Top-Models always at the top? Yes, La Parisienne made it!
“You can be gorgeous at thirty, charming at forty, and irresistible for the rest of your life”, Coco Chanel loved to say and Inès de la Fressange is the one who bestembodies these words. Who said the top-models’ life ends at forty? Nonconformist, volcanic, and intelligent. It’s long since our girl she has made people speak about the innate class and irony that have turned her in the actual pioneer and emblem of eternal Parisian style. In a nutshell: an example to follow … And it’s just her, Inès, that I want to address. Together with her – just as if she was, now, beside me – I want to speak of her wonderful life studded with successes and failures, joys and sorrows!
From a luxury heiress to an entrepreneur of herself. From a top-model and Karl Lagerfeld’s muse to a concrete woman, elegant in every occasion. At 18 she obtained the first important cover on Elle. Recently, she decided to pose nude for Madame Figaro. Ambassador of the Roger Vivier’s luxury brand, testimonial for L’Oreal, author of both a bible of the chic, La Parisienne, and a biography written with the journalist Marianne Mairesse, Profession Mannequin, frankly, Inès’ life has not always been easy. But she says <<Never look back!>>, and so it was…
Ups and downs alternated in time. <<Happiness is made of lights and shadows, is patch >>, she mentioned in a recent interview. Nephew of the powerful bankers Lazard, she has grown up rich but deeply alone. She lost everything. Then fortune kissed her again in the late 70s, when she succeeded in imposing her nonconformist character in the fashion world. She created a Maison and then she lost it. In 1990 Inès got married to the Neapolitan lawyer, Luigi D’Urso, with whom she has had two daughters: Nine, of seventeen, and Violet, of eleven. In 2006, alas, the man of her life died for a heart attack. <<I dressed in black, I could not see myself in any other color: I would never have imagined it before but at that moment so it was. Society does not allow you to be sad, everyone says: “Come on, let us go!” Then one day my daughter asked me why didn’t I give up with the black >>. These are the words she has chosen to tell those hard days. Her friends have been very important in helping Inès to react and she never stops to thank them…
Enthusiastic and hard-fighting, she is always ready to experience new adventures. The latest one? Inés’ little diaries, an exhaustive guide to the coolest shops in Paris (www.rogervivier.com/en/#/ines-little-diaries), also available for iPhone. Fashion tips and little goodies able to make women all around the world crazy: La Parisienne has scored another goal!
Top-models always at the top. Extraordinarily saved by the marks of the time, Inès is today a radiant woman still able to love and be loved. And is maybe love her eternal youth elixir? Denis Olivennes, Lagardère Active’s CEO, is now her partner: What an amazing couple! <<Denis is a poet who likes boxing>>, she explained at the beginning of their relationship. <<He’s cultured, helps my daughters with school, is a wonderful teacher. Probably, at twenty we wouldn’t have chosen one another, but today it’s perfect. When you are fifty years you accept not to always be “the winner”, at this age you know your faults and your weaknesses, you accept both yourself and your partner: you’re a little ‘geisha, a little’ Amazon>> . So, in life we need style. To win and to lose. Neither beauty not long legs and not even the famous zero size. <<Style and style again>>, word-of Inès de la Frassange: très chic!
Luca Imbimbo
