Dior’s Mathilde Favier on her book about life in Paris and the brand’s A-list ambassadors

The book was more than two years in the making, but in an interview in Paris during the couture shows, Favier revealed that 10 years ago, a fortune teller predicted that one day she would write a book. Back then she laughed at the idea – then one day publishing house Flammarion came calling.

“They were really keen on doing something about me but I didn’t feel ready to talk about myself. What was I going to say?” she says. “And then they said, ‘We want to do something about your energy, the equivalent of your Instagram in a book.’”

Favier was an early adopter of the social media platform. At the very beginning she was hesitant, but relented after her children convinced her that if she wanted to have her finger on the pulse of things, she needed to embrace Instagram. “I started to share my taste naturally,” she says. “Even if sometimes when I look at things I’ve shared, I feel I’ve made mistakes, people have always been very nice to me. I’ve never had any negativity on my Instagram because I think I share some kind of humanity.”

Inspired by the Martine à la Plage (Martine at the Beach) children’s book series, about a little girl embarking on adventures in different places, Mathilde à Paris is planned to be the first of many volumes. Favier can’t reveal yet where the second instalment will take her, but she says she is already working on it.

Writing a book was a completely new experience for Favier, who affirms that no matter what we think, everything has been done before – just in a different format. Her goal was simply to share beautiful things and introduce a few of the people she holds dear in Paris to the rest of the world.

“Why do you like a [city]? Because you feel good in it, because it’s beautiful and chic, because you eat well, but also because of the people – it’s always the people,” Favier asserts. “Paris is made of different worlds and I could have done a huge book but I had to pick and choose.”

Far from being nostalgic about the “good old days”, Favier is pragmatic about the way the fashion industry has evolved over the past two decades. She’s had a front-row seat to those changes and still remembers the days when there was no such thing as a brand ambassador contracted to wear clothes from a single house.

“You used to just go to the Oscars with a bunch of dresses and you didn’t know who would wear them. The stars would meet Chanel, Dior or Valentino, and everyone was waiting to see who they would wear in the end,” she recalls. “You were congratulated when you were back in France if someone wore the dress because nobody was paid. Now we’re scouting these people from when they’re very young.”

While she has worked in fashion pretty much her entire life, Favier wasn’t drawn to the field from an early age. “I knew I wanted to work with people, and I was eager to work and wanted to make things happen and to work in a fast-paced environment,” she says. “Back then it used to be very artistic and pure fashion. You used to dare to wear full make-up and mix vintage with new clothes. Now you have to follow the rules of the business,” she continues. “But it’s not that different for me because from being very artistic – as I was a designer at the time – it became a job and I have always loved beauty. My eye was drawn to beauty, which is why I wrote the book.”

“What I love the most is the light. Even when it’s grey and it rains, it’s still beautiful. It’s the chicest light. We have some beautiful pink nights, and the mix of architecture and light is very beautiful – it’s because of the colour of the stone in the buildings,” she muses. “It’s the most beautiful city ever. I love to travel and the world is beautiful and New York is so attractive but coming back to Paris … It’s like a couture dress: it’s magnificent.”

It’s hard to disagree. After leaving Favier’s well appointed office not far from Avenue Montaigne and walking along the Seine, you can see her words – and the pages of her book – brought to life in the most clichéd yet beautiful way.

Ultimately, Favier’s goal with Mathilde à Paris is to bring a bit of lightness – légèreté, as she says – to an industry that perhaps sometimes takes itself too seriously. “Fashion back in the day was very light, and that’s what I wanted to show with this book. The world right now is very dark and scary and you need some lightness,” she says. “Lightness can also be very deep and healing. You need a little bit of lightness. I like to speak about these things because in the end it’s about life and people.”