French Coastal Style for Bastille Day: New Arrivals at Coco Goose

Bastille Day is July 14, which gives you about an afternoon to build a personality around stripes, red wine, and pretending you own a house in Cassis. And we support this endeavor.

French style is not actually about France. It is restraint with one loud thing. A striped shirt and a red lip. White linen and a bag worth more than the rest of the outfit. Once you know the formula, it runs just as well in Burlington as it does in Marseille.

Our new arrivals landed at a suspiciously convenient moment. Here is how we would wear some of our new pieces to portray a truly French coastal vibe on this very apropos holiday.

Real quick, let's talk about this day in history.

On July 14, 1789, a crowd stormed the Bastille, the Paris fortress-turned-prison that stood for everything wrong with the monarchy of the time. They were mostly after the gunpowder inside. They also freed the prisoners, all seven of them. Seven...the most feared prison in France was running at roughly the occupancy of a small Airbnb.

The number was never the point. The Bastille was the monarchy represented in stone, and pulling it down said the rest. A year later the French were already throwing a party about it. Now it is fireworks, a parade down the Champs-Élysées, and a lunch that becomes dinner. They call it la Fête Nationale. Nobody in France says Bastille Day, which is the most French detail of all. 

The Breton Stripe

You cannot do this holiday without one. The stripe is the whole thesis.

The Rails Alise Sweater in Ivory Navy Stripe ($248) is the purest version. Nothing clever, yet simply perfect. For a little more edge, the Rails Coen Top in Black Oat Stripe ($188) swaps navy for black, which reads less sailor and more art director who summers in Sète. On a genuinely hot day, the Z Supply Rowe Striped Scoop Tank in Cloud ($44) is the one you will actually grab.

Riviera Red

The French do not do a pop of color. They do one saturated red and then stop talking about it. Hello, restraint.

The Rails Flore Tank in Tomato ($148) shares a name with a café in Saint-Germain, which we did not plan and are choosing to take as a sign. Pair with white linen and you are finished.

For a full look, the Z Supply Scout Linen Pant in Chili Pepper ($78) with the matching Sloane Linen Cropped Top ($58) looks far more expensive than it is. Add flat sandals. Add nothing else. Or maybe an oversized raffia bag...

The Bag Doing the Heavy Lifting

If you buy one thing from this edit, make it an iconic Clare V. bag. Designer Clare Vivier splits her entire aesthetic between Los Angeles and Paris, so this is not a stretch. 

The Grand Bando in Snapdragon Canvas ($295) is the market bag, the beach bag, the I-am-carrying-a-baguette-and-I-want-you-to-know-it bag. The Kathryn in Dune Suede ($445) is the one you will still be carrying in five years, which is the only real measure of a bag.

The Dress You Pack First

Travel dressing comes down to one question: does it survive a suitcase?

The Rails Elsa Shirt in Portofino Stripe ($198) is technically a shirt, but belt it and it is a dress. The Rails Rialto Dress in Black ($258) goes from a boat to a restaurant without a costume change. And the Z Supply Sanna Striped Midi Dress in White ($148) is the no-thought answer.

How to Wear the Bastille Day Edit

You are probably not in Antibes. You are in Stowe, or on Church Street in Burlington, or grabbing dinner in Manchester Center, or heading toward the water in Providence. This formula was built for exactly that kind of day.

Stripe plus white denim plus a real bag works on a Vermont patio in July. Red linen and flat sandals work anywhere there is a menu and a breeze. French coastal dressing never announces itself. It just quietly refuses to look like it tried.

Come see it at any Coco Goose store, or shop the new arrivals and let us do the rest.

Bonne fête.