For most viewers of the World Cup final, Brigitte Macron was not the star – she was a footnote to the footy. But, for a small, fashion-conscious minority she stole the show. Brigitte, in skinny black trousers, oversized blouse, with artfully déshabillé hair, eyeliner and even more artfully bored smoulder, she was a classic French Girl.

Over the last 10 years, the French Girl has become fashion’s muse. There are books written dedicated to her style, more than 4m posts tagged #frenchgirl on Instagram and endless articles on how to get various components of the look – from the hair to the under-eye circles to the jeans.

Even if you object to the fact that she has remained a girl rather than a woman throughout her reign, there is little doubt the French Girl look is seductive. It is thanks to her that you own a Breton top and ballet flats and wonder if you have the “right” micellar water in your bathroom.

Macron’s look is the familiar blue-chip version – the one usually accompanied by an unfiltered Gauloises cigarette, coffee and conversation about Simone de Beauvoir. But fashion has moved on – and it is all thanks to Instagram. In the social media age the French Girl has swapped her detached cool for a carefree smile and windswept hair. She is often to be found on the Riviera, sauntering around a cobbled town with a wicker basket full of artisan brie and cornflowers, or in a sun-dappled meadow. She is wearing a white broderie anglaise or lace blouse and, if you’re going the whole way, a XXXXL La Bomba straw hat, made by Marseille-born designer, Simon Porte Jacquemus. Think more Brigitte Bardot or Françoise Hardy on the beach than Juliette Gréco or Catherine Deneuve on the Left Bank.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Francoise Hardy, 1966. Photograph: Francois Gragnon/Paris Match via Getty Images

Have a closer look on Instagram, though, and the French Girl phenomenon is now so popular that the birthplace of anyone wearing the look is no longer important. See American fashion blogger Leandra Medine Cohen of the Man Repeller with a different wicker bag every day, British model and editor Lucy Williams in one of those blouses and Moldovan fashion blogger Beatrice Gutu in a La Bomba, often backdropped by a beach. Anyone can do the look – even if they hail from Hampshire, like Alexa Chung.

This broadening-out has also affected brands. There are the French ones, such as Sandro, Maje and Sezane enjoying a renaissance. But others are also peddling the look without being French at all. High street favourites such as Marks & Spencer and Urban Outfitters play on the aesthetic. Être Cécile, which trades on cheeky Bretons, was founded by two Australians living in London. French Girl Organics is a skincare brand based in Seattle. And Réalisation Par – the label behind this summer’s most-desired, and trés insouciant, leopard-print skirt – was also created by two Australians, and comes complete with that all-important accent in its branding, and a name that translates as “styled by”.

Bretons, eyeliner and ballet flats are still allowed, but you will want to update that with the kind of pieces said girl might wear throughout August, when she will be holidaying in Biarritz. Your perfectly oversized, slightly rumpled shirt should – by rights – come straight from your lover’s back, but the Cos men’s department is equally worth looking at. H&M has loads of great broderie anglaise pieces – with wide sleeves to charmingly fall on your wicker basket. Your jeans, meanwhile, should under no circumstances reach your ankle, and preferably come with a playful kick flare. Topshop’s Dree jeans are along the right lines. Oh, and don’t forget your wicker basket bag – if you’re quick, Asos has the perfect one reduced to £17.50 now.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jean Seberg … American, not French

Of course, this look owes an awful lot to the ultimate non-French, French Girl, Jane Birkin. Thanks to a love affair with Serge Gainsbourg, she was transplanted from London to Cannes in the 70s, and became a style icon for her basket, jeans and annoyingly perfectly imperfect hair. But even Birkin didn’t start it. She joins New York-born Josephine Baker finding a home in Paris in the 20s, and Iowan Jean Seberg in Jean-Luc Godard’s A Bout de Souffle in 1960 in the timeline of non-French French Girls. Because even if its latest home is on social media, the whole French Girl thing is timeworn, and links back to a universal, aspirational nonchalance. “All the Parisian women want the others to believe that she just woke up and is effortlessly beautiful in 10 minutes,” says Sézane’s founder, Morgane Sezalory. “Of course, it’s not true.”

Beyond this little blanc lie, there are, of course, problems with this muse – she is, typically, thin, white and, as the name suggests, not allowed to age. But perhaps this shift to a sort of everywoman means the French Girl ideal is becoming more inclusive. Interestingly, though, she is no longer the only contestant in the fashion Miss World. Scandi style is almost equally as fetishised – with the requisite books and Instagram posts. A summer-in-Positano Italian Girl – sorry, Woman– is the latest muse to arrive on the scene. With Birkin now a familiar reference, Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale feel fresh. We will soon be trying to replicate their big hair, lowcut floral dresses and neckerchiefs. Beyoncé already is. The hashtag? #donnaitaliana, of course.

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