My name is Vanessa Seward, I am 50 years old,
I am of Argentinean origin, but French.
I have been living in Paris for over 30 years and I am a fashion designer.
I have always wanted to work in fashion.
After graduating high school, I went to the Studio Berçot
and immediately went to work at Chanel.
During the 1990s, it was very exciting,
it was a period when there were all the models.
And then I went to work for two years at Saint Laurent
with Tom Ford.
After that, I was a designer for Azzaro.
I created my own brand, which lasted three years
and now I am a freelancer.
I've been living in this appartment for a year now.
It was my husband who actually had a crush on it.
It's in a building that was made by the architect Jean Dubuisson,
who is one of the modernist architects that we admired a lot.
It really is the school of Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe.
This appartment is where they lived, it was Jean Dubuisson's family appartment.
At first, since I was so Parisian - we are in Courbevoie here -,
I hesitated.
I didn't want to leave Paris too much, but I'm very happy now.
It's a pleasure and you can feel that it was done by a great architect
because there are so many details that make it super pleasant to live.
We are in my office,
and everything behind me was actually already in the appartment.
It really was Jean Dubuisson who did it like that.
I love it, it really reminds me of all this modernist architecture,
it also reminds me of Charlotte Perriand's furniture.
I also love the blue, which is also very Jean Dubuisson,
and this blue inspired us to choose the floor covering's color.
Otherwise, the furniture here is Bertrand's desk,
that I stole from him and that he had had for a long time.
This is a Chinese chest that belonged to my grandmother.
And this is a photo of Bertrand and me when we met
taken by Serge Leblanc.
This is my great-grandfather, who was an oncologist,
a very intense personality.
This, I like very much, Bertrand gave it to me,
it's a Marc Bohan's drawing because I'm a big fan.
And this is a work by Jason Glasser, he's an artist I like a lot
and I work with him for all my prints.
I collect vintage.
For example, there's everything from jumpers to jewellery.
I love printed dresses, and some of them are from my collections,
including the clover print.
This, for example, is a vintage Ungaro dress,
this is a vintage Ted Lapidus,
and this is La Redoute, one of the dresses of my collection for this winter.
Here, more vintage cocktail dresses.
This is a Saint Laurent from the 1970s.
This one, I love it, is Nina Ricci.
There, for example, I put on all the scarves to go out.
I really like the fringes, it's my Argentinean side.
It's an Àcheval hat that's a little bit Argentinean.
I have some suits.
Currently, I'm trying to see how you can wear a face mask and still be chic.
Minako, a friend of mine, makes them, they're very small.
And it's not over yet, I still have other wardrobes that are full.
Come on, I'll show you.
Here, there are the printed blouses, after the dresses,
and also some shoes.
Here, more blouses.
These are all the printed scarves, because I love scarves.
And then, the same for shoes, I have my fixations.
I love the platforms, this is the one for La Redoute,
this winter.
I had already done some for my brand too.
They were even higher, and so for La Redoute,
I really worked on the design so that you can really
walk all day long with them, you can even take the subway.
These are pretty crazy, I had done that at Azzaro.
Christian Louboutin made them for me.
I started this fashion collection very early
and it's true that I give a lot of power to the clothes,
so I can't really get rid of them.
I think I've invested more in my wardrobe than in decoration
or anything else.
Besides, it's the only thing I'm good at.
I suck at cooking, I suck at everything but that.
As soon as I see a piece I like,
it's true that I've had a crush on clothes since I was very young.
The first important piece I've seen was at Anoushka's,
which is a vintage shop.
I bought a suede frock coat
and it cost me a month's salary,
but I paid for it little by little and that's how it started.
Afterwards, I worked in prestigious houses.
Then there were all the things I did myself.
I also have a lot of things that belonged to my mother.
I even have a collection of Chinese jackets from my grandmother
who, in the 1940s, travelled a lot.
It really has that very 1940s shape with the shoulder pads,
I think it's really chic,
and I think it's completely different for the evening.
I bought this in Los Angeles from a Mexican designer
in the 1970s called Josefa.
You can wear it with a belt and boots, very chic.
For example, I found this one in Buenos Aires,
it's a jacket from the Marine School and it's exactly my size.
I've had it for 30 years, I think.
This is a raincoat that I like very much
because it's completely reversible.
This is a suit I made when I was a designer for Azzaro.
I used to do things like this, very red carpet for the evening,
with embroidery.
By the way, it weighs a ton.
I made it 15 years ago, but I could definitely wear it again.
Otherwise, I also made two bags.
I had worked on it when I was working at the Chanel studio
with Karl Lagerfeld, Gilles Dufour, Virginie Viard
and Victoire de Castellane.
The inside is made of Chanel bandana.
This is a cigarette holder,
it was for Tom Ford's first collection for Saint Laurent
and I worked on it.
There's even the lighter.
The good thing is that nobody has that.
That's what I love about vintage too.
In a world where there are a lot of big chains
and where everyone can look alike,
you can express your difference and your personality through your clothes.
And what I like in the fashion world is that it's still a quite tolerant world
when you feel a little different.
And I've always felt different because I've lived in different countries,
even when I was young.
It's a world that I find very tolerant
and when you're not like the others, you find your place.
And it even becomes an advantage and that's great.
Regarding my style, I try to be as timeless as possible.
I always tell myself that I don't want to see a picture of me
from 15 years ago and be ashamed.
I've had pretty much the same style since I was a teenager,
so it's been a while.
I think it's rather feminine,
I'm just trying to have that little sensuality that's typically Parisian,
it's all about suggestion.
You shouldn't look like you're trying too hard.
I love to notice the looks, I look at girls and women all the time.
But I also like to look at all price ranges
and mix everything together, and above all not to take fashion too seriously.
I think it's very important to keep a light touch in the way you approach fashion.
It has to be fun, that's all.
Argentina influences me a lot.
My mother and my grandmother, who were very Latin American chic,
always inspired me.
My childhood in London in the 1970s,
when my mother went out a lot.
She was quite extravagant,
but still with a style that remained seductive and glamorous.
She was not a fashion victim.
I spent hours in front of her wardrobe admiring every dress,
admiring every pair of shoes.
I was always very shy.
I lacked a bit of self-confidence and I could see that, all of a sudden,
because you were wearing something, you felt stronger, more beautiful.
I was very shy and sometimes I felt a bit transparent,
but I made myself stand out because of my style.
That's why I became a fashion designer,
it was to make these clothes
that could give you that superpower of confidence.
I believe in it a lot
and as a designer, it's something that I try to give to women.
I know they're going to look better this way because they're going to feel beautiful.
I think it's in the head and that's what you convey.
That's why sometimes we can think that fashion is futile,
and it is, but at the same time it also helps.
It's something extra that we have and that's good.