Etienne russo biography

How did you go from modelling to where you are now?

Etienne Russo is the founder of villa eugénie, a company specialized in the conception and production of fashion shows and events.

I actually started my education at the école hôtelière in Belgium, then I worked in high-end restaurants. This training taught me to be rigorous, precise and punctual. After a few years, in the early eighties, I met a stylist who convinced me to become a model.

This experience allowed me to travel throughout Asia and to live for six months in Japan. Around that same time I had also started working in a club in Brussels, the Mirano, a venue very similar to what the Palace was back then in Paris.

I began as a bartender and it led to being the artistic director of the nightclub, organizing themed parties and fashion shows.

Having started his freewheeling career in the late s, modelling for Kansai Yamamoto in Japan and then art directing a Brussels club, he fell into producing.

Russo, a former chef, had been a model for designers including Walter Van Beirendonck before he began working in sales and event production for.

After more than 25 years in the industry, Etienne Russo is at the helm of the production company Villa Eugénie as a premier producer of global fashion shows and events.

Russo founded the renowned villa eugénie in , successfully establishing it as the highest pillar of fashion show production.

Etienne Russo, the founder of the creative agency Villa Eugénie, and mastermind of some of the world's most memorable fashion shows, has opened an outpost here.

Looking back, I realize it had somewhat become a ‘laboratory’ for me. I also set up young designers’ contests in the club, which was my first true experience with sound, lighting, scenography. At that time I grew closer to the Antwerp Six, who had just about graduated.

I was doing photoshoots as a model for