A Lesson From The Animal Kingdom

Not all of us are graceful ballet dancers or stylish fashion followers, but we can still stake a claim to elegance

- LORRAINE KEARNEY;

Coco Chanel, that fearless pioneer of couture, once said: 'Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.' But she was all about looks - clothes, jewellery, bags, shoes, accessories, even lipstick so we can assume she was talking about appearance.

If this is your metric, elegance can cost a mint, or at the very least, more than most of us have down the back of the couch. Which handily brings us to the second point: elegance is a quality of style and grace, of being attractive in appearance or behaviour.

Other words to tick off are poise, simplicity, effectiveness, timelessness and tastefulness.

Visual design, decorative arts, literature, science and yes, even maths can be elegant.

The AI bots tell us that it's the art of making a statement without uttering a word, captivating attention with understated charm rather than flamboyant extravagance.

Simplicity and quality over flamboyance and excess.