Meet Camille Cottin: your new French style inspiration

There’s something about French women, n’est ce pas? As someone from the wrong side of the Channel (in style and accent terms at least), I’ve always envied the way they dress. It’s rarely trendy - crisp shirting, classic knitwear and immaculate tailoring are the French woman’s go-tos, hardly items that are inaccessible here - but they always, somehow, look more chic than anyone else.

I realise that this is a bit of a stereotype. My French mother-in-law tells me there is as much bad style in France as anywhere else. But it’s hard not to generalise when almost every French woman in the public eye has <je ne sais quoi> oozing from every pore. My newest Gallic style muse is Camille Cottin, who appears in Ridley Scott’s new film, House of Gucci. She walked the red carpet at the premiere in London earlier this week looking impeccable in, yes, a white shirt and beautifully cut cream, wide-legged trousers by Dior.

It’s a look with all of the glamour and polish required for a global premiere - that gold necklace worn over her buttoned-up shirt like a tie is an inspired touch - but a large part of the appeal of Cottin’s look is that she seems at ease in whatever she’s wearing. French style is as much an attitude as an aesthetic, and you’d never catch a French woman awkwardly adjusting the fit of a too-tight dress, or hobbling in too-high heels. They’d just wear a different dress, or different heels.

This kind of red carpet look is par for the course for 42-year-old Cottin though. For those who haven’t binged Dix Pour Cent (aka Call My Agent!) on Netflix, the show which has made her a global star, Cottin plays the intimidatingly cool celebrity agent Andréa Martel, and we’ve come to expect nothing less, both off-screen and on.

At Cannes this summer, for example, where she was promoting Stillwater with Matt Damon, we saw her attend photocalls in crisp shirtdresses and premieres in sleek evening gowns; in 2020, while doing publicity for Dix Pour Cent, she wore a series of sharp suits. At Paris Fashion Week, we’ve seen her in tapered black trousers, more suiting, more shirtdresses.

Most of these looks are Dior; Cottin and her stylist, Eliott Bliss, have a close relationship with the label, but she makes each outfit her own, whether it’s a belted waist, chunky lace-up platforms or inky black nail polish.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they specifically seek out looks that include pockets - and not just from a feminist perspective - but also as a tool to help her strike the right pose, as anyone who doesn’t know what to do with their hands in photos will identify. I’m convinced that a pocket adds at least dix pour cent more je ne sais quoi. Ditto the just-styled-enough hair and the barely-there makeup. French style is about treading the line between looking like you’ve made an effort and not looking like you’ve tried too hard.

Once you’ve got your head around that, you need to make sure everything fits you properly. The French woman will never have scuffed trouser hems because she couldn’t be bothered to have them taken up.

As for trends, she’s not exactly averse, but she’s not a fashion victim either: the French woman will only tap into a trend if it suits her style and personality - not just because it’s the ‘in’ thing.

Of course, following a string of style ‘rules’ will only get you part of the way to Cottin’s inimitable style - there is only one Camille Cottin, after all. But likewise, there’s only one you. So find your own personal version of it - that’s pretty much the most chic thing anyone can do.