Some people thought I would move to Woodstock after closing colette. After all there’s still so much to discover in the region. Like Hobart, a town I just found out has seven bookshops for 600 inhabitants! I love our ‘second home’ in the Catskills, but I still can’t imagine living here full-time. Would I appreciate the sky, the flowers, the river in the same way if they were part of my quotidien?

Nevertheless, it’s always amazing what you can find when you have a curious and roaming eye – which is what my mother, Colette, has always taught me. And it is a desire to discover and share what’s new that explains much of colette’s 20-year history. But now it’s time for me to turn the page on that past and seek out other expressions of ‘new’. Why now? Simply because it just felt like the right thing to do. It could have been yesterday or next year or in 15 years, but the fact is, we’re content to be announcing our closure at a time when the business is doing well, and the colette story remains pure and untarnished. Of course, we could have sold the name – and the business – on many previous occasions, but colette is tied to a place and to the person whose name it bears.

My mother has worked incredibly hard all her life; she’s been profoundly inspiring to me and many others. Yet only a few people have witnessed first-hand quite how committed she’s been over the past two decades, just how fundamental she has been to the spirit and history of colette. But now it’s time for her to take a step back, to adjust to a different rhythm of life, even though her curiosity will always remain.

As for me, this past fashion week has been the first in over 20 years that I’ve not had to run around like crazy, placing orders. My first instinct, when discovering the work of a young designer or a new magazine or an original-looking skateboard, has always been to place an order and share those things in colette. Not having that outlet is a big change for me. But it won’t stop me continuing to support creative talents, however I can.

In Paris, I recently went to an event honouring the late Pierre Bergé. Dominique Deroche – who spent much her life working with Monsieur Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent – took the time to speak to me, kindly commenting that everything we did at colette was éblouissant: ‘dazzling’ or ‘magnificent’. Coming from a woman who collaborated so closely with Monsieur Saint Laurent, it was powerful and meant a lot. But then Dominique has always been wonderful to me. It was 1998 when I first went to her office – unbelievably! – to ask to stage an exhibition at colette of Saint Laurent’s La Vilaine Lulu drawings. I know that in later years Monsieur Bergé (somewhat) distanced himself from the brand he’d given his life to, but I wish he was still around to witness the approaching transformation of colette into Saint Laurent.

The last day of colette will be December 20th. As much as I want it to be a regular working day, I know it’ll be a combination of intense personal emotion and the madness of the crowded space. We’ve already witnessed incredible scenes just these past few weeks: people in tears telling us how much colette has meant to them; a gay couple who came in to tell us they’d named their child colette, after the store.

It is too early to tell what history will make of colette. It’s not something I can control, and I have no desire at the moment to mythologize a project that’s always been about the present and future, even though I’m as fascinated as anyone by the mythology of historical places such as Biba. As things stand, the legacy of colette – if there is one – is of a place where we brought people together and made things happen. It’s always been about creating a place where everyone can come and where everything is possible.

And that’s where I see my future: continuing to ‘make things happen’. Staging exhibitions, projects and collaborations, but also working directly with brands or channels, perhaps. And as long as the work retains the same freedom and openness to which I’ve become accustomed at colette, it could be anyone – a young designer, a huge brand like Coca-Cola, a car manufacturer. Because as I’ve learned these past 20 years, with a curious eye, anything is possible.