WORLD LOVABLE GENERATION

They wear the proof. In addition to designing Lanvin’s jewelry, Top makes celestially inspired pieces at his salon on Rue Saint-Honoré; and at breakfast, Le-Tan is wearing one of his rings. Chesnais left Balenciaga after several years working for Nicolas Ghesquière and introduced her own jewelry collection in March. Le-Tan is wearing one of her rings, too.

Compared with the recently independent, Le-Tan (who has had her own accessories line since 2009 and ready-to-wear collection since 2012) and Bukey are veterans, ready to offer contacts or context to the rest. “It’s incredible that we’ve all been able to do our own things,” Seward said. “It’s motivating.” Chesnais agreed: “When you have a problem and you call your friend and he has a problem too, it’s easier. I’m not the only one to have a problem. Or he has a bigger problem than me!”

She said she had polled Top and Seward, too, when she began her line, about how to answer pesky interviewers. (Chesnais recalled being pregnant with her first child when she was starting her company and hoping to conceal it for her first press photos: “I had to do a portrait with high-waisted panties,” she said. “Welcome to my life,” Le-Tan, the most unfiltered of the five, replied.)

There is something extremely, essentially French about the group, with its arch repartee — not least, the Gallic truculence on who does and does not get to be called French. “She is Argentinian, she is English, she’s Turkish,” said Chesnais (that would be Seward, Le-Tan, Bukey). “They are not completely French, but we agree to have them in our club.”FASHIONABLE  GENERATION.