Private Lives OLYMPIA LE-TAN

Olympia Le-Tan, 36, has always been handy with a needle and thread. Growing up in Paris, she spent Wednesday afternoons painting with her Vietnamese grandfather, the artist Le Pho, followed by knitting and embroidery with her French grandmother, Paulette.

So when Gilles Dufour Karl Lagerfeld's right-hand man—asked the 19-year-old Le-Tan to intern at Chanel, she had the skills. "Gilles collected my father's work," says Olympia of Pierre Le-Tan, who is one of France's most famous illustrators. "And he [Dufour] had seen some of my drawings and liked the way I dressed." After proving herself, Olympia was hired.

For 18 months, Le-Tan worked in the Chanel design studio. "I made a lot of photocopies and coffees, but I also worked on swimwear and knitwear and designed a sheepskin bag," she explains in a proper British accent inherited from her colorfully dressed English mother, Plum Le-Tan.

Stints at Balmain as well as Dufour's own ready-to-wear collection followed. But when she wasn't working during the day or DJ.-ing at night, LeTan would fashion tote bags from scraps of fabric salvaged from the studio.

With an investment from friend and film producer Gregory Bernard, in 2009, Olympia launched her eponymous business, beginning with 27 clutch bags hand-embroidered to look like her favorite books, such as The Catcher in the Rye, from her father's huge collection. "They all had such amazing covers, I just wanted to make them into something else," she says of her thinking-woman's accessories.

To date, Le-Tan has sold more than 10,000 limited-edition clutches, many of which are collected by "a good gang, with nice taste," including jewelry designer Victoire de Castellane, Tilda Swinton, Natalie Portman, and Michelle Williams.

Ready-to-wear followed in 2012 with a "Bettie Page goes to the library'-inspired collection. "It was a relief to have outfits to match the bags," says Le-Tan. Each season, Le-Tan's father designs a series of prints that are incorporated into the bags. "I tell him what I want, and then he changes it according to his own ideas," she remarks fondly. "I find myself chasing him, and him avoiding me."

Despite not taking direction, Pierre Le-Tan has been charged with designing the interior of Olympia's first stand-alone shop, opening in Paris in the fall, which will house her new collection, "I Put a Spell on You," which draws on the creations of fetish illustrator John Willie. This is just one of the many new ventures unfurling for Le-Tan, including a "more mainstream collaboration with LeSportsac and a project with Disney, inspired by old Alice in Wonderland and Sleeping Beauty posters." If only we'd all learned more from our grandparents.

ALICE B-B

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