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The style icons are currently filming Season 2 of Netflix’s Next in Fashion together, but their bond goes way deeper than most co-hosts. PEOPLE caught up with France, 39, at the launch party for baby care brand goodnest in Manhattan earlier this month, where he revealed just how close the duo is.
“She was the first friend I told when [my husband and I] got pregnant,” France told PEOPLE. “I can’t remember if she had just had a baby or was just about to have a baby, but she had gotten everything ready. She’s a much bigger reader than I am, so I was like, ‘Can I just steal your notes?'”
Between filming multiple shows (France hosted the Selling Sunset reunion earlier this month) and designing clothing lines, the new dad “welcomes” any help he can get, and often turns to goodnest, a sustainable baby care brand with which he has partnered, for staple products that make parenting easier.
France also noted that he’s “so excited” for his son and Hadid’s daughter to spend time together while the first-time parents are filming the reality show in New York City this month. “They’re both part Pakistani, part white, which I think is lovely,” he pointed out.
Incorporating Ismail’s heritage into his life is important to the fashion designer, who called dressing his son in a traditional Indian outfit for Ramadan “really cute.” According to France, the festive frock was one of just two outfits Ismail has worn that’s not a standard onesie.
The other? A Burberry cardigan and matching onesie that was gifted from a friend, which the TV personality laughingly called “so boujee,” but “absolutely gorgeous.”
“People always expect that I would put him in a fully styled outfit,” France said. “But you change his diaper like, every two hours, and now he’s eating solids. It gets everywhere! It’s insane to put a fancy outfit on a newborn.”
Before having Ismail, France had stated that he wanted to have six kids (“I love a big family”), but later changed his mind to three or four. Now, he told PEOPLE that has shifted again.
“I’m definitely feeling very aged,” he admitted. “So, now, [I want] two or three. We’re gonna hopefully have one more — if things go well — within the next year or two, and then we’ll see after that. We want them to be two-ish years apart.”
The fashion expert confessed that he’s “really nervous” for when Ismail is two- and three-years-old, because “they’re nightmares and I struggle with toddlers.” But he’s most excited for the years that immediately follow.
“I’m most looking forward to [ages] four to five, when you can have a bit of a conversation,” he said. “I want to be able to watch a movie… with my son on the sofa and he’s snuggling and eating snacks and just wanting to hang out. That’s all I want: my son on my sofa.”
Along with hoping Ismail inherits “my humor and my husband’s kindness,” once he’s all grown up, France has an idea of how he’ll measure his success as a dad.
“My husband and I think that the mark of whether we’re doing a good job with our kids will be that when they’re 20 or so, they just want to come over and spend a Sunday with us,” France explained. “And it’s not like, ‘Oh we’ve gotta go see our dads.’ But like, ‘I’ve missed you so much. I want to come see you. I love you so much.’ I want that so desperately.”