CHANTAL QUIQUINE grew up in Paris and started modeling at 18, after being scouted at a café. “I came from a lineage of very elegant women,” she says. Her grandmother, a private chef, especially influenced her sense of style. “She cooked French-Caribbean cuisine for wealthy Parisian clients, politicians and artists. She had impeccable taste and wore only French labels like JEAN PATOU and NINA RICCI. I inherited many of her clothes and jewelry pieces, such as her collection of HERMÈS scarves.

“French fashion names like DIOR, CHANEL, they were kind of like the sounds of my childhood,” she recalls. 

She continued to model while pursuing her doctoral studies in French-Caribbean literature. Eventually, fashion pulled her back from a career in academia. “I realized that people really liked my take, the way that I put fashion together, and so I started doing styling and creative direction,” Quiquine says. Now based in London, she works with photographers and fashion magazines, in addition to doing costume consulting for films.