Vanessa Seward To Head Azzaro

31 year-old Vanessa Seward is the new darling of the fashion world this season after succeeding Loris Azzaro as Azzaro's new creative director. The House was left in turmoil when Loris Azzaro died last November, but Seward's appointment has already catapulted her to fashion same. Diane Lane, French Vogue's Carine Roitfield and Claudia Schiffer have all worn her designs, while London's most glamorous retailer, Mrs Burstein of Browns South Molton Street, hailed her autumn/winter 2004-5 collection as one of the season's most beautiful. Also, from this week her designs will be available on NET-A-PORTER.COM, the stylish site where the fashionable execs who don't have time to shop get the season's hottest clothes. Seward stated in an interview with Condenast: "I was seduced by the team because I really liked their personal style." Having worked for nine years in Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel studio and a further two at YSL Rive Gauche under Tom Ford, Seward is well placed to bring Azzaro - once favourite of Seventies sirens Marisa Berenson, Jane Birkin, Liza Minnelli and Raquel Welch - back to the fashion forefront. "My mother worked in his shop during the Eighties and he made a big impression on me early in my life," she goes on. "I have always loved Seventies glamour and so it seemed natural to carry on his legacy. In fact it's my perfect job.