“ My LIFE, My STYLE
BAZAAR peeks inside the stylish homes of two online fashion retail heavyweights. By Lucy Halfhead
I’ve always been drawn to the most decadent per iods of history,” says Lauren Santo Domingo, perched on a huge tiger-print sofa in her Parisian home.“In college, I was fascinated by feudal Japan, imperial China and tsarist Russia—you could say I’ve studied luxury all my life.”
Over the past seven years, Lauren—LSD to her friends—has channelled this passion, and her insight as a former fashion editor, into a wildly successful business. Moda Operandi is an online retailer whose clients can shop an entire range of looks straight from the catwalk, rather than the small, safe edit offered by conventional retailers. “I’ll be sitting front row at fashion week with five of my girlfriends, and ever y single one of us likes something completely different,” she says. “So the idea that only two of those dresses are going to make it into the shop, and all six of us are going to be satisfied, is totally ridiculous.”
Growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut, where her neighbours included Chloë Sevigny and Carolyn Bessette, Lauren always liked to do things her own way. “Even at 15 I knew my personality; I don’t like being chucked in the back or told to be quiet. Greenwich was pretty conservative, and being called glamorous or ambitious was considered an insult. So, obviously, I left at the earliest opportunity.” In high school, her summer jobs included babysitting, acting as a lifeguard and modelling, through which she met Andrea Linett, an editor at Sassy magazine. “I remember being on-set in a supermarket wearing a prom dress and thinking she was so interesting. I loved how she had control over her environment; she made everything seem like fun, and she got exactly what she wanted in an amazing, collaborative way.”
A long-standing love affair with Paris began when she started to join her father, then the CEO of the Perrier Group of America, on business trips to the French capital. “I would do all my back- to-school shopping there, everything from sweaters to dresses, but also—remember how good French stationery was?” She moved there after finishing her history degree at the University of Southern California, and within a week, had met her future husband, the billionaire Andres Santo Domingo, scion of a Colombian industrialist dynasty, whose parents lived in a magnificent 18th-century hôtel particulier in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.When the upstairs apartment was put on the market, the couple snapped it up and enlisted the help of the interior designer François Catroux, whose clients include the Rothschild, von Furstenberg and Abramovich families. “We were young and had no idea what we were going to do with this grand apartment, just the two of us; it made no sense. But François knew...”
Today, the Santo Domingos are based in New York with their two children, but during the biannual Paris Fashion Weeks, the industry’s great and good descend on the house for lively dinner
LAUREN SANTO DOMINGO The Co-founder of Moda Operandi’s Paris apartment is a sleek mix of the classic and the new, just like her elegant wardrobe
parties and impromptu arm-wrestling competitions. “Bianca Brandolini and Poppy Delevingne are stronger than they look,” Lauren says, laughing.The space is perfect for entertaining— during the renovation, they unearthed exquisite panelling that had been hidden under old paint, which is now adorned by an incredible collection of modern art that includes a blue Robert Motherwell painting and a giant orchid sculpture by Marc Quinn. In the library, a Giancometti coffee table stands on a pretty Moroccan rug, and a spiky Hervé Van der Straeten chandelier hangs in the sitting-room. Upstairs in the master bedroom you’ll find a Cocteau and a newly acquired Man Ray, but Lauren’s favourite spot is on the lavender-and-rose-filled terrace, the setting for a morning ritual of croissants and coffee.
It has been 10 years since the Santo Domingos’ spectacular wedding in Cartagena, Colombia, at which Lauren’s friend, the designer Olivier Theyskens, cut the end off her long gown after the ceremony and turned it into a dress she could dance in. For the ceremony, Lauren matched each of her nine bridesmaids to a different designer.“It just seemed absolutely outrageous to take this diverse group of wonderful women and put them in the same dress. It just felt like cruel and unusual torture,” she says.“I gave the designers a picture of the church and I said,‘This is the colour palette, so just make them look the best they’ve ever looked.’” It was this instinct for fashion that led Lauren to launch Moda Operandi after the economic crash in 2009, when department stores were nervously holding back on buying stock, but women still wanted access to fabulous clothes. “It’s the impulse I have as a fashion editor, to share a new idea, a new coat, a new designer,” she says.“Nothing is exciting unless it’s shared.” When we meet, she is immaculately dressed in a Rosie Assoulin checked jacket, Brock Collection jeans and Tabitha Simmons heels. Her enviable wardrobe also includes skinny jeans by Saint Laurent, a Proenza Schouler biker jacket, Isabel Marant t-shirts and Valentino evening gowns, and Givenchy, Oscar de la Renta, Céline, Chanel and Dolce&Gabbana are favourites. But you’re just as likely to find her wearing pieces by unknown designers.“Heritage brands are in their deserved, exalted positions and will remain able, but I also love newness,” she says. “I’m on an endless quest to stave off boredom.”
Even though Moda Operandi requires customers to pay 50 percent of the purchase price months ahead of receiving their order, Lauren’s business model has taken off. She has earned the trust of her clients while using technology to predict their every move.“The reason we launched bridal? We were able to pull up data from the computer that told us a large percentage of the evening gowns we were selling were white.”
Today, the average spend on Moda is $1,700, and customer satisfaction is high, with a 15 percent return rate (the industry standard is around the 50 percent mark).The company plans to add 12 more showrooms next year, having just secured another $165 million of funding after growing by 350 percent since it last raised capital. “That’s a lot of Rochas slides and Dolce dresses,” says Lauren. “Proof that empire builders really do have more fun.”