On January 1, Maureen Chiquet '85 became the first global chief executive of the 97-year-old French design house Chanel, which she joined as president in 2003. Before that, she worked in marketing for L'Oreal in France, then spent 15 years at Gap, Inc., where she worked in the Old Navy division and was later president of the Banana Republic division. Now, the St. Louis native presides over one of the world's most storied luxury brands from her chic office high above Manhattan's Central Park.

Y: Do you feel a personal pressure to have a sense of style and to be fabulous?

C: I do, but I love it. When you're passionate about a thing, it's easy. My biggest problem is I have all these beautiful clothes, and I don't know what to wear when I get dressed in the morning.

Y: But you appear to have a feel for fashion.

C: I hope so. When I was at Yale I studied film and theater as literary form. What interested me was the fact that you could interpret image -- film -- in a three-dimensional way in the same way that you could interpret text on a page. Marketing was perfect for me because you're doing that, but with an eye toward the consumer.

Y: Can fashion be taught in an academic environment?

C: I don't think you can teach fashion. I love beautiful things. Maybe that's why I spent so many years going back and forth to France. The French have such a high level of taste and they really enjoy the finer things in life. Somebody who's in fashion is somebody who has all that and is very culturally aware and exceptionally curious. I'm not sure that's something you can teach. You can learn it once you get into the industry. I couldn't have told you in my junior year that I'd end up running a company like Chanel. I had no clue, but I knew what I loved.

Y: How is it running a company like Chanel, particularly as a woman?

C: The only time I thought about being a woman was when I was at the Gap and I was growing in my career. I had a conversation with my boss -- who was also a woman -- about this and we both noticed that you could make it as a woman, but you just had to work harder. There was this inherent trust, if you were a man, that you could make things happen, that you were efficient, that you were good at your job, that you knew how to mobilize people in teams -- whereas a woman had to prove that.

Y: Have you had to prove yourself?

C: It's not something I think about a lot, because you can get obsessed about it, and then you create your own glass ceiling. I've always had the attitude that if you want something you go out and do it, and you sort of predetermine your destiny. If you start believing that you can't do it, you create your own barriers.

Y: Part of that could be your Yale background.

C: I think that could be true. One thing that's unique about Yale in my memory was the access you get to great minds. There was never a hurdle. Maybe that environment creates that feeling of power to do things that are extraordinary.

Y: The fashion industry has taken a hit with the skinny models dying and the anorexia and eating disorders. Where do you see it going with this?

C: I think the industry should be behind healthy models, so I don't know where it's going to go, honestly. It's very hard as an industry to monitor what the people who work with us do with their lives. It's not for us to say how she should live her life, but I do think we can be very cognizant of the problem within our own organization and do what we can to prevent any abuses on our end.

Y: Isn't it partly on your end, if you choose thin models? Aren't you indirectly encouraging that?

C: You know, this is a really sticky debate. What if you choose thin models and those models are perfectly healthy? You shouldn't choose a perfectly healthy model because she was born thin? I think you have to be very careful with that.

Y: What is the image Chanel chooses? Who is your modern client?

C: When you talk about making Chanel modern, you have to look backwards, strangely enough. Coco Chanel was a real renegade. She was the ultimate modern woman, and she really changed the way that women looked at themselves when she started to design for them. When I think about modernizing the brand, I think about taking that as a model and continuing to do things that are new and exciting.

Y: You live the life of a modern woman with a high-profile career, a French husband whose career lets him work from home, and two girls who covet your wardrobe. What is your biggest challenge?

C: Really being able to achieve something at work while not forsaking my family and making sure I'm there for them. I need to be able to give in both places to feel fulfilled. If anything gets short-changed, it's my friendships. You have to make choices. I keep a laser-like focus on what's important and I have my husband and my assistant Kim to help me do that. I really depend on them.