Metro

Broken heart of fashion talent

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Sylvie Cachay appeared to be living out her dream — she had a high-end swimsuit line, a swank West Village pad and membership at Soho House.

But the Peruvian-born 33-year-old was going through a dark time in the months leading up to her death.

Her love life was a shambles after several emotionally abusive relationships, and the clothing label that rose her to prominence was hemorrhaging money.

“She was always telling me she had terrible luck with men,” a New York friend of the designer told The Post. “She kept asking me to set her up with a nice guy. She’d been seeing several men, and they all turned out to be real jerks.”

PHOTOS: SWIMSUIT DESIGNER SYLVIE CACHAY

The pal said Cachay spent nearly all her free time at Soho House, “but she wasn’t a party girl; she was there to meet friends and do business.”

Cachay’s swimsuit obsession began in her South American youth, when she spent her time building a bikini collection while admiring her mother Sylvia’s work as a designer.

She attended Parsons Paris School of Art and Design and finished her degree in Virginia.

Cachay landed a job at Tommy Hilfiger. In 2002, she reached the peak, running the Victoria’s Secret swimsuit design team in 2002.

She spent five years there before branching out with the Syla label, named in honor of a friend and her mom.

Already once divorced, Cachay slid into depression in 2008 after a break-up with a boyfriend.

“She began drinking a lot, and she would cry a lot,” said Domingo Duarte, superintendent of the Lispenard Street building where Cachay used to keep an apartment and studio. “It destroyed her.”

Cachay was in recent times seeing Nick Brooks, a 26-year-old with tastes for partying and pot.

But, a friend told police, the couple broke up Wednesday.

By 3 a.m., she was lifeless in her Soho House bathtub.

“She was so beautiful, charismatic, energetic and talented all at the same time,” said Los Angeles publicist Amy Denoon, a friend. “She was an amazingly talented swimwear designer. In an overly saturated market, she stood out.”