Larger Than Life

Lauren Santo Domingo’s Paris apartment is a sleek mix of the classic and the new, just like her elegant wardrobe.

- Lucy Halfhead

I’ve always been drawn to the most decadent periods of history,” says Lauren Santo Domingo, perched on a huge tiger-print sofa in her Parisian home. “In college, I was fascinated by feudal Japan, imperial China, and tsarist Russia—you could say I’ve studied luxury all my life.”

Over the past seven years, Lauren—LSD to her friends—has channelled this passion, and her insight as a former fashion editor, into a wildly successful business. Moda Operandi is an online retailer whose clients can shop an entire range of looks straight from the catwalk, rather than the small, safe edit offered by conventional retailers. “I’ll be sitting in the front row at Fashion Week with five of my girlfriends, and every single one of us likes something completely different,” she says. “So the idea that only two of those dresses are going to make it into the shop, and all six of us are going to be satisfied, is totally ridiculous.”

Growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut, where her neighbours included Chloë Sevigny and Carolyn Bessette, Lauren always liked to do things her own way. “Even at 15 I knew my personality; I don’t like being chucked in the back or told to be quiet. Greenwich was pretty conservative, and being called glamorous or ambitious was considered an insult. So obviously, I left at the earliest opportunity.” In high school, her summer jobs included babysitting, acting as a lifeguard, and modelling, through which she met Andrea Linett, an editor at Sassy magazine. “I remember being on set in a supermarket wearing a prom dress and thinking she was so interesting. I loved how she had control over her environment; she made everything seem like fun, and she got exactly what she wanted in an amazing collaborative way.”