Get to know Parisienne Mathilde Favier, Press Director for Dior Couture, and her fabulous friends …
Mathilde on her balcony in a Dior evening dress: “Azzedine Alaïa used to say after 40, you shouldn’t show your legs or your arms, but Maria Grazia Chiuri’s designs for Dior allows you to rise to the challenge.”
From one of Paris’ most creative families, Parisienne Mathilde Favier, press director for Dior Couture, is renowned as a warm, welcoming hostess nurturing a network of girlfriends who happen to be some of the city’s most esteemed figures in fashion, beauty, art, interior design, and gastronomy. She has described friendship as being about “similarities of the soul” and only the finest of friends make the grade.
“The notion of quality and beauty affects every aspect of my life, which is doubtless why I work in the luxury sector,” she says. “I’m as exacting about my friendships and relationship as I am about everything else. My friends come from all sorts of backgrounds, and they all have talent, imagination, taste, and refinement. I give a great deal and I receive a great deal. All Parisians in their own unique way, they all add to the beauty of the city and of life.”
Mathilde’s own dining room is an homage to Lee Radziwill’s London drawing room. The table is set with plates by Dior.
Entertaining at home is a characteristically Parisian pastime, with the idea of home becoming ever more important in the city. Whether Parisians live in 15th-century houses, 17th-century mansions, apartment blocks built by Baron Haussmann, or dating from the 1930s, they all like to welcome guests into their homes. In Paris, hosts, including Mathilde, happily welcome guests into the privacy of the kitchen, now the hub of city apartments. There, the art of conversation, so dear to the French, can flourish, whether in debates or confidential discussions: nothing is off limits.
“My house is like an old English lady, it had to have chintz! I was inspired by Hauteville House, the house on Guernsey where Victor Hugo lived in exile, where every room has a different atmosphere and tells a different story.”
“At home,” says Mathilde, “my mother would never leave the butter in its wrapper or price tags on anything, would always make sure we sent handwritten thank you notes, and made my grandfather’s motto her own: “I’m not rich enough to skimp.” Everything she bought was good quality, and she instilled in us her great love of entertaining. We were surrounded by beautiful things.” Meet some of Mathilde’s fabulous friends, below. @mathildefavier
Mathilde’s kitchen, with its window opening on to the courtyard.
THE FRIENDS
JULIE DE LIBRAN
Born in Provence, Julie grew up in California, where she dreamed of Paris as she leafed through her mother’s copies of Vogue Paris. Encouraged by her parents to study fashion, she enrolled in the Istituto Marangoni in Milan. After graduating, she worked with some of the greatest names in fashion: Gianni Versace, Gianfranco Ferre, Miuccia Prada, Marc Jacobs and Sonia Rykiel. She set up her own fashion house in 2019, with a philosophy that perfectly reflects her lifestyle choices – cycling everywhere and eating organic vegetables from her garden in the country. She makes her ready-to-wear designs and jewellery in very small quantities; immune to passing trends, she creates fashion that is timeless. At her home in the 6th arrondissement – a former warehouse transformed into a country house in the heart of the city, flanked by two green spaces designed by Louis Benech – she organises fashion shows for her collections and keeps open house for her designer friends. Mathilde and Julie met while working at Prada. “Julie designs for women who work. She’s brilliant at designing mismatched clothes and keeping them fresh.” @juliedelibran
ELISABETTA BECCARI
Elisabetta is married to Pietro Beccari, CEO of Louis Vuitton. Having arrived in Paris 17 years ago, she has raised their three daughters in the city and has collected around her a happy community of Italian women who have become Parisiennes for a variety of reasons. Her cooking is divine, and she is a magnificent and wonderfully generous hostess. Her living space (below), is designed for entertaining.
BRENDA ALTMAYER
Direct and charming, this Spanish Basque interior designer lives with her husband in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. When she redecorated Mathilde’s apartment a few years ago, she made her dream come true by creating a dining room inspired by the one Renzo Mongiardino designed for Lee Radziwill in London in the 1960s. “Life has gifted Brenda to me like a sister-in-law. I think she’s beautiful to begin with, and incredibly inspiring. We redecorated my apartment together and had a lot of fun,” says Mathilde.
EMMANUELLE ALT
Emmanuelle’s look and her style made her the perfect ambassador for Vogue Paris, for which she worked for 20 years. Now a highly sought-after stylist and consultant, she is the epitome of Parisian style. Born in Paris, she went to the same school as Mathilde, who remembers: “She was the first to have a car – we were so jealous!” Emmanuelle and her husband recently moved from the 16th arrondissement and the house where they raised their two children to settle in the heart of the 6th arrondissement, overlooking the Palais du Luxembourg. @emmanuellealt
SACHA FLOCH POLIAKOFF
A passion for painting runs in the blood of Sacha Flock Poliakoff who lives in the same building in Saint-Germain-des-Prés as her mother Marie Victoire, gallerist and granddaughter of Russian artist Serge Poliakoff. Sacha, whose charming apartment is under the eaves, is an illustrator and painter. Following the success of her first exhibitions, the young artist is forging her reputation with works imbued with nostalgia and a very personal style. “They both have exquisite taste,” says Mathilde. @sachaflochpoliakoff
From Living Beautifully in Paris, by Mathilde Favier and Frédérique Dedet, with photographs by Pascal Chevallier, Flammarion.