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Michelle's Secret Weapon
Théallet was one of Jean-Paul Gaultier’s assistants who designed his knitwear and accessories, and was part of the very happening nightclub scene in Paris—The Palace and so forth. “Jean-Paul taught me how to play with color and that if you believed in something, not to be scared.” Then the “enfant terrible” of Paris’ fashion world—it was prior to his becoming world-famous with Madonna’s cone-breasted satin corset—Théallet recalls one Thanksgiving when Gaultier sent “live geese in cages to various fashion journalists.” “It still makes me laugh,” she says.
Théallet recalls one Thanksgiving when her boss, Jean-Paul Gaultier, sent live geese in cages to various fashion journalists. “It still makes me laugh,” she says.
Three years later, having designed a line of children’s clothes under her own name, Théallet joined Alaïa, the king of cling. “All the fittings, the rigor of the clothes, the need for perfection,” she says. “Working for Azzedine was like taking your religious vows. It was a very difficult apprenticeship, but worth it.”
In 1999, Theallet left Alaïa and packed up for New York. No hotshot Seventh Avenue job was set up. “I came because I fell in love,” she says, referring to Steven Francoeur, her Canadian husband and business partner. After freelancing for Alaïa and other designers, she created Motu Tane, a line of clothes for François Nars, the makeup artist, before starting her own line in 2006.
Every penny earned goes back into Théallet’s next collection. “Since we are a self-financed group, it’s not so easy,” she says. Meanwhile she’s happy to live in Brooklyn, which she compares to the Biarritz of her childhood. “What I miss are the mountains,” she says. “Oh my god, I sound like Heidi!”
Based in Paris, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni freelances for the International Herald Tribune, British Vogue, Elle Decor, Glamour, the Times Magazine (U.K.) and is the author of Sam Spiegel—The Biography of a Hollywood Legend, published in 2003.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Based in Paris, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni freelances for the International Herald Tribune, English Vogue, Elle Decor, Glamour, the Times Magazine (UK) and is the author of Sam Spiegel—The Biography of a Hollywood Legend, published in 2003.
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Based in Paris, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni freelances for the International Herald Tribune, English Vogue, Elle Decor, Glamour, the Times Magazine (UK) and is the author of Sam Spiegel—The Biography of a Hollywood Legend, published in 2003.
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Based in Paris, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni freelances for the International Herald Tribune, English Vogue, Elle Decor, Glamour, the Times Magazine (UK) and is the author of Sam Spiegel—The Biography of a Hollywood Legend, published in 2003.
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