According to Paloma Elsesser, “Tension Plus Balance” Is the Best Outfit Formula

At the tail end of our interview, Paloma Elsesser gently instructs me to feel her arm. I can confidently say she has the softest skin I’ve ever touched, somewhere between velvet and a baby dolphin. But if you were familiar at all with the model’s content, you would know this—in every Get Ready With Me video or “Soft Obsessions” TikTok she films, she stresses her elaborate bodycare routine. You would also already know that she smells amazing, which makes sense as we’re there to discuss her role as ambassador for Miu Miu’s latest fragrance, Miutine.

But it’s not just her love of fragrance that makes her the perfect face for Miutine. Never one to stick to the rules, she perfectly capture’s the brand’s rebellious and playful spirit. Case in point? Her outfit for the Miu Miu show, a gray layered ensemble complete with moto boots and futuristic sunglasses, which flips the brand’s signature girly identity on its head.

“My relationship with Miu Miu is quite close now, they’re very familial,” she tells me in a cozy hotel suite ahead of the brand’s Paris Fashion Week show. “I’m acquainted with every corner of the team, and I feel really connected to who this girl is. Doing the campaign and being an ambassador feels not only like a pivotal and monumental part of my career, but also something that was a really natural organic development. I’m really grateful to be a representative of the brand, and feel very comfortable [in the role].”

Ahead, Elsesser fills me in on everything Muitine, as well as her current favorite reads, Fashion Week essentials, and more.

How Miutine Makes Her Feel

“The fragrance makes me feel really playful. It has a nostalgic tone that I appreciate. It’s really adaptive. That’s important in a scent, that it smells a little different on different people, and the characteristics it brings out. But [there’s] definitely a playfulness, and this kind of exploratory open levity, and a sweetness—I think that’s a fun way that it interacts with my personality.”

On Shooting the Campaign

“I’ll always connect shooting the campaign with the scent. It was such a wonderful day, and it was a predominantly female set. Shooting with Petra [Collins] was such an honor and a privilege, because actually, one of my first editorials ever was with with her for i-D. So it was really full circle, and we both just kept looking at each other like, wow, can you believe that we’re here doing this and have the platform to have freedom and, bring our own creativity to it? I’ll always kind of connote the two, which is really nice.”

Where Miutine Takes Her

“For some reason, the scent kind of reminds me of gentle folk music. I just feel like, I’m in the grass and it’s a beautiful warm summer or spring day.”

On Her Look for the Miu Miu Show

“It’s really fun because the dressing that I do for Miu Miu is charactered, but it’s very authentic to my style. This one feels good in tension with some of the other looks I’ve worn this season, which have leaned further into femininity. This one feels a little tougher, and then there’s a bit of tension with the girliness, with the boots and the more casual cotton layering.

“Working with my stylist, Aly Cooper, we always have a lot of fun whenever we come in for a fitting. They know that we’re going to go a completely different direction than the things that they pulled, but they always let us really honor that. This look particularly represents a nice balance and a tension to the other looks I’ve worn this season at the Mutine launch [in New York] and things like that.”

The One Beauty Look That Makes Her Feel Herself

“It’s always a nice base; some honest skin, a lip liner, some mascara. I always say when I’m getting my makeup done, it’s just pretty. That’s definitely where I’m at, and where I feel the most comfortable.”

Her Paris Fashion Week Essentials

“Vitamin C, a journal, my vapes, eye patches.”

The One Skincare Treatment She Loves

“I think a good face massage will never lead me astray. It just makes me feel good, it’s a nice bit of drainage. Even if a makeup artist is using the brush, I’m like, ‘you use your hands!’ It feels better.”

The One Outfit Formula She Always Falls Back On

“The outfit formula I always fall back on is balance. What is that trend that people are talking about? It’s like tight top, baggy pants? You know, sexy bottom, kind of more masculine top. I’ve been leaning a bit more into sexiness now I’m in my 30s, which feels cool, but it’s always balanced. You always need something to subvert it. I never like to do one note.”

The Latest Addition to Her Vintage Collection

“My favorite piece in my vintage collection, I can’t even think of because it’s so large. But my latest addition is the skirt to a matching top that I have. It’s a zipper skirt and top from Junya Watanabe, and it’s from 2005.”

The One Thing Inspiring Her Right Now

“Something that’s inspiring me right now is rest, the idea of rest. Fashion Month is such a marathon and you don’t really get to prioritize or center rest, so that’s something I’m looking forward to: recentering rest.”

One Thing She’s Read and Loved Recently

“I went to the New York Public Library and they had all of these essays Joan Didian wrote specifically about her daughter who passed. Those are really beautiful to read, and a nice commentary on grief, and the nuances of resentment and love, and how all these things kind of commingle.”

One Thing Living In Her Brain…

“I saw a TikTok about using ChatGPT to create a syllabus for your own class, so I’m quite excited for that. I think I’m going to try and do it after the 15th, which is the VS show. I’ve read some Black Marxist stuff, and I kind of want to test myself.”

… Her Bag…

“Blotting papers and lip balm. I can’t survive without lip balm, I feel so crusty and rusty and dusty without it.”

… and Her Bathroom

“Always lotion and oil. On [my TikTok series] Soft Obsessions, there’s always going to be a new exciting lotion or oil. You should feel my skin, I’m very moisturized.”