Spotlight on Style: Emmanuelle Alt
Image courtesy: Vogue
Oh to be beautiful, brilliant, ever-stylish and French. In fact, look up French woman in the dictionary and you may even find of the things we just listed, right next to a photo of Emmanuelle Alt.
Style muse and editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, Alt has the magical ability to make fashion look effortless, as if dressing perfectly is a simple thing that one just does, rather than tries to do.
Alt wears classics easily and yes again, faultlessly, which is not something that can easily be said of every woman.
Sticking to a distinctive, signature look, Alt is known for wearing a tailored, Balmain blazer, a button-down shirt or a tee, cropped slim jeans, and an ankle boot or St. Laurent heels.
"Because the heel is perfect,” Alt has said of her affection for the French pumps. “It's like walking on flat shoes, which is a gift. I don't want to suffer in my clothes. I don't think it's sexy or attractive.”
Alt’s devotion to a uniform approach to dressing even extends to occasions where something more formal is required. While others wear ball gowns; Alt opts for a tuxedo jacket and silk trousers.
"I have always been quite boyish,” Alt has explained of her androgynous look, “I used to wear some skirts in the past, but I was always looking for simplicity."
The unpretentious, Parisienne editor thinks nothing of recycling pieces, like the black leather belt with three gold buckles, that she has been photographed in on numerous occasions.
When the mood strikes, Alt will swap her standard jacket for one with a print, as well as trade her jeans for a perfect pair of cropped trousers in colors that complement the rest of her ensemble.
Married to Franck Durand, the artistic director of the fashion house, Isabel Marant, Alt wears the fashion label often.
Her early life and influences helped pave the route to Alt’s role as a style icon.
Her mother was a model for Lanvin and Nina Ricci in the 1960s and 1970s, and her late father was a choreographer for the theatre, as well as a cinematographer.
Working as a stylist and as a consultant for two influential French labels, Isabel Marant and Balmain, Alt joined French Vogue as Fashion Director before completely taking over the helm of the magazine.
She has insisted that she is not a fashion “show-pony” and doesn't make any special effort during the catwalk shows despite knowing she will be photographed by the world's style press each day.
"I mean, of course I would not go in Converse or my sneakers to the show,” she has said. “I take care. But I'm never someone who's thinking, 'OK, next week it's the show, I'm going to do this crazy stuff.' First, I think a good attitude for a woman is to be confident, and to be confident is to be natural. I don't want to be an image."