Symonne Torpy on Speaking the Language of Fashion
For Symonne Torpy, fashion is a language. As a fashion journalist and Associate Creative Director at the global advertising agency BETC, Torpy also understands fashion’s power to express identity, values and even history—often without a single word.
For Symonne Torpy, fashion is a language. Whether it’s a big bunch of pearls or head-to-toe leopard-print, fashion can be an opportunity to craft a message. “It can signal so many different things,” she explains. “There's always inspiration to be pulled from something unexpected.” She loves seeing how others express themselves in Paris’s streets and cafes.
As a fashion journalist and Associate Creative Director at the global advertising agency BETC, Torpy also understands fashion’s power to express identity, values and even history—often without a single word. Whether designing a campaign for Prada or analyzing gender fluidity through menswear, she draws on her unique background in writing, politics and global affairs—finetuned during her MA in Global Communications at AUP—to infuse her work with layers of meaning, communication and connection.
Torpy grew up in Australia at a confluence of cultures, with an Irish-Indian father and an Indian-Portuguese mother. As a kid, Torpy had an innate eye for fashion, makeup and aesthetics. “It was instinctual,” she says. “I only wanted to see women wearing the works—dramatic cat eyes, bright pink lips, perfect foundation or hair stacked up to heaven.”
Alongside fashion, she also developed a passion for writing; from elementary school, she filled notebooks with poetry and gifted poems to family members. In high school she began winning competitions; she ventured into political and opinion writing and even ran a satirical newsletter, stealthily printed on school computers.
After studying government and international relations at the University of Sydney, where she spent her senior year at the University of Nottingham in the UK, Torpy had the intention to go into politics and planned a move to Paris—she had long had a love affair with the City of Light, which began after a family trip to the city aged 12. After a year of saving, she achieved her dream after being accepted to AUP in 2013.
Torpy didn’t realize that fashion could be a career until Professor Madeleine Czigler, now retired, gave her a ticket to Fashion Week. She never looked back, immersing herself in Paris as a world epicenter of fashion, learning through experience and critical study. She describes her studies as a “boot camp of how to analyze.” Under the guidance of Professor Waddick Doyle, she explored brands and fashion codes, while Professor Charles Talcott’s museum course helped her understand the use of space and its impact on how people engage with fashion.
Her career took off quickly, covering fashion for publications like Dash Magazine and Young Hollywood. After graduating, she co-founded, along with another AUP alumnus, Leland Torpy Creative, an agency offering content creation, design and branding services. They led AUP’s redesign of the interior of the Combes Student Life Center, collaborating with architects and construction workers, planning every detail, from the Alice in Wonderland–themed interior of the AMEX Café to selecting vintage furniture. “We wanted something really warm and familial for foreigners to call their home away from home,” she says. The newly renovated building opened in 2015.
This experience helped Torpy secure positions at branding and event firms Creative Spirit and Publicis Luxe, before she eventually joined BETC, a Paris-based agency with offices in Shanghai and New York. She served first as Head of Cross-Channel Conception and then as Associate Creative Director, her current role, in which she combines strategy and consumer insights with brand creation: “Whatever you touch, see and feel from a brand.” Torpy’s clients include Lacoste, Valentino Beauty, Givenchy and Armani. Beyond fashion, Torpy's creativity also extends into other forms of media, including voiceover work and subtitling for French TV shows. She has lent her voice to a wide range of advertising campaigns, from luxury brands like Dom Pérignon champagne to Coca-Cola. For a time, she was the official voice of L’Oréal Professional haircare.
Torpy’s ability to analyze sociopolitical contexts—a skill honed at AUP—give her a competitive edge in the high-speed fashion and advertising industries. One example? Her work on the fragrance “Libre” by Yves Saint Laurent, known as “the scent of feminine freedom.” Torpy notes how the context of the word freedom keeps changing; the product’s symbols—especially fire—take on new meaning in the context of wildfires or war. It can be challenging to create something original in a media-saturated field. Her strategy? “You mix it with something else—add a reference, a twist or a piece of music, changing the story. I like diving into symbology, history and meaning.”