Catroux responded with an elegant and contemporary look that breathes fresh life into the beautiful old bones of the building. A grey patina is evident throughout, from the library with its two buttoned sofas upholstered in grey herringbone linen, to the sitting room with its zebra-print sofa and 60s-era goat-hair armchairs, and the salon with its dark grey walls. Bold modern and post-war art by the likes of Man Ray and Robert Motherwell punctuates the rooms with colour, while upstairs in the bedrooms, bathrooms and Lauren’s dressing room, the tone remains largely monochromatic.

“I really wanted the house to have some sort of relation to its location, so we sourced a lot of the furniture in Paris,” says Lauren. “It’s in my nature that if someone shows me something, I don’t like it as much as if I found it myself. If something’s just appearing to me then it’s not part of my story and it doesn’t resonate as much. I imagine it’s infuriating at times for designers.” To this end, special-found pieces include the Giacometti coffee table and Eugene Printz black lacquer table in the library, and objects including Asian antiquity, bronze horses, and her husband’s collection of Japanese netsuke. 

“It hasn’t evolved too much, though obviously we add and take away,” says Lauren. “Our primary residence in New York took us four years to finish. This being our secondary residence, I’m giving us 10 years!” Of course, this extended timeframe is partly down to Lauren’s job and the fact that she is constantly on the lookout for new and interesting homeware products and designers – “shopping” for her brand. “Whether it’s fashion, jewellery, art, or furniture, I am constantly looking. I see everything. I don’t miss anything,” she says. 

Moda Operandi launched homeware last year, when Lauren discovered that her new-found love of tablescapes was translating well to the sophisticated Moda Operandi customer. In the dining room of her Parisian home, a circular table is set with linens by Loretta Caponi and glasses by Davide Fuin – designers that feature on the site. Fashion still reigns supreme on the platform though, with its “trunkshow” feature allowing shoppers to pre-order an edit of catwalk looks directly after they are presented during fashion week, a concept that will be brought to life in the new Hong Kong showroom, along with current season collections and a fine jewellery gallery. “What we’re really looking to do is to create an experience with designers that aren’t widely distributed in Asia yet, but that have a very distinct fashion point of view,” explains Lauren. “We will show their collections in their entirety, along with exclusive pieces and accessories, and offer one-on-one appointments with the designer.”  

With the imminent launch, it’s a wonder Lauren manages any time to herself, but Paris is the place she comes to for a month each summer to relax with family, taking long lunches on a pretty garden terrace designed by Madison Cox, who contributed to the designs of Yves Saint Laurent’s famous Majorelle Garden in Marrakech. “We overlook at least five gardens at the back so there’s always birds and sunlight,” says Lauren. “It’s really, really quiet. One almost feels like it’s the countryside, in a way.”