Jackie and Audrey and Giorgio and moi

SERGE CAJFINGER apologises for being late. He has a cold. Dressed in an elegant but casual style, with a charming schoolboy's smile, he looks a little like Richard Gere - which may explain why so many women in his Paule Ka store in Chater House appear to be swooning as he presents his autumn/winter collection.

Born in France and raised in Brazil, Cajfinger is chief executive, owner of and the creative force behind Paule Ka - a line he started 30 years ago, when he was only 19. In the past three decades, he's made his mark producing elegant designs for the woman with character.

'Women look and feel great in my designs,' he says. 'I make them look elegant, strong and powerful. My fashion is for confident women. Men adore elegant women - that's where the secret of my success lies.'

It's little wonder that his sources for inspiration are the late Jacqueline Onassis and Audrey Hepburn, two of the most elegant fashion icons of the 20th century.

Cajfinger says he started designing women's outfits when he was still a schoolboy, drawing silhouettes which he called Paule Ka (a combination of his aunt's and his mother's names).

Although he was passionate about designing even then, the turning point came in his teens. 'It all happened when John F. Kennedy died and Jackie O appeared on TV, wearing this black dress,' he says. 'She was so elegant, filled with dignity.'

From then on, he studied the way Kennedy's widow used to dress and how she created her unique style. It wasn't long before he discovered another important muse in Hepburn. 'Audrey is my inexhaustible inspiration,' he says. 'She is the Parisian woman of dreams. Her style is timeless. She is graceful, chic and sensual at the same time.'