Daily Style Phile: The Clarins Heiresses Making A Splash At NYFW11

by Ross Kenneth Urken · February 13, 2011

    First Claire Courtin-Clarins and Virginie Courtin-Clarins appeared at the Vena Cava show. Then Jenna Courtin-Clarins was seen at the RETNA opening.  Learn how the French daughters of Clarins chairman Christian Courtin-Clarins are making quite the splash this Fashion Week!

    Paper Mag discovered the trend of Courtin-Clarins' Fashion Week presence and pondered the implications of how to interpret the buzz surrounding the heiresses to the Clarins French beauty product fortune:

    "Will they become the new Traina sisters? Will one of them start dating a Ronson? Or will they fly back to France today? Stay tuned."

    [Claire and Virginie Courtin-Clarins. Image via Paper Mag]

    [Virginie Courtin-Clarins, Jenna Courtin-Clarins, Claire Courtin-Clarins image via Harper's Bazaar]

    The Traina sisters are, of course, the glitzy daughters of novelist Danielle Steel and her ex-husband John Traina, and something of a comparison could be seen between their affluent backgrounds, sororal closeness, and high-glam public face.

    As SFGate noted in 2004,

    "The Trainas, who have been called (to their chagrin) San Francisco's version of the Hilton sisters, have attended runway shows in Paris with their mom since they were little. Naturally, they wear clothing straight off the runways, carry expensive handbags and drive fancy cars."

    It seems that in perhaps a classier way, the Courtin-Clarins have no shame about living the high life and aren't shy about following in the footsteps of their family's massive beauty products empire.

    [Virginie Courtin-Clarins, Image via Vanity Fair]

    The girls have the business savvy to back up their storied provenance. As Bangkok's The Nation noted in 2007, Virginie Courtin-Clarins spent part of a 2007 internship that gave her Asian market training. She was  part of an MBA program that brough her to New York and all around Asia.

    Amazingly , she tells that paper "how, as a child, she thought her grandfather was only making his concoctions for the family. 'It was only when I got older that I discovered other people were also using the same creams.'"

    Of course being an heiress to such a beauty line comes with intense expectations.

    "Her favourite Clarins product is the gentle clensing foam. 'My dad always told me that I must clean my face every night and every morning.'"

    Frustratingly little is available on the Clarins heiressess this side of the Internet, but they  are  a must-watch at the shows this fashion week as buzz continues to generate around them.

    [Image via Pager Mag]