With a message that’s right for the times, Parisian icon Inès de la Fressange is the new muse for North American fashionistas.

STYLE GUIDE | Who’s the chicest woman in France? Not Bruni, Gainsbourg or Deneuve. It’s Inès de la Fressange by a landslide, if French newspaper polls are the gauge. Fressange, a French blueblood and former model, returned to the runway this past spring at age 53 to walk the Chanel 2011 show in Paris. Now she’s fashion muse to the masses in North America with the recent English translation of her popular style guide Parisian Chic, a handbook filled with her own whimsical illustrations, lovely how-to-dress-French photos of her daughter, Nine, and amusing single-paragraph fashion pronouncements.

Nonchalant Fressange, a high-low shopper if ever there was one, has great advice on how to think and dress like a style-savvy Parisian without selling the farm (plus insider tips about where to shop in Paree, should you go). Here are five of her myriad useful ideas on how to get “The Look.” Read more