How did moving to Paris to study shape your perception of beauty? Can you tell us a bit about your big break and your collaborations with Yves Saint Laurent and Paolo Roversi around this time?
FN:I had no connections, and the fashion world was a closed elite. So my mother made appointments for herself with three top Parisian makeup artists and spoke highly about me . . . she was my first publicist! She was so beautiful and elegant that they must have figured that her son had taste, and one offered me a job as an assistant.
You moved to NYC, and began working alongside legendary photographers such as Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn — what was that like for you? Did you feel you were really part of something?
FN: I was lucky from almost day one. I started working very quickly because of the industry people I met in Paris — they took me under their wing and really loved me.