What do you do?
I have a little atelier in upstate New York. It’s made-to-measure, or fait sur mesure, which is the French way of saying it. Made-to-measure doesn’t sound sophisticated enough for the collection. During the week, I freelance, mostly at Ralph Lauren.
Do you bring your daughter everywhere?
I do. Right now, she’s at the point where she runs around a lot, so we like Schiller’s on the Lower East Side because it’s very family-friendly. But mostly we’re having a lot of dinner parties at home. I’m not going to have my daughter ruining other people’s dinners that they are paying for.
How did you choose your daughter’s name?
It’s actually after Marcel Proust, his novel. The madeleine is what stimulates a thousand pages of writing. It’s a cookie. A French cookie. My husband teaches French literature at Fordham.
Have you made clothes for her?
Not yet; she grows too fast. But I did make clothes for my dolls when I was a little girl. Now I’m just too busy.
Where did you get this outfit?
The hat is vintage, the farm boots I got in Paris. You can say I’m dressed like a French farmer.