By Eva SandovalFeatures correspondent

French It girl and creative director of Rouje, Jeanne Damas gives her insider recommendations for buying fashion, beauty items, home décor and books in the City of Light.

Paris is synonymous with fabulous style – with the shopping scene to prove it. Its iconic avenue Champs-Elysées is lined with luxury flagships, while the city's 20 historical arrondissements (districts) are brimming with quirky designer shops, glamorous department stores and exquisite 19th-Century covered galleries such as the Galerie Vivienne and Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann. Even the word boutique is French. 

Visitors hoping to shop like a Parisian will find themselves spoiled for choice, and perhaps even a little intimidated. To help you find the chicest of the chic fashion, homewares and gifts, we spoke to Jeanne Damas, creative director of the Parisian "It" fashion brand Rouje, for her top picks.

"[When it comes to shopping], I think one of the nice things about Paris is its size," said Damas, whose favourite boutiques are found in the atmospheric, artsy Saint-Germain-des-Près neighbourhood or the cobblestoned Le Marais, Paris' ancient Jewish quarter. "It's quite small compared to London or New York. You can actually move around by foot quite easily."

Here are Damas's favourite places to go shopping in her hometown, the City of Light.

1. Best for fashion

Where to even start looking for fashion inspiration in the most fashionable city in the world? Damas gets inspiration by taking in her surroundings. "One of my favourite things to do is to sit in one of the typical corner cafes and watch the people passing by," she said, citing Café Le Nemours in Place Colette (1st arrondissement) as her pick for people-watching: "The best fashion show ever."

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Born and raised in Paris, Jeanne Damas is creative director of the Parisian fashion and beauty brand, Rouje. She is tapped regularly by seminal style magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar for her thoughts on fashion and contemporary French beauty trends. 

Damas' observations have helped her make a career of redefining Parisian chic, something that's evident in the clean lines of the designs at her boutique Rouje in the 2nd arrondissement, which is known for embodying "French girl" style with romantic knits and the iconic flower-print Gabin wrap dress. 

When she's off-duty, Damas is also a fan of Paris' department stores, like the hip three-storey concept boutique Merci in Le Marais and the historical 19th-Century department store Le Bon Marché in the 7th arrondissement. "[It] has a great selection of brands," she said of the latter. She also likes to hunt for vintage pieces like silk slip dresses from the 1940s at luxe vintage retailer Chez Snow Bunny, and heads to Yasmine Eslami for lingerie: "[she's] one of the coolest lingerie designers in Paris."

For menswear, Damas's pick is Tricot, her friend Rémi de Laquintane's knitwear shop that has just opened a location in Le Marais, "He is specialised in recycled cashmere," she said. "The quality and the colours are amazing." 

2. Best for home décor and interiors 

Even if you can't fulfil your dream of living in Paris, you can bring some Parisian style home with you. For homewares worth checking a bag for, Damas' fashion pick Merci also has a vast range of furniture, decorations, candles and art.

She also recommends the design purveyor Boutique Maison de Campagne, known for its shabby-chic home furnishings and interior decor like whitewashed furniture and light fixtures. "[They] have beautiful kitchen linen and vintage vases," added Damas. Venturing further east towards the 1st arrondissement, Damas suggests visiting the Astier de Villate artisanal workshop; "a great place to find amazing ceramics." Astier de Villate's ceramics are all handmade in Paris, and the shop also sells fragrances, artisanal stationery and handsome art books.

3. Best for beauty and self-care

Damas is just as well-known for her sophisticated "French girl" beauty as she is for her fashion sense. "I often wear what I call my 'uniform'," she said. "A very simple outfit. I highlight it with a big red lip or add a touch of fantasy with an accessory like a flower hair clip."

Damas' best advice for present shopping, particularly during the busy Christmas season when tourists flock to Paris' city centre, is to "go early – in the afternoons, the shops tend to be packed."

Her love for the seemingly effortless "big red lip" is evident in her clean beauty line, Les Filles en Rouje, which offers a variety of lipsticks and gorgeous makeup palettes as well as luxury skincare. The line is available through Damas' boutique and at her pick for beauty shopping, Oh My Cream, a French concept shop specialising in green beauty. Oh My Cream has several locations throughout Paris and sells a wide variety of eco-friendly brands, as well as luxe beauty tools and supplements.

For extravagant Italian fragrance and bath products, Damas also visits the Santa Maria Novella counter at Le Bon Marché, where she snaps up the melograno in scented terracotta home fragrance diffuser, which she likes for its spicy, pomegranate notes.

4. Best for literary gifts 

When it comes to buying gifts, Damas likes to present her loved ones with books. Luckily, the famously literary city of Paris has no shortage of beautiful librairies (bookstores), like the beloved independent bookstore and event space Ofr in Le Marais. "You can always find a good present," said Damas of the neighbourhood mainstay that's known for drawing a hip literary crowd. "They have a beautiful selection of art books and essays."

When Damas wants to browse for literature, she heads to the historic English-language bookshop, Shakespeare and Company; the epicentre for 20th-Century literary luminaries like Ernest Hemingway, Allen Ginsberg and Henry Miller. "[It's] one of the most beautiful bookshops in Paris," she said.

5. Best for women's jewellery 

"I can't speak for everybody," said Damas. "But for me personally [Parisian style] has to do a lot with simplicity." 

BBC Travel's The SpeciaList is a series of guides to popular and emerging destinations around the world, as seen through the eyes of local experts and tastemakers.

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