Legendary More-Is-More Stylist Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele on Fashion, Street Style and What's Never Démodé

Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele's life story reads like a fashion fairytale. She became obsessed with fashion at an early age growing up in St. Tropez and Paris, and made her first big splash in styling at French Elle before becoming a style icon in New York. Known for her opulent taste -- a crisp white shirt festooned with layer after layer of gold and pearl jewelry is her idea of a casual Friday -- de Dudzeele dressed Israeli model Michaela Bercu in a Christian Lacroix jacket adorned with a jeweled cross for the cover of Anna Wintour's first issue of Vogue, single-handedly launched a Pucci print revival and redefined the word panache. She brings together the chic of Paris with the enthusiasm of America and ties it all up in a leopard-print bow. De Dudzeele either "loves it, loves it, loves it" or declares it démodé. The stylist recently dressed Miley Cyrus in a sports bra for the cover of V and she's become obessessed with Jeremy Scott's "baroque sportif" tracksuits. (She's been feeling an athletic vibe.) While in L.A., we got de Dudzeele and Scott to meet up and chat about the "du chien" of Chanel and how fashion is still all about the attitude.

Jeremy Scott: What is your first fashion memory?

Carlyne cerf de Dudzeele: It was "du chien." "Avoir du chien" is an expression, it means chic! It's an attitude, it is not physical. Chanel had "du chien," people with personality have "du chien." I wanted to work for Chanel.

JS: Were there things in magazines that you would draw inspiration from?

CCD: [German model] Veruschka [Von Lehndorff]! I had magazine subscriptions at home and I would stare at her for days. I was obsessed. I still like the idea of not having much makeup and hair. I was obsessed and I have met her since then!

JS: You lived in St. Tropez?

CCD: My mother divorced and bought a house in St. Tropez and took me and my sister there. My mother was studying. We would spend hours in the garden with our baby cat. It was lovely.

JS: It's important for creative people to have an environment where they feel loved and free and creative. When you left St. Tropez where did you go?

CCD: My father thought my sister and I were not raised the way we should be. So we went to Paris and lived with him and my stepmother. He put me in a very strict private school. I just wanted to make everyone laugh. I was doing a lot of bad things at that time. Later on they mixed the boys and the girls. That was perfection. One day my stepmother found letters that I had written to my sister and that night at dinner my father said, "I have to talk to you." After that, I left to live with my mother's sister and I never came back. I lived in my grandmother's room and became an assistant at Marie Claire. It was heaven. Then I went to Dépêche Mode where it was the beginning of everyone: actors, editors, all the photographers were there. And then I moved to French Elle.

(l-r) Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele hanging with designer Jeremy Scott