As the fashion week season is upon us, it seemed fitting to honour the long-standing and ever popular French manicure. Indeed, it was Paris Fashion Week way back in the 70s that was responsible for ensuring the French manicure has remained a fashion failsafe for decades.

The fabulous French initially came into being after Hollywood directors in the 1970s got frustrated that costume changes were taking so long because the nails had to be redone to match. They pleaded and begged with Jeff Pink, manicurist to the stars and founder of Orly, to create a nail look that went with everything.

Pink stepped up to the plate, took himself off to the hardware store, bought a gallon of white paint and began experimenting with coloured tips and the white and pink manicure that we know so well today was born. It was given the seal of approval early on by Hollywood heavyweights Barbara Streisand and Cher and, when Pink took it to France to show designers, he found himself booked to do model's nails at Paris Fashion Week. In appreciation, he named the look after the French...

So, that's the history. Some thing the French manicure is dated, others revere it as a classic. Whatever your thoughts, there's little doubt that it's here to stay.

Until then...geek on!

The Ed.

i say it's a timeless classic..

70% off all the nails i do are french .

i do like to pimp it up a bit though as it gets a bit weary doing so many .

if i can , i try and talk the client into getting a flower / glitter /gems etc on the ring finger

but french, well done with a nice crisp smile line is very pretty and will never go out of fashion.