Sounds Like Portraits

When I sat with Frédéric in his office on Park avenue, he told me that in 1989, when he opened his first salon atop New York's Bergdorf Goodman Department store, he really wanted to do something different and new in the Beauty industry. So, he created the first luxury experience in haircare.

And It's still about revealing the unique beauty of everyone who sits in his chair.

Enfant, Michaëlle a fui avec sa famille la dictature de Duvalier en Haïti pour se réfugier au Canada. Professeur, documentariste, journaliste, elle a ensuite été nommée à des postes diplomatiques et politiques. Pour elle, "la créativité est une forme de résistance". Elle raconte ici la naissance de son humanisme et confie ses réflexions sur l'exercice du pouvoir.

"Briser les solitudes" est sa devise.

I sat with him in his cutting room, full of screens in midtown Manhattan. Bob is a storyteller. He told me about his role in the making of a film. The film editing ultimately sets the atmosphere, rhythm and tone of the viewer's experience. "It is about manipulating the time and the space in order to show the truth behind what was going on." Manipulating? Yes! And he added: "It a tricky line and a slippery slope."

I sat with Alain in his big office on Fifth avenue full of books and art.

He told me that luxury is about tradition, time and excellence.

But technology is now reshaping it.

Luxury has to be faster in adapting its business models to new technology where speed is as crucial as excellence.

What becomes creativity behind those challenges?

All her life Melissa has always tried to make people love her by feeding them. That's her connection to people. I sat with her in her kitchen to talk about both her writing and cooking processes. "I create recipes starting from what I want to eat or what somebody I want to feed wants to eat. Creativity comes from desire."

I sat with Geraldine to talk about vulnerability. As an actress, to give truth to her characters, she has to really be truthful to herself. And be vulnerable. Vulnerability is one of the ingredients that gives creativity to the performance. But sometimes, an actress can experience it in a weird way on stage by forgetting her lines. Listen to what Geraldine told me about what happened to her.

I sat down with Massimiliano "Chicco" and asked him what makes a creative pizzaiolo."Showmanship is not an option."

Massimiliano came from Rimini, Italy, to New York in the 90s. Since then, he has become an accomplished restaurateur with a long list of restaurants in the City. At Pizza Yard, he is about to launch the Pizza School next year with a creative concept: providing high-level pizzaiolo training to fill a shortage of professional pizzaiolos while contributing to the reintegration of former inmates into society.

Ce matin-là, je me suis assis avec Christian qui m'a raconté qu'en 1998, deux mois après avoir repris Lespinasse, il a reçu les prestigieuses 4 étoiles du New York Times. Il a ajouté : "Chaque recette est comme une carte." Elle vous mène d'un point A à un point B, puis C, puis D. Mais à l'intérieur de ce parcours, des escapades sont possibles, au niveau des détails : Christian est un interprète. Sa créativité est dans la variation, tout en jouant toujours le texte de la partition.

PSG ? The Parisian soccer team!

I sat with Jérôme to talk about PSG's superstar players Neymar and Mbappé. Like Manchester United or Barcelona, or Real Madrid, PSG is now a global brand with more than 300 million fans around the world. That's a lot.

Jérôme works to develop the PSG's branding process in South and North America. I asked him: what kind of experience the PSG wants to offer to its American fans, far from the Parisian stadium?