Fanny Moizant believes in sustainability, which is only as you’d expect from one of the founders of Vestiaire Collective, the company famous for pre-owned luxury fashion and accessories. She invites us into her seaside home in Stanley, which is filled with the vintage furniture that she brought with her to Hong Kong two years ago.
Over the course of her celebrated career as an entrepreneur, mother of two daughters and founder of Vestiaire Collective, which deals in pre-owned fashion, Fanny Moizant has adopted a sustainable approach to living. For her home in Hong Kong, the French-born girlboss decided to take a similar approach to that of her activities in the fashion world. “When you begin to understand the impact fashion is having on the planet and comprehend our global consumption, there’ll inevitably be a point where you take a step back and become true to who you really are,” Moizant said in a recent podcast. “Sustainability is not a trend, it’s a state of being.” So it was inevitable that when she moved to Hong Kong, she upheld the spirit of her London flat instead of buying new furniture.
It’s Moizant’s attention to detail, to scores of unique vintage pieces, that’s turned her 2,600-square-foot, five-storey seaside residence into a labour of love. “I love pieces with their own story that’s been carried across different owners and places,” she says. “I collect trinkets and other decorative objects during my travels, and I treasure displaying them among my decorations. What makes a house and decorations so personal are the memories behind those objects. I place them throughout the house, so that there’s always a reminder of someone or place.”
Entering at the ground floor, visitors immediately go upstairs to the dining area, where they’re greeted by an antique barber’s cabinet, which she foraged from her parents’ home. “Each drawer belonged to a different client – it was where they placed their brushes and razors,” Moizant notes. “Now I use it to store odds and ends. It’s very practical.” Three Lanvin dolls sit on top of the cabinet, and above them hang three Basquiat skateboards from the Tate Modern gift shop in London. “I collect and source Lanvin dolls from Vestiaire Collective. I love them – women in crazy shapes and situations. For me, this provides a great link between fashion and home decoration.” Acting as a focal point in one corner of the sitting room is a vase containing wooden sticks and a framed feather crown, which Moizant bought during a trip to Brazil. “My brother used to live in Brazil, and I’d search for souvenirs every time we visited. As for the wooden sticks, they were once used on an oyster farm. My parents live near a lagoon – or étang as we call them – in Southern France, where oyster farmers would place baby oysters on wooden racks so they’d grow to full size.”
Abundant natural light flows into the seaside home that features a spacious terrace, an open rooftop and floor-to- ceiling windows. The interiors are warm and earth-toned, and most of the furniture was sourced from vintage stores or flea markets, resulting in a charming and harmonious selection of colours and materials. “I had a phase when I was obsessed with mirrors,” says Moizant, pointing to some across the room. “I got those from a flea market in Vallauris [on the Côte d’Azur], and the armchair from a vintage shop, also in the region. Selency [a France-based online flea market], Lumeun in Wong Chuk Hang and, of course, Vestiaire Collective are my go-to places to find vintage items.”
On the second floor is the kitchen and above that the master bedroom with a breathtaking sea view. “The view is spectacular; it reminds me of the south of France where I was born and raised. I also love the layout of each room – they’re each a great size and very practical with lots of cabinets.” Moizant prefers a minimal yet practical approach to decoration. “I don’t like overstuffed houses,” she explains. “Each decorative piece needs to be practical and can act as a hero point within the house. But I also like something cosy and I place plants all over the house. For me gardening is therapeutic: it brings me peace and positive energy.”
Downstairs in the basement living room, a framed map joins a shelf of posters and artworks. Also placed together are coffee-table books, a vintage wooden chest, a marble coffee table, ’50s-print deck chairs and a taxidermist-embalmed lamb. “For me, it’s almost like a rhythm that I create in decoration, so I guess it’s more about the overall feel and vibe. “I like to first identify focal points within a room,” adds Moizant, describing her design process. “You need to highlight focus areas that contrast with the more quiet and subdued nooks. It’s like fashion – where you have a standout hero piece, and the rest is more subtle.”
Moizant is even able to see an upside to the Covid-19 restrictions, during which people are staying at home as much as possible. “If nothing else it’s a great way to rediscover areas in your room that you didn’t use previously,” she says. “Be open and flexible about how each room can be used. For me, I don’t have one set area in which to work – sometimes it’s my bed, sometimes it’s the sofa downstairs – be creative with your use of space. Rooms are fluid and you can always change or move some of your furniture around to give a new sense of space.”
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