Valentine Filol Cordier

wendylorene · October 28, 2012

“After having a baby I guess I spend a tiny bit less time in the shower; I really enjoy a bath now when she’s asleep, which I never used to before. Now, having a bath and—not forgetting the child, obviously—but relaxing, relaxing your body and your arms in the warmth of the bath… It’s true that my skin feels much better. My skin was greasy before I was pregnant, and now it’s been very dry, actually. My hair grew loads. Everybody says you’re supposed to lose your hair when you start breastfeeding cause your normal hormones get used elsewhere, but that hasn’t happened. So I’ve just got long hair again finally. Perhaps it is true that you can’t dye your hair when you’re pregnant because of the chemicals, but truthfully you don’t want to do that anyway because there’s so much change involved in pregnancy, and you can’t recognize yourself, and if you start messing with your haircut—you don’t want to mess up your look when you’re pregnant.
I started out modeling at 14. I grew up in Paris, I moved to London when I was 17, alone—I had a boyfriend, but I kind of just chanced it a bit. I said, ‘Okay, just going to start something here.’ And I’m 27 now, so it’s been 10 years that I’ve lived in London. When I was 18 and 19 I was on-and-off in New York working, so I had a flat there for a bit. I did my first styling job when I was 16; I’ve always been into it. This is how I starting styling: there was a photographer that said, ‘Let’s take pictures of you, and then you can put some clothes on.’ So I did that a for bit, but I didn’t think of it as a career until four years ago when I decided properly, ‘This is going to be my job.’ I had started working a lot with Charles Anastase, did all his shows, consulting for all his collections. I wasn’t working for magazines then, but was really into the whole thing.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize I cannot use moisturizer everyday. It’s if I do, I end up with pimples. I’ve tried every single moisturizer on the planet. I went to the dermatologist—nothing works. On an everyday basis, I think my skin gets used to it, and then it just starts rejecting it, and I start having pimples, it itches, and it’s just really not nice. So, I wash my skin with water, or with something that’s actually quite abrasive, something I get in New York that I buy probably once every two years called Desert Essence Thoroughly Clean Face Wash for Oily and Combination Skin. I wash my skin probably three times a week with that, and if not, with water. I use Bioderma Crealine, as well, in the evening—I buy a big bottle of that every couple of years. It’s really not glamorous. No moisturizer, but sometimes when I get dry patches, I use Aquaphor, which I think is fantastic. I do masks with that. Or over on the nose, if you have a bit of a cold. I’ll put some Clarins cream on like twice a month, just to feel like, ‘Ooh, I’ve put some cream on.’

I change shampoos all the time, but at the moment I’m using one from Vichy for dry scalps. I feel like my scalp gets used to one, and then my hair starts getting greasy or I start getting eczema on my head, so I change it up all the time. But I use conditioner almost every day—any sort made for dry, dry hair.

I’m very unglamorous: I use Aquaphor, and this nipple cream from when I was breastfeeding, Medela Tender Care Lanolin, and maybe Clarins Beauty Flash Balm, which is a primer before makeup. I love Clarins Eau Dynamisante Deodorant. I just love the smell of it; it’s like a cologne. My perfume changes, but the one at the moment is called Cologne Friction from Nicolaï. If not, I really like Mitsouko from Guerlain, which was my mom’s perfume. I also love Coromandel by Chanel.

Makeup feels weird. My style can sometimes be a tiny bit weird or eccentric—I tend to have a few stupid details: there’s always an odd thing, and if you start adding makeup to the whole shebang, it just looks weird. I mean, it just looks too much. I like things to still look natural. I love Laura Mercier oil-free Tinted Moisturizer. If I do makeup, I do that and a bit of her Undercover Pot—I think Laura Mercier is brilliant for makeup. I don’t really do lip liners, but I have loads of eyeliners from Chanel and Rimmel. Eyebrows are very important, so I try and pluck them; I don’t really need to use an eyebrow pencil. I’ve been thinking about bleaching my eyebrows lately, but I don’t know.

I think less is more. I mean, that’s a cliché thing, but I really believe it. I see some of my friends putting makeup on, and they’re perfectly beautiful as they are.”

dna · July 9, 2013

nothing new?

popp · October 7, 2019

Jalouse #89 (April 2006)

Minerva13 · February 8, 2020

Magazine: Vogue Italia (February 2001)
Title: People To Watch
Photographer: Michael Woolley
Models: Mia Hessner-Sovensky, Kathy La Roche, Lisa Lauwaert, Adriana Rampichova, Natalia Vodianova, Erika Lucas, Sian Ahern, Kirsty Richards, Sveta Uzhinsky, Christina Kruse, Lieke Smets, Jennifer Massaux, Laura Delicata, Emmanuelle Seigner, Malin Persson, Julia Rzepecka, Valentine Fillol-Cordier, Caroline de Maigret, Aiste Miseviciute
(vogue italia archivio)

Part I

Minerva13 · February 8, 2020

Part II

Minerva13 · November 5, 2020

Self Service Magazine (№ 20) Spring/Summer 2004
''New Faces''
Ph. by William Selden
Casting by Suzanne Koller & Marie Chaix

Models:Lily Donaldson, Laura Brument, Valentine Fillol Cordier, Viktoria Winge, Angel, Remy Holwick, Hannah Shaw, Heather Marks, Renee Meijer, Sonja Hulsman
selfservicemagazine