It helps that de Castellane’s heritage is steeped in aristocratic glamour. Amongst her family members are Emilio Terry, the architect and inside designer who counted Salvador Dalí and Jean-Michel Frank as buddies, and Victoire de Castellane, the larger-than-life jewellery designer at Dior. Her Greek mom, Atalanta, is an inside designer and the most effective pal of Gilles Dufour, former right-hand man to Karl Lagerfeld, who secured Cordelia an internship at Chanel at 15. A 12 months later, she left faculty for a placement at Emanuel Ungaro, the place she progressed from choosing up pins from the couture atelier ground to a task as a public relations government. After 9 years, she left to launch her personal childrenswear firm, C de C. Quickly sufficient, in 2012, Dior got here calling.

She feels a particular kinship with Monsieur Dior, whom she talks about affectionately, nearly as if he have been nonetheless alive. “He’s sort of my greatest pal at Dior,” she says. The couturier stays her touchstone when embarking on designs for the 5 collections of childrenswear she seems a 12 months, alongside homeware and along with curating the gala dinners the model frequently hosts in Venice. Just like the founder, she is obsessive about gardening: her house is full of lower flowers from her nation property in L’Oise, north of Paris. “Flowers convey me lots of inspiration—it’s in regards to the palette, the temporality, how a lot magnificence can convey you pleasure in a really brief house of time,” she says. De Castellane additionally appreciates Dior’s sensitivity.“We’re each Aquarius and each very superstitious.” These monkeys in her hallway aren’t there by likelihood: Monsieur Dior continuously used them in his work, believing they introduced good luck. “And I’m Greek,” says de Castellane, in wry solidarity, gesturing on the many attraction bracelets that crowd her wrists.

Her Paris dwelling seems to evolve to Dior’s adorning maxims too. In his memoirs, the couturier noticed: “To an impeccably embellished inside, I’ll at all times want one which’s extra delicate and spirited, which has step by step developed over time in response to the existence and whims of its inhabitant.” There’s one snag. Regardless of the impeccably layered scene, de Castellane solely moved into the house a month previous to Vogue’s go to. Nonetheless, it seems she’s huge on whim. Having lived in a rambling three-storey duplex in the identical neighborhood since 2006, final summer time she had the sudden urge to maneuver and spent 4 months on the lookout for a brand new place. This one was listed on-line one morning, she noticed it the identical day at 12 midday and an hour later her supply had been accepted. “I felt it had an excellent vibration—I didn’t actually take a look at the [floor] plan, it was extra the sensation,” she says.