My Kind Of Girl

IF YOU haven't heard the name Guillaume Henry before, chances are this won't be the last time it finds your ears in the coming weeks. The young Parisian designer is currently making waves as creative director of former French couture house Carven - now reborn as a chic, and affordable, ready-to-wear line under his creative directorship - and his fashion plan is as simple as it is effective.

"I wanted to create a look that was less evening, less cocktail, more girl next door; that's the girl I know," the former Givenchy and Paule Kadesigner explained from the Carven studio in Paris. "Some designers create and imagine a woman, a customer, and that's great - but it's not for me. I design for the owner's wife, my mother, my friends; someone going to work, with children, going out at night - women I know. These pieces can be worn all day, from early morning to late evening. I have tried to create pieces with real honesty, pieces that focus on a woman's needs."

One woman who needed what Henry's Carven had to offer wasNatalie Massenet, who bought the designer's collection for Net-A-Porter whilst she was in Paris - and promptly fell in love with the designer's aesthetic, proclaiming him "a young Saint Laurent". So how does Henry feel about such praise?

"Imagine the pressure!?" he says of the compliment, paid at a dinner in London last week. "I just wanted to die! Natalie is really amazing, she has been my angel. I really felt the air was full of magic as soon as I met her, she made me believe nothing is impossible. She's so strong and so cool - and somehow she manages to live 36 hours in 24. She's definitely a Carven woman."

So what next for Carven?

"I don't want to push too hard," Henry explained. "I respect the brand so much and it has been a sleeping beauty for so long that I'd like to take it slowly. We are a small team, just nine of us, and so I don't want things to go too fast. I'll be here for the foreseeable future and I want to focus the quality and on increasing creativity. We'll keep prices down and remain accessible - that's very important. It's an exciting time."