When I ask Jeanne Damas for her tips on how to look sexy, there’s a baffled pause on the other end of the line. After a moment of silence, she says, “Bah, just be yourself. I mean, being sexy is very subjective, so it’s difficult to teach.”

That is certainly true, and few would dispute that Damas herself – a woman with tousled hair, bronzed skin and an almost always red-lipsticked pout – is blessed with natural talent in this department. The rest of us, however, might need a little help. 

“Be unexpected,” she adds, taking pity on me. “Use movement or confidence or your voice to be desirable, rather than just showing your body. Women think being sexy means flashing lots of cleavage but Jane Birkin was one of the sexiest women of the last century and she was very flat-chested. It’s about natural allure, and wearing the clothes rather than letting them wear you.”

All this sounds very French and arguably more likely to work in a St Germain cafe than a British nightclub on a Saturday night – but it is also what I was expecting from Damas, 29, who has become a poster-girl for Parisian style. Her Instagram account has over 1.5 million followers and is filled with pictures of her wearing slightly unbuttoned print dresses or broderie anglaise tops with high-waisted jeans in various scenic spots around the French capital.