As a kid, Margaux Lion felt her name was a bit too big for her. Raised in Bordeaux, France, she admittedly didn’t like modeling very much when she was starting out. “I lacked confidence, I was a little strange. I didn’t even know who Prada was,” she laughs over the phone, now full of moxie. Not only does she now know who Prada is, but she also knows Celine, Vivienne Westwood, and Saint Laurent, because she’s walked for all of them in the past year. 

“Drama school taught me everything I know about modeling. It’s all acting.” —Margaux Lion

When I ask about her day, she says it was great because she was just working on a project with David Sims, but she doesn’t say it in a name-droppy way, just as a matter of fact. She credits theater for the change in attitude, “Drama school taught me everything I know about modeling. It’s all acting.” She adds, “You have to learn to not take things personally, to take it easy, and to just enjoy the traveling.”

As far as living up to her name goes, the French cool girl says, “I used to be ashamed of [it], but now I embrace it. I’m the lion queen.”

This cover story appears in the pages of V144: now available for purchase!

Photography Inez & Vinoodh

Fashion Paul Sinclaire

Makeup Sam Visser (Art Partner)

Hair Jimmy Paul (Susan Price NYC)

Model Margaux Lion (Muse)

Manicure Deborah Lippmann (Home Agency)

Producer John Nadzi (VLM Productions)

Production manager Michael Gleeson (VLM Productions)

Lighting director Jodokus Driessen (VLM Studio)

Digital technician Marc Kroop (VLM Studio)

Photo assistant Joe Hume (VLM Studio)

Stylist assistants Coco Knudson, Timothy Cheng, Jesse Pickel

Makeup assistants Shimu Takanori, Micka Omura

Hair assistant LaMesha Mosley

Manicure assistants Bojir Hasanov, Joelle Rodriguez

Retouching StereoHorse

Location Pier 59 Studios