Laetitia Crahay on Motherhood

Pin It
Laetitia Crahay and Theodora
Laetitia Crahay and TheodoraPhotography by Ilaria Orsini

Whether sporting a pair of bunny ears rendered in Lesage embroidery or a coquettish veil of Chantilly lace; Laetitia Crahay, artistic director of the 75-year-old millinery house Maison Michel and head of accessories and jewellery at Chanel is her

"Obviously (when I fell pregnant), I stopped drinking and smoking! I was listening to This Magic Moment by Lou Reed while I gave birth in eight minutes. I guess you don't realise at first what is happening, then the overwhelming sensation of love comes over you, it grows on you, it takes time; the love grows more and more everyday. I still go out a lot and get photographed but perhaps nowadays I just choose the parties more wisely, I definitely only go to the better parties! I also have a good nanny and I'm a super pro at organisation! But I also like staying in with Theodora and we like to play with Patrick the Lion (her favourite toy) and also to make funny faces together.

Having a baby definitely helped creating the new Maison Michel Baby collection. Before, I had no idea what to put on a child's head and now with Theodora it has become much more realistic. I also thought there was not much choice out there for children's hats and since babies have little bald heads it is much more fun to cover them up. It is a fun and well made line of children's headwear. I created it because I could not find such a mix of creativity and quality in the shops. Theodora absolutely hates wearing hats, but I make her wear them anyway! Although, we both do love to wear the bunny ears."

"I guess you don't realise at first what is happening, then the overwhelming sensation of love comes over you, it grows on you, it takes time; the love grows more and more everyday"

Whether sporting a pair of bunny ears rendered in Lesage embroidery or a coquettish veil of Chantilly lace; Laetitia Crahay, artistic director of the 75-year-old millinery house Maison Michel and head of accessories and jewellery at Chanel is her own best advertisement for the power of hats: which is to say that they can be sexy, playful and mood-enhancing. She shrugs, “But I guess I always wore hats as a teenager, though this was a very uncommon thing to do at the time. But they can be beautiful objects – that’s why it doesn’t look ridiculous.”

She surrounds herself with delectable muses: friends like ex-classmate Olivier Theyskens, Clemence Poesy, Sasha Pivorova, Lou Doillon, naming creations after them and in return getting them to model for her lookbooks (photographed by her mentor, Karl Lagerfeld bien sur). Chanel bought the historic house in 2006 to form part of its Metiers D’Arts and preserve its traditional skills. Ever since she was installed at the maison, Crahay has injected her trademark sense of chic insouciant into cool derbies, bejeweled bands, and fur felt trilbies, making them a must-have among the style-set. Formerly an out-and-proud party girl, Crahay has settled down following the birth of baby Theodora who even inspired the creation of a Maison Michel baby collection of utterly adorable straw boaters, trilbies and PVC caps with bear ears.

Text by Kin Woo