|
another article about their style
if 24 hours in the life of Victoria and Vanessa Traina reads like something out of a novel, that's because their mom is danielle steel. They carry birkin bags to class, have high-end fashion boutiques on their speed dials, and are pretty enough to be models. who better to show off spring's spirited party dresses?
Victoria and Vanessa Traina, the green-eyed, golden-locked daughters of best-selling author Danielle Steel and shipping magnate John Traina, are anything but typical coeds. They grew up in a sprawling 55-room Pacific Heights mansion with seven siblings and stepsiblings, nine dogs, and a Vietnamese potbellied pig named Coco (as in Chanel). As children, they played dress-up in their mom's couture closets, filled with Dior and Lacroix. And their regular uniform for classes—Victoria, 20, is a sophomore at the New School University in Manhattan; 19-year-old Vanessa is a freshman at Pepperdine—is a Chanel jacket, which the former pairs with jeans, the latter with miniskirts. The sisters carry Hermès Birkins as schoolbags—bless them!
There's no question that the Traina sisters get their creative flair and expensive taste from their fiction-writing mom, who's almost as famous for her impeccable style as she is for selling more than 520 million copies of her novels. “We used to stomp around the house in her high heels and diamonds,” says Victoria. “She has one closet that's a whole separate room where she keeps her gowns,” adds Vanessa. “That one was our favorite!” And still is: Victoria was recently lucky enough to snag a black Chanel couture slipdress circa 1995. It comes with a matching tweed coat, but she's more likely to wear it out to a club with a jean jacket. No surprise for someone who, with her sister, has attended the couture shows in Paris every summer since she was eight.
Steel bought Victoria and Vanessa their first couture dresses a little over two years ago when they debuted at Le Bal des Debutantes, the international coming-out ball at the Hótel de Crillon in Paris. Victoria wore a white corseted Lacroix gown; Vanessa went for a shocking blue Dior. “I wish I could wear it around the house,” she says. “But it's got a huge train.” When these preppy party girls, who say they want to be stylists at a magazine like this one when they finish school, aren't being fitted at Paris ateliers, they mix cool, edgier labels like Chloé and Stella McCartney with sophisticated, grown-up ones. The Chanel jacket is a mainstay in their wardrobes. They throw it on over vintage tees and lace camis with youthful nonpretension, a look that's applauded by Proenza Schouler designer Lazaro Hernandez. “They put these crazy things together that most people would save for special occasions,” he says. “And then they just wear them to school. It's so glamorous.”—Jane Keltner
The sisters ordered nearly the entire Proenza Schouler spring collection: shorts, bodysuits, the black patent leather bolero, some pieces in multiples of six. “Their stuff is feminine, and it has an old and new feeling about it,” says Vanessa, who for her part deems her look “laid-back Marc Jacobs—casual with a touch of flirtiness and elegance”—and attributes her and her sister's penchant for wearing colliers de chien (Hermès' spiked cuffs) to class and gum-ball-size diamonds to Chelsea hot spot The Park as “just wanting to enjoy things, not hide them away.” Of course, being able to afford such things by the bundle can also buy you the nonchalant confidence it takes to pull them off
|