My personal style signifier is a baseball cap. I always wear one because I’m bald and I still haven’t really dealt with my complex about that. I change them all the time – I have a cute Ami cap made in collaboration with LGBTQ media-monitoring organisation Glaad, for Pride Month, and a timeless, black leather one by Louis Vuitton that I wear with more formal tailoring. 

Woodkid’s Etudes cap
Woodkid’s Etudes cap © Alex Cretey Systermanns

The last thing I bought and loved was a drone. I’m addicted to it already. I took it with me while scouting video locations in Norway recently. It’s a cool thing to have as a director because you can use it instead of a crane and it makes it easier to anticipate camera angles if you’re moving from one spot to another. DJI Mavic Air 2; £769

The best gift I’ve received is a series of ceramic plates that my mother made for me, specifically for the tortellini dishes I like to cook.

On my wishlist is a sun holiday with my friends, somewhere far away. I’d like to go where I can scuba dive; you can’t really do it in France or the Mediterranean because it’s pretty cold 30 metres down and there is no more coral in the sea. 

1954 Pierre Paulin desk, 1972 Ettore Sottsass chair and 1960s lamps by Joe Colombo and Gino Sarfatti
1954 Pierre Paulin desk, 1972 Ettore Sottsass chair and 1960s lamps by Joe Colombo and Gino Sarfatti © Alex Cretey Systermanns

My party playlist always includes “Single Ladies” by Beyoncé – everyone loves it. I’m a single lady, so I identify a lot.

I loved collaborating with Nicolas Ghesquière. Making music for his shows has influenced my work. The way he thinks about fashion – colliding and clashing opposing ideologies and themes – has given me a sense of freedom I’ve never had before and I’ve injected a lot of what I learnt from our collaborations into my current record, S16. woodkid.com

A Børge Mogensen chair
A Børge Mogensen chair © Alex Cretey Systermanns

My style icon is playwright Jeremy O Harris. His style is fun, elegant at times, pretty genderless and very unexpected.

My favourite room in my house is the living room area. My house is one big room really but I particularly love the space around my sofas, which are George Nelson originals from 1954. There’s also a black-and-white Pierre Paulin carpet that was designed around his drawings for the Palais-Royal; it’s thick and comfortable, perfect for sitting on with my friends and playing Mario Kart. Sofas from christinediegoni.fr

My grooming and wellbeing gurus are Joëlle Ciocco, the founder of Epidermologie, who takes great care of my skin, and my coach Akim at La Source, who really makes me sweat. I also often see my osteopath Anne Ziegler. She works with the Paris Opera dancers and has the most incredible hands. joelle-ciocco.com; lasource-paris.com

Woodkid on a 1954 George Nelson sofa
Woodkid on a 1954 George Nelson sofa © Alex Cretey Systermanns

The last music I bought was the newest album by Yelle, called L’Ère du Verseau. Their music is smart, uplifting, electronic pop. I directed a video for them back in 2007 and we’ve been friends ever since. I’m really proud of them for making this record – it’s touching and beautiful. 

If I had to limit my shopping to one neighbourhood in one city, I’d choose Le Marais in Paris. There’s a great bookshop for art, fashion, architecture and photography called Ofr; the Marché des Enfants Rouges, where you can eat delicacies like lamb tagine; a ceramics store spread across three floors called Empreintes; and The Broken Arm, which I love for buying fashion labels such as Lemaire.

The podcast I’m listening to is Reply All. It’s about internet culture, from when it was created right up to the present. One episode interviews the guy who invented pop-ups – remember a time when you couldn’t open a window without one appearing? We’ve since developed tools to block them but he explains how it felt like opening Pandora’s box when he created the code, spreading all over the internet like a virus.

Woodkid’s beloved All-Clad pots and pans
Woodkid’s beloved All-Clad pots and pans © Alex Cretey Systermanns

I have a collection of cooking pans – I have tons of them. I used to go to a great kitchen shop in New York and buy everything, and then have to find an extra suitcase to bring it all home. It’s sadly since closed down, so now I go to La Bovida in Paris. All my pans are by All-Clad – they make the best ones. 

I’ve recently rediscovered the video game Final Fantasy VII – geeky, I know. I used to play it as a kid and the remake was released this year. It takes me back to my childhood.

The last item of clothing I added to my wardrobe is a map-print shirt from Etudes Studio, which I wear tucked into my pants. It’s so beautiful and comfortable.

If I weren’t doing what I do, I would be a cook. I’d make a mix of savoury things – lots of fish and pasta, fusion with a Japanese touch and Mexican food. I taught myself how to cook and I absolutely love it.

A series of ceramic plates made by his mother
A series of ceramic plates made by his mother © Alex Cretey Systermanns

The one artist whose work I would collect if I could is Wolfgang Tillmans. I’m obsessed with his work, I think he’s one of the most inspiring photographers of his generation. And I’ve actually started to collect some of his pictures now – one of them is a portrait of Frank Ocean.

In my fridge you’ll always find lots of cheese. I’m French, don’t forget. I always have scamorza or smoked cheddar; I also love Appenzeller, Shropshire and Sainte-Maure de Touraine. I often have pickles, truffles and sauces too. 

The gadget I couldn’t do without is the projector in my house. I love watching things on a big screen.

An unforgettable place I’d love to return to is Babylonstoren hotel in Franschhoek, in South Africa’s Western Cape. It looks like the Garden of Eden. You can drink wine from the vineyard, pick vegetables from the huge permaculture garden and eat seasonally at its farm-to-table restaurants. There’s a great chef there who cooks in a very raw way. It’s such a beautiful place. babylonstoren.com; double rooms from about £465 per night 

L’Eau d’Ambre Extrême by L’Artisan Parfumeur
L’Eau d’Ambre Extrême by L’Artisan Parfumeur © Alex Cretey Systermanns

The best souvenir I’ve brought home is a jar of the most delicious green figs soaked in brandy, from Babylonstoren. You can cook them a little, cut them up and put them on ice cream; they’re extraordinary.

A recent “find” is a restaurant in Paris called Café des Ministères. It serves a spinach vol au vent – a very traditional French dish – and it’s the best thing in the world.

The grooming staple I’m never without is L’Eau d’Ambre Extrême by L’Artisan Parfumeur. It comes in the perfume house’s signature octagonal bottle and smells great – Catherine Deneuve even told me so when she once kissed me on the cheek. £124 for 100ml eau de parfum 

My house became a home when I started having dinners, parties and long nights of talking with my friends.

My favourite website is a French cooking website called 61°Degrés. It’s orientated towards the technical side of things and has great fusion and avant-garde recipes. I’m also a fan of masterclass.com. I got a subscription and took cooking classes with Thomas Keller, a screenwriting course with Aaron Sorkin, and singing with Christina Aguilera. 

The objects I would never part with are my shoe insoles. I’m pretty short so I always use them – they don’t work with sneakers though.

The winter tradition I look forward to most is raclette – it’s delicious and made for cold weather. We have a version in France where you buy pre-sliced cheese and put it in little pans over the heat, but that’s not the way it should be done. You need a half-wheel of cheese so you can scrape it off in great quantities.

A 1958 Gino Sarfatti 2098 lamp
A 1958 Gino Sarfatti 2098 lamp © Alex Cretey Systermanns

A cause close to my heart is Utopia 56. It’s a monitoring organisation in several French cities helping exiled men, women and children from all over the world who have been put in camps in France or have been moved on by the police. It sends out alerts when boundaries have been crossed, and raises money for clothes, tents and accommodation. utopia56.com

The best book I’ve read in the past year is A Brief History of New Music by Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries. It’s a highly technical and inspiring conversation about contemporary music, made up of a collection of interviews with musicians such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, La Monte Young, Yoko Ono and electronic music pioneer Pauline Oliveros. I also love How Music Works by David Byrne – I found it fascinating to read about the evolution of music in relation to performance space.

I’m not sure if I’ll make any New Year’s resolutions. Last year I was in LA and said to my friend, “I think 2020 is going to be a good one…”

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