NYTimes writer Elaine Sciolino is oh-so-American in writing about Ines de la Fressange and her new book on French chic style.

Parisian Chic: A Style Guide by Ines de la Fressange, trending now at #20

This onetime muse of Karl Lagerfeld has spun her beauty and style tips into a confection of a best seller, “Parisian Chic: A Style Guide,” which has sold more than 100,000 copies in French and has just hit the American market.

The book might have withered and died on the shelves, except that Ms. de la Fressange combines a “je ne sais quoi” audacity with a sassy tone, and leaves readers believing that, by following her rules and experimenting with confidence, they, too, can be just like her.

They can’t.

Ms. de la Fressange is almost 6 feet tall, about 125 pounds and hipless. She has been the official model for Marianne, the ageless symbol of the French republic that appears on postage stamps and municipal buildings. She is wealthy and quadrilingual. She drinks wine and lots of strong espresso. She doesn’t diet. “Potatoes, chocolate, bonbons, wine, bread — I eat everything that’s good,” she said.

Indeed, the images of Ms de la Fressange aren’t those of a typical woman — even in France. But the sensual wellness defeatism evident in ‘they can’t (look like Ines de la Fressange)’ is the same NYTimes Style section argument about French women, I found myself in last July.