Cameron Diaz seems to have been flying below the radar of late and today, we’ve found out why: she’s been keeping busy in her new role as artistic director of NY-based fashion label Pour La Victoire.

In her first interview about the role, with WWD, the Hollywood stalwart takes pains to explain that this is more than another celebrity-turns-designer story.

‘I don’t do endorsements really. This is completely different,’ she declared. ‘Being influential in a brand and in its campaigns interests me. I love fashion. It’s a large part of my life. What I wear is looked at.

‘It influences what other people wear because that’s just the world we live in.’

She’s put her money where her mouth is; Diaz owns a stake in PLV Studio Inc., the parent company of PLV and its sister brand, Kelsi Dagger.

With her artistic director cap on, she’ll be responsible for overseeing the brand’s footwear and handbag lines, as well as having a hand in its ads (she was on-set for the new autumn/winter 2013 shoot, which sees Jessica Hart photographed by Terry Richardson). Her first full collection will be for spring 2014 – and we can expect shoes to be a big focus.

‘I live in heels 10 hours of the day,’ she said. ‘I know comfort in shoes. There are some shoes you would die to wear but they are painful. When I was younger, it was a fight to the death with my shoes and who was going to win.

‘I want to have really great, functional shoes that are staples of the line.’

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