My name is Alexandra Van Houtte, I am 31 years old,
I am half French, half English.
I was born in Paris, but grew up in England.
I started my own business,
it's a tech company.
I created a search engine that's specialised in searching for fashion shows,
accessories, models.
And before that, I was an assistant.
I spent my life searching through looks.
They weren't well referenced so my website allows you to reference everything
in an incredibly simple and quick way.
So that's what TAGWALK is.
I created a solution to a problem I had daily.
In fact, I'm from a pretty entrepreneurial family on the English side
but quite conventional on the French side,
and my grandfather was a big entrepreneur.
My brothers are also entrepreneurs,
they make toffees,
and I, of course, am quite entrepreneurial as well.
I think in our family, we're not afraid of taking risks.
It's more of an exciting challenge.
I've been in this flat for seven years.
My flat is not really thought out.
It's a collection of all the things that share my story:
a token or something I'm crazy about.
I've never bought anything really, really expensive.
It's not really my style.
I like to collect a lot of things
and when you bring together all the things you love
you can create a sort of wonderful cocoon.
My living room is really divided into two parts.
It is small,
but what I've done here is put all the books
I have amassed since I was little.
There are a lot of books in my house.
When I was a child, I was convinced that to get into the fashion industry
and make a name for myself, I had to be extremely cultured
and understand all the trends, all the influences, all the muses.
And it's true that I've learnt from every book, they've enriched and inspired me.
These are chairs: I have Mr and Mrs Moon.
I found them in Carvalhal, a small village in Portugal,
in the gallery of Jacques Grange and Pierre Passebon.
This is the woman, she's super cheeky, and here you have the man
who's a bit bewildered and doesn't understand what's happening to him.
When I moved here,
everyone told me to knock this door down to have a big open kitchen.
But I like to have lots of little rooms in my house,
lots of little corners that are mine.
That's why I like to have smaller rooms
which are cuter and where I can create different worlds.
So this is a closet,
it's here and that's really alright with me.
I go through the living room in the morning, it's not a big deal.
My relationship with fashion was complicated at first
because obviously, I don't have the stereotypical body of,
I would say, the Parisian girl.
And it's true that I had a lot of trouble at first;
accepting how I looked, what I had to wear.
As the years go by, and I think it might be a bit like a cliché to say this,
but women like Rihanna and Kim Kardashian who have embraced their bodies,
who have started to make more inclusive campaigns
with very different types of women,
I think it got me to
accept myself much more,
what I liked, what I wore, who I am.
And so, I now have a much healthier relationship with fashion.
I have a lot more fun, and
yeah, I like that, actually.
So this is the library side.
This lamp was bought by Barracuda Comporta –
from a designer named Alexandre whom I love –
and they buy a lot of great second-hand items.
Then there's this picture, it's a picture that's very important to me.
My parents gave it to me for my 30th birthday.
It's a picture I grew up with.
It's quite serious, but there's something very soothing about it
and it's very straight and square.
These are stools designed by India Mahdavi for Monoprix.
I think they're great, they're colorful,
they are a bit minimalist,
I think they are comfortable
and they bring a bit of vitality, a bit of cheerfulness.
My home is full of small items that are not necessarily very expensive,
and which were bought on an impulse at flea markets.
The only thing that I was
simultaneously lovestruck by and heartbroken by
is this couch, but I'm mad about it.
It was designed by Richard Peduzzi who is a scenographer.
And when I see it, I tell myself, "This is such a unique piece."
It's a piece that I can put anywhere for the rest of my life,
it will have a soul, it will have a story.
I could put it in a nursery later on, or in a living room or hall.
This is a couch that I love deeply
and this is, I think, the most important piece
both financially
and I think emotionally, that I have.
What is certain is that my home, I think, has a lot of English influence.
My personality is more French, so I'm quite frank, quite direct.
But in terms of my taste, I
think I am more influenced by England.
This flat,
it's a bit like the country house of my dreams,
except that I'm in Paris.
This is the second half of my living room.
The second half implies a very large flat,
but actually, this living room is 12 m², so it's not huge.
This is my infamous couch, it's been quite a drama.
I think I'll be traumatised by couches for the rest of my life.
I ordered it from La Redoute.
It arrived eight months late.
When it arrived, they showed up at my doorstep
and they needed a crane.
They came back a month later with it and they blocked the whole street
for a whole Sunday morning.
It was very, very complicated.
So it's here, it's not going anywhere.
I'm always in a hurry, I like to get things done right away
so ordering a beautiful item or bargain hunting or
spending a lot of time looking for the perfect couch,
that's not my style at all.
Each frame
on this wall has a story.
This frame was given to me by my mother
when I moved in and I was 21.
This poster was from my first internship with Alber Elbaz at Lanvin,
it was at the Summer 2011 fashion show and I took the sign.
Then here, I have my Herbarium,
I have a few here, they're a bit everywhere, in my living room, in my bedroom.
They are dried flowers and each flower has a meaning.
The elephant with its trunk
up in the air brings good fortune and benevolence,
and many positive things.
This wall, strangely enough, represents all the ties I have,
be it family ones - my mother is a landscaper,
so all the flowers in the Herbarium pieces are of course important to me.
It's kind of the jumble from my life,
or at least from young adulthood.
My bedroom is a bit like my living room, it's full of little trinkets.
My mother got me this ceramic
an evil eye,
I mean a good eye that brings protection; she gave it to me,
and it's really dear to me.
I love candles, they create a lovely atmosphere.
This one is from an organic brand
- it smells so good - called Bjork and Berries in Sweden
Right here, I have all my jewelry boxes,
I have incense somewhere.
I collect
the same sunglasses.
So, you'll probably think I'm a nutcase, but I discovered this brand
when I was 22 years old.
It's called Absente.
It's weird, but I can't leave the house without them,
they hold my hair,
they comfort me.
This is my wallpaper that I love from Cath Kidston.
It's not very well applied,
but this wallpaper reminds me so much of England, where I grew up,
it reminds me of my grandfather, my grandmother.
Everyone teases me a bit
because I have a king-sized bed in a small flat.
It is two metres wide.
I actually bought two one metre mattresses,
two bed frames, two headboards,
and I know it's a bit ridiculous because I don't really need it.
But ultimately,
I think it compliments the room with wallpaper.
There's a countryside hotel feel to it,
where I get to escape Paris and my everyday life for a bit.
I have to say that I have a fairly hectic routine and when I walk into this room,
having a large bed, a lot of
colours, it soothes me enormously.
For me, they're just things that make me feel good.
And this flat makes me feel good.