Virginie Mouzat

Virginie Mouzat is the former fashion and lifestyle editor of French Vanity Fair. Previously, she was fashion editor at Le Figaro for whom she regularly reported on shows.

Describing her job to Interview magazine, Mouzat said: "Maybe I am sort of like an archaeologist. People see things and say, 'It's yellow and nice.' But I'm going to tell them why it's yellow and why now it's nice to have yellow — or not nice."

Mouzat began her career in the industry as a model, before becoming a freelance journalist. She started at Le Figaro as a beauty editor, before moving onto the fashion team. “I grew up outside of Paris, in the west suburbs, but I left home when I was 18 with no money, so I started modelling, and this is how I ended up being in fashion — as an object, not as a subject. I'd always been interested in fashion, but fashion in terms of style and ideas — not the latest colour or trend or skirt or whatever. It's more about an intellectual vision of fashion as a way of taking a position in the world.”

Both forthright and incisive, Mouzat was one of the first journalists to treat fashion as it is seen today. “In French, we say it's an art appliqué. It's a way of practicing art on a very commercial level.”