Maria Luisa Poumaillou
(Vénézuela c. 1953 – Paris April 7, 2015)

A Tribute to Maria Luisa

A charismatic woman, a radiant presence, who would hide her moments of
shyness and insecurity.

Maria Luisa could listen and observe, but above all, she had a unique talent for recognizing great creativity in fashion designers, before even worrying about the commercial aspect of a brand.
She followed her very own logic when choosing one collection over another – a logic which was dictated by her strong intuition. She always felt the winds of change blowing across the industry, but in fact, she had also the strength to initiate them. For Maria Luisa, fashion was not only a job, it was a passion throughout her whole life; and she was able to infuse each single woman that stepped into her boutiques with her passion, her sense of style and elegance, which they carried with them once they left.

She, always perfect and always ready for the next move, strong-willed and with a head full of ideas, moved away from the Haute Couture salons of her mother to dedicate herself to scouting modern-day fashion designers, the internationally established ones, but also placing bets on the emerging ones, which lead her to become the spokeswoman of a world that soon named her fashion’s incontestable prima donna.

I met Maria through Roberta Molin Corvo, who wrote our tribute and with whom I had begun the Modem experience.

Maria Luisa has been one of our partners since the very first edition, in October 1997, and this rewarding partnership did not only infuse us with energy, but also made us aware of the value of our project.

Maria Luisa Poumaillou created Maria Luisa with her husband Daniel Poumaillou in 1988.

Ezio Barbaro, Roberta Molin Corvo, Xavier Latapie & Modem team