Who Is Loli Bahia, The French Girl Who Just Opened Vogue World: Paris?
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Designers have been clamoring to work with 21-year-old Loli Bahia since she made her runwayRunwayThe platform or catwalk on which models present a designer's collection to an audience of editors, buyers, and guests. Runway shows establish the creative statement of a season, and Vogue'sGo to Runway Glossary debut in Louis Vuitton’s autumn/winter 2021 show—and she just opened Vogue World: Paris. Here’s everything you need to know about the French face on the rise.
Who is Loli Bahia?
Loli Bahia was born in Lyon, France, to a Spanish father and a mother of Algerian descent. While studying music at the Lyon Conservatoire, she was scouted after winning the Egeri Tour modelling contest thanks to her “sulky” pout and rebellious attitude. She walked the runwayRunwayThe platform or catwalk on which models present a designer's collection to an audience of editors, buyers, and guests. Runway shows establish the creative statement of a season, and Vogue'sGo to Runway Glossary for the first time in 2020, in Nicolas Ghesquière’s autumn/winter 2021 Louis Vuitton show. Her impact was such that the designer made her a face of a campaign.
Since then, countless major fashion brands have come calling. We’ve seen her on the catwalks of Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, Givenchy, Rabanne, Coperni, Courrèges and Max Mara, as well as Prada, Versace and Chanel. Bahia wore Chanel to open the Vogue WorldVogue WorldVogue's large-scale live event that blends runway, performance, sport, and culture in a major city, celebrating fashion beyond the traditional show format. The 2026 edition took place in Milan atGo to Vogue World Glossary: Paris spectacular in Place Vendôme.
Loli Bahia kicked off the show embodying 1920s fashion and the sport of cycling. In this period, Gabrielle Chanel was designing free-spirited, sportswear-inflected creations, including knitwearKnitwearGarments made by knitting yarn into stretchy, textured fabric, including sweaters, cardigans, dresses, and accessories. Knitwear offers warmth and comfort with a wide range of stitches and weights, and designersGo to Knitwear Glossary and shorter, over-the-calf dresses. To pay tribute to this decade and to the French fashion house, the model wore a re-edition of a long dress from Chanel’s spring/summer 1924 collection, which appeared in the pages of Vogue magazine that year.
Loli Bahia’s trajectory looks set to extend beyond the world of fashion. In 2023 the French actor and filmmaker Maïwenn invited her to play the young Jeanne du Barry – the last mistress of King Louis XV of France – in her film about her life.
This article was originally published on Vogue France.
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