Now Vanessa, Victoria and Samantha are all grown up, and while not one of them has followed their powerhouse mother into writing, all three have become highly influential in the fashion world. Here’s what you need to know about them.
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Meet the “Traina trinity” – the three daughters of author Danielle Steel
The Traina sisters’ mum Danielle Steel is the world’s bestselling living author – according to her publisher Pan MacMillan, anyway – and it’s easy to see why. The 76-year-old has penned more than 200 books and sold a billion – yes a billion – copies. Best known for her romantic fiction, she claims she did all her writing while her children slept, sometimes churning out pages until dawn, per The Age.
“The Traina trio” have six other siblings
Steel has been married five times – including to a convicted criminal who she met, and married, in his prison’s canteen – but had almost all of her children with one man: John Traina.
Traina had two children from his previous marriage, who Steel became stepmother to, and the couple went on to have five children together Samantha, Victoria, Vanessa, Maxx and Zara. The author’s first marriage yielded her eldest child, Beatrix, and she also had a son Nick, who died by suicide aged just 19 in 1997.
The Traina sisters’ father was a well-known San Francisco socialite
Although he died in 2011 at the age of 79, John Traina has been compared to a glamorous, Cary Grant-esque figure with innate elegance and charm by those who knew him. Founder of Pearl cruises – the first Western cruise line to sail to China – he spent his fortune on exquisite Fabergé cigarette cases, according to his Stanford University obituary.
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The Traina kids grew up in a pretty glamorous household
According to the Stanford dedication, Traina was famous for entertaining film stars like Sophia Loren at his Napa Valley vineyard. And it wasn’t just the Traina sisters’ father who brought glamour into the household. Steel is also known as one of the world’s biggest haute couture obsessives, per The New York Times, and regularly made trips to Paris for the shows with her daughters.
Harpers Bazaar notes “family friend Hubert de Givenchy” would often stop by their house for supper, and Vanessa has said even she didn’t realise the calibre of some of the people she met until later in life: “It was only when I was a bit older that it clicked and I said to myself, Oh, that dinner party was for Gianfranco Ferré or Fred Leighton,” she told the magazine.
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Vanessa Traina has repped Chanel and Louis Vuitton
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According to W, Vanessa went to school with Alexander Wang (and later consulted for him), before moving to New York to intern for French Vogue. It was here that she also met designer Joseph Altuzarra and – per Harpers Bazaar’s description – became his “muse”. In 2009 she became a Chanel beauty ambassador, and in 2010, Louis Vuitton even featured her as a model in one of its handbag campaigns.In 2012, US media reported that Wang – as well as Nicole Richie and Kirsten Dunst – watched the socialite marry photographer Max Snow in a Riccardo Tisci dress. However the marriage wasn’t to last, and Vanessa tied the knot again in 2016 to French investor Charlie de Viel Castel. These days she works as fashion stylist and consultant for brands including Tiffany & Co. and Altuzarra.
Victoria Traina works at Proenza Schouler
Similarly, Victoria Traina, now 40, studied at the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York and is also considered a fashion photographer’s favourite. Per Elle, her and Vanessa are “often snapped on the street and at parties for their style savvy”, and W notes that the two leave near each other in Manhattan. Victoria has worked for Proenza Schouler since 2010 and these days serves as the brand’s Director of Fashion and Visual Merchandising.
On her birthday, her mother paid tribute to her on her Instagram, referring to her as “the only female in the family who loves to cook”.
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Samantha Traina consults for Tom Ford, among others
The eldest of the fashionable trio, Samantha, is 41. Like her sisters, she’s involved in the fashion world, but unlike them, she lives in LA. Samantha is a respected stylist who’s worked with the likes of Tom Ford, Tory Burch, Goop and numerous fashion magazines, according to her own LinkedIn page.
Earlier this year, Steel revealed on Instagram that her daughter was beginning to get into shoe design and had got married in 2022 in a Dior dress, though she doesn’t reveal who to. “She got her exotic travel gene from her father, along with her aristocratic Italian looks!” the author added.
