Shoe designer Chloe Gosselin shares her best luxury travel hacks

Chloe Gosselin, 38, is the designer of an eponymous shoe line. In less than 10 years, it has become a red-carpet staple and a favourite of everyone from Nicole Kidman and Sofia Vergara to Taylor Swift and the Duchess of Sussex; in 2016, she was a finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize. The former model also acts as creative lead for Musha Cay, a private Bahamian island resort.

Gosselin was born and raised in Normandy before working as a model and studying art at La Cambre in Belgium. Classmates and friends there included Matthieu Blazy, creative head at Bottega Veneta; Anthony Vaccarello, in the same role at YSL; and Nicola de Felice, creative lead at Courrèges.

Her favourite airline is Delta. “I fly it a lot because Air France and Delta work together” in the SkyTeam alliance, she says. She flies some 80,000 miles per year.

Gosselin lives in Las Vegas with her husband, magician and Musha Cay owner David Copperfield, and their 13-year-old daughter, Sky.

If you’re a nervous flyer, a talisman could be the answer.

I was never afraid to fly for the longest time. When I was a model, I would just hop on the plane and sleep. But over the years, and flying on small aircraft, I had one very bumpy ride that changed things for me: It was a flight from Florida to the Bahamas. I tried hypnosis, which didn’t work. But I met the artist Marina Abramovic years ago at a gala, and we got to talking. I loved her right away because she really loves people and will ask lots of questions to get to know you. Some of her installations include crystals that she found in caves in South America, and she gave me one. She’s a dear friend. I broke it in half over the years, so now I keep one piece in my purse and the other in my carry-on. I am an atheist—I really hope I’m wrong about God; I want to be—but there is a little part of me that hopes there is some magic in the world that can bring you good luck.

Horseback riding can be therapeutic.

If you like horse riding, which I do, there is a nice place in Las Vegas called Cowboy Trails. I’m an English rider, so I’m not drawn to Western tradition. But I went with friends, and it was lovely: You go to the canyons, and they build a campfire. I want to go to Sirai in Kenya, a private resort where they breed horses and you can take a safari on horseback. I heard about it from one of the top dressage riders in the world, who’s British—Charlotte du Jardin. You have to be a really good rider, so it’s a trip you need to prepare for; the adrenaline of being on a horse in the middle of nature is incredible, like galloping with zebras. You can also do it in a jeep, so you can go to see lions. Obviously, you don’t want to be on a horse for that.

Pack this old-school item to ease post-flight aches and pains.

Back issues are my big thing. When I get to Europe, usually I would have back issues from just the flight, even if I’m in business class. So I try to use a heating pad. The one that my mom recommends is made with cherry pits; you can find it in a natural medicine store in France — a little hippie store — but in the US, you can get one on Amazon. It’s made of fabric and you put it in the microwave to heat it up. It’s not dangerous, like a heating pad with water that can burn you if it gets too hot. It keeps the heat for a long time and it’s amazing. When I’m staying at a hotel, I ask them to microwave it for me.

Chasing lava can also be therapeutic.

I always love a volcano. We took a helicopter flight to an active volcano when we were in Iceland. We flew over it for about 30 minutes, but David and his pilot researched the company because it was a bit scary. We landed close to where we could see the lava flowing and we hiked for about four hours. We were able to touch the lava flow that was dry, and it’s still warm. I did the same thing on top of Kilauea on the Big Island in Hawaii, where some of the lava goes into the ocean. You can fly over and watch it hitting the water, which is safer than seeing it from a boat.

Yes, you can buy that big antique at a market overseas and ship it home easily. Here’s how.

I bought some couches in Paris for my house in Vegas. I used to ship a lot, bringing shoes here into the USA, and I used Albatrans. I don’t ship as much now, but if you don’t have an account with them, you can pay a one-off fee to use their service. They’re used to furniture, especially antiques. My favourite antique store in Paris is in Galerie Vivienne and is called Secrets D’Interieurs. It's full of beautiful pieces—really old things but well-kept and not crazy expensive

Learn how to pack a little lighter.

When I did the televised Vogue Fashion Fund, there were 10 designers, and it was produced in conjunction with the Council of Fashion Designers America and Vogue. We had this challenge at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, and they rented the old apartment of Coco Chanel in Paris, which is where we got to show. We had to be at events, dress differently every day, so what I learned to do was have one dress you can wear in different ways. I like a shirt dress, a button-up one; I just bought two from a New York brand called Argent where the owner dresses Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin. You can do it with a little, flat sandal. You can dress it up with heels, with a jacket or no jacket.

Las Vegas is a hub for nature lovers, too.

As a French person, culturally it was a bit tough for me to move to Las Vegas. But now I’ve found a lot of beauty here, especially nature. The hiking is incredible, with Red Rock and Valley of Fire and Mount Charleston being close by. There’s Lake Meade, too. But for a quick hike, which I do often and on my own, I go right behind Red Rock Park to Calico Hills. You go from light reddish, iron stone to deeper bright red, which makes it look like Disney décor. There’s a lot of sand, too, so I take my dogs there often. It’s about 20 minutes from the Strip, like everything in Las Vegas.