Inès de la Fressange: ‘Sleep eight hours a day and everything will be fine’

What is your earliest memory?
Dear Mr Freud: I wanted to have golden shoes and my mother thought that would be in bad taste. Maybe that’s the reason I have been a model, worked in the fashion world and became a designer.

Who was or still is your mentor?
Peter Rabbit, because he is not afraid of Mr McGregor, and he took risks — going into the forbidden garden — which made him a star.

How fit are you?
Another mentor was Churchill: “No sport.” I just don’t smoke cigars like he did. I feel fine, thank you.

Tell me about an animal you have loved.
I had a dog named OK when I was a child. He looked rather like a teddy bear and was so bright he would follow me on ski slopes. The problem was that each time someone would say “OK”, he would jump around as if we were calling him to take a walk.

Risk or caution, which has defined your life more?
Risk, for sure, but in fashion, some people even find it very risky just to cut your hair. In the ’80s, when I decided to work only for Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld, many thought I was crazy to quit “such a career”.

What trait do you find most irritating in others?
I hate it when people criticise just because they think it will make them seem more intelligent. A lack of admiration and enthusiasm is miserable.

What trait do you find most irritating in yourself?
I can’t concentrate. I talk too much. I complain like a French girl. I talk for hours about my daughters, even when people only ask if they are fine.

What drives you on?
A taxi! Actually, I am a shopaholic, but very often I don’t find what I am looking for, so I design it. To make a long answer short: desire.

Do you believe in an afterlife?
This is the first time a journalist has asked me this question! You could say I am the world expert. I’ve watched all the videos that exist on YouTube about near-death experiences. I believe in angels. I recommend Eben Alexander’s books. He is a neurologist who had this type of experience and has given many conferences on the subject. My friends always mock me about this obsession, but now I can show them the FT!

Which is more puzzling, the existence of suffering or its frequent absence?
Listen, my best friend (may I call you this, now that you know so much about me?) — don’t ask this kind of question. Ask yourself what is great in your life, appreciate your luck to be alive, to love your friends, family, a pet turtle or a neighbour. Enjoy the fact that you are not yet totally gaga, and leave those difficult questions to Nietzsche or Kierkegaard. Plus, buy my book and sleep eight hours a day, and everything will be fine.

Name your favourite river.
The Amour — Amur in English. Amour means love, as you know, but it’s a frontier between China and Russia . . . maybe they should pay it more attention.

What would you have done differently?
Everything. I would add lightness, confidence, letting go, knowing that usually things are not that important. The problem with youth is that it happens when you are young: much too soon.

“Happiness: The Art of Togetherness” by Inès de la Fressange, Sophie Gatchet and Olga Sekulic is published by Flammarion

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