Tag Archives: Audrey Hepburn

E is for Elegance – Every Naturally BEautiful Woman Should bE ElEgant

Elegance and Natural Beauty

Audrey and Lauren – two of the most beautiful and most excellent examples of elegance we have to admire and emulate.

There’s also Grace Kelly, Catherine Deneuve, and of course, Elizabeth Taylor – mostly in her younger years.

What does it take to be an elegant woman?  It really doesn’t have anything to do with money.  Today, you can go to a consignment shop or even Goodwill and pick up some elegant clothing at rock bottom prices.  And don’t forget those Naked Lady Parties we’ve talked about where your girlfriends swap what they don’t want any more – there could be elegant clothing lurking there for you to find.

It’s more than just clothing – although style and taste do count for quite a bit.  To exude an air of elegance takes attention to how you speak, how you walk, how you conduct yourself in situations.  Personal grooming bespeaks whether you are elegant or not – mostly it’s apparent when you’re not – wrinkled clothing, roots showing, nails chipped, torn or dirty clothes, sloppy hair.  It doesn’t take a lot to iron your clothes and polish your nails.  I’m sitting here with my roots showing and believe you me, it doesn’t look elegant at all!

Posture is so important when you want to be looked upon as being elegant.  Your mother was right when she said, “Stand up straight.  Don’t slouch.”  Listen to Mom.

Manners and speech count too.  Remember to say “Please” and “Thank You.”  Speak softly.  Don’t curse.  Think before you speak so that you only speak kindly.

Elegance comes from within, not from the outside.  You may ask if striving to be elegant is necessary in the 21st century.  I say it’s always important, even for the most radical feminist political activist.  We are women. We are strong.  We want respect and admiration.  We want people to listen to our opinions and buy our products and read our books.  We want to be looked on as loving, kind, generous, concerned with the world, good mothers, good sisters, good friends.  All of these are elegant.  And every naturally beautiful woman concerned with things like natural beauty and natural health, can also strive to be concerned with her natural elegance.

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E is for Elegance – Emulate these Excellent Women

Elegant Grace

Elegant Catherine Deneuve

Elegant Audrey

Elegance – refinement, taste, style, grace – all characteristics of these lovely women.  Yes, they were Hollywood icons, probably with tons of stylists walking behind them doing their hair and makeup and trailing wardrobes racks full of Valentino and Chanel.

But more than that, they exuded a sense of peace and luxury and ultimate richness.  This comes not only from the outer beauty they each certainly had, but also inner qualities of self-confidence and self-esteem that we naturally beautiful women can practice and achieve.

Elegant women have wonderful posture.  When your mother (and my mother looked just like that photo of Catherine Deneuve!) told you not to slouch and to sit up straight, she was guiding you on your journey to elegance.

Elegant women cultivate a sense of beauty.  You don’t have to be a millionairess to have beautiful things – they can be found at Goodwill or a neighborhood garage sale.  You just have to learn how to spot a well-made article of clothing or home decor.  You don’t need 100 pieces of trashy clothing that will wear out and look tacky.  Buy a few pieces of really exquisite classic clothing and learn how to accessorize.

If you don’t have the funds to travel to elegant places, learn how to make a few elegant dishes from a foreign cuisine.  Throw small dinner parties where you can show off your elegant knowledge!

See the next post – E is for Elegance – How to be Exquisite on any Budget

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U is for Understated Elegance

Understated Natural Beauty

Here we are in the 21st century and the trendy look today is Lady Gaga wearing a meat suit????  I don’t know about you, but that really makes me miss the understated elegance and natural beauty of someone like Jackie O or Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn.  These women were women who didn’t need the hype and masquerade clothing of today.   They wore simple dresses, simple jewelry and simple makeup – because their inner natural beauty shined so much brighter than today’s bling and blare can do!

Jackie O, Grace and Audrey were minimalists in their style.  They dressed down, although elegantly, in clothing and jewelry that didn’t detract from what they considered most important – their personalities or their talent.

Lady Gaga Unnatural Beauty in Meat

Contrast this to the present day icon, Lady Gaga.  What was Stefani Germanotta (the Lady’s real name) thinking when she wore this awful offal dress to the VMA awards?  She is so talented, so full of life with the possibility to inspire every young girl of today to be brave and reach for the stars.  Forbes named Lady Gaga as the most influential celebrity of the year and announced that her income between May 2010 and May 2011 was $90 million.  Also according to Forbes, this mega-millionaire who rose to fame wearing meat among other things, “has greater influence [than Oprah] because she has more than 32 million fans on Facebook as well as 10 million followers in Twitter.”

With all the strife and war and poverty and stress in the world, this is what is important today – a pop singer wearing meat is the most influential star of today!

I guess I’m just getting old, but please, please bring back the understated elegance, style and taste of Jackie, Grace, and Audrey!

Elegant Audrey

Grace Kelly - Natural Beauty

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