Living with less - stylishly

Books and articles are resurfacing to describe how to "make due and mend" or other such dreary advice first heard in dire periods of the Depression and war. Television talk shows are demonstrating how a family can live for a week without spending a cent, or how to make a meal stretch til it squeaks. But surely there must be a way to maintain some level of, well, the way we're used to living?

There is indeed a way to do it. Think French. French women are notoriously stylish and yet are also known, paradoxically it seems, also for tiny capsule wardrobes that leave room to spare in their small, antique armoires. They live in small but smart apartments among furniture handed down for generations. They eat well and never gain an ounce. They live well, seemingly with very little.How?

"Conspicuous consumption is not a French trait," says Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat and an expert on the mysteries of the French psyche. When it comes to fashion, she says "French women have always practiced recession dressing", carefully and thoughtfully choosing one or two perfect pieces rather than taking the scatter-shop method many of the rest of us do.

"A French woman has a good classic jacket that she might wear with perfect pants and on Saturday with leggings she found for $29.99. She is savvy, her eye is trained to see how things will work in her wardrobe and how she can change the look with a scarf or a belt or a necklace."

But in all things, from eating to consuming goods, Guiliano maintains it's all about thinking it through, carefully selecting what is best physically and spiritually. And, adhering to the rule of "simplicity in all things."

"Most of us make life too complicated.... The more stuff you have the more stressful it is," says Guiliano.