We are meeting at the Paris Ritz for tea. This is heartland Repossi territory. Gaia Repossi knows it well, having stayed here many times as a child; it is across the square from her Italian family's namesake jewellery store in Place Vendôme – under a minute stroll to be precise. There is a sense of certainty and calmness about her – perhaps driven by the two decades of decisionmaking and leading a team of creatives in a strong direction.
She has been creative director for the past 16 years – since she was 21. She is an only child and, in many ways, this role was her inescapable destiny, steering the maison into the 21st century with a certain quiet and determined conviction.
“I take my confidence from my father,’’ she says of Alberto Repossi. “[He] in turn took it from his father, Costantino. My father is someone who never
