Recreating one of Jean Seberg’s outfits

A while ago I made a moodboard for the capsule wardrobe I wanted to make, and photos of Jean Seberg kept coming up. In particular, these ones where she’s wearing jeans and a Breton tee…

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I love the clothes associated with the French New Wave movement (and also with the yé yé music scene of the same period), and I think this look exemplifies that style- especially as it’s worn by Jean Seberg, patron saint of the Nouvelle Vague! So I decided I had to recreate it; the only problem is, I can’t stand wearing jeans…

I’ve always found denim to be a bit of a useless fabric- horrible against the skin, too thick for hot weather and too thin for cold. Plus, I’ve never found a pair of jeans that fit me. If they’re comfortable when I’m sitting, they fall down as soon as I stand up, and vice versa.

So, I decided to make a pair of ‘fake’ jeans. I settled on the Tilly and the Buttons ‘Marigold’ trousers, as they have an elastic waist to solve my problem of jeans falling down, and they’re designed to be made in lightweight fabrics such as -you guessed it- chambray. The denim-haters best friend!

And, for the breton top, what better pattern than Coco! Here is the finished outfit, side by side with the original:

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I couldn’t be happier with how it looks, especially how it’s a bit more fitted than the original. At the last minute I decided to add turn ups to the bottom of the trousers, to make them look more authentic.

All in all it’s a very comfortable outfit. The only real issue is how high-waisted the Marigold trousers are. You can’t see it in the photos above, but to make the crotch sit correctly I have to pull them up so high that the waistband is halfway up my ribs! Eventually I’d like to fix this and make another pair, as I’ve already gotten tons of wear out of these despite the super high waist, but at the moment I’m clueless when it comes to fitting trousers, so I’ll wait until I’m a bit more experienced.

This has quickly become one of my favourite outfits- I love how classic it looks, and it makes me feel like a yé yé girl!