Who

The owner of Calypso boutiques, Celle sells gypsy skirts, gauzy tops and driftwood-inspired furniture to New York women who'd rather be at the beach.

Backstory

The beach thing is authentic: Celle was born and raised on the Côte d'Azur and spend her childhood living in Cannes. Celle's fashion career started after high school when she worked at a jewelry store in Paris, and she later took a job at preppy French sportswear company Chevignon. She eventually turned to fashion styling and spent several years traveling to shoots around the world, working alongside photographers like Gilles Bensimon, Patrick Demarchelier and Brigitte Lacombe.

In 1992, while on vacation in St. Barths with a friend, Celle spotted an empty 300-square-foot storefront in Gustavia and impulsively decided to jump into the retail biz, traveling to India and Africa to stock up the store with bohemian wares like colorful tunics and saris. She established her second store in East Hampton in 1995, and a year later made the move to Manhattan, opening a location in the then-relatively unpopular Nolita, the first of five stores she would open in the 'hood.

Of note

Calypso celebrates an easy, breezy image of life, one that involves a lot of gauzy fabrics that at least look like they've been hung out to dry next to the sea. But Celle's wares, displayed in color-coded perfection at her stores, are priced for Manhattan, not Oaxaca: dresses run in the hundreds, and a candle goes for $38. Her sensibility has been a hit with the city sophisticates: Today she has close to 30 stores, including Dallas, Paris, and St. Tropez, and has expanded with Calypso Home, Calypso Vintage, and Calypso Enfant & Bebe, as well as a wholesale collection of clothing, fragrances, scented candles and soaps under the Calypso label. And she's practically taking over the SoHo/Nolita border, with three shops on Broome, two on Mott, two on Lafayette and one on West Broadway. Her 11,000-square-foot, department-store-style flagship on Madison Avenue opened in 2006. Forthcoming locations include London and Tokyo.

Personal

Celle is married to French photographer Antoine Verglas. The couple has two sons—Julien and Adrien—and live in SoHo. They have a weekend home in Amagansett.