Columns on fashion, culture and ideas

All posts in Inner Chic

Written by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni and illustrated by Robert Beck, this column focuses on life in Paris, pepped up by the insiders who are steeped in chic

  • L'Epi D'or

    Inner Chic | L'Epi d'Or

    Pascalline Pelletier has owned and run the L’Epi d’Or restaurant since January 1987. A neighbourhood bistro, I love it for serving tasty, unpretentious French food...

  • Olivier Saillard

    Inner Chic | Olivier Saillard's Comme des Garçons White Drama & Christobal Balenciaga

    Introducing Olivier Saillard as the Musée Galliera’s director sounds too stuffy. No doubt because he races around, appears eternally youthful and brings past fashion into the present...

  • India Mahdavi's new boutique

    Inner Chic | India Mahdavi

    Whenever pals ask about new places in Paris, 19 rue Las Cases rolls off my tongue. Opened by India Mahdavi, the Interior Designer, it’s several doors down from her showroom and also sums up inviting...

  • Olympia Le-Tan

    Inner Chic | Olympia Le-Tan

    While the term ‘it bag’ gives me chills, Olympia Le-Tan’s book-like minaudières and totes cause a ‘gimmenow’ sweat. Occasionally, I fantasise about breaking into her office and stealing one or two pieces...

  • Daphne Guinness

    Inner Chic | Daphne Guinness

    A few months ago, Daphne Guinness moved to Paris. And although staying put and clipping her metalized wings sounds unlikely this summer, I hope she’ll return in September and start a salon of sorts...

  • E.B. Meyrowitz

    Inner Chic | E.B. Meyrowitz

    Each year, my French health insurance allows a free pair of prescription glasses. And by early January, I can be found hovering in the boutique of E.B. Meyrowitz...

  • Horiyoshi The Third

    Inner Chic | Horiyoshi the Third

    Horiyoshi the Third is a legend in the tattoo world. Divinely principled, he views each of his designs – ranging from peonies to phoenixes - as protective to the wearer and refuses major Hollywood stars who can’t make it to his Tokyo-based...

  • Raphaella Riboud

    Inner Chic | Raphaella Riboud

    Two weeks ago, Raphaella Riboud launched her first ever Private Wear collection. Accustomed to elegance – she’s worked at Vogue in London and Christian Dior in Paris – I predicted that her 35-pieces, which range from pyjamas to negligées...

  • Victoria Fernandez

    Inner Chic | Victoria Fernandez

    Quizzed about her favourite colour, Victoria Fernandez shoots back with "black and only black after a certain age!" It’s a fairly predictable response from the Colombian style icon who shimmies around in many shades of black – often...

  • Jean-Jacques Picart

    Inner Chic | Jean-Jacques Picart

    If four decades of French fashion appeals, buy Jean-Jacques Picart’s book Des Vies et des Modes (Life and Fashion in English). True, Des Vies is entirely written in French but frank interviews with the likes of Helmut Lang, Suzy Menkes,...

  • Lisa Fine

    Inner Chic | Lisa Fine

    My friendship with the well-travelled Lisa Fine began over astrology, which is odd when she designs clothes and textiles. Still, true to her sun sign Cancer, La Fine (or Miss Lisa which is how the Ritz Hotel’s concierges refer to the...

  • Frédéric Malle

    Inner Chic | Frédéric Malle

    Catherine Deneuve not only wrote the foreword for Frédéric Malle’s brand new book ‘De L’Art Du Parfum’, but was also the first person to appear at his Paris launch party...