LA PARISIENNE

Style guru and Roger Vivier brand ambassador INÈS DE LA FRESSANGE tells VINCENZO LA TORRE about ageing gracefully, mixing high and low and never compromising when it comes to a pair of good shoes

FRENCH WOMEN DON’T GET FAT, Bringing Up Bébé, French Women Don’t Sleep Alone. These are just some of the titles of recent bestsellers devoted to the ineffable qualities of a tiny segment of the world’s population: the women of France. This subgenre of the publishing industry has greatly contributed to the ideal of the femme française, that epitome of chic who seems to do no wrong in whatever she tries her hand at, from raising perfectly adjusted and well-behaved children to keeping fit without adhering to a strict regimen or depriving herself of that daily baguette – not to mention looking impeccable with minimal effort, sporting that just-gotout-of-bed look that only Parisians seem able to pull off.

What is it about French women that makes them so admired – and envied – the world over? From Brigitte Bardot to Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Hardy, they have been heralded as unattainable beacons of style and glamour – even today, if you were to ask a cool girl-about-town where her style inspiration originates, the answer is likely to be the Parisian high-low mix of Chanel, Isabel Marant, Maje or Sandro.

In recent years, with the proliferation of street-style blogs and front-row reports from Paris, the spotlight has slightly shifted from the stage – and the catwalks – to behind-thescenes movers and shakers such as Carine Roitfeld, Emmanuelle Alt and Virginie Mouzat, influential editrixes whose perfect figures, effortless elegance and ability to wear every shade of black in one outfit and still make it interesting – don’t expect a burst of berry hues from the Faubourg set – are scrutinised in much the same way as the red-carpet looks of Hollywood starlets.

A Parisienne you probably won’t see gracing every show during fashion week or being chased by photographers, but who nevertheless has become an authority in matters of French style, is Inès de La Fressange, the super tall, super chic and super French former model who’s now a successful author – yes, she’s also played her part in turning the “French women this and French women that” genre into a mini industry – and a muse at the house of Roger Vivier.

Born into an illustrious family – her grandmother was Suzanne Lazard, Marquise de La Fressange – de la Fressange started her modelling career working alongside Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, where she spent most of the 1980s in a much-coveted exclusive contract. The French were so in love with her striking features that she was chosen to lend her likeness to the Marianne, the face of the country, the visage that represents the French Republic.

Ensconced in a corner of the first Roger Vivier boutique in Singapore late last year and clad in a sequinned gold jacket, a pair of cropped jeans and Roger Vivier flat pumps with buckles rendered in sparkling glitter, de la Fressange looked like the embodiment of the fashion plate, the style maven who can put an outfit together in a matter of seconds and look polished no matter what she wears.

In spite of the glamorous aura that surrounds de la Fressange, she adamantly calls herself a “boring person”, offhandedly dismissing her personal style. “People tell me I’m a fashion icon,” she says, “but actually I’m not that much in fashion. They imagine me on red carpets, but I think it’s not good to be overexposed. You lose sense of reality. All women have the feeling of, ‘I never have what I need,’ but when I dress, I worry I’m going to be late so I take a navy blue sweater, loafers and a pair of jeans. I dress like that all the time, but at least I won’t be late [laughs]. Tricks like this you learn when you’ve been working for ages in fashion and you know to take a long navy blue coat, with a white shirt and nice shoes and a nice bag. The more you work in fashion, the less you have. I don’t want to keep a lot of things like the bling you see with Paris Hilton. You’re not happy having too much; you’re happy having the right thing.”

She was one of the first proponents of the high-low look now common among the chic set, mixing vintage and high-street finds with haute couture pieces, something that was rare in the head-to-toe-look days of the ’80s and ’90s. “I find it totally obvious,” she