Turning Points: Yseult Williams, an Empress of Fashion

Yseult Williams - editorial director, journalist, award-winning author, and an “Empress of Fashion.”

In this episode of Turning Points, Patricia Killeen welcomed Yseult Williams. Yseult’s father, Patrick, was English, and her mother, Darina, is Irish. She studied at the Sorbonne and Lille University and had an Erasmus year in Italy. At the end of her studies, she picked up her bags and headed for the City of Light.

Being trilingual (English-French-Italian), she initially worked as a translator briefly. She subsequently approached magazines with ideas for articles and freelanced in the competitive arena of French feminine and news magazines, including Elle and VSD. In 2002, she was made deputy editor-in-chief at Femme Actual and was subsequently recruited by Tina Kieffer as editor-in-chief of Marie Claire. In 2005, the Marie Claire group entrusted her with managing Marie France, a responsibility she held until 2008, when she was recruited by Mondadori, the Italian publishing house, to launch the French version of the weekly magazine Grazia.

 

In 2013, she relaunched the mythical Lui magazine as chief editor with Frédéric Beigbeder.

 

During her career, she has also worked for the BBC and various French TV channels. In 2015, she was appointed chief editor of Le Grand Journal, the former renowned daily show on Canal+ TV.

After years at the helm of the French press and TV, Yseult decided to use her pen to write books. She has published three books in French; in Impératrices de la mode (Empresses of Fashion) La Martinière, 2015, she painted the portrait of six great historical editors of women's magazines, women who had much in common with herself and were often faced with similar choices.

Her second book, La Splendeur des Brunhoff (The Splendor of the Brunhoffs), Fayard 2018, won the Readers' Prize for Pocket Book in 2020. It is dedicated to the Brunhoff family, which launched Vogue France and Vu magazines. Jean de Brunhoff also created the character Babar. With her third book, On l'appelle Maïco (She was called Maïco), Grasset 2021, dedicated to Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier, she won the prestigious Simone-Veil 2022 literary prize. She is now writing a book devoted to Hélène Lazareff, who founded Elle magazine in 1945, which Grasset will publish.

 

In 2021, she joined Alma Studio (founded by Martin Solveig) as Editorial Director, where she is currently working. Alma Studio produces original stories and music written and composed for audio for children aged 3 to 10. Yseult’s English podcast for Alma Studio will be launched next year.

 

Looking forward to Yseult’s books being published in English and to seeing her fascinating characters on the big screen.