At the tender age of just 19, painter and model Ilona Smet has already acquired the slender silhouette and Hollywood charisma that gives her a unique place among this year’s newcomers.
She was born into the most famous family of artists in France: her grandmother is the legendary rock star SYLVIE VARTAN, whose career spans more than 50 million albums sold and more than 2000 magazine covers around the world, and who formed, with her ex-husband the singer JOHNNY HALLYDAY, the golden couple of European music during the 1960s and 1970s.
Smet’s father DAVID HALLYDAY, the famous French singer and professional racing car driver, and hermother ESTELLE LEFÉBURE, the French former supermodel, remain the greatest inspiration for daughter Ilona.
“For a long time I had no desire to be in the public eye, but now I feel ready and wish to embrace my life as an artist,” she says.
Yet, she stands on her own. She has no plans to follow her family into music, but she has already appeared on the cover of many magazines like ELLE, GALA and others – she more than anything wants to act.
The stylish young woman has also become an accomplished painter of portraits which reveal a complex soul. “I have been painting since I was four,” she says. “This has always been a way of expression that I found the most natural.”
With that talent in place she decided to master in her art and studied at London’s prestigious art school Central Saint Martins.
Ilona has now chosen to study with a Los Angeles painting master to combine her love of painting and her passion for acting. “I wish to be able to work as much in the US as in Europe since I’m sensitive to different cultures and was raised mostly between France and the United States in New York and Los Angeles,” she says.
Her sapphire blue eyes and sense of mystery may already agitating social media in France and in the US but Ilona Smet is determined to build a strong path as an artist, taking her time to show all her different facets.
For now she reveals an extreme elegance and sense of style that should soon elevate her presence on screen.
PHOTO CREDITS
Photography and Editing: Emmanuelle CHOUSSY
www.EmmanuelleChoussy.com
Assisted by Jack OZDEN
Location: Los ANGELES, CA
Model: Ilona SMET
Designer: La Piazzeta di Capri
Makeup Artist: Phillip SILVAS
Hair Dresser: Nicole DAVENPORT
on location and
Lea JOURNO Salon of Beverly Hills.