Clara Nanut is the classic person of which you admire the innate style (and Instagram profile) and who is always able to inspire you.
Her secret, as she revealed to us on a hot day of September, is all about finding your personal key and how to communicate your style in an original and creative way. And this is what Clara, known as Gourmode, does daily through her social media and blog: she transmits an idea of uniqueness and aesthetics so strong and personal that it makes us feel part of her world made of fashion, food, and passion.
Clara Nanut has a blog, Gourmode, a creative agency, Atelier Gourmode, a collaboration with Grazia Factory, and many interesting ideas and inspirations to share with her followers: she has always loved good food, she has a unique love for France, the “light of her life and fire of her loins” is “Lolita” by Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov and her story and personality are all to be discovered through her work.
But Clara has also an always new and different style, despite a certain vintage allure, that makes her one of the most interesting it-girls in the mare magnum of influencers that exists nowadays. All these elements contributed to give life to a friendly chat, full of ideas and “très jolie” pieces of advice: because fashion is above all a passion to share and to enrich by giving it the personal touch that distinguishes us individually.
HERE
I AM!
Nice to Meet You, I Am: Clara Nanut, the Gourmet à la Mode by definition, founder of the blog Gourmode and of the digital boutique agency Atelier Gourmode.
Location: Born in Gorizia but Milanese by adoption. I love to define myself in this way because I will always feel my hometown close to me, which is where my family lives; however in the last six years Milan has become my home, it is the city where things happen and where I also found my way.
Trend: Lolita Parisienne, the trend that better represents me. Why? Because I like to be a woman with a delicate charm, unknowingly sensual, a little childish or better said, näif, and I love to have that French touch since Paris is my favorite city. Because I love croissants and when I drink a cappuccino I always find myself with a foam’s mustache…
“I like to be a woman with a delicate charm.”
“GOURMET À LA MODE, A CHIC GIRL WITH A HUGE APPETITE”
Everything was born from the fact that I wanted to create a platform where I could talk about myself, my experiences and my lifestyle. It was during the years when I was attending the Bocconi University that one of my classmates asked me: “Do you know Chiara Ferragni?” I had no idea who she was so I started to follow what she was doing and I liked it a lot, but to myself, I was thinking: “There should be a more sympathetic way to describe yourself and fashion, perhaps also speaking about food.” Then the planetary success of Chiara Ferragni proved she was right, I arrived 7 years later, and of course the first-mover always wins.
“There should be a more sympathetic way to describe yourself and fashion, perhaps also speaking about food.”
I have a family that has always been passionate about catering and cooking, my father always took me to beautiful restaurants everywhere we went, he gave me this passion. A passion reinforced by my brother’s ex-girlfriend, who is a chef in Friuli Venezia Giulia, and who supported me morally at the beginning. After 6 months she abandoned the project and then I went on alone. The word Gourmode was born from a brainstorming on Whatsapp, it was registered as a brand and I hope it will become a neologism someday. I do not understand why it is not already, but I swear that one day it will be a part of the dictionary! (laughs)
Gourmode: noun, a neologism by Clara Nanut
THE PARISIENNE STYLE
My family has an adoration for France, when I was little we went many times to Paris and we also “discovered” the regions of Bordeaux, Champagne, and Provence; we traveled a lot. So I was born with this passion, then I also lived a few months in Paris to study French, but I always felt France close to me in terms of aesthetics and culture. We also have French origins in my family: I am from Gorizia and everyone in that area is a bit of a mix, I have a grandmother who comes from Istria, then Croatian and Slovenian relatives. There is a low percentage of Italian. (laughs)
MY FAVORITE TRAVEL
I love Marrakech a lot, I went there the first time for a Clinique event with some International bloggers and I was part of the Italian Team. Many were a bit shocked by the Medina and its confusion, but to me the decadence of certain places is fascinating, I found in Morocco an ethnic but also very refined and elegant style that has enchanted me. The pink light when you walk through the Medina is almost mystical… It is also a city that I associate with some traits of my style.
“The decadence of certain places is fascinating.”
MY DREAM TRAVEL
I would love to go to India to do the Rajasthan tour. I am not very inspired by places like Berlin or Stockholm, although I like to go there for a weekend, because I am less inspired by the minimal style.
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FAVORITE FOOD
It’s a difficult question because I like a lot of things. As a child I was very skinny but I ate everything, I was not afraid to try any kind of food: for example, when I was a kid I ate the escargot in Paris and I tormented all my friends at school to know if they had eaten these famous snails too. Just one favorite dish is hard to choose, I have many that I associate with places.
During Christmas for example, my mom makes almond biscuits called Kipfel that are adorable, or when I went to Paris with my parents there was a restaurant where I always ordered the salmon marinated by them that is phenomenal. Or in Milan when I want some comfort food I go to “Giacomo Bistrot” where they make the “Bomba Giacomo,” a kind of millefeuille with a whipped cream and with some little meringues and wild strawberries on top that is the best for me. Another fantastic dessert that they make in “Pasticceria Giacomo” is the double chocolate, a chocolate ganache with a salty shortcrust pastry at the bottom: I love chocolate!
“One favorite dish is hard to choose, I have many that I associate with places.”
BEST FOOD IN MILAN
“Giacomo Bistrot,” even for the super-sophisticated interiors with the soft lights and the red velvet sofas. I like “Langosteria,” both restaurant and bistro, where you eat an excellent fish. Another place is “Gattullo Pasticceria” which I am very attached to because it is in front of the university and I used to go there a lot for breakfast or lunch. These are my three favorite places.
Instead at home, I like to cook the risotto; it is my favorite dish, my dad does it very well and he taught me all the steps, I usually do it right.
A FASHION RECIPE
I will never say the risotto with strawberries and champagne because I could die, while I would say that it could be very funny to see an it-girl eating foie gras because 99% of the time she will not do it. I think it is a sophisticated dish that is not affordable for everyone.
YOUR INSTAGRAM
I live in the paranoia that my Instagram is not beautiful (laughs). For example, if you look at Eleonora Carisi‘s profile, which I really like, everything is always very nice, even perfect I would say, it is an inspirational profile in which to look for ideas as on Pinterest.
For me it all depends on your goal and on the channel, of course, Instagram is an aesthetic channel so the aesthetic must be cured in everything, but everyone has to find their own personal key. If your key graphics, then be super attentive to everything and if you have a reason to do it, then do it. If it has to be a forced thing it risks to turn into paranoia. If you have a multifaceted spirit you have to communicate it through the photos, you have to find your personal key in terms of colors. But it’s all a matter of personal taste.
“Instagram is an aesthetic channel so the aesthetics must be cured in everything, but everyone has to find their own personal key.”
I also work as brand consultant and it is a question that I always ask to myself because they use the wrong channels many times: Instagram is a social media, then as a brand, you have to make followers understand your specific lifestyle. For example, if you click on the Instagram of & Other Stories it seems to live the lives of people in photos, while many brands are not able to do it, as well as many bloggers, they exaggerate with the colors’ perfection that I try to reach every day without succeeding (Laughs).
THE SUGGESTED PROFILES
I love Jeanne Damas: she is a model, actress, influencer and celebrity that I think we will be remembered as an icon; she is the new Jane Birkin, her Instagram profile is deliberately random, like those of many other French girls, such as the one of Camille Charrière: apparently if you pay less attention, your result is cooler. Then Eleonora Carisi as I said before, with a super nice profile and a very high aesthetic. I live with the idea that I have not found my aesthetic yet because it is a path to create and to carry on.
BEST FASHION BRANDS
I really like Miu Miu, not only for the collections but also for the online contents that I find wonderful, they always manage to incorporate their language everywhere, which is something that no one else can imitate. I’ve always loved it, even from the advertising’s point of view they are doing a great job. I also like the recent collections of Dior and Chloé!
“Apparently if you pay less attention, your result is cooler.”
#Inspo: I am inspired by cinema, by films with Oscar-winning screenplays (Wes Anderson and his Margot Tenenbaum will forever be in my heart). Then I get inspired by the hectic life of the city, from a vintage cafeteria, the old shops… I have a weakness for the vintage allure, which does not mean dusty but precious, once they made fewer things and in a better way.
Styling Tip: The anecdotal accessories or, how they taught me to call them, “the conversation pieces,” because when you wear them, someone will surely ask you something about them. I love telling stories through the things I wear and I am not talking about an old dress that belonged to a stranger, but something that is bound to your story and your experiences. I think for example at my double C Cartier ring, It belonged to my grandmother who was called Clara like me, a sign? Or a colorful straw handbag purchased from an old lady who makes them by hand one by one in the district of Alfama in Lisbon… Those accessories are an icebreaker and give you a personal touch that no one will ever be able to boast.
“I love telling stories through the things I wear.”
My Favorite Way To Wear it: With my everyday look, in the most original possible way. I love to wear dresses from & Other Stories to Miu Miu, and then Fanni, the Double J, a touch of Gucci… The common ground? #MinimalisDead.
Trendspotting: I would match my Portuguese basket with the mythical Jane Birkin or on one of my modern icons, Jeanne Damas.
LOLITA
PARISIENNE
Your Favorite Fashion Book: I will be predictable or perhaps trivial, but at 20 years old I fell in love with the “Parisian Chic: A Style Guide” book by Inès de La Fressange and I confess that it is still on my bedside table.
Steal Style: Brigitte Bardot with a hint of Marta Marzotto. A bit of Italian extravagance and you will not go unnoticed…
Your Fashion Superpower: Wearing every day a different outfit. The combinations are endless…
Follow @gour.mode
