Vicky Tiel: From Paris Couture to Farm Life — Elizabeth Taylor, Coco Chanel & Choosing Happiness

Georgette Beck welcomes legendary Paris couturier Vicky Tiel to the Junk to Jewels™ Podcast for a conversation that moves from a Parsons School rejection to a couture empire built at the heart of Hollywood glamour. Vicky shares how she arrived in Paris at twenty with a dream, a best friend, and a lace mini dress — and how that dress caught Elizabeth Taylor's eye and launched a twenty-five-year friendship.

The two swap stories of a legendary dinner with Coco Chanel, who made both women promise to create a perfume — a promise that led to Elizabeth Taylor's bestselling fragrance and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, and to Vicky's own perfume, complete with a bottle she hand-sculpted herself. Vicky opens up about decades of jet-set living, celebrity and royal clients, a difficult divorce, and the transformation that followed when she married a Key West fisherman, moved to a quiet farm, and gave up drinking and smoking for good, thirty years and counting.

Throughout the episode, Vicky returns again and again to one message: happiness is a daily choice. From dressing-room confessions to lessons Elizabeth Taylor taught her about kindness and generosity, from faith to the healing power of nature, Vicky's story is a masterclass in turning what felt broken into something beautiful — proof that it's never too late to choose joy.

Episode Chapters

00:00  Welcome and Introduction

01:48  Health and Empowerment

02:11  Parsons Rejection to Paris

04:10  Early Hustle and Money Rules

05:51  Elizabeth Taylor Connection

08:31  Coco Chanel Dinner

10:53  Perfume and Creative Leap

12:55  Farm Life and Sobriety Reset