couture she has collected over decades from Gaultier, Alaïa
and Yves Saint Laurent is in off-site storage. “This is just
what I wear on an everyday basis. But it’s nice when you can
see all your clothes, otherwise you always dress the same.”
Khelfa was one of 11 children born to strict Algerian
parents in the suburbs of Lyon. At 16, she ran away to Paris.
Six foot tall with a spectacular tangle of long, curly hair, she
worked on the door at the famous nightclub Le Palace,
roomed with Christian Louboutin and started modelling,
first for Jean Paul Gaultier then for Thierry Mugler and
Azzedine Alaïa. She was one of the first Arab women to
break through into the Western fashion industry, her striking
features and angular frame making her a gift for photographers
such as Helmut Newton, Pierre et Gilles, and Jean-Paul
Goude, whose 1980s images of the towering Khelfa and the
tiny Alaïa are endearingly witty.
It’s been some career. She’s since managed Alaïa’s fashion
business and then Gaultier’s haute couture line, and was an
ambassador for Schiaparelli when it relaunched under Diego
Della Valle. She has acted in 17 films, and is a filmmaker,
too, with documentaries on Gaultier, Louboutin and Nicolas
Sarkozy (Carla Bruni Sarkozy is a close friend), as well as
two on youth and women in the Middle East. Her next, still
in the planning stages, will retrace her own fascinating roots.
She leads a disciplined life, rising at 5.30am to run on a
machine in the home gym. “I used to go out every morning
running in the dark. Doing it at home is much better.” She
works in her bedroom at a Charlotte Perriand wooden table
“with a lot of mess on it”. Her bedspread is a graphic batik
bought for her in Dakar by a Parisian boutique owner – “she
called me from the market and I was able to choose the ones
I liked”. The bed is set against a marble wall under a collection
of her own curation of house gods, including a golden Buddha,
and overlooked by a grand gilt-framed oil by Louis Jean
François Lagrenée. The tableau is a summary of the home’s
unique style – a marriage of art, Africa and cultural history.
“We did it together, the arrangement of the house,” says Khelfa,
fondly. “It’s not a fashionable look created by someone else,
it’s a personal design. You can tell that this is our life.” n© DRAWINGS BY JEAN-PAUL GOUDE
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