Style & TIME

Style Watch: Rattan Revolution

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When Vanessa Seward was hired by the late Loris Azzaro in November 2002 to help steer his flashy Parisian couture house back into fashion, the then 32-year-old assistant had no idea that one day she would take over the whole outfit. But she did know she had an affinity for the designer’s glamorous, effortless style. In the late 1970s and 1980s, when Azzaro was famous for dressing bombshells like Sophia Loren and Raquel Welch, Seward was a schoolgirl growing up just around the corner from the glitzy Azzaro boutique on Paris’s Faubourg St.-Honor. “In fact, my mother used to work there as a salesperson in the eighties,” says Seward, “I knew the house quite well.” By the time Seward broke into fashion, first as an assistant to Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel and later to Tom Ford at YSL, Azzaro’s popularity had declined. But Seward leapt at the chance to join the house because, she says, “I knew the potential and glamour that Azzaro had. I knew this was the right moment for it.” She had spent just a year as Azzaro’s design assistant and produced a collection that impressed critics with its glamour when Loris Azzaro died of cancer and left the creative responsibility to her. Thanks to Seward’s ’70s-inspired vision and the increasing demand for dazzling red carpet-bound eveningwear, the Azzaro looksilk jersey columns with dramatic crystal beading, kind of a Parisian Halstonhas made a great comeback, turning up on the likes of Nicole Kidman, Diane Lane and Naomi Watts. Come 2005, Seward plans to expand beyond the red carpet, introducing swimwear in addition to cashmere separates and costume jewelry. Perfect for a weekend in Cannes.