ISABEL MARANT knows you want to look French

Don't talk to me about Emily in Paris," Isabel Marant will But this is a phantasm that doesn't exist in Paris," she says, blowing out cigarette smoke. "

- VÉRONIQUE HYLAND

The French girl is much cooler than that."

Marant would know. She's built a one-woman empire on bringing the archetype-not the sanitized small-screen version, but the real thing-to the runway and making women all over the world want to buy into the dream. A French girl wouldn't have a blowout, says the designer, showing me how she intentionally musses her ponytail. "They can spend a lot of time looking like they didn't spend any time on it." This process extends to her designs. "When something is too perfect, I need to disorganize it, otherwise it's too polished. When I show a sexy dress, I will cover it with a men's jacket to make it cooler and not say, 'Look at me, I'm sexy.' I don't like this," she purrs. "I want to be sexy, but with a bit more discretion, not just be sexy to be sexy."