A GUIDE TO ELEGANCE by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux

This book was published for the first time in 1964, and the target audience was, at that time, the women who had a wardrobe consisting of different garments for the morning, noon, and night.
Today, women get fashion advises from magazines and bloggers on how to wear the same articles of clothing from morning to night by alternating accessories.

The author, Madame Genevieve Antoine Dariaux, used to have her house couture, albeit after she gave up her own business, she became a fashion adviser for Nina Ricci’s clients.

Her book is written in a specific fashion alphabet (for example H for Handbags, P for Pounds, S for Sex). For what it’s worth, I believe her teachings are valid even in today’s modern world.

For her “to transform a plain woman into an elegant one was her mission in life.”  

Her book is written in a specific fashion alphabet (for example H for Handbags, P for Pounds, S for Sex). For what it’s worth, I believe her teachings are valid even in today’s modern world. 

Handbags (Romanian women who are devoted followers of fashion understand the value of Hermes bag, therefore this is their preferred brand when it comes to handbags)
“A design that becomes a classic, like the Hermès saddlebag, can remain in style for as long as ten years, but eccentric designs become dated more quickly.”

Pounds (the eternal issue that dominates all of our conversations, was as hot back then as it is today; unfortunately, it seems that we did not invent anything new since 1964; except the growing number of the miraculously diets).
“The unwanted pound which insidiously sneaks up on you when your attention is elsewhere is the most redoubtable enemy of many women.

Every spring-time the fashion magazines and women’s pages invent new diets which, if they are followed to the letter, guarantee a slender figure and, consequently, elegance.

According to the particular diet theory you happen to believe in, the Enemy may take the form of salt, liquids, sugar, fats, starches, fruit, vegetables, cheese, certain meats, sweets, or alcohol – alas, the list of appetizing dishes that can be enjoyed without risk of obesity is shrinking sadly every year! 
Slimming is practically a new religion, whose rite is the twenty-four-hour fast, whose high priests are the medical specialists, and whose pope is Dr. Atkins.

However, it is ironic that the thinner we are supposed to be, the more fattening modern life becomes, for nervous overweight is certainly one of the maladies of the century.”

Sex (it was true then as it is today, that there is a fascination for big busts and curvy celebrities)
“The social evolution of the past decades has emancipated women and opened up to them careers in which they now compete with men on equal grounds for equal pay.

But even this radical innovation has not diminished the eternal attraction of sexes.

Unconsciously or not, men and women thus indulge in all sorts of artifices in order to attract each other, and the truth is that women almost always employ far less discretions than men.
So-called <<sexy>> styles are never truly elegant, but only suitable for the vamps of gangster films or comic strips.

The collective adoration for the big bust and the publicity given to the measurements of certain celebrities is a phenomenon perhaps worthy of attention of a psychiatrist, or the jury at a livestock exhibition – but it certainly has nothing to do with either fashion or elegance. “

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers, 2003