Inès Marie Lætitia Églantine Isabelle de Seignard de La Fressange (; born 11 August 1957), is a French supermodel, fashion designer and perfumer. She was named to the
International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1998.
Biography
Family and childhood

La Fressange was born in
Gassin
Gassin () is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (département), Var Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in southeastern France. It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (T ...
,
Var, the daughter of André Jean Bernard de Seignard,
Marquis
A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wido ...
de La Fressange (b. 1932), a French stockbroker, and his wife, the former Cecilia ''Lita'' Sánchez-Davila (b. 1935), an Argentine-Colombian model closely related to two former presidents of Colombia,
Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo and
Alfonso Lopez Michelsen.
Her family on her father's side comes from an old
French nobility
The French nobility () was an Aristocracy, aristocratic social class in France from the France in the Middle Ages, Middle Ages until its abolition on 23 June 1790 during the French Revolution.
From 1808 to 1815 during the First French Empire, ...
(1439), and had the seigneury of Fressange in the
Velay
Velay () is a historical area of France situated in the east Haute-Loire ''Département in France, département'' and southeast of Massif central, Massif Central.
History
Julius Caesar mentioned the vellavi as the subordinate of the arverni. ...
(in
Auvergne). Her uncle, Hubert de La Fressange (b. 1923), died in the Second World War on 2 October 1944 in
Anglemont, during which he participated in its liberation. Her grandmother, the Marquise Simone de La Fressange, née Lazard was heiress to the
Lazard banking fortune (Banque Lazard). She married two ministers in succession, Maurice Petsche, and then
Louis Jacquinot.
Ines grew up in an 18th-century mill outside Paris with two brothers, Emmanuel, the eldest, and her younger brother, Ivan. She studied at the Tournelle Institution in Courgent, then at the Notre-Dame de Mantes-la-Jolie Institution in the
Yvelines
Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.[École du Louvre
The École du Louvre () is a selective institution of higher education and prestigious ''grande école'' located in the Aile de Flore of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. It is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology ...]
in Paris.
Career

Tall at and with a weight of , she began her career as a model in 1974 at the age of 17. She quickly became nicknamed by many as "the talking mannequin", due to her tendency to talk with fashion journalists and express her opinions on her profession and on fashion.
In 1975, at the age of 18, La Fressange appeared for the first time in photos by
Oliviero Toscani
Oliviero Toscani (28 February 1942 – 13 January 2025) was an Italian photographer, best-known worldwide for designing controversial advertising campaigns for Italian brand Benetton from 1982 to 2000.
Early life and career
Toscani was born ...
for ''
Elle
Elle may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Elle (magazine), ''Elle'' (magazine), a fashion publication
** Elle Style Awards
* Elle (India), ''Elle'' (India), the Indian edition
* Elle (film), ''Elle'' (film), a 2016 French film
* ''Elle: ...
'' magazine, then modelled for
Thierry Mugler
Manfred Thierry Mugler (; 21 December 1948 – 23 January 2022) was a French fashion designer, creative director and creative adviser of Mugler. In the 1970s, Mugler launched his eponymous fashion house; and quickly rose to prominence in the fol ...
and other designers.
In 1983 she became the first model to sign an exclusive modeling contract with the haute couture fashion house,
Chanel
Chanel ( , ) is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...
, by fashion designer
Karl Lagerfeld, whose muse she became
due to her remarkable resemblance to the brand's founder,
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and Businessperson, businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with populari ...
, who died in 1971.
In 1989, she appeared in 'Postcard from Paris' with Clive James where she was interviewed at the Cafe Costes. In his memoir, James later recalled that she seemed to be "made of light".
However, in 1989, Lagerfeld and La Fressange had an argument and parted company. Likely this argument was, at least in part, regarding her decision to lend her likeness to a bust of
Marianne
Marianne () has been the national personification of the French Republic since the French Revolution, as a personification of liberty, equality, fraternity and reason, as well as a portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty.
Marianne is displayed i ...
, the ubiquitous symbol of the French Republic. Lagerfeld reputedly condemned her decision, saying that Marianne was the embodiment of "everything that is boring, bourgeois, and provincial" and that he would not dress up historic monuments.
In 1991, with the financial support of the luxury brand, Orcofi, she created her own brand 'Inès de la Fressange' and opened her own Boutique, selling various products such as perfumes originating from the area in which her grandfather lived, at 12 Avenue Montaigne in the
8th arrondissement of Paris
The 8th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, the arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le huitième'' ().
The ar ...
. It was an immediate success not only in France, but also in the US and in Japan.
In December 1999, due to
equity dilution, she was made redundant from her own company in which she was not a majority shareholder, her majority co-shareholders insisting it was because she had designed a pill-dispenser for the 'Elixir of Abbé Soury'. She lost the rights to use her name and personal brand; she was victorious in an ensuing legal action and, in 2016, launched her eponymous line of clothing. Since 2013, La Fressange has also been designing for the Japanese brand
Uniqlo
( ; ) is a Japanese casual wear designer and retailer.
The company is a subsidiary of Fast Retailing, Fast Retailing Co., Ltd.
Clare Waight Keller is the creative director. History
Men's Shop OS was founded in Ube, Yamaguchi. It was rebrand ...
.
In 2008, she walked the runway for
Gaultier at age 51.
She also modeled at the Chanel spring-summer 2011 show.
In 2011, La Fressange and fashion journalist Sophie Gachet co-wrote ''Parisian Chic, a Style Guide''. In 2019, the two published ''Parisian Chic Encore: A Style Guide''.
Personal life

On 9 June 1990, in
Tarascon, France, she married Luigi d'Urso (1951–2006), an
Italian nobleman and a railroad executive. Luigi was the son of Alessandro d'Urso (1913–2000), and his wife,
Donna Clotilde
Serra dei Duchi di Cassano (1917–1960), daughter of Don Luigi Serra, 9th
Duke di Cassano (1868–1935), and Elizabeth Grant (1886–1938); descendant of
George Clymer, one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States, often simply referred to as the Founding Fathers or the Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colon ...
, who signed both the
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continen ...
in 1776 and the
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...
in 1787). Luigi and Inès had two daughters, Nine Marie d'Urso (born 27 February 1994) and Violette Marie d'Urso (born 6 August 1999). She has two stepdaughters, Clotilde d'Urso and India d'Urso, the daughters of Luigi d'Urso by his first wife, Guendalina Levier-Ffoulke. Luigi d'Urso died of a heart attack in 2006, at age 52. Since 2009, La Fressange has been in a relationship with the French entrepreneur and journalist Denis Olivennes (b. 1960), the son of psychiatrist and poet Armand Olivennes (1931–2006), nephew of
Claude Olievenstein, also a psychiatrist, and younger brother of
François Olivennes, a noted French
obstetrician and gynaecologist.
Ancestry
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:de La Fressange, Ines
1957 births
Living people
French fashion designers
French female models
20th-century French nobility
French people of Argentine descent
People from Var (department)
French women fashion designers
Businesspeople from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Models from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur