Yasmin Le Bon walks into a sunlight-soaked balcony at Jaipur's Rambagh Palace, sharp on time, wearing no make-up, looking crushingly magnificent and certainly not a 54-year-old who is grandmother to nine-month-old Taro Arturo Le Bon.

It takes a moment to accept that you are standing before one of the highest earning supermodels of the late 1980s, somebody who worked with every big name from Karl Lagerfeld, Versace and Chanel to Dior and Azzedine Alaïa, and married Duran Duran's lead singer Simon Le Bon in 1985. She sits, her endless legs crossed in front of you, ready to talk about her role as judge for Cartier Travel with Style Concours d'Elegance. "It's a bit like a beauty contest for automobiles," she says, her face lighting up. "When you judge, it's emotional, it's visceral. [You choose] cars you desire or cars that make you smile, or a story of amazing restoration, incredible mechanical achievement and innovation."