While there seems to be no shortage of long-legged ladies claiming so-called supermodel status these days, the muse, with her intangible influence over a designer, holds a much more exclusive place in fashion’s hierarchy. As muse to Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel for most of the ’80s, Inès de la Fressange inspired more than just a handbag or two. The daughter of a marquis and a model, the French beauty travelled with Lagerfeld, attended Chanel meetings and events, and was the face for the house’s fragrance Coco. After she and Lagerfeld had a famous falling out (they have since reconciled), de la Fressange left Chanel, launched a successful namesake clothing line, as well as fragrances and housewares, and opened a string of stores. In 2002, her friend Diego Della Valle, head of Tod’s, approached her to help relaunch the iconic Roger Vivier brand, best known for reviving the stiletto heel and introducing the signature buckle pump. Now, she has a very muse-in-charge title—brand ambassador. We spoke to de la Fressange about her love of shopping and clothes, and how sometimes bad trends can find redemption.
Roger Vivier has such a long history. How do you marry that with today’s trend-oriented culture? “What is trendy, it’s vintage, but it doesn’t mean antique, you know? People love the ’60s, the ’70s, the ’50s, and Vivier’s been working in all these decades—even the ’80s are now very fashionable.”
In your private life, how important are trends to you? “If I feel badly dressed, I feel bad the whole day. I love clothes. I had a very, very close friend that I liked very, very much, and she was dying from cancer. The last time I saw her, she was living in the South of France, and I said: ‘I’m going to Paris, shall I bring you back something?’ And she said: ‘I want a jean miniskirt that I saw in a magazine and that you can find at Gap,’ or wherever. Of course, it was stupid, and she would never wear a miniskirt the way she was looking, but I thought it was great that she was still thinking about buying clothes. It was one of our big things to do together; to go shopping and see what’s new in this shop, to compare what we bought. And until the end, we had this complicity around clothes.”
How do you feel your approach to dressing and trends has changed? “If you want to be absolutely trendy, forget about it; it’s too late and it’ll always be too late. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow trends, and look at and try to be inspired by magazines. I think it’s important to have a magazine and to look—even if you think that you won’t wear it, it’s nice to adapt a little bit, adapt fashion to the way you are. It’s funny how people here are very, very self-conscious about fashion, much more so than in Paris.”
How do you think women in North America are different than French women? “They’re afraid to not be trendy, they’re afraid to not have the good look, and they’re much more self-conscious. They buy much more, and they follow things much more. It’s like Sex and the City—there’s love, work and shopping.”
Are there any trends that you weren’t so keen on at first, but now you’re getting excited about? “A friend of mine and I were looking at Uggs a long time ago, laughing and saying, ‘Imagine that one day we’re going to like them and we’re going to wear them,’ and we were giggling, you know. Then, after a while, a friend of mine bought me some Uggs, and they were a little too small for me. I gave them to my daughter, and seeing her with the Uggs, I thought, ‘That’s not bad.’ Last Christmas, in New York, I bought a huge pair of Uggs! And that’s what is fun about fashion—you can never say ‘I hate that.’ Of course, there are always awful things, but it has always been like this. Fashion needs awful things, and sometimes awful things become classics.”
First published in FASHION Magazine September 2009
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