Everyone is talking about it or thinking that they have good taste and good manners, but the truth is that bon ton is not just about well chosen clothes and accessories.
I think that this kind of style is more like a natural vocation, based primarily on education and on details that show and enhance one’s being. Being bon ton is a way to get away from today’s aesthetic canons, in order to make natural beauty shine through.
To make this possible we have to go back to the 50s- 60s,with icons such as Audrey Hepburn, when being bon ton was a synonymous for sobriety, refinement, elegance and femininity. It was a way to be considered a real first lady, like Jackie Kennedy, but with a mischievous look, like Holly Golightly’s from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1960). That doesn’t mean that you have to be in you’re mother’s or in your grandmother’s shoes, because that would mean losing contemporaneousness.
Dresses
Choose a neutral look: from black to white, passing by cream, night blue or powdery colours (pink, grey or dust light blue).
Avoid flu colours, even though the block color is fashionable.
The bon ton woman is simple and sophisticated with details and that’s why she has a preference for textures in the chosen fabrics: no printings, just plain colours, no washed out dresses but ecological and appealing ones instead, because the bon ton woman is sensitive to the world surrounding her.
What about shapes? Simple, hiding defects: overcoats and trapezoidal dresses, Capri style trousers to combine with refined tops (in lace or tulle) or with without revers.
Accessories
When you walk by you’ll have to be noticed for your charme, not for the noise of your heels. That’s the reason why you should choose comfortable flat shoes for the free time and elegant sandals without wedges. The only exception is for the pumps with the plateau hidden in the shoe: a bit of glam without renouncing to a bon ton style. The only rule from which you cannot get away is to wear everything gracefully: that’s why high heels and uncomfortable heights are to be avoided.
Bags are accessories that need to match up with the rest of your outfit.
A shopping bag with a floppy hat for the day and a tiny clutch with a pair of gloves for the evening.
You can’t give up also some diva glasses: black, round and over sized.
Selene Oliva
