Claire Laffut (born 21 June 1994) is a Belgian singer-songwriter, artist and model. Born in
Namur
Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration.
Na ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
. She was featured on the cover of Elle Belgium in December 2013.
Life and career
1994-2012: Early life
Claire Laffut was born on 21 June 1994 in Namur, Belgium to Annick and Frédéric Laffut, she also has a twin brother called Corentin. Growing up she tried many different activities such as classical dance,
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...
and
drawing
Drawing is a visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface. The instruments used to make a drawing are pencils, crayons, pens with inks, brushes with paints, or combinations of these, and in more mod ...
. At age 15/16 she joined dance school but she injured her ankle and decided to take up drawing.
2013-2018: LACLAIRE and career beginnings
In October 2013, LACLAIRE skin art was launched owned and created by Laffut it was a company that designed and made
fake tattoos
''Fake Tattoos'' (french: Les faux tatouages) is a Canadian drama film, directed by Pascal Plante and released in 2017. The film stars Anthony Therrien as Theo, a young loner who meets and falls in love with Mag ( Rose-Marie Perreault) at a rock c ...
.
She was featured on the cover of
Elle Belgique
''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's Lifestyle magazine, magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and Lifestyle (social sciences), lifestyle. The title means "she" ...
in December 2013. Also at this time she signed with
Ford Models
Ford Models, originally the Ford Modeling Agency, is an American international modeling agency based in New York City. It was established in 1946 by Eileen Ford and her husband Gerard W. Ford.
Company
Ford Models was started in 1946 by Eile ...
(Europe).
In 2015 whilst visiting a friend (photographer, Charlotte Ambramow) in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
, she decided to stay and move to the city.
She was one of the faces of
Chanel
Chanel ( , ) is a French high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. Chanel specializes in women's ready-to-wear, luxury goods, and accessories and licenses its name and branding to Luxottica for eyewear. Chanel i ...
's Gabrielle campaign for their new perfume (Gabrielle Chanel) in 2018.
She released the E.P. "Mojo" in November 2019. The EP features four tracks (Vérité, Mojo, Gare du Nord, La fessée).
2019-present: Bleu and Becoming Karl Lagerfeld
She talked about her first album in late 2019 and that it would be released in 2020 and each song would be connected to a work of art designed by Laffut.
In 2020 she moved back to Belgium and along with this because of the COVID-19 pandemic her debut album was delayed.
On 3 September 2021, her first album Bleu was released it was influenced by Latin and Afro rhythms and inspired by the colour
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...
and her youth. Later in the year she performed for
Valentino
Valentino may refer to
People
* Valentino (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Valentino (given name), including a list of people with the name
Mononymous persons
* Valentino (fashion designer) (born Valentino Clemente Ludovico ...
x Boiler Room.
In March 2023, it was announced that Laffut would be playing British fashion designer
Loulou de la Falaise
Louise Vava Lucia Henriette Le Bailly de La Falaise (; 4 May 1947 – 5 November 2011), known as Loulou de la Falaise, was an English fashion muse and accessory and jewellery designer associated with Yves Saint Laurent. Author Judith Thur ...
in the
Disney+
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...
Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Otto Lagerfeld (; 10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a German fashion designer, creative director, artist and photographer.
He was known as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel, a position held from 1983 u ...
in the 1970s. Also in 2023 she released a furniture collection in collaboration NV Gallery.
Laffut was on the cover of Belgian
L'Officiel
''L'Officiel'' () is a French fashion magazine with a USA edition. It has been published in Paris since 1921 and targets upper-income, educated women aged from 25 to 49. In 2006, it had a circulation of 101,719. A men's edition of ''L'Officiel'', ...
in 2024.
Artistry
Influences
Laffut has citied many different influences for her art, music and life such as singers
Avril Lavigne
Avril Ramona Lavigne ( ; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. At age 16, she signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records. Her debut studio album, '' Let Go'' (2002), is the best-selling album of the 21 ...
,
Burna Boy
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu (born 2 July 1991), known professionally as Burna Boy, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and record producer. He rose to stardom in 2012 after releasing "Like to Party", the lead single from his debut studio album, ''L.I. ...
,
Kali Uchis
Karly-Marina Loaiza (born July 17, 1994), known professionally as Kali Uchis ( ), is an American singer. She released her debut mixtape, ''Drunken Babble'', in 2012, which was followed by her debut EP, '' Por Vida'', released in 2015. In 2018, U ...
,
Jorja Smith
Jorja Alice Smith (born 11 June 1997) is an English singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Walsall, West Midlands, she has been writing songs since the age of 11. In 2012, Smith's friend uploaded her cover of Labrinth's "Earthquake" to YouTube, ...
Electronic music
Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...
producer
Mort Garson
Morton Sanford Garson (20 July 1924 – 4 January 2008) was a Canadian composer, arranger, songwriter, and pioneer of electronic music. He is best known for his albums in the 1960s and 1970s, such as ''Mother Earth's Plantasia'' (1976), He also ...
. Her father was also a major influence on her music taste introducing her to music and going shopping at flea markets and looking for records with Laffut when she was younger he introduced her to the
techno
Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...
genre and singers
Claude François
Claude Antoine Marie François (; 1 February 1939 – 11 March 1978), also known by the nickname Cloclo, was a French pop singer, composer, songwriter, record producer, drummer and dancer. François co-wrote the lyrics of " Comme d'habitude" ( ...
and
Fela Kuti
Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997), also known as Abami Eda, was a Nigerian musician, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist. He is regarded as the pi ...
. He also introduced her to Nigerian drummer Tony Allen who she recorded a song with which was never released. She has also been influenced by artist