The French are famously nonchalant about a lot of things — their president marrying his leggy paramour after a whirlwind romance, for one — but fashion is not one of them. And France’s new first lady, the Italian singer and former model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, did not disappoint yesterday, showing up to meet Queen Elizabeth II in a lovely gray coat-dress, courtesy of Christian Dior and designed by John Galliano. The first lady’s black leather gloves, handbag, belt, and ballet flats — at 5 feet, 9 inches, she’s four inches taller than her husband without wearing heels — complemented her look.

Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy, 40, accompanying her husband, President Sarkozy, on an official visit to Britain, chose to top off her outfit with a matching pillbox-style hat in gray. That hat was quite a contrast with the much more flamboyant headwear that the queen and her daughter-in-law, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, wore to greet the French first couple. The queen donned a wide-brim hat, adorned with black, white, and beige feathers, while the duchess chose an animal print cap, embellished with a mass of faux leaves.

Later in the day, looking on as her husband addressed the British Parliament, Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy — who married Mr. Sarkozy in February, four months after the French president and his former wife divorced — looked a bit more casual. She wore, over her gray ensemble, a black coat, unbuttoned, and fastened her hair in a loose up-do. In choosing her meet-the-queen getup, she seemed to draw inspiration directly from Jacqueline Kennedy; but even in her perfectly ladylike attire, the Italian Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy — with her cinched waist, long, silky tresses, and plump, pink lips — exuded an enigmatic sensuality, for which the women of her adopted homeland are well-known.