Like mother, like daughter.
Lily Brant, 21, wore her supermodel mother Stephanie Seymour’s stilettos at Alaïa’s Paris Fashion Week show on Saturday, making her catwalk debut for the fashion house that started Seymour in the 1980s.
The Ford Models signer grew up next to the late designer and spent family dinners at his home during his childhood. “She was always such a sweet presence and such a gentle soul,” she told Vogue. “He always hugged me and treated me like family.”
Seymour, 58, was the longtime muse of Alaïa, whom he called “Father” and who died in 2017 at the age of 82. In a 2009 conversation with the designer for Interview magazine, she recalled that of the 20 trips she took to Paris in her youth, he was the only one who booked her.
Although his first time on the catwalk was less than auspicious – Seymour later said he spent the entire walk muttering “I can’t believe I did this” – Alaïa found the footage hilarious and made him a regular in the house.
He even allayed their doubts by lobbying friends like Kenzo to hire him.
“But who cares? She’s got the best ass!” Seymour told Interview.
Her daughter came more prepared. St. At Seymour’s suggestion, Brant, who studied film and business at college in St. Louis, practiced on the treadmill, often wearing pairs of shoes borrowed from his mother’s closet.
Seymour also pulled off a creative runway trick. “She said sometimes when she’s walking, she’s channeling whatever it is that will help her feel confident,” Brant told Vogue. “Sometimes she would pretend to be a gazelle or a mermaid jumping around. ‘You can be whatever you want to be,’ she would say.”
In his youth, Brant spent two summers interning at Alaïa, splitting his time between public relations and the workshop.
The designer also presented Seymour’s dress at the ceremony, which he prepared for her wedding to Peter Brant in 1995.
Seymour and Brant also have a 32-year-old son, Peter Brant Jr. There are also and they lost their son Harry Brant to an accidental overdose in 2021 when he was 24 years old. Seymour has an older son, 36-year-old Dylan Andrews, from her first marriage to Tommy Andrews.
Brant had a lot of famous company in Paris this season. Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter Apple Martin hit the runway at Chloé, John Travolta’s daughter Ella Bleu walked Travolta Miu Miu, and Heidi Klum brought her daughter Lou Samuel to the front row of Vivienne Westwood.