Introducing Valentina Pinault, the London-loving student with fashion in her genes, as she dazzles on the cover of Tatler's Little Black Book issue

‘I think I’m going to die without finding the perfect pair of jeans,’ laments Valentina Pinault playfully. ‘Anytime I see anywhere with vintage jeans, I go in and I’m like, “Today’s the day that I find something that fits me and makes my bum look good while also not being too tight.” I’ve looked everywhere. I’ve looked in LA, I’ve looked in New York, I’ve looked in Paris, I’ve looked in London… They don’t exist for me, but I will keep looking until I find them.’

Few 19-year-olds understand the power of fashion – and the drama of a denim debacle – better than Pinault. Her father, François-Henri Pinault, is chairman of the board of Kering, the French luxury conglomerate founded by his father, François Pinault. Its roster includes Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Boucheron. Her mother is Salma Hayek, the Mexican-born, Oscar-nominated actress who always delivers full-throttle glamour, whether on a Los Angeles red carpet or co-hosting a black-tie event, as she did in New York in September at the Kering Foundation’s Caring for Women dinner.

Pinault is doll-faced, diminutive (5ft 1in) and delightfully down-to-earth. She breezes into the rooftop restaurant at RH London in Mayfair wearing a grey T-shirt tied at the navel, her hair swept up in a red butterfly clip. Her nails are glossy merlot; gold hoops and three dainty gold chains complete the look, one bearing her middle name, Paloma. She is fresh from the first day of her second year at King’s College London, where she is studying digital media and culture. Once, the plan was to study politics or philosophy (‘it still really interests me, but it’s not what I ended up finding myself in’) and attend college in America (‘I applied to pretty much every school. The letters kept coming in and I was getting into some pretty good ones’). But London called, and Pinault answered.

Where to find her? Pinault previously lived in north London, and the grander Chelsea bars and members’ clubs hold little appeal for this under-the-radar élégante. You’re more likely to spot her at Fabric or the underground, phone-free club night Lost. She’s a festival girl: Glastonbury is the favourite, but she’s also tried Coachella and Primavera, with Lost Village and Wilderness on the cards for next year. Her favourite haunts, though, are more low-key. ‘I think the culture in London is my favourite thing in the world,’ she enthuses. ‘I love pub culture. I love British humour, just little things like that, that you can’t really find anywhere else.’

By day, when she’s not in class, you’ll find Pinault trawling Portobello Market for those elusive jeans – or an objet for her flat near Waterloo. ‘I’m obsessed,’ she explains. ‘I’ll find an old plate [in Portobello], or they had this shop on the corner called Alice’s. I think they’ve shut down now, which I’m really upset about. It was just this really whimsical, weird antique shop and I would get a lot of random things for the flat there.’ Case in point? An old wood tennis racquet. ‘Everyone was like, “Why would you do that?” I’m like, “Obviously I’m going to hang pictures up on it.” It made no sense to anyone. It’s on my wall now. There’s nothing on it. It’s just a tennis racquet on the wall, but it’s there and I’m proud of it, and I love it.’

That’s not to say she doesn’t dabble in the world of fashion. She attended her first fashion show aged just 11 (‘It was Gucci or Bottega Veneta’) and, as a child, raided Hayek’s wardrobe to play dress-up (‘[She has] the biggest closet and the biggest collection of every item of clothing you can possibly think of’). Most recently, she sat on the front row alongside British actress Ellie Bamber and American comedian Benito Skinner, better known as Benny Drama, as McQueen returned to London Fashion Week. ‘I thought it was super-cool bringing back the low-rise jeans and the belts that they were doing. I loved everything about it.’ Yet she is not the front-row fixture one might expect. ‘It’s kind of daunting,’ she says. ‘You feel like you can’t smile or you don’t know if you should talk to the person next to you or not. So a lot of the time I opt out of it, but when I do go, I do really enjoy it.’ One way to make things easier? A seat beside her half-sister, 25-year-old Mathilde Pinault, whose mother is François-Henri’s first wife, Dorothée Lepère. ‘When I get sat next to her, it’s so much easier because I can get really awkward and really quiet and kind of weird, but my sister’s more of a social butterfly and she does it a lot more than me. I love it when I can go with my family.’

And quite a family it is. François-Henri and Dorothée also have a son, François Pinault Jr, who recently married Countess Lara Cosima Henckel von Donnersmarck, daughter of the German film director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and a descendant of the House of Henckel von Donnersmarck. The couple’s first child, a son called François (of course), was born this summer; Salma has since posted on Instagram about being a doting grandmother. François-Henri also has another son, Augustin James, with supermodel Linda Evangelista.

Having high-profile parents has given Pinault a clear sense of how much of her own life she wants to share. ‘Growing up with parents who are public figures gave me an idea of what I don’t want in my head,’ she says of her approach to social media. ‘I don’t mind people seeing what I’m doing, but I don’t like the idea of people being able to comment on what I’m doing, or keeping track of [it].’

It is alongside her mother that Pinault has made her most high-profile appearances to date: on a Vogue Mexico & Latin America cover in 2022 and at the Academy Awards in 2023, followed by the Vanity Fair party and Madonna and Guy Oseary’s afterparty. When it comes to hosting her own parties, Pinault has some non-negotiables. ‘Big light should never be on,’ she insists. ‘My make-up is meant for midnight… Why can you see my pores right now?’ she jokes. ‘Good music, obviously… [and] space. You can’t have a big room and not enough people, because that sucks.’

Another notable mother-daughter outing marked Pinault’s unofficial entrance into high society: the Serpentine Summer Party in June 2026, which Hayek co-hosted with Oscar-winning directors and fellow Mexicans Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Pinault brought her signature unfussy chic to proceedings in a silky silver Reformation two-piece, sunglasses and perfectly coiffed hair, which she styled herself. True to her unpretentious form, she admits she ‘misunderstood the occasion’. ‘I was like, “Oh, this is just some art gallery.” I just really didn’t think of it. I didn’t know. And then I mis-planned everything and I kind of freaked out,’ she remembers. She found her outfit with just hours to spare while shopping with a friend in Notting Hill. ‘I said, “We’re not leaving here until I find something for me to wear because I’m running out of time – and I want to nap.”’

To get a little closer to the girl behind the Gucci, I finish with a few quick-fire questions. Lipstick or lipgloss? ‘Lipstick.’ Oversized bag or mini? ‘Mini bag.’ Martini or champagne? ‘I’m a vodka girl, but a martini is just too much. I’m more of a chugger, no matter what I drink. So if I were to start chugging martinis, it would end really poorly.’ Nights out win over nights in, and her footwear preference is emphatic: ‘High heels. Always.’

For now, though, it’s back to everyday life: this heiress is off to Ikea for some bits and bobs for the flat. The perfect jeans will have to wait. Celebutantes… They’re just like us (but definitely more gorgeous).