Duran Duran: In Paris, Simon Le Bon Celebrates His Birthday With Yasmin
Paris Match 13 December 1985
interview: Cécile Tesseyre
English translation: me
Simon
Le Bon, the singing star of the group Duran Duran and his fiancée, top model
Yasmin Parvaneh. In Paris, in their suite in the Hotel George V, they
celebrated their birthdays. 27 years for him and 21 for her.
Among the gifts, a miniature boat, a copy of the yacht "Drum,"
that the singer owns on the Atlantic.
There's a party up there, in the Côte d'Azur suite, on the last floor of the Hotel George V in Paris. They're having fun! Exclamations of joy slip out the gap in the door. Inside the sitting room, gifts pile up on the couch: books (a lot), ornaments, and a superb miniature yacht. The TV (tuned into Canal +), turned on since the morning, continues to pour out a flood of images and sounds. An appetizing cake holds the place of honor on the table, covered with huge candles and waiting to be devoured by the young man and woman who surround it. They laugh. It's a double birthday party!
He is Simon Le Bon, the singing star of Princess Diana's favorite group,
Duran Duran, who is celebrating his 27th birthday. She is his fiancée,
Yasmin Parvaneh, half-Iranian half-British top model (whose spicy beauty
has earned her the cover of French "Elle" six times this year and the
covers of the first issues of American and British "Elle"), who
is celebrating her 21st year. They have chosen Paris to celebrate
their birthday. Out of taste: Simon, Huguenot and "proud of it,"
loves our capital. Out of professional obligation: he is there to
promote his new group, Arcadia, and Yasmin has come for a photo shoot.
In love, she has organized her meetings in accordance with Simon's (busy!) schedule. He makes a fuss over her, kisses her, holds her in his arms, calls her "Pebbles." She, tired, too made-up, but happy, gazes longingly at him.
"I
love his taste for risk," she says. "He is made for commando
actions when he has to make decisions quickly."
"She makes me laugh," says Simon. "She is cheerful, natural... but sexy at the same time. She loves me, me and my boat."
He takes his miniature yacht and tells her (again) how, trapped with his crew for 20 minutes beneath the overturned hull of his boat, Drum, during the Fastnet Race (known to be one of the most dangerous in the world), he almost lost his life, informs her that his large white yacht is currently traversing the waters of the Atlantic in fourth position in the around the world race. He teaches her to hold her course and balance.
Little matters to her: she has already been thrown upside down for a
long time by her singer-sailor... She accompanies him on TV sets, he keeps
her company under the heat of the camera flashes in photo studios.
Master of the seas, he is out to sea on dry land. He doesn't drive
her around in a luxurious sportscar (he doesn't have his licence) or in
a limousine with a chauffeur, that's too showy! Taxis? "Finding
one in Paris is quite a feat," he admits. Therefore, taking his
beauty by one hand, a yellow ticket in the other, they dive into the metro... "Yes,
it's very practical, fast, and no traffic jams."
He caresses her, whispers to her that he would like her a little rounder. She looks at him, powerless. To make him happy, Yasmin has already gained a few kilos; but the head of her agency has not - but not completely - heard about it from her. A lover's whim, Simon has ordered her not to have her hair cut: "It's me who will do it and no one else."
This summer, Simon very officially met the parents of the Anglo-Oriental beauty. "Yasmin really repeated to me that her father (whom she loves), an Iranian, was difficult that I was trembling at the idea of seeing him. He turned out to be adorable." But wait! All marriage rumors were formally denied. "I am still a little too young," she responds. "Marriage, yes, children, yes (I want six of them!), but not right away!"