Harpers BazaarThe Sartorialist
The SartorialistHarpers BazaarThe Sartorialist

The SartorialistIt will likely come as no surprise to hear that I've been thinking about what to pack for Paris pretty much non-stop for the past three months... It might, however, be a smidge surprising that we depart in the morning and I haven't started packing yet(!!). Clearly, I'm in trouble.

In the week or so leading up to this trip, I've been talking big game about my packing nonchalance, "Oh I'm just going to throw some blazers and sweaters and black jeans into a bag and call it a day." (See, I'm practicing my "Parisian" already.) But my internal monologue is really more like, "Holy shit, I have no freaking clue what I'm going take on this trip."

It's not that I don't have a smattering of perfectly acceptable options for mid-winter European travel (i.e. those aforementioned blazers and sweaters and black jeans), it's just that none of my options seem, well, cool enough for Paris. (I hold the Parisian fashion ideal in seriously high regard friends. It is, for me, an insurmountably high bar.)

Parisian women are at once totally undone and supremely elegant. They have the "cool factor" in spades, and it's not easily emulated (you know, like how applying makeup that looks like you're wearing no makeup is the hardest thing to pull off). And it's this seemingly unattainable cool factor that makes an otherwise stunningly average on 99.9% of the population combination of, say, jeans and a t-shirt look, on a Parisian woman, like the chicest outfit of. all. time. (Need proof? Witness the parade of French chic in the photos above.)

So here's the plan. I'm getting in the mood, summonsing my French muses — I've turned on some Carla Bruni tunes, poured a big glass of vino, imagined myself smoking, randomly yelled "Merde" a few times... I'm in the zone people.

Here's hoping it rubs off on my sweaters. Wish me luck.