Dore Garance. - Love. Style. Life

Ive been sharing my thoughts on life, love, and style for almost ten years now, which makes me:

1. A complete over-sharer.

2. A pretty seasoned opinion-giver.

3. Well, it should have made me super stylish.

So why did I pick this stupid pair of shoes this morning?

n my blog Ive talked about matters so light (do I really need a pair of kitten heels?) that they evaporated an hour after being published, and subjects so deep (burying my grandmother in Morocco) that I still receive incredibly heartfelt letters about them to this day. Ive written about things so embarrassing they made me want to melt into the floor, and Ive also written of my proudest moments.

Sharing my stories came to me pretty late in life, but the day I got the hang of it, I began to understand the incredible power of letting your guard down, even with people you barely know.

Because when you open yourself, people will magically open up to you.

My blog began quite practically, as a way to share my illustrations. But I soon realized that what I really wanted was to start a conversation, just to see if there were other crazies like me out there. As it turns out, there were.

I embarked on a quest to capture the true essence of style. My journey took me from Corsica to the South of France to Paris to New York, and many places in between. And as Ive come to learn, style is about so much more than the clothes we wear. Its the way we walk, the way we smile, the sparkle in our eyes, the way we live our lives. Style is a universal language, and it has the power to connect us.

I grew up in a tiny beach town in Ajaccio, Corsica, but my heart belongs to Paris and New York, my two adopted home cities. Two cities that are both so fascinating and inspiring, so similar and yet so different. I could devote an entire book to comparing their quirks and assets. and how Ive tried to take the best of each for myself. Trying to hold onto my French-ness by celebrating my imperfections and savoring my daily glass of red wine, while embracing that wonderful, empowering New York swagger. Being a French woman with an incorrigible sense of ironybut also letting myself get taken by the American dream. And realizing along the way that no matter what city were in, we all want the same thing.

We want love. We want to feel beautiful. We want to be good friends, good partners, good sisters, good daughters. We want to know how to never buy the wrong pair of shoes again. (Sorry to inform you, but you will keep making shoe mistakes until the day you die. So celebrate being alive right now!) We want to feel fulfilled by the work that we do, whatever that work may be.

Most of all, we want to find our place in this world.

And to be very stylish along the way, of course.

I found my place in this world almost by accidentmore on that laterand it took me where Id never dared to dream. How on earth do you provoke this sort of beautiful accident?

Thats what I want to share with you in this book. And I hope that my story inspires you to create your own series of beautiful little accidentsand to enjoy the ride, thats what life is all about.

STORY OF

My sister Laetitia.

IM 4 AND MY STYLE BELONGS TO MAMAN.

My mother, Kheira, has the most unexpected sense of style.

I dont know where she got itmaybe from my grandma Tahmanent, who was a Berber from the Moroccan mountains. My grandmother always dressed in bold colors and prints, bright frocks that complemented her long red henna-tinted hair. She loved dressing up, but she had to work within the strict codes that were imposed on her. Dont show a lot of skin; play humble.

My mother is the opposite. Shes a free, modern woman and she wants the world to know. She wears tight jeans and irons her hair, and every outfit is perfectly thought out. When she has money, she buys the best pieces from Alaa, Montana, and Thierry Mugler (hello, 80s!), and when she doesnt, she plays around with what she already has, goes thrift shopping, recuts her clothes, and gets super creative.