Sisley Paris is one of those, and we can consider ourselves lucky to have talked with Christine d’Ornano, current Global Vice President and co-owner of the Paris-based beauty house that was once created by her parents.
We meet Christine at the headquarters on Avenue de Friedland in Paris on a cold autumn day. Christine is a 52-year-old woman with flair and a style that looks easy to throw on but is impossible to copy. She politely apologises for her appearance, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed, stating that she had a bad cold and is feeling better now.
We ask Christine our favourite opening question, which is especially relevant here.
Ladies Drive: What is the scent of your childhood?
Christine d’Ornano: That’s easy for me – Eau du Soir, of course. My father, Hubert d’Ornano, created it for my mother.
She wore it for a while before it was launched. It was her fragrance. And she always came to kiss me goodnight before she went to a party with my father. This very elegant woman came in well dressed and wore Eau du Soir; that is really a memory from my childhood. She doesn’t wear it anymore, I do; she wears a different one. But it smells different on each person.
Is your mother, Isabelle d’Ornano, a role model for you?
Definitely. She’s an incredible woman. My mother and my father created Sisley together in 1976. She’s also incredibly creative and a very good person who thinks a lot about others.
Was it natural for you to join the company?
I was very close to my father. But I went to study in the United States. I studied literature at Princeton, but I also did economics because my father didn’t consider literature practical – even though I think it’s very useful to study English and literature. After I graduated, I worked in New York in fashion. I was a buyer for a big department store. I love business, but I don’t think you need to study business to do business. When I wanted to change jobs in New York, my father said, no, no, I need you in the business, I need you to come back. And so I came back. He sent me to work abroad. I speak Spanish, and I went to work in Mexico. That was a real adventure, and I loved it.
Was there ever an option for you to do something completely different?
I loved fashion, I loved business, I loved seeing why people buy things and what makes things attractive. Not coming to work for Sisley would have been okay, but I chose to follow my father’s wish.
You’re a female leader, like your mother obviously, so it was not completely strange to you to be a female leader. Do you feel opposing winds because you are a woman in a leading position? Or do you have to go the extra mile to prove things?
Not in our industry. In a sense, there’s more pressure on the men because we have 80% female staff at Sisley, including in top roles. I’m in a top role! It’s not unusual in the beauty industry. There are a lot of great beauty entrepreneurs who are female. My father and my mother created the company together, and I think that was great. It’s good to have both sexes; it’s complementary. Right now, I work alongside my brother Philippe.
How about the next generation?
I have three daughters, and we also have a niece – my brother’s daughter – who is already working in the company. It’s really important and interesting to work with different generations. We deal with skin and beauty, and each age has its own issues. It’s essential to have different ages in the business.
Do you empower the young women in your company?
We need to empower young people because we need their energy. It’s something I learned in the US. The US is very good at empowering the young; they know they need that new energy. Europeans, especially the French, are not good at that at all. They tell the young to stay in their place, put them down, saying: you’re young, you don’t know anything. That is not very clever. You need experience on one side, but on the other hand the hunger and excitement of the young. We have new technologies coming up all the time. We embrace controversial ideas – things you wouldn’t expect or think of – that come up in discussions with younger people. We listen to everything. Of course, we have certain values in the business, and we want to stay true to these values. But it’s good to disrupt a little bit.
Did you disrupt when you started at Sisley?
Yes, a little bit. Maybe I wouldn’t call it disruption, but I do have a certain point of view, and I express it. I find it important to do that. Especially now, we need disruption because we’re at a very critical time in the luxury and high-end industry, where everyone is questioning how it has all been growing so much for so many years. There are a lot of changes we have to face. One of our nieces – my brother’s daughter – works in film and has produced some very disruptive projects. She’s 24 and looks at beauty in a completely different way. We need this bit of disruptive energy, always. If you don’t let it in, you age as a company. If you always do things the same way, there will come a moment when it becomes stale.
What is the secret of Sisley’s success?
The heart of Sisley is to always innovate, always look for better formulas. My mother, my brother, and I are all involved in product development.
How is AI affecting the beauty business?
For us, AI is very useful for research because it speeds things up. We can look at more active ingredients and more ways of researching. For the customer, we’re looking at different AI tools to analyse the skin through your phone. It’s quite effective, but we are big believers in the human touch – actual people looking at the skin and also providing real treatments. Human touch and contact are so important. During Covid, everybody proclaimed that retail was over – that everyone was going to buy online and no one would go back into a store. We’ve all learned how to buy online. But the minute people could go back, they did. AI will get better, but it will not stop you from wanting to try the texture and see the product. We just have to do both.
You very openly told me that you had a cold. You showed your vulnerability. Are you open like that all the time to anybody?
I say things as I feel them. For example, I admit that I can’t see anything without my glasses. Four years ago, I didn’t need them at all. I literally can’t see a thing. Being able to show vulnerability is a sign of strength. It’s insecurity that makes you not want to show vulnerability. I think vulnerability is attractive. It makes us relate to other people. If a woman comes into the room and says, “Oh my God, I’m so nervous about that,” it is much better than if she’s pretending not to be nervous, but her gestures show nervousness.
Would you say that Sisley is a kind business?
We are a family business; we are humane, and we try to really look after our employees. We have many employees who’ve been here for many, many years. You have to have a sense for the people who are working for you. But being a kind business doesn’t mean that you’re not firm as well. You can be kind, you can be helpful, but we’re also running a business, and we expect people to work hard and be dedicated. Basically, we are very attached to our teams.
I went through your Instagram account and it shows quite a few private moments. That astonished me because you’re a well-known personality not only in Paris but in the whole world…
I don’t show any homes, anything like that. And the children – they’re grown up now. I would not show them if they were small. We’re like a clan. We do things together. Yesterday, I had a big event in London, and two of my daughters were there. One sings, and she sang at one of our events. It’s also a family business. But they’re all over 18.
Is it also a marketing tool for Sisley, building this image of a clan, family?
Well, it was my account previously, and then it became more work and not really private anymore. But it’s a valid question. I show things that make me happy. There are some stories about Sisley, but we do have a company account. I post a lot of art, things and places I love.
Do you collect art?
Yes, we love art. We collaborate with Beaux-Arts de Paris and award an annual art prize. In our Maison Sisley on Rue du Bac, there is a lot of art; we designed it with my mother. There are quite a few works there from artists who have won this prize.
Do you ever have to make tough decisions, and how do you feel about that?
You are bound to make tough decisions. I’ve made them from a very young age. When I started working for Sisley, I set up subsidiaries in Mexico and in London. Sometimes you have to let someone go – it’s part of working in business. It’s something you need to do in the best way possible. You can’t shy away from tough decisions. When a tough decision has to be made, you need to make it swiftly. You can’t let something with bad vibes remain, because then it pollutes everything else.
Do these situations give you nightmares?
No, but it has happened to me that I don’t sleep the night before.
We have been talking about mental health a lot recently. Do you resonate with this issue, which affects more and more people?
We have a foundation, the Sisley-d’Ornano Foundation, and we address many causes. Mental health is one of them – something that we feel very strongly about. It’s still a stigma. We helped to lobby for mental health to become a national focus in France in 2025. But France has faced significant budget challenges, which have slowed progress. We’re trying to keep the momentum going for 2026.
Sisley Paris
was founded in Paris in 1976 by Isabelle and Hubert d’Ornano and is today one of the most respected French luxury beauty houses. Family-owned to this day, Sisley is a pioneer in phyto-cosmetology, combining powerful plant extracts with advanced scientific research.
The Sisley portfolio spans high-end skincare, makeup, haircare, as well as an exclusive fragrance line. All products are developed in the brand’s own laboratories and are known for their scientific precision, sensorial excellence and visible results. Sisley embodies timeless luxury, uncompromising quality and a holistic approach to beauty.
This article is not sponsored and contains no paid promotion.
