By Marcellous L. Jones

January 29, 2009


Paris, France - From one incarnation to the next, Inès de la Fressange has been in the fashion business for three and a half decades. And today, she is once again the toast of the runway thanks to her much appreciated and much unexpected return to the runway in Jean Paul Gaultier’s new Spring/Summer 2009 haute couture collection.

In a post show interview with Fashion Insider TV, the former supermodel stated, “Jean-Paul saw me in a restaurant and told me that I look wonderful. He said to me that he would love to have me in his next show and I said that I would love to and so here I am”.

Though a truck load of stars like Kylie Minogue, Catherine Deneuve, Kanye West, Emily Blunt and Arielle Dombasle crowed the front rows, Inès de la Fressange was the undisputed star on this day. At 51, she looked stunning in a black one shouldered, asymmetrically cut tuxedo gown. Long, cross-your-heart and body-hugging, she symbolizes how women of “a certain age” as she put it can still be viewed as beautiful and sexy at any age.

Inès de la Fressange first rose to fame as the first true face of the house of Chanel. She became the first model to sign an exclusive contract with a couture house. A dispute ensued with Chanel upon her acceptance to be the Marianne of France, which symbolizes the ideal French woman, led to Karl Lagerfeld replacing her with Claudia Schiffer. Re-inventing herself as a designer, de la Fressange launched her own fashion house. Today, she is the CEO of the haute couture show house, Roger Vivier.

As the show came to an end Inès de la Fressange ran down the runway, and Gaultier gave chase to her. The two, hand in hand, smiled for the cameras as the house came to full applause.