a perfect world
Sofía Sanchez de Betak (or you can call her Chufy) is one of those multi-talented women who make the rest of us wonder what we’ve been doing with our spare time. She’s a model, fashion consultant, art director, editor, entrepreneur, influencer and now the
At home in Paris, we’re freezing. I’ve caught a cold. There are holes in the wall!” laughs Sofía Sanchez de Betak as she explains that her New York and Paris apartments are currently being renovated. She’s one of those women with incredible charm and undeniable style, blessed with a certain je ne sais quoi and the natural ability to transform an average T-shirt into an immediate musthave. Her good friend and fellow Parisian, Inès de la Fressange, describes her as a paradox: “Beautiful yet witty, hyperactive yet calm, sophisticated yet cool.”
Sanchez de Betak – frequently seen front row at A-list fashion shows in Paris, Milan and New York, as well as in countless street-style galleries – is currently on the cover of Condé Nast
Traveler’s Patagonia special. It’s been one of her favourite destinations since holidaying there as a child and, more recently, it was where she married the famous French scenographer, Alexandre de Betak. “I met my husband in Argentina during the holidays. I was with one of my two sisters, who is also married to a Frenchman. Six months later we started dating in New York and four months later we were married!” The lavish three-day wedding celebration was attended by the couple’s close friends Constance Jablonski, Anja Rubik, Jason Wu, Peter Lindbergh, Marc Newson, Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Gaia Repossi and Nicholas Kirkwood, to name just a few.
Growing up in an affluent Argentinian family, Sanchez de Betak travelled a lot with her parents. “My mother has always been passionate about travelling. And my grandparents were already living between Buenos Aires, Capri, Paris... everywhere around the globe.” Scouted by a modelling agency in Buenos Aires at age 14, she soon found her image plastered all over the city and quickly decided she’d prefer to be behind, rather than on, the billboards. “After high school I decided to study graphic design and filmmaking. I wanted to go into editing.” She landed her first gig as a junior art director for the fashion photographer Urko Suaya before taking up a job as an editorial designer at
Time Out magazine, which she did while teaching typography at night school at the University of Buenos Aires.
She went on to become an art director for the advertising agency Lloyd & Co in New York where she soon learned that a 360-degree approach was needed to succeed in the new media landscape. “Visual art, social media, brand concept and strategy are my assets.” However, new and challenging projects soon came as a worldwide freelancer. “Now I’m a consultant for a hotel group, I contribute to a magazine and I work with brands such as Marni, Chloé and Tiffany & Co.” Sanchez de Betak also regularly taps her sixth sense for up-andcoming artists and young designers like Kei Ninomiya and Letita Aragon (with whom she recently created the ultimate summer dress). Right now, she’s working on launching her own clothing line called Chufy and she’s currently writing a travel book featuring “super luxe private houses”.
Sanchez de Betak’s personal philosophy is based on the idea that life is, above all, a game, meaning she’s at ease anywhere and at anytime. But she always has an eye out for design: “I’m very eclectic. Most of my clothes come from a mixture of different places that I’ve travelled to.” It comes as no surprise, then, that she’s been chosen to be the new brand ambassador for Roger Vivier. For the SS17 collection, designer Bruno Frisoni had a certain image in mind: a woman who was nomadic and urban, yet accessible and chic – glamorous without being ostentatious. A woman embodied by Sanchez de Betak. “It’s an honour for me. This brand has made its mark on fashion history. Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Grace Kelly, Brigitte Bardot – they have all worn Roger Vivier on their feet.” But it’s easy to see why style runs through her veins when she admits her grandmother, and her number-one fashion icon, also had dozens of pairs. “She was the most elegant woman I’ve ever known.”