You can tell that, for some people, "elegance" is really just another code word.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you just need proper fitting clothes and good haircut and make-up. It's about looking polished--not your size. You also will have more confidence in the right clothes that fit your body.

+1 Exactly this.

Some of you have a hung-up, outdated view that being elegant = white, thin, blonde/blondish and rich. If that's the criteria, then this would be elegant:



Welcome to 2019. We've evolved the view of elegant to mean taking pride in your appearance, and aiming to look polished and put together and ladylike. This is elegance:

I know it's just a simple black dress but Queen Latifah looks gorgeous there - and I really love that dress

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you just need proper fitting clothes and good haircut and make-up. It's about looking polished--not your size. You also will have more confidence in the right clothes that fit your body.

+1 Exactly this.

Some of you have a hung-up, outdated view that being elegant = white, thin, blonde/blondish and rich. If that's the criteria, then this would be elegant:



Welcome to 2019. We've evolved the view of elegant to mean taking pride in your appearance, and aiming to look polished and put together and ladylike. This is elegance:

Yes you can be elegant without being tall and thin! Think Martha Stewart or the Barefoot Contessa. I would absolutely consider both of them elegant, even though they're often dressed relatively casually. Good haircuts, simple makeup, tailored clothes.

Last weekend a skinny woman in a casual elegant dress burped loudly repeated times while I was having dinner at a restaurant. She also started to use his fingers to clean her teeth.
Her dress was too much for her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you can be elegant even if you aren't stick thin.

Its easier to pull off when you are tall and thin, since clothes look better on tall and thin people, but its possible for even average-sized people. I do think that very overweight people have a much harder time pulling off elegance.

It requires very classy, well made and PERFECTLY fitting clothes, very well-groomed, classically styled hair that is healthy and glossy, well-applied, not overdone makeup, basically perfect skin, and perfectly straight, white teeth. Quite a tall order for most people!

Oprah, basically.

Is that a joke?

-NP

+1 Oprah can pull off elegant, but not all the time.

NO ONE is elegant all the time.

Well, I guess I meant that some people need less work to get to that level. Some people pull off the look naturally and it’s their everyday look. No make up, air dry hair and they look elegant. Others need help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you can be elegant even if you aren't stick thin.

Its easier to pull off when you are tall and thin, since clothes look better on tall and thin people, but its possible for even average-sized people. I do think that very overweight people have a much harder time pulling off elegance.

It requires very classy, well made and PERFECTLY fitting clothes, very well-groomed, classically styled hair that is healthy and glossy, well-applied, not overdone makeup, basically perfect skin, and perfectly straight, white teeth. Quite a tall order for most people!

Oprah, basically.

Is that a joke?

-NP

+1 Oprah can pull off elegant, but not all the time.

NO ONE is elegant all the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you can be elegant even if you aren't stick thin.

Its easier to pull off when you are tall and thin, since clothes look better on tall and thin people, but its possible for even average-sized people. I do think that very overweight people have a much harder time pulling off elegance.

It requires very classy, well made and PERFECTLY fitting clothes, very well-groomed, classically styled hair that is healthy and glossy, well-applied, not overdone makeup, basically perfect skin, and perfectly straight, white teeth. Quite a tall order for most people!

Oprah, basically.

Is that a joke?

-NP

+1 Oprah can pull off elegant, but not all the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the women on the bottom is ugly at all. It just isn't a great picture. She has on a pretty blouse and what looks to be a structured wool coat. The scarf is a poorly worn. If she lost the scarf, put on a swipe of lipstick, and fastened her coat I think she would look lovely.

This is her cleaned up, pretty! It's all about grooming

Sorry but she still does not look elegant at all. Cleaned up, but not elegant.

Agreed. An elegant outfit would never have bowling shoes with a dress.

Are you the same people over in the Jeff Bezos thread complaining about his new partner not being pretty in the way you'd hoped for?

My advice to the tut tutters here and elsewhere is to go do something fun today. Eat a donut. Take a walk outside. Have sex. Do something pleasurable.

I'm not a fan of Lena, but I actually think she looks elegant in the top picture. Nice, classic hairstyle, simple makeup, tailored outfit. She also looked really nice in that pic on the first page of this thread. Slightly preppy outfit, good colors, etc.

The green dress pic shows why she is NOT elegant. The tattoos. The dress doesn't fit great. The pink and green clash rather than contrast. In her case, it's more her personality than her looks that make her unelegant. But overall, I think elegance means knowing when to keep a look simple.

But to even use Lena Dunham in this thread is just a weird choice.

She is known for being a fancy slob - a rich kid savant hedonist. Of course she's not wearing the dress that one would wear to be elegant. That's not her thing. She has made a killing being a mess - but a mess with a HUGE amount of social and financial capital. She doesn't need elegance. She has other stuff. It's what she has built a career on - a remarkable career for someone her age.

So to post her photo as evidence that one can't be elegant if one isn't skinny is just bizarre. It's not proof of anything other than Lena Dunham is Lena Dunham.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There’s nothing - nothing - elegant about excessive cleavage.

+ 1

Put those things away. She looks like a cow.

Omg seriously? Only in DC someone would call
Monica Belucci a “cow”. Wow.

I wouldn’t call her elegant

That isn't a flattering dress on her, but come on. I think we can all agree that this woman is elegant:

Great posture is a necessity of elegant. But long thin arms and legs plus high check bones face seems to be the standard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the women on the bottom is ugly at all. It just isn't a great picture. She has on a pretty blouse and what looks to be a structured wool coat. The scarf is a poorly worn. If she lost the scarf, put on a swipe of lipstick, and fastened her coat I think she would look lovely.

This is her cleaned up, pretty! It's all about grooming

Sorry but she still does not look elegant at all. Cleaned up, but not elegant.

Agreed. An elegant outfit would never have bowling shoes with a dress.

Are you the same people over in the Jeff Bezos thread complaining about his new partner not being pretty in the way you'd hoped for?

My advice to the tut tutters here and elsewhere is to go do something fun today. Eat a donut. Take a walk outside. Have sex. Do something pleasurable.

I'm not a fan of Lena, but I actually think she looks elegant in the top picture. Nice, classic hairstyle, simple makeup, tailored outfit. She also looked really nice in that pic on the first page of this thread. Slightly preppy outfit, good colors, etc.

The green dress pic shows why she is NOT elegant. The tattoos. The dress doesn't fit great. The pink and green clash rather than contrast. In her case, it's more her personality than her looks that make her unelegant. But overall, I think elegance means knowing when to keep a look simple.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There’s nothing - nothing - elegant about excessive cleavage.

+ 1

Put those things away. She looks like a cow.

Omg seriously? Only in DC someone would call
Monica Belucci a “cow”. Wow.

I wouldn’t call her elegant

I always wonder on DCUM if this is the same crowd who only thinks Jackie O and Princess Kelly are elegant while shopping at old navy?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you can be elegant even if you aren't stick thin.

Its easier to pull off when you are tall and thin, since clothes look better on tall and thin people, but its possible for even average-sized people. I do think that very overweight people have a much harder time pulling off elegance.

It requires very classy, well made and PERFECTLY fitting clothes, very well-groomed, classically styled hair that is healthy and glossy, well-applied, not overdone makeup, basically perfect skin, and perfectly straight, white teeth. Quite a tall order for most people!

Oprah, basically.

Is that a joke?

-NP