something else. That indefinable aura.
I do wonder if elegance is a slightly old-fashioned trait. I don't mean old-fashioned in a derogatory way, but I really can't think of many modern women in the public eye who are elegant in the same way that, say, Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly were. Modern clothes don't really lend themselves to it, to be honest. Catherine Zeta Jones is probably the closest we have to a modern day elegance, and her style owes much to the 40s, with perfectly waved Veronica Lake-style hair and classically cut dresses. However, when I searched for her on google images I found many, many photos of her looking utterly dreadful and very far from elegant, so I have dismissed her arbitrarily. Sorry, Cath - them's the breaks.
One day I hope to discover the secret of true elegance, and when I do I plan to bottle it and keep it close to my heart.
One day...

11.7.06 10:45

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To date 39 Comment(s) TrackBack-URL

purple / Website (11.7.06 11:31)
I think you underestimate your own Je ne sais quoi !

pan / Website (11.7.06 11:33)
I think we just know far too much about celebs these days for any of them to be truely elegant to us. How can you think someone is elegant when Heat will point out their flawed bits in close-up? I can't think of one famous person I would consider elegant...

amillionpieces / Website (11.7.06 11:33)
"Refinement, grace, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners"

Perhaps though, you're looking at it through the perspective of what elegance was, whereas the definition being qualitive not quantitive is surely dynamic and thus reflecting of the era in which one is defining it. So modern day elegance may not neccesarily look the same as elegance as looked at in the examples you give. Movement style, grace and refinement surely change as the public perception of them also changes.

Also, elegance shouldn't be judged by yourself, people rarely see in themselves what others see in them. Your elegant friend may not feel it, or think themselves it. You can't judge whether you're elegant or not, only others can percieve this.

That said, you're right, Grace Kelly was fab

Katja / Website (11.7.06 11:42)
Purple: bless you *blushes*
Pan: yes, I think you're probably right about the Heat magazine thing. An excellent point...
Pete: I do take your point to an extent, but I think Pan has a point in that modern day celebrities are far too overexposed. There has to be a certain mystique, I think, to retain true elegance.

lilo / Website (11.7.06 11:48)
Audery Hepburn defines elegance for me. I'd say these days people like Annie Lennox, Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman and maybe Claire Daines are elegant. I love the idea of being elegant - just having that poise and inner calm is so beautiful.

sammyface (11.7.06 11:49)
i agree with Purple up there.
there is something about you that i envy. a certain something that i can't quite put my finger on. perhaps the quite confidence that you seem to have...confidence being something i've never had!
elegance is more than the clothes you wear but how you act, stand, walk and behave with other people
i'm rambling now
bah

Katja / Website (11.7.06 11:59)
Lilo: oh yes! Good examples - hooray for elegance living on. I think you're right - it is definitely something that comes from within.
Yummyface: I absolutely agree about it being more than just the clothes you wear, but I just don't believe I have it! On the confidence thing, you're confident when you're around people you know and trust, and I'm just the same. Meeting new people is terrifying and I hate it - I've just got good at covering that up.

Kate / Website (11.7.06 12:10)
I think elegance is partially to do with grooming and partially with behaviour, manners especially.

amillionpieces / Website (11.7.06 12:11)
Yes, true, perhaps there is a relationship then to the less we see of a star?

Annie / Website (11.7.06 12:28)
Yes, I've always wanted to be elegant, and have a sort of natural grace. I think manners are so important, as is maintaining a sence of mystique like you say. I also think a big part of elegance is being calm and unflappable, and dignified. So not Britney, then.

Katja / Website (11.7.06 12:43)
Oof. No, not Britney. Or Paris - although her mother and sister manage it rather better.

Peanut Butter Hating Frog / Website (11.7.06 12:46)
My eldest daughter will grow up to be tall and elephant. She told me when she was four.
Have you watched any Firefly or seen Serenity? Morena Baccarin who plays Inara is elegant (although not tall). Also having seen you walk I can safely say that you have a touch of elegance yourself.

Katja / Website (11.7.06 12:54)
Tall and elephant! Oh, how wonderful That's a wedding day anecdote if ever there was one...

AmyCady / Website (11.7.06 13:04)
My best friend's Mum said I was elegant the other day..i think she was drunk.lol. I think the height thing does help..I don't really know why...maybe because we can look down our noses at most people? Anyways..am sure you are the epitome of elegance my dear.

amillionpieces / Website (11.7.06 13:10)
I am going to get lunch soon. Should I walk to get it with books on my head?

I'm still trying to think of modern examples, but drawing a blank right now.

Peanut Butter Hating Frog / Website (11.7.06 13:16)
Wedding Day anecdote! Please don't frighten me like that. My little girl is far too young for such nonsense. As everyone knows all boys are stupid and smelly and pick their noses*. Yuck!
*Except for me, her dad, because I am an exception.

Annie / Website (11.7.06 13:43)
Oh that is ADORABLE, frog! Its like when my little cousin told me she wanted to be 'a fairy or a butterfly' when she grew up. Aw!!

Katja / Website (11.7.06 13:48)
Teehee! I used to wish on the first star every night that I would become a fairy. And yes - of course I still believe in them...

Bobble / Website (11.7.06 14:53)
Oh for inner anything! Elegance would be nice *imagines looking good in a headscarf whilst driving an opentop vintage sportcar* but I fear I need an Alexander technique course to correct my wonky posture.

Jack Yan / Website (11.7.06 15:10)
Elegance is inside you, beginning with a conﬁdence that’s expressed outwardly. And that outward expression is contextual, anchored with notions of solid shades as opposed to prints, natural make-up as opposed to going overboard with colours and foundation, and accessories that accessorize rather than overwhelm.
Context suggests that old-fashionedness comes into it, whether it’s CZJ (in public) or Leslie Caron—taking the idea of what was acceptable 30 years ago and injecting a modern twist. If anything, a personal sense of elegance comes from that very twist, if you consider other style icons like Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy—pre-Onassis—or Audrey Hepburn.
I have been in fashion publishing for way too long.

amillionpieces / Website (11.7.06 15:16)
Jack Yan, Jackie Kennedy was amazing.

Katja / Website (11.7.06 15:18)
Nicely put, Jack. You've done this before

Jack Yan / Website (11.7.06 15:21)
Thanks, Pete. And Katja, maybe not quite in these words but I have had nine years to think about the topic!

Arty / Website (12.7.06 15:25)
Don't be silly, you and Lumley went to the same finishing school, and I can tell! Your dramatic training also holds you in good stead.

As for me, slim yes, tall no, so often I feel a bit like a sparrow bobbing about.

I have hundreds of images of early Vogue magazine covers I used for my thesis, and now I keep them for profile pics and the like:

Arty / Website (12.7.06 15:26)
PS Sorry forgot to mention - this one is from 1927, I like the 10s, 20s, 30s.

Joy / Website (12.7.06 18:50)
Elegance. That's a great thing to aspire for. That would set you apart from multitude of your peers are indulge in inelegant designs of their own. I would love to see a return for class and elegance in youth..

deanie / Website (12.7.06 19:16)
I am one of those who hold old fashioned 'Audrey Hepburn' views on elegance! Long neck, hair up, shift dress, gloves and heels!

I know plenty of tall young lovlies - and am indeed one myself - (cough, splutter, ahem... ) ... but they all wear jeans usually - which doesn't fit 'my idea of elegant' - it's a very subjective word!

Katja / Website (12.7.06 19:29)
Arty: fab image - I love that kind of stylised picture.
Joy: well, you have one young (ish) campaigner right here...
Deanie: I think jeans can be elegant if worn in the right way - it's down to that je ne sais quoi again. As I said before, it's not just the clothes, it's the way she holds herself and the entire picture that she creates.

Arty / Website (12.7.06 20:14)
Ohhhh if I could zap myself into someone else's style, it would be Audrey's!

Arty / Website (12.7.06 20:16)
Specially as, in my early 20s, I was often likened to her. Then for a year or so to Diana with the lowered eyelashes thing. But now I'm just lil' ole me.

Subspace / Website (12.7.06 20:27)
I think you do a great job of being elegant already. I need to be more of the male equivalent of that myself. I am way too crude and rude sometimes lol, SERIOUSLY! But you have it down me thinks!

Jack Yan / Website (13.7.06 00:41)
Subspace, Robert Wagner is a good benchmark for me, and Steve McQueen in Bullitt looked very understated (his clothes there were English).

subspace / Website (13.7.06 08:00)
I can not hardly remember back that far though I know Ive seen them in movies. I have not yet seen Bullitt. I will probably start doing with movies what I did with music, start progressing backyards(in time).

purple / Website (13.7.06 08:09)
I think the only connection "elegance" has to the clothes you wear is a mental one, how they make you feel, how you think you'll be percieved by others, how you look.
If an outfit makes you feel confident, and outgoing, that's a damn good start to you appearing "elegant" to others. Doesn't matter if it's Jeans and a T-Shirt!

cigarette-sigh / Website (13.7.06 09:30)
Elegant clothing still exists...it's just incredibly expensive. For men, suits are cut like shit now...off the rack sucks for anyone who isn't a humunculous lump

amillionpieces / Website (13.7.06 11:22)
Sub, for male fashion take a look at http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com

subspace / Website (14.7.06 08:20)
interesting thanx pete! but i need more than fashion advice hehe

princessfairytoes / Website (14.7.06 17:15)
true elgegance comes from being self assured , standing tall and smiling even when you are tired and hva had enouhg oh and never having too much flesh on show which is why Jordan will NEVER be elegant

cari / Website (14.7.06 21:38)
at least you can elegantly describe elegance.
that's worth something.