Art collector and app creator Hélène Nguyen-Ban’s favourite things

My style signifier is a mix of rings on my fingers. I’m very attracted to opposites. I always wear extremely fine gold rings that I had welded on at Le Bon Marché – I have one on each finger, and a bracelet on each wrist too. I’ve had them for 16 years now and I sleep with them on – they’re like tattoos. I pair them with a massive ring designed for me by a friend of mine, Andrea Buccellati. I was lucky enough to persuade him to craft it for me.

The last thing I bought and loved was a painting by a young Italian-Ethiopian artist, Jem Perucchini. The painting looks like a religious Russian icon, but with an African face. With the gold finishing, it’s exactly the way those old paintings look, but it’s also totally modern.

I have zero talent – but I’m very sure of my taste

The place that means a lot to me is Hanoi. It’s my happy place. My father is from Vietnam – his family were mandarins who fled during the last war – while my mother is from Alsace. I grew up in Africa mostly. Despite Vietnam’s long history of war, Hanoi always manages to exude peace and serenity. I love its fusion of Asian and European architectural styles, its romantic lakes and, of course, the legendary Metropole Hotel, my favourite place in the world. sofitel-legend-metropole-hanoi.com

And the best souvenirs I’ve brought home are true “souvenirs”, as they are memories. I have a lot of unforgettable images from expeditions to remote corners of the globe. We do a trip once a year for a month to places like Easter Island, Tibet, Victoria Falls, the Atacama Desert… Last year we were with the Komodo dragons and whale sharks in the Flores Islands.

My favourite app is, naturally, my own, Docent. It’s an AI-powered app designed to help art lovers, collectors and enthusiasts to discover and acquire contemporary art. I’ve worked for years on it with a great mathematician, Mathieu Rosenbaum, to create a Spotify-like platform for art. We already offer more than 10,000 artworks, 1,000 artists and 100 partner galleries, spanning 28 countries and five continents. 

The best book I’ve read in the past year is The Creative Act: A Way of Being, by Rick Rubin. As the producer behind some iconic albums, he methodically lays out his creative process. I’ve always been fascinated by that skill, whether it was working for Louis Vuitton, where I launched the ready-to-wear by Marc Jacobs, or now, working with artists. Rubin is able to identify talent despite saying he has zero talent himself. I have zero talent too – but I’m very sure of my taste.

My style icon is Jenke Ahmed Tailly, a stylist from the Ivory Coast who draws on his African heritage in his work. He’s styled Beyoncé, Naomi Campbell and many others – and he manages to convey messages poetically and aesthetically, without being ostentatious. 

The best gift I’ve given recently is hospitality. I split my time between Paris and London and I travel a lot, so I often have an empty house – and I believe an empty house is not good for its karma. So my door is always open to friends or artists, and I love the traces they leave behind.

The best gifts I’ve received recently are Dusk and Dawn, two tinctures by Gossamer, from friends who know my passion for all things CBD. These aren’t your usual cannabis oils: they contain high levels of very rare cannabinoids, so they have amazing anti-inflammatory properties, help you focus or wind down, and can even regulate your hunger cravings. I also love Rose’s cannabis Turkish delights, which are infused with single-strain flower rosin. roselosangeles.com; gossamer.co

The last music I streamed was by Nissi Ogulu, a Nigerian singer-songwriter, artist and entrepreneur – she’s working on creating a new electric car, made in Africa for the African market. She’s the Elon Musk of Africa. And the music is great – a fusion of pop, Afrobeat and R&B.  

I have a collection of... art! I started in 2001. Totally by chance, I walked past the window of the Enrico Navarra gallery in Paris and was captivated by a Zhang Xiaogang portrait in the window. The very fixed gaze on the face reminded me of my own Asian upbringing, where expressing feelings was considered vulgar. From then on, collecting became a type of therapy for me, a way to assemble my fragmented background under one roof. I began with everything: artefacts, antiquities, western religious art, relics from ancient civilisations, the Tang terracotta figures, Chinese ceramics, Vietnamese Buddhas, 18th-century Burmese pagan disciples, royal Congolese ceremonial totems… I also have lots of contemporary works by Marlene Dumas, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Jenny Saville, Oscar Murillo, Alvaro Barrington, Luc Tuymans, Issy Wood... 

In my fridge you’ll always find chocolate and coffee. I grew up on coffee and cocoa plantations in Africa, and I don’t remember a single day of my life without either of them. I’m obsessed with chocolate; I never go to bed without it. My current favourite is from Plaq, a French brand based near the Marais – they have a bean-to-bar process and it’s very simple. You’ll also find my beauty creams in there, and my perfumes. A perfumier once explained to me that to preserve scent, you shouldn’t keep them in transparent bottles, so light can’t get in, and you have to keep them refrigerated. So I keep mine in special metallic bottles in the fridge. That or the wine cellar – even better.

I’ve recently rediscovered the iconic fashion brand Courrèges. A friend of mine, Adrien Da Maia, has revitalised it alongside artistic director Nicolas di Felice. And a recent discovery is British-Nigerian designer Mowalola. I’m obsessed with her boots.

An indulgence I would never forgo is travel. But I’m disciplined now and do only one destination thoroughly a year. Chocolate, art and travel are my drugs.

The thing I couldn’t do without is home. It’s where I find the greatest comfort: I had to move frequently in my childhood, which led to me feeling uprooted and losing many friends. So I have my cocoon now, surrounded by all my objects and artworks that I never change. It helps me gain a sense of harmony and peace, otherwise I’m kind of lost in translation.

The last item of clothing I added to my wardrobe was a pair of jeans by Alaïa. It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of Azzedine, but the new team is doing a great job. The jeans are a prime example: they’re sexy but not vulgar, a real Alaïa trademark. 

My wellbeing guru is Alexandre Yazdi, whose Aura project is going to offer personalised lifestyle recommendations based on user data, making it the ultimate health-management platform. I grew up with a father who had the Asian approach of preventing illnesses rather than curing them. I believe that Alexandre’s project really is the future of medicine.

In another life, I would have been an artist – but one who repeats the same gesture. I’ve always been fascinated by that. It could be the most effective way of channelling my obsessive need for accumulation. My longing for infinity as well. 

The beauty staple I’m never without is anything by Buly 1803. Its subtle and delicate fragrances, its Japanese scented wood, its Gymnastique water, which is a scent for sneakers – such a good idea! I love the experience of receiving each product, which is wrapped in an exquisite package with a handwritten note. Even the toothbrush! It has silk hairs.

My favourite room in my house is the conservatory. When I moved to Europe from Africa, I really struggled with the cold and the lack of natural light. This conservatory, which is very old-school Victorian, is super-warm and surrounded by trees. In the spring we have the Japanese cherry trees in bloom, which is especially nice. I’m always doing my calls there.

My favourite building is Château La Coste [in Provence]. The hotel was done by a brilliant visionary friend, Patrick McKillen, and I love that it’s an immersive experience that encompasses great wine, art, its architectural pavilions, the park... The cherry on the cake is that it has launched its own organic wine too. 

The best bit of advice I ever received was from my father, whose family lost everything during the Vietnam war. He told me that nothing in life is ever definitively acquired, whether it’s status, resources or property. That’s probably the philosophy that has shaped my view on possession – even though I do accumulate things.

When I need to feel inspired, I talk to my business partner Mathieu. I’m someone who relies more on intuition – I’m not very rational – so I love his stochastic approach, which involves studying all aspects of a problem, and using probabilities to make predictions. 

An object I would never part with is my Dogon Ashanti fertility doll. I feel like it represents my multicultural background, and also embodies my questions and thoughts on spirituality. My mother’s warm, whimsical and philosophical spirit inspired my creativity, while my father’s sobriety and rigour shaped my upbringing. Today, I feel like I’ve reconciled these differing beliefs and practices.

The podcast I’m listening to is Lex Fridman’s. It has a unique blend of emotional intelligence and insightful reflection on technology’s impact on society. Earlier this year he interviewed Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and he really challenged him on the direction these advances are taking us. I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand what is happening there.