The Spirit of Travel

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 CONTENTS
“A gleaming,
futuristic building
that wouldn’t look
out of place in a
Star Wars galaxy”
The coast of utopia,
page 89

Regulars
37 Editor’s letter
41 Notices
Meet the contributors to this issue
46 Welcome to our world
Discover Vogue online at Vogue.co.uk
110 Checklist
What to pack for your vacations
or staycations
202 Stockists
Vogue trends
57 Sense of occasion
It’s wedding season – follow Vogue’s
essential style guide to ensure you’re Jewellery
always the best turned-out guest 83 Cocktail hour
59 The bright side Sculptural diamond watches
Live life in full colour to make evenings sparkle
60 Join the dots Vogue living
Go graphic in playful spots
PHOTOGRAPH: VENETIA SCOTT. TOP, DIANE VON FURSTENBERG. SHORTS, CYNTHIA ROWLEY. SANDALS, STELLA McCARTNEY

84 The return of the buffet

62 Flower girls
A cultivated new take on the
spring perennial
67 Noir moderne
Sharp suits in midnight black
68 The zing thing
The maximalist approach to print
Heat
wave,
page 144
COVER LOOKS
From left: Vittoria Ceretti, Halima Aden, Adut Akech, Faretta Radic,
Paloma Elsesser, Radhika Nair, Yoon Young Bae, Fran Summers and
Selena Forrest. Hair: Orlando Pita. Make-up: Diane Kendal. Nails:
Megumi Yamamoto. Set design: Piers Hanmer. Digital artwork:
Silhouette Studio. Styling: Edward Enninful. Photograph: Craig McDean 71 Practical magic
GET THE LOOKS: SEE PAGE 44
Sensible shoes with glam edge
73 How fashion got funny
Fanfare for the comic muse.
By Raven Smith
75 Crazy, sexy, cool
That 1990s staple, the combat
trouser, is on the comeback trail
76 Vogue darling
Musician IAMDDB
78 Focal point
Look-at-me accessories. Styling
by Venetia Scott and Naomi
Smart. Photographs by Feng Li
Help yourself to the new trend
in party dining, says Grace Dent
89 The coast of utopia
Art collector Maja Hoffmann’s
Mustique retreat. By Talib Choudhry.
Photographs by Kate Martin
97 Firmly rooted
Landscape designer Sarah Price
speaks to Katie Berrington
Viewpoint
98 The story of us
Have attitudes to the issue of
abortion reached a turning point
in Ireland? By Lynn Enright
100 The platonic ideal
Salman Rushdie on his
enduring friendship with the
late Carrie Fisher
103 Sober girl’s guide to partying
Socialising on the wagon needn’t
be a drag, says Adwoa Aboah
Arts & culture
105 Drama queens
Female talent takes centre
stage in the theatre this year,
reports Olivia Marks > 30
CONTENTS Coat, bag
and boots,
all Marni

“When look-at-
me accessories
meet classic
coats, the results
are striking”
Focal point, page 78

Vogue tech
106 Instant access
Eva Chen on her hi-tech essentials
Archive
108 The power of the muse
Robin Muir looks back at a rare
Robert Mapplethorpe shoot
Beauty
114 Face: the future
Your face is your currency,
discovers Nicola Moulton
119 In full bloom
Erdem’s latest foray into beauty
120 Personal effects
Bespoke beauty is big business.
Jessica Diner investigates
122 Beauty musings
The trends and looks to know now
125 Plant life
Lorraine Pascale goes vegan
126 Bold beauty
Couture-inspired make-up
Fashion and features
130 ON THE COVER
Generation next 164 A hand-made tale 192 ON THE COVER
Meet the new model army How haute couture is embracing Quiet by design
reshaping fashion-industry norms. diversity and democracy. Tech supremo Jony Ive enjoys
By Ellie Pithers. Styling by By Anders Christian Madsen. a chat in the Apple canteen
Edward Enninful. Photographs Styling by Venetia Scott. with contributing editor
by Craig McDean Photographs by Willy Vanderperre Naomi Campbell. Photograph
144 Heat wave 178 The line of danger by Mikael Jansson
Living the high life in breezy Vogue meets the women working 196 ON THE COVER
tropical style. Photographs and to combat the threat of Furiously funny
styling by Venetia Scott terrorism. By Helen Lewis. Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Photographs by Bastiaan Woudt is on the brink of comedy
158 ON THE COVER
Of gowns and glory 182 “I make clothes for superstardom, says Eva Wiseman.
The epic fantasy of a grand ballgown strong women” Photographs by Scott Trindle
feels right for now, says Harriet Rei Kawakubo speaks to Olivia Back page
PHOTOGRAPH: FENG LI.

Quick. Styling by Gianluca Longo. Singer. Styling by Kate Phelan. What would Farida Khelfa do?
Photographs by Paul Wetherell Photographs by Tim Walker The filmmaker takes our quiz

SUBSCRIBE TO Turn to page 116 for our fantastic subscription offer, plus free gift
30
€6 X— ‡  ns/‡V 9X€Xx
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There are no
two ways about it
– like so many industries in recent months, fashion has found
itself at an important crossroads. At the world’s great design
houses, at photographic studios, at fashion weeks and in the
offices of magazines such as mine at Vogue, crucial questions
have been asked about working practices, safety and respect.
Stock has been taken and safeguards to the way we operate
have been made. Along the way we have heard from so many
brilliant voices – amazing women such as Cameron Russell
and Edie Campbell, who have worked hard to open up the
conversation and make it possible for women and men from
up and down the industry to be heard.
These conversations are by no means over. Yet as a new
mood begins to take hold – one that will only enrich and
enliven creativity in fashion – I also believe that the time
has come for us to look forward. In short, it is a moment for
Vogue to do what it has always done best: to offer a bold vision
of what the future can – and should – look like.
To that end, a few weeks ago I flew to New York to meet
the photographer Craig McDean, a dear friend and probably
my longest-standing collaborator. Over the course of two
days in a Manhattan loft studio we set about a very special
project: bringing together nine future modelling superstars
for a cover story that I hope defines everything we stand for
as a magazine in 2018.
CRAIG MCDEAN; GETTY
I must say, assembling a star cast of fashion’s most-talked-
about new faces proved a truly exciting task. Even five years
ago – and certainly 10 or 20 years ago – if you were shooting
a group cover like this, the girls would not have looked like
these young women do. But one of the great positives of the
EDITOR’S LETTER
past few months is the fashion industry finally embracing a Vogue’s new
model army is
concept that has defined my entire working life: diversity. When photographed
I say diversity, I want to be clear that it is never just about black by Craig McDean
and white for me. It’s about diversity across the board – on page 130:
clockwise from far
whether that’s race, size, socio-economic background, religion, left, Halima Aden,
sexuality. That’s what I want to celebrate with this cover.
Fran Summers,
Take Halima Aden and Adut Akech, born in the same Vittoria Ceretti,
Yoon Young Bae,
refugee camp in Kenya and now standing at the top of their Selena Forrest,
profession. How incredible is that? Along with Radhika Nair, Paloma Elsesser,
Radhika Nair,
Yoon Young Bae, Faretta, Fran Summers, Vittoria Ceretti, Adut Akech and
Paloma Elsesser and Selena Forrest, their CVs are bursting Faretta Radic
with big campaigns, catwalk appearances and millions of
online followers. To me they represent a new global idea that
anything is possible.
How do I spot such talent? It’s a feeling you get when a girl
walks into your office and you just know. It’s more than beauty.
There are so many beautiful women in the world, but with some
there’s a certain connection to the times they’re living in that
makes them special – as with these nine. Often, they’re quite
approachable-looking, yet with a certain magical quality you
can never truly define. Actually, that’s what keeps you looking.
The shoot was incredible, watching our group take such
an important first step in their careers with this special Vogue
cover. What really struck me, despite their varied backgrounds,
was how similar they all were. Kind, engaged, socially minded
and impressively sweet to one another.
With the styling, I just wanted them to feel
empowered, so chose a careful palette of
khakis, blacks and creams so they’d feel ready
for anything. Strong, powerful and poised
for exciting futures. Three cheers for that.
37
 Frivole collection
Between the Finger Ring,
yellow gold and diamonds.

Haute Joaillerie, place Vendôme since 1906

9 NEW BOND STREET - HARRODS - SELFRIDGES

www.vancleefarpels.com - +44 20 7108 6210
 NOTICES

On page 100, Salman Rushdie

reflects on his 20-year friendship
with the late Carrie Fisher, while
endeavouring to answer an
age-old question: is it ever
possible to be “just friends” with
a member of the opposite sex?

For this month’s cover shoot with Craig McDean,

nine models from seven countries gathered at Milk
Studios in New York’s Meatpacking District. “A playlist
of Rihanna, Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar kept everyone
smiling,” says fashion features editor Ellie Pithers.
“That and Ru, Edward Enninful’s Boston terrier, who
For her first piece as a contributing
has 12,600 Instagram followers and counting.”
editor, Lorraine Pascale debates the
merits of veganism, on page 125. The
model-turned-chef first appeared in
the pages of Vogue in the March 2005

GETTING TO
Writer Grace Dent pens an ode to
the buffet in all its kitsch glory, on issue, wearing an Armani Privé
page 84. At any given party, it’s dress embroidered with thousands
the 1970s classics she gravitates of Swarovski crystals.
toward. “You can try to impress
me with Wagyu beef and ponzu on
fancy spoons – but what my eyes
scan the room for is the humble
KNOW YOU…
mushroom vol-au-vent,” she says. Meet the contributors
behind our May stories
Vogue’s fashion
team decamped
to Cape Town for
Heat Wave, on
page 144, styled
and photographed
by fashion director
Venetia Scott. They
shot everywhere
from the Sea Point
Pavilion in
gale-force winds to
the financial district
with a flock of
MARIJANA MARINOVIC; JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS; GETTY

ostriches in tow.
MOLLY GODDARD
GIAMBATTISTA VALLI

Writer Harriet Quick considers the role of

fairytale ballgowns in the modern era
(page 158), from Molly Goddard’s frothy tulle
dresses to Giambattista Valli’s show-stopping
creations. Her dream frock? “The robot-painted
gown Shalom Harlow sported for Alexander
McQueen’s s/s ’99 collection,” she says.

41
NOTICES
Ahead of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s new
series, Killing Eve, Scott Trindle (below) Writer Raven Smith (below) considers
photographed her for Furiously Funny fashion’s newfound sense of humour on page
on page 196. His favourite programme 73. The trends that fail to raise a smile?
is more of a guilty pleasure. “I’m always “I cannot condone floral crowns, wellies in
watching First Dates on Channel 4. I’m the city or puns on garments – if you have
trying to get all my friends to go on it.” something to say, do it with fit and styling.”

To accompany our exclusive Rei

Kawakubo interview, on page 182,
Tim Walker and Kate Phelan (above)
photographed and styled Comme Contributing editor Naomi Campbell
(above, with Salma Hayek) visited
“I remember my first Comme show Apple Park in California to interview
in Paris, when models marched out Jony Ive (page 192). “For the man
to Patti Smith’s war cries in Rei’s who designed the iPhone, Jony is
take on armour,” says Walker. amazingly humble,” she says.

CRAIG MCDEAN; MORGAN O’DONOVAN; KUBA RYNIEWICZ; MARK SIMPSON; KEVIN TACHMAN

COVER LOOKS
From left: Vittoria Ceretti wears jumpsuit, £6,915, Ralph Lauren Collection. Necklaces, from £9,700 each, Vhernier. Halima Aden wears top, from £930.
Skirt, from £3,240. Both Céline. Cardigan, worn underneath, £239, Johnstons of Elgin. Adut Akech wears embellished shirt, £1,715. Skirt, £1,115. Both Prada.
Earrings, from £360, Jennifer Fisher. Faretta Radic wears off-the-shoulder trench coat, £2,800, Dior. Earrings, from £350, Céline. Paloma Elsesser wears top,
£210. Trousers, to order. Both Paco Rabanne. Belt, £205, Dorothee Schumacher. Cuffs, from £725 each, Jennifer Fisher. Radhika Nair wears shirt, £800. Trousers,
£1,030. Both Hermès. Belt, £490, Chloé. Bracelets, from £5,600 each, Tiffany. Rings, from £1,720 each, Pomellato. Yoon Young Bae wears shirtdress, £690,
JW Anderson. Earrings, £2,600. Bracelet, £18,100. Both Chanel Fine Jewellery. Fran Summers wears poloneck, £780. Skirt, £1,250. Both Victoria Beckham.
Small chain necklace, £18,600, Vhernier. Large chain necklace, to order, Jennifer Fisher. Ring, £2,020, Cartier. Selena Forrest wears jumpsuit, £1,450, Alberta
Ferretti. Belt, £1,040, Hermès. Earrings, from £400, Jennifer Fisher. Get the look: Hair: L’Oréal Paris. Make-up: Estée Lauder. Hair: Orlando Pita. Make-up:
Diane Kendal. Nails: Megumi Yamamoto. Set design: Piers Hanmer. Digital artwork: Silhouette Studio. Styling: Edward Enninful. Photograph: Craig McDean

44
G R AC E A N D C H A R AC T E R
VOGUE.CO.UK

WELCOME TO
OUR WORLD…
From videos of May’s cover stars to behind the scenes
on shoots, get more of what you love on Vogue.co.uk

STYLE AND
NEWS ON THE GO Lineisy Montero and
Karly Loyce turned up
Three times a week, straight to your smartphone: the heat on location in
Vogue on Snapchat is packed with exclusive videos, Cape Town. See more
style quizzes, beauty tips and interactive articles. at Vogue.co.uk/video
Discover our Snapcode now. Welcome to #NewVogue.

Boyzone, kisses
and Peter
Pan – Phoebe
Waller-Bridge
is the latest star
to step in front
of Vogue’s lens
and share the
firsts that have
shaped her life

KLOSS FILMS; VENETIA SCOTT; PAUL BOWDEN; MINNIE J CARVER;

The next generation

of fashion faces
are emerging as
forces for change.
But what do they
want to know about
JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS

each other? From

Fran Summers
interviewing Halima
What to wear to Aden, to Selena
Forrest answering
every occasion questions from
Vittoria Ceretti, go to
this summer Vogue.co.uk/video
to watch them quiz
one another
The best dresses, the definitive shoe guide
– and should you wear a hat with that?
Vogue has your sartorial season sussed.

46
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 TRENDS
Wedding season
Crêpe-georgette
jumpsuit with tie
neck, £3,900.
Striped shorts,
worn underneath
£680. Both Dior.
Silk bra, £260,
No 21. Felt hat,
£210, Berta
Cabestany
FASHION EUROPEAN PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO, LONDON. DIGITAL ARTWORK: ANTONIO PIZZICHINO AT DTOUCH LONDON
MODELS: RUTH AKELE, LAUREN CASE, KEKELI HOTSE, XU JING, ANNA PROFFITT. WITH THANKS TO THE AMAZON
HAIR: MATT MULHALL. MAKE-UP: JANEEN WITHERSPOON. NAILS: ADAM SLEE. SET DESIGN: SOPHIE DURHAM.

SENSE OF
OCCASION
From joyous florals to bold, block colour,
channel spring’s most head-turning trends and
ensure you arrive the best-dressed guest.
Photographs by Lena C Emery
Edited by Naomi Smart Styling by Jack Borkett

57
 TRENDS
Wedding season

From left:
Ruth wears shirt,
£470. Skirt, £1,100.
Belt, £85. All No 21.
Clutch, £1,600,
Giorgio Armani.
Lauren wears dress,
£721, Jacquemus.
Xu wears dress,
£2,255, Akris.
Pouch bag, £405,
Les Petits Joueurs.
Far right, from top:
dress, from
£1,000, Tibi. Bag,
£210, Staud, at
Mytheresa.com.
Wrap dress,
£535, Ganni

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Crayon hues bring an
optimistic energy to softly
draped party dresses. Go for
vivid, complementary shades;
this is a neutral-free zone
EMILIA WICKSTEAD
LENA C EMERY; JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS; PIXELATE.BIZ

Left: dress, £1,174, Attico,

at Net-a-Porter.com. Above:
CAROLINA HERRERA

bag, from £1,890, Bienen-Davis.

Right: sandals, from £387, Stella
Luna. Halterneck dress, £860,
Salvatore Ferragamo

Head space Top off your look with a bejewelled clip, satin headband or wide-brimmed hat
From left: sinamay hat, £3,600,
Philip Treacy. Headband, from £825,
Jennifer Behr. Gold-plated hair comb,
£1,100, Dolce & Gabbana. Pillbox hat
with veil, £745, Emily London

59
TRENDS
Wedding season

Viscose dress, £49,

Topshop. Palladium
and crystal earrings,
£855, Saint Laurent
by Anthony Vaccarello

SELF-PORTRAIT
Join
the dots
The graphic alternative
to florals, polka dots
bring a different kind of
whimsy. Play with scale
but keep it monochrome
Dress with kimono
sleeves, £855, Awake,
at Farfetch.com.
Leather sandals,
£710, Manolo Blahnik.
Crystal earrings, from
£760, Balenciaga

LENA C EMERY; JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS; PIXELATE.BIZ

OFF-WHITE

“Polka dots signal

poise when paired with
ladylike accessories”
Naomi Smart, shopping editor
From left: off-the-shoulder silk dress, £643, Caroline Constas,
at Matchesfashion.com. Leather purse, £858, Perrin Paris.
RODARTE

Beaded tassel earrings, £14, John Lewis. Leather sandals,

£380, Philosophy by Lorenzo Serafini. Silk dress, £320, Rixo,
at Net-a-Porter.com. Embellished velvet bag, £1,550, Fendi

60
 FOLLOW US ON THE ELIE SAAB MAGAZINE THELIGHTOFNOW.COM

THE NEW FRAGRANCE

#GIRLOFNOW
LENA C EMERY
 TRENDS
Wedding season

FLOWER
GIRLS From splashy roses to wallpaper
posies, micro cornflowers to graphic
hothouse blooms, florals are
no longer the humdrum option for
summer engagements – in fact, styled
head to toe, petals clashing and jostling
for attention, they’re now considered
a wild-card option. Don’t overlook the
instant zing that comes with Dutch-
flower-painting-inspired tights
paired with jewelled sandals, or
the offbeat exuberance conveyed by
fuchsia-printed boots under a femininely
decorated dress. More is most
definitely more: floret earrings only
add to the flower-bomb effect. EP
From left: Lauren wears jumpsuit,
from £2,000, Dolce & Gabbana. Mules,
£965, Christian Louboutin. Anna wears
dress, £850, Zimmermann. Sandals,
£500, Cushnie & Ochs. Ruth wears dress,
£1,370, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi. Boots,
£80, H&M. Earrings, £350, Jennifer Behr,
at Liberty. Kekeli wears sleeveless dress,
from £2,220, Proenza Schouler. Top, worn
underneath, £643, Caroline Constas, at
Matchesfashion.com. Feather boa, from a
selection, Nina Ricci. Shoes, £450, Cushnie
& Ochs. Earrings, from £525, Jennifer
Behr. Xu wears dress, £1,795. Body, £575.
Both Prabal Gurung. Tights, from £535.
Sandals, from £535. Both Dolce &
Gabbana. Clutch, £1,600, Giorgio Armani
TRENDS
Wedding season
“Seek out languid
silhouettes –
they’ll stop florals
feeling prim”
Ellie Pithers, fashion features editor

GIAMBATTISTA VALLI
RODARTE

JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS; PIXELATE.BIZ

Clockwise from top right:

earrings, £504, Rebecca de
ERDEM

Ravenel, at Modaoperandi.
com. Dress, £599, Leon Max.
Top, £1,071. Skirt, £3,775.
Both Brock Collection. Bag,
£450, Shrimps. Sandals,
£850, Jimmy Choo. Mules,
£295, Russell & Bromley.
Dress, £1,850, Alessandra
Rich, at Modaoperandi.com.
Bag, £900, The Row, at
Matchesfashion.com. Dress,
£3,080, Ermanno Scervino.
Dress, £505, Sea NY

64
 KARLIE KLOSS

ATELIERSWAROVSKI.COM
 Xu wears tuxedo TRENDS
jacket with taffeta
sleeves, £2,495.
Trousers, £820.
Wedding season
Boots, £3,650.
Earrings, £1,195.
Necklace, £845.
All Alexander
McQueen. Lauren
wears tuxedo
jacket, £1,610.
Trousers, £1,735.
Both Ralph Lauren
Noir moderne
For a wedding in the heart of the
Collection. Shoes,
£475, Jimmy Choo. city, make a black suit sing with
Earrings, £230,
Roberto Cavalli epic jewellery and bedazzled shoes

From top:
diamond
earrings, price
on request,
Buccellati.
Tuxedo jacket,
£560. Trousers,
£210. Both
Emporio Armani.
Fan, £80, Fern
Fans. Box bag,
£3,075, Mark
Cross, at
Matchesfashion.
com. Sandals,
£885, Miu Miu
LENA C EMERY; PIXELATE.BIZ

67
TRENDS
Wedding season
WEDDING
From left: Lauren WISDOM FROM
wears dress, £1,499, FASHION’S
Dries Van Noten.
Handerkerchief top, MOST
£410, Tod’s. Ruth wears
shirt, from £1,440. Skirt,
INVITED…
from £1,980. Both Etro.
Clutch, £2,100, Bottega
Veneta. Earrings, from
£435, D’Heygere. Anna Would you
wears top, £1,000. Wrap wear black to a
skirt, £1,500. Belt, from wedding? “Black
£1,450. All Céline
is fine – unless
you’ve slept with
the groom.” Lauren
Santo Domingo
(right), co-founder of
Moda Operandi
What works for a
country wedding?
“A dress that makes
me feel confident
and that I can have
fun in. Organza has
slight fuss and volume,
but is ultimately light
and free.” Emilia
Wickstead, designer
What is a wedding
outfit no-no?
“Accidentally wearing
the same dress as the
bridesmaids. Imagine!”
Hannah Weiland,
founder of Shrimps

THE ZING THING

Embrace full-on exuberance with a maximalist take on print.
What doesn’t work?
“Anything that’s too
sparkly, shiny, too tight,
too short or too
revealing… You are
Oversized hoops and vivid bags multiply the effect going to a wedding,
not prom. You have to
be able to move, dance
and drink, so don’t
wear shoes you can’t
walk to the bathroom
in.” Sarah Staudinger,

LENA C EMERY; JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS; PIXELATE.BIZ; GETTY

creative director of Staud
How to stand out, but
not upstage the bride?
“Just look like a
STELLA McCARTNEY

bright shining
angel, there to
ROKSANDA

do nothing but
support, adore
and love your
friend. Your
outfit should
look like your
heart – not like
From top left: dress, from £1,680,
Johanna Ortiz. Earrings, £4,890, Silvia
your boobs.”
Furmanovich, at Bergdorf Goodman. JJ Martin
Dress, £2,560, Duro Olowu. Shoes, £550, (right), founder
Rochas. Dress, £1,380, Borgo de Nor, at
Fenwick. Bag, £615, Hunting Season, of La Double J
at Selfridges. Sandals, £129, Carvela Editions
68
L I A N N E L A H A VA S , Musician
I N C O N V E R S AT I O N S E R I E S . D I S C O V E R M O R E AT O L I V E R P E O P L E S . C O M
 TRENDS

PRACTICAL
MAGIC
The sensible loafer is getting
razzy for spring… Cue glittering
rhinestones and punky hardware.
Photograph by Matthieu Lavanchy

Clockwise from
top: leather and
crystal, £885,
Gucci. Leather,
£425, Bally.
Leather and
crystal, £480,
Stuart Weitzman

71
superga.co.uk
 TRENDS
MARGIELA’S
PLANE PILLOWS
Supremely chic power-
napping is now feasible,
thanks to Margiela’s
bag that doubles as a
pillow. Nothing says
“I’m ready to tackle
whatever life throws
at me” like turning up
to a meeting with the
matching neck cushion.
If 2017 was about
dressing for bed in chic
pyjamas, s/s ’18 is about
dressing as your bed.

HOW
DOLCE’S FASHION
FRUIT &
VEG STAND
Nobody has time for
their five a day. Cheat
GOT
the system with a Dolce
& Gabbana cabbage
gown or market bag. FUNNY
The joke’s on us – literally
– as designers put their
tongues firmly in cheek.
By Raven Smith
When he buys you flowers

K
nock, knock. Who’s there? instead of a Gucci watch
Fashion. Yep, the industry
that takes itself seriously is GUCCI’S MEMES
shedding the pout in favour When it launched, the Gucci
meme project flooded the
of a smile. From the digital savants at internet with Renaissance
Gucci communicating via meme to Raf imagery. Be the first of your
friends to adopt this trend
 Simons’s droll Friday the 13th hockey-
with a lacy girdle or casual
mask shoes for Calvin Klein and ruff. Think Blackadder – but
Emporio Armani’s childish crab make it fabulous.
motifs, the mood is lightening.
Wit, of course, is different
to comedy. Unlike Charlie
CHRISTOPHER
Chaplin slipping on a banana
KANE’S WASHING- peel, wit is more comfortable with
MACHINE TOP the connection of two previously
Nigella was wrong:
why be a domestic unjoined dots. Think practical
goddess when you trainers with a fantastical elf flick
can be a domestic at the toe (Loewe) or built-for-
appliance?
purpose cycling shorts under MOSCHINO’S
CALLA LILY DRESS
statuesque ballgowns (Saint In centuries past, women
Laurent). These become a wry carried posies because
commentary on how we personal hygiene was
zero. Update this
consume fashion today – tradition by dressing as
scrolling feeds on screens. an actual flower.
Vying for our attention as we
INDIGITAL; JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS

scroll, designers are keen for

us to be arrested by creations that
initially baffle us and then cause us
BALENCIAGA’S to raise a knowing eyebrow. These are LOEWE’S ELF SHOES
PLATFORM clothes that say something witty about Thought you’d have to wait for December
CROCS to get festive? Think again. This spring,
Crocs are the most fashion. Like Dada and the Surrealists, channel your inner elf with Loewe’s
ridiculous things, we’re all in on the joke. trainers. People will think you work
but slip into their for Santa and be super-nice to you.
rubbery cavities and
Victoria Beckham may have taken an
you’ll be a convert. extended break from smiling but fashion PRADA’S COMIC-STRIP PIECES
The height, here, can still be a laugh. Here are a few Wear your cartoon-strip Prada under your
means you can reach suit – ready to burst out, Clark Kent-style,
the top shelf like a jocular ideas to get you through the silly for dramatic effect. Added benefit: you’ll
randy schoolboy. season with tongue firmly in cheek. Q be as snug as chips in newspaper.

73
 SPRING / SUMMER 18

“She is my mirror, so I never

walk alone. We’re always together
and she means everything
to me and vice versa.”

GAIA & ANANIA

# M O D E R N VAG A B O N D

D I S COV E R M O R E AT VAG A B O N D.C O M

 Hoodie, £170,
TRENDS
Fenty Puma by
Rihanna. Cargo
trousers, from
£450, Matthew
Adams Dolan, at
Themodist.com.
Belt, £290,
Altuzarra, at
Net-a-Porter.com.
Trainers, £62,
Puma, at Asos.com

ALEXANDER WANG

MARC JACOBS

SACAI
Crazy,
sexy, cool
Luxury sportswear has become
synonymous with modern dressing.
But if go-faster stripe fatigue is
beginning to set in, move on to the
combat trouser. Once the uniform
of 1990s icons such as Lisa Lopes,
Gwen Stefani and Melanie Blatt, the
baggy, pocket-heavy style is back and
shaping up to be the staple of the
season. That said, these are not the
grungy, low-slung trousers of
yesteryear: worn high on the waist
and with strappy sandals and even
corsets, they can take you from day
to night with effortless ease. What’s
more, they have a pocket for every
conceivable eventuality. A thoroughly
practical investment. OS

From left: cotton

trousers, £345, T
by Alexander Wang,
at Net-a-Porter.
LENA C EMERY; JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS; PIXELATE.BIZ

com. Cotton
trousers, £195
Zadig & Voltaire.
Cotton trousers,
£62, Alpha
Industries, at
Amazon Fashion.
Sweater, £195,
PS Paul Smith.
Jewelled satin
shoes, £945,
Manolo Blahnik
STELLA McCARTNEY

PAIR WITH...

75
VOGUE DARLING IAMDDB wears
tulle sweater,
£500. Linen
trousers, £620.
Both Y Project,
at Browns.
Earrings, £220,
Marques Almeida.
Photograph by
“At the moment I’m Greta Ilieva.
into Jimmy Dludlu, a Styling by
jazz artist from southern Jack Borkett
Africa, and Jordan
Rakei’s neo-soul album
Wallflower [right].”

CHEST
AN
ER
•M

“Manchester is my
home now, but I still
wear my Africa
pendant every day.”

IAMDDB
With Angolan and Portuguese roots, Manchester-raised
IAMDDB (born Diana DeBrito, hence the initials) can recall
the exact moment she decided to pursue a career in music.
“I was in a lecture on my first day at Manchester Metropolitan
University when I realised that I was meant to be writing
songs – not term papers,” she says. “As a young black woman,
I’ve been stereotyped all of my life, and I needed to give
myself a voice. I ran out and never looked back.” Instead of
studying, the 22-year-old has spent the past three years
developing her signature urban jazz, while working different
jobs to make the rent. It paid off: her most recent EP, Hoodrich,
has racked up more than 5 million streams, turned Jorja
Smith into a fan and earned IAMDDB third place in the
coveted BBC Music Sound of 2018. Up next? Her first album,
due out later this year on Union IV Recordings. “I play around with lots
of different brands – but I
love Tom Ford for special “I keep my
occasions.” Sateen jacket, nails simple:
“My most-used emoji is definitely £2,200. Leather trousers, a neutral
the rose ; it’s a symbol that £2,240. Both Tom Ford or dark red
crops up in a lot of my music.” polish is best.”
Le Vernis in

INTERVIEW: HAYLEY MAITLAND. HAIR: PHILIPPE THOLIMET. MAKE-UP: NICOLA BRITTIN.

Rouge Noir,
£22, Chanel

NAILS: PEBBLES AIKENS. GETTY; INSTAGRAM; PIXELATE.BIZ; REX FEATURES

“I would choose trainers over
heels any day; comfort is
“My hair is key.” Trainers, £105, Nike
usually in braids;
I’m trying to
learn how to do it
myself – but it’s “My fantasy holiday
ridiculously hard.” would mainly
involve lying on
a beach in the
Bahamas; it’s the
island life for me.”

“I’ve watched
Scarface more
times than I
can count;
I love Michelle “In my downtime,
Pfeiffer’s slinky I live in sports bras;
dresses and I’m really picky about
power suits.” the fit, though.”
Bra, £185, Fendi, at
76 Net-a-Porter.com
 Give a neat
tweed an instant
refresh with
vivid pink shoes
and satin ankle
ties. Wool coat,
£1,345. Satin
shoes, £540. Both
Stella McCartney.
Hair and make-up:
Daniel Zhang.
Nails: Jenny Li.
Production: Sherry
Ma and Vengo
Huang. Model:
Qiaoyu Li

FOCAL
POINT
When look-at-me accessories
meet classic coats, the results are
striking. Photographs by Feng Li.
Styling by Venetia Scott
and Naomi Smart
 ACCESSORIES

A sporty visor
and finish-flag
check bag from
Dior take the
humble mac into
new territory.
Cotton trench
coat, £2,000.
Leather bag with
jacquard strap,
£3,450. Visor,
£265. All Dior
 The new
co-ordinates:
traditional
plaid with
animal edge.
Wool coat with
tiger appliqué,
£3,420.
Embellished silk
shirt, £3,150.
Canvas and
leather bag,
£1,170.
All Gucci
ACCESSORIES

Let your
accessories do
the talking
with Burberry’s
graffiti graphics.
Gabardine car
coat, £1,690.
Canvas and
leather tote,
£1,090. Leather
boots, £590.
All Burberry
For stockists, all
pages, see Vogue
Information
 JEWELLERY
Silk/wool
dress,
£3,105,
Valentino.
Diamond
watch, price
on request,
Chopard

Above: white gold and

diamond, £43,670, Patek
Philippe, at Boodles.
Below: diamond and onyx,
price on request, Bulgari

Cocktail hour
Evenings demand a more sculptural approach
to timekeeping – sprinkled with diamonds.
Edited by Dena Giannini. Photograph by
Matthieu Lavanchy. Styling by Florence Arnold
MITCH PAYNE. HAIR AND MAKE-UP: CAROLYN GALLYER.
NAILS: JENNI DRAPER. MODEL: RADHIKA NAIR

From top left: diamond, £40,000,

Asprey. White gold and diamond,
price on request, Dior Watches.
Diamond with satin strap, £20,700,
Tiffany. Diamond bracelet watch,
price on request, Van Cleef &
Arpels. Diamond and rubellite,
price on request, Cartier. Crystal,
£249, Swarovski. Diamond with
satin strap, £32,300, De Beers

83
 the T
wo-thousand-and-eighteen is the year of the buffet, and as a restaurant
critic, I applaud this. When Sabine Getty – queen of the dinner-party super
leagues – recently told Vogue that she favours a buffet, it was a sharp thrill
to know that the beau monde was finally resurrecting the cornerstone

return
of 1970s entertaining. Case in point: creative director Alex Eagle’s loft in Soho, where
celebrities, fashion designers, and editors regularly gather around a trestle table.
“A buffet sets a relaxed, familial tone at a party,” she says. “Plus, it’s hard to compete
with the drama of a well-done buffet on an aesthetic level: a whole leg of jamón;

of the
colourful plates of tapas; baskets piled with ripe figs…”
It’s about time the buffet had its moment of culinary glory. In my job, as the scourge
of chefs, the question I’m chucked daily is: “But, Grace, can you even cook?” To which
my answer is always: “Well, you won’t find me standing by a sous-vide machine

buffet
studiously broiling a veal cheek to within a millisecond of tender. Or erecting my
own croquembouche tower.” Lord no. I leave that style of hospitality to ruddy-faced,
kitchen-bound bores. But if you want a buffet, I say, then I am your girl.
Give me an impromptu 50-person guest list, a fold-out emergency trestle table
TESSA TRAEGER/TRUNK ARCHIVE

Forget stuffy canapés and
fussy recipes, a heaving table
of help-yourself deliciousness
is the modern way to feed
a party, says Grace Dent
84
and a pack of frozen vol-au-vent cases and, darlings, I will give you a party. Perhaps
vol-au-vents aren’t your thing? Possibly you’re more of an Ottolenghi “heaving pile
of French beans with hazelnut” person or you hanker for a fistful of samosa chaat?
Well, hooray. That’s the whole point of a buffet. There’s something for everyone. I’ve
sat on lofty food award panels, held to dispense prizes and plaudits, hearing how
buffet goddess Nigella is “not really a cook”. But, to be frank, if you come to one of
my parties and the sight of my cheese’n’pineapple porcupine centrepiece fails to
render you emotional, I care not for your opinion. If you don’t love a table groaning
 LIVING
with fancy salads, pimped-up couscous, show-stopping trifle
and a cubic ton of my grandmother’s own recipe Coronation
RECIPES
Chicken, watching friends gravitate towards it with plates SKYE GYNGELL, SPRING
and sharp elbows, then, sweetie, you’re not really an eater. “Put this out with warm crusty bread and a green salad”
And the emphasis here is on groaning. A good buffet table, SLOW-COOKED LAMB SHOULDER WITH RED PEPPERS,
like Richard Burton said of Liz Taylor, should be, “in short, PAPRIKA AND BLACK OLIVES
Serves 6
too bloody much”. Forget food-waste worries. There will be
Ingredients Method
none. Here’s the rules: you need enough food for each guest 1 shoulder of lamb, trimmed Preheat the oven to 200C.
to have an early-evening pre-amble, a return visit after three 2 red onions, peeled and chopped Season the meat and place in a large
glasses of champagne for more sturdy grazing, and then, for 1 dried red chilli saucepan on a medium heat. Brown all
1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted over for about 10 minutes. Remove
the party hardcore, to shift it into their handbags for an Uber and ground the meat from the pan, pour out any
smorgasbord on the way home. As a Golders Green buffet 1 bunch of marjoram, excess fat and reduce the heat slightly.
queen once told me about catering family bar mitzvahs, “If leaves only Add the onions, chilli, fennel and
there isn’t too much food, there isn’t enough food.” I remember 4 cloves of garlic, peeled marjoram. Cook for 15 minutes,
and chopped stirring occasionally. Add the garlic,
this phrase often at sterile Fitzrovia parties, where teensy 3 red peppers, sliced into eighths red peppers and paprika. Cook for
kebab-skewers and sashimi are doled out abstemiously by 1½ tsp of sweet paprika a further five minutes. Add the
servers. Yes, a buffet would have been less elegant, but it 500g ripe tomatoes, tomatoes, then turn up the heat
roughly chopped slightly. When the mixture starts to
would have sent a message of largesse, of frivolity. Guests 1 bottle of dry white wine bubble, pour in the wine. Return the
would have been able to chat without the constant interruption 1 handful of small black olives meat to the pot, cover tightly with
of the poor staff explaining the provenance of the caviar. Roughly chopped parsley, foil and place on the middle shelf of
to garnish the oven. Cook gently for three hours,
Meanwhile, the frantic host is generally in the kitchen Salt and pepper, to taste until the meat is falling off the bone
panicking that no one is eating, shoving servers out time and and the peppers are melting. Season to
again with more fancy spoons of indecipherable mush that taste. Serve with the olives and parsley.
no one really wants.
Do we have this problem with my tray of champagne jelly RAVINDER BHOGAL, JIKONI
shots, warmed cocktail sausages with a vat of caramelised “This brightly coloured jelly makes for an eye-catching
onion relish? No, we do not. Does anyone say, “Grace, we – and delicious – centrepiece”
loved your party, but I wish you’d not provided such an array NEGRONI JELLY AND CITRUS SALAD
of delicious artisan cheeses?” Again no. The simple reason Serves 8
buffets light up a room is this: you are providing guests with Ingredients Method
For the citrus salad: Place the citrus, pomegranate and
a tiny dopamine shot from a point in life they were happiest; 1 ruby grapefruit, segmented strawberries in a large bowl. Pour in
running into a brilliant birthday party aged five; their granny’s with pith removed the icing sugar and Moscato. Stir to
Boxing Day open house; the best Eid get-together of their 1 pink grapefruit, segmented combine, then put into the refrigerator
with pith removed to macerate. Heat the caster sugar
teen years. In a world full of judgement over food choices, 2 oranges, segmented with and 500ml of water in a saucepan.
here is a hark-back to a time when our ancestors ate without pith removed Whisk gently until the sugar begins to
fretting, rather than as a method of preening or point scoring. 1 pomegranate, seeds only dissolve. Add the strips of orange peel
No one Instagrams, filters and hashtags buffets because buffets 250g strawberries, hulled and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat
and cut into quarters and simmer for five minutes. Remove
really are not that pretty. But then neither am I after a bottle 2 tsp icing sugar from the heat and strain to discard the
of Taittinger. Isn’t that the point of a party? Q 50ml Moscato peel. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold
For the Negroni jelly: water for five minutes. Squeeze out
150g caster sugar the excess water. Add the gelatine to
1 orange, peel only the syrup mixture and whisk until fully
5 leaves of gelatine, dissolved. Stir in the gin, Campari and
platinum strength vermouth, then leave to cool. Pour
75ml gin into a jelly mould. Leave to set in the
75ml Campari refrigerator for at least six hours.
75ml sweet vermouth

NIEVES BARRAGAN, SABOR

“This so-called Russian salad is a classic in Spain”
ENSALADILLA RUSA, PRAWNS AND SALSA ROSA
Serves 8
Ingredients Method
For the ensaladilla: Combine the tiger prawns,
16 tiger prawns, boiled in the shell, potatoes, carrot, baby gem
peeled and diced leaves, gherkins and chives in
300g baby potatoes, boiled, peeled a large bowl. In a separate bowl,
and diced mix together the mayonnaise, A good
1 carrot, boiled, peeled and diced ketchup, Worcestershire sauce,
4 leaves of baby gem lettuces, brandy, Tabasco and orange buffet table,
julienned
2 tbsp of gherkins, chopped
juice. Stir the salsa rosa through
the ensaladilla. Season to taste. like Richard
2 tbsp of chives, chopped
For the salsa rosa:
Put in the fridge to chill for at
least an hour and a half. Serve
Burton said
250ml mayonnaise
2 tbsp ketchup
cold on pieces of toast. of Liz Taylor,
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
20ml brandy
should be,
2 tbsp Tabasco
½ an orange, juiced
“in short, too
Salt and pepper, to taste bloody much”
85
 LIVING

Maja Hoffmann
looks across the
Caribbean sea
from the balcony
of one of three
“pavilions” at her
Mustique beach
house. Styling:
Gianluca Longo

THE COAST T
he water is the most miraculous colour,” says Maja
Hoffmann, wistfully describing the dazzling azure
of the Caribbean sea as it laps the sands on the

OF UTOPIA private island of Mustique. “My house is located

Art collector Maja Hoffmann’s futuristic steel-
and-concrete beach home on the island of Mustique
is her ideal place for creative contemplation, she
tells Talib Choudhry. Photographs by Kate Martin
directly on Princess Margaret Beach, which is very beautiful
and secluded. I swim twice a day and it’s paradise.”
The view to the ocean from the banana orchard at Neubau
Lagoon House is indeed the stuff of desert-island dreams.
Glancing back from the beach, the sight of Hoffmann’s
resolutely contemporary property is equally extraordinary.
Architectural styles of the 104 homes on Mustique – which >
89
Luxembourg City is an unforgettable blend of a UNESCO
World Heritage site and a cosmopolitan European capital.
Luxembourg opens unexpected new horizons.

visitluxembourg.com
 LIVING
Below: a vivid orange
sofa and 1960s chairs,
upholstered in Missoni Home
fabrics, add colour in the
off-white pool pavilion.
Right: the angular pavilions
are, Hoffmann says, “like tilted,
triangular boxes on stilts”

sits in a chain of islands known as the Grenadines in the Naturally,

West Indies, and is owned collectively by its ultra-wealthy
residents – vary widely, from colonial plantation houses and Hoffmann’s
Balinese-style bungalows to frothy mid-century follies. guests
Hoffmann’s, designed by the Venetian-born, New York-
based architect Raffaella Bortoluzzi, is without doubt the include
most striking. serious
A gleaming, futuristic building that wouldn’t look out of
place in a Star Wars galaxy, the house is made up of a series
players from
of cantilevered concrete-and-steel cubes with tiered terraces the art-world
and pools. “I could have bought an existing house but I’ve
always wanted to build one myself in Mustique,” explains
A-list
the legendary 62-year-old arts patron. Besides, she already
owns the more traditional neighbouring villa Gelliceaux, and
Left: patterned furniture
built Neubau Lagoon House in its grounds. “I wanted from the Sushi
something unique. It takes inspiration from Latin-American Collection by Edward
van Vliet for Moroso.
architecture and looks experimental, but it’s really just a beach Below, from top: sail-like
house. At first, planning permission was blocked but now, awnings shade the path
I think, people understand and like what we’ve done.” to the banana orchard;
a hanging chair by
The Zurich- and New York-based billionaire is no stranger Patricia Urquiola
to controversy surrounding her architectural innovations.
Hoffmann reportedly donated more than £132 million of
her pharmaceuticals fortune to fund the creation of a Frank
Gehry-designed HQ for Luma, the cultural foundation
she launched in 2004, in her hometown of Arles in the South
of France – to much local opposition. It took protracted
negotiations for her aluminium-faceted complex to rise
defiantly in the centre of the umber-hued town. Whether
it’s architecture or art, Hoffmann says she favours nurturing
experimental projects that might otherwise not get built. it’s a good place to have creative meetings and hold think
After such high-stakes forays, Hoffmann always looks tanks.” Hoffmann has been known to mix pleasure and
forward to a restorative break in the Caribbean, and visits business during the chic picnics she holds under the gently
several times a year with family and friends. “I came to swaying palms. Meanwhile, an army of “super-dedicated”
Mustique for the first time in 1993 and it reminded me of staff – gardeners, maids, butlers – run both of her villas like
the simplicity of growing up in the South of France,” clockwork. “They take care of the houses in a way that makes
she says. “It was the first time in my adult life that I took them feel very lived in and welcoming.”
a proper vacation and it was also where I met my partner No doubt the zingy palette at Neubau Lagoon also aids
in life [the film producer Stanley F Buchthal], so it holds original thinking – Hoffmann and Bortoluzzi chose to cover
special memories.” the building in look-at-me turquoise, tangerine and saffron
Naturally, Hoffmann’s guests on Mustique include serious tones. The undulating metal panels, which cover the upper
players from the art-world A-list, such as auctioneer Simon part of the structure and roof, were 3D-printed and coated
de Pury, “the man with the golden gavel”, and the uber-curator in blue paint, which has to be refreshed regularly in the humid
Hans-Ulrich Obrist, one of her trusted “Arles advisers”. salt air. The climate of the island dictates the absence of
“Mustique doesn’t just have to be about drinking rum and paintings on the crisp, white walls inside; it would be wantonly
going to the beach,” says Hoffmann. “It has fabulous air, so decadent to hang priceless works here. Instead, the >
91
LIVING

furnishings provide peppy jolts of pattern and colour. There

are several pieces from the Italian company Moroso, including
a rainbow-striped hanging chair, and similarly uplifting
designs by the London-based duo Doshi Levien. “The colours
of the Caribbean have always been strong and we wanted to
reflect that,” explains Hoffmann. “Here, they don’t feel bright;
they just feel right. The sun makes them come alive.”
Visitors enter through the banana orchard, to the left and
right of which are pavilions with sitting rooms that can be
opened right up to the balmy air thanks to retractable,
hydraulic walls. Downstairs there are bedrooms, more informal
living areas, and a covered dining cabana with a high-spec
outdoor kitchen. At the back of the house is a glass-tiled wall
with free-form curves, where the angular architecture is
softened by terracing and tropical planting – palms, baobab,
frangipani and night-flowering jasmine – all overseen by
Above: in one
guest bathroom, Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets. Hoffmann’s favourite
the loo is hidden spot is the adjoining white-tiled pool area, inspired by cult
inside a novel pod.
Top: a series of
architect Tadao Ando’s work on Naoshima (an island made
pool terraces lead famous as a contemporary-art hub in Japan).
down to Princess Having visited Mustique for some 25 years, Hoffmann very easy-going,” says Hoffmann. “There’s also a real feeling
Margaret Beach.
Top right: an knows how important it is to maintain cordial relations with of community life, which is very appealing, and you can dip
undulating tiled the neighbours, who collectively form the Mustique in and out of the social scene very easily.”
wall at the back of Company, which dictates island law, runs customs checks The “scene” revolves around the art deco bar in the Great
the house provides
a bold contrast and raises local taxes. The owners themselves are a wealthy, Room at the 17th-century Cotton House hotel, where the
to the futuristic starry pack, earning the island a reputation for exclusivity well-heeled gather to get well-oiled every Tuesday evening.
architecture. Above and hush-hush bacchanalia – Mick Jagger, Bryan Adams
right: the pool
It was decorated by the legendary theatre designer Oliver
sitting room. Below: and Tommy Hilfiger are currently residents. Recent visitors Messel, Lord Snowdon’s uncle, who also designed Les Jolies
the pavilions’ 3D include Tom Ford, who often stays at the elegant Plantation Eaux, Princess Margaret’s Mustique home, as well as a clutch
panels were
designed to House, which Hoffmann rented herself for a number of of other iconic Caribbean houses. “There’s a routine here
mimic the sea years, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. and you very quickly fall into a relaxing rhythm,” adds
Of course, the royal resident who Hoffmann. “On Wednesdays we have rum cocktails and
first gave Mustique an air of jet-set dance at Basil’s Bar. On Fridays it’s back to the Cotton
glamour was the late Princess House for happy hour.”
M a r g a re t , w h o w o u l d f i n d But even when she’s woozily immersed in island life
comfortingly little changed on the Hoffmann is always on call. As well as juggling her various
island today. It is still a “no shoes, commitments in different time zones she is part of a
no news” kind of place where committee – alongside Adams – that is working to restore
souped-up golf buggies known as the coral reefs which keep the startlingly clear water teeming
“mules” are the preferred mode of with tropical fish. “I love what I do, so not being able to
transport. “Mustique has a certain switch off isn’t a problem. I answer emails in the morning
reputation, but everyday life is not then take some time to stare out into the sea; I do my thinking
about being wealthy or flashy – it’s and always come back refreshed.” Q
92
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There aren’t many women at

the top in garden design,
acknowledges Sarah Price,
photographed in her
greenhouse in Wales.
Hair: Ben Jones. Make-up:
Kristina Ralph Andrews.
Styling: Julia Brenard

T
here’s got to be some sort of
mystery or magic in a garden,”
says Sarah Price, the landscape
designer tipped to be the
talking point of this year’s Chelsea
Flower Show. It is a rare sunny morning
at the tail end of winter, and the softly
spoken 37-year-old, whose horticultural
designs are now in great demand all over
Britain, is staring out the window of her
quaint farmhouse overlooking the
Brecon Beacons. Her own garden is
rather bare today, though the greenhouse
is full of potted plants wrapped in fleece
to keep them alive during the chill. Yet
FIRMLY ROOTED
there remains the majestic, unruly quality Set to be the star of the Chelsea Flower
of nature characteristic to Price’s
aesthetic – achieved, she says, by “letting Show, Sarah Price’s painterly garden
plants form their own natural shape”. designs are in great demand, says Katie
Price is no newcomer – in 2012, her
exquisite, unusual planting at the
Berrington. Photographs by Samuel Bradley
Olympic Park in Stratford grabbed
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gardening headlines – but surely this will

be her biggest year yet. Between May 22
and 26, she gets her shot at what is,
perhaps, still considered the pinnacle of
a star gardener’s career: designing the
M&G Garden at Chelsea. Returning to
the show after six years, and designing
for its main sponsor, she’s feeling the
pressure. “I push myself to experiment
outside my comfort zone,” she says,
adding, “I get high on the creative
challenge.” So what can we expect?
M&G has given her free rein to devise
a “romantic”, Mediterranean-inspired
garden, which celebrates raw, sustainable
materials and a “vibrant colour palette”.
She is unassuming talking about her
work. Though her knowledge rivals the
gardening world’s biggest names, she is
the opposite of a Monty Don type.
Growing up in suburban London, hers
was a childhood dotted with memories
of rural walks on holidays in Abergavenny
and weekends helping on the family
allotment as a way of bonding with her
father (precious alone time, for the fourth
child out of five). “Even though it was
in suburbia, the allotment was right
beside the green belt so you could walk
through raspberry plots and woods and
see horses and fields. It was magical.”
Her first foray into design came as a
painter, when she did a degree in fine art
at Nottingham Trent University. (She is
often commended for the painterly
quality of her gardens.) But she eventually
turned her attention outdoors. Without
any contacts or much experience, her
natural ability to conceptualise and create
won her a competitive slot in the grounds
of Hampton Court Palace. Price has since
found herself increasingly in the spotlight.
In 2016, she received rave reviews for
her art-inspired urban sanctuary for
Manchester’s Whitworth gallery in
collaboration with Jo Malone.
She acknowledges there aren’t many
women at the top. Figures from previous
years at Chelsea suggest women make
up around 70 per cent of the visitors,
while the designers on show have been
predominantly male. Things are changing,
however, as a record number of women
will compete for gold medals this year.
Gender parity in garden design is still There
a way off, but there are advantages, she
counters. Since she was last at Chelsea, remains
she has had two children, which she the majestic,
believes has given a new depth to her
working life. “When you have a young unruly quality
child and you take them for walks in the of nature
pram, you look more closely at your
surroundings,” she says, smiling. “I think
to Price’s
that’s enriched me as a designer.” Q aesthetic
97
 The story of us
For Irish women, abortion remains both
illegal and taboo. As the country faces a historic
referendum, Lynn Enright reflects on a nation’s
changing mood, and a past decision of her own
I
was 31 and living in London when I had an abortion.
On a grey morning, I took the Tube to the hospital and
afterwards, I got an Uber home. My then boyfriend (who
is now my husband) gave me a hot-water bottle and my
flatmate brought me a cup of tea. My best friend texted me.
“I love you,” she said. It was an everyday abortion but it hadn’t
been an easy decision. I’d always wanted children and I’d hoped
to be in a situation to have them at 31. But I wasn’t. The
website I worked at had shut down the previous month and
I was broke. I lived in a rented flat, sharing with two others.
And my relationship was young and unsteady on its feet. So
I had an abortion. Because it wasn’t the right time. Because
it felt impossible to be pregnant, impossible to be a mother.
If I had stayed in Dublin, where I was born in 1983 – an
early baby, small, jaundiced and covered in downy hair, my
mother tells me – my experience would have been different.
Sometimes, I think that if I had faced a crisis pregnancy
while still in Ireland, I would have continued with it, unhappily
giving in to the unsuitability. Or, more likely, I would have
been one of the women who travel. Around 10 women make
the journey from Ireland to the UK every day to have an
abortion. Women who, for lots of reasons, do not want to – or
cannot – continue with their pregnancy. Perhaps I would have
been one of them, making the same surreptitious arrangements
– booking days off work, telling the necessary fibs to employers
and family, boarding a cheap Ryanair flight at 6am as if going
on holiday. I would find the hundreds of pounds necessary
to pay a private clinic in Liverpool or London. Later, my
abortion fund not stretching to a hotel room, I would bleed
and sweat in a cheap hostel, many miles from home.
Abortion has been illegal in Ireland since 1861, but a few
months after I was born, the Eighth Amendment was written
98
into the Irish constitution. For the past 34 years, the law has
stated that an unborn child and the mother have an equal
right to life, outlawing abortion even in situations of rape
and incest. But this May, in a historic referendum, Irish people
will be given the chance to vote to repeal this amendment,
and ultimately to allow parliament to draw up a law permitting
abortions in Irish hospitals up to 12 weeks into pregnancy.
GETTY; REUTERS/CLODAGH KILCOYNE; CHRIS STEELE-PERKINS/MAGNUM PHOTOS;
Growing up in Ireland in the years following the intro-
duction of the Eighth, abortion was not a word you heard
often. Occasionally, a high-profile case would be mentioned
on the news or during radio debates: the 1992 “X Case”, for
example, in which the Irish state tried to stop a 14-year-old
suicidal rape victim from travelling to the UK to have her
pregnancy terminated. But generally, in homes and schools,
DEREK SPEIRS; REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; ROLLINGNEWS.IE
the word was taboo. The only time it came up during my
secondary-school education was when we were shown an
American anti-abortion video. A mousy-haired woman stared
out of the TV, addressing 30 Irish schoolgirls, trying to
convince them that even in cases of rape, abortion was not
the answer. One girl left the room, crying and upset. “She’s
probably had an abortion,” another girl whispered. The room
buzzed, not with concern, but with prurience.
I wondered at the time: why did they bother showing us
these videos? And why were there billboards with pictures
of foetuses by the roadside? Abortion was already illegal;
what more did they want? I realise now that the constant
murmur of anti-abortion rhetoric ensured the stigma was

maintained. I grew up with my own sense that abortion was
necessary – I have always felt pro-choice – but the silence
surrounding the subject meant I kept those views to myself.
Even at university in the early 2000s, abortion rights did
not seem to be a priority for most of us. Sometimes, when
we were drunk, somebody would confess – that’s what they
were, confessions – about the abortion she had in London,
and we would stroke her hair and say, “Shush, poor thing.”
Afterwards, another girl would whisper, “God, I could never
have done that.” Eighteen-year-olds who did ecstasy at the
weekends and were prescribed the contraceptive pill by the
campus doctor during freshers’ week still turned squeamish
at the thought of “killing unborn babies”.
Of course, there were stalwart pro-choice campaigners
working hard to bring about change, people who recognised
that Ireland’s punitive abortion law affected the poor and the
vulnerable – the women who couldn’t travel – most adversely.
But most people, it seemed, preferred not to acknowledge the
abortion problem; they didn’t want to “get into all of that”.
The repercussions of that avoidance tactic came sharply
into focus in 2012 when Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old
dentist who had moved from India to Ireland, died in a Galway
hospital. Halappanavar had begun to miscarry a longed-for
baby at 17 weeks and when it became obvious that her life
was in danger, she requested an emergency termination. But
a faint foetal heartbeat had been detected and because –
according to the Eighth – the mother’s and baby’s lives are
judged equally important, she was denied a termination. I
was living and working in Dublin when the news of her death
broke. I cried in the shower thinking about how my country
had let her down, but once at the office, I didn’t broach the
subject. Abortion still felt too controversial for the workplace.
By the end of the week, though, the death of Halappanavar
had galvanised people. There were marches on the Irish
parliament and people tweeted their outrage, sympathies
and regret. Her death began a reckoning and, finally, Irish
VIEWPOINT
people – not just campaigners, but Irish people Across the decades in
everywhere – began to discuss abortion. Ireland, campaigners
for both sides of the
Of course, Irish women had been having argument – pro-choice
abortions all along. We knew that, though we’d and anti-abortion –
have made their voices
pretended we didn’t. We’d been looking the other way. Then, heard; writer Lynn
in 2015, the leading newspaper columnist Róisín Ingle shared Enright, opposite
the story of her abortion in The Irish Times. It wasn’t a story
about teenage pregnancy, fatal foetal abnormality, rape or incest.
It was a story about a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy
and taking practical steps to make her situation better. It was
a pivotal moment, and a loosening of the lies began.
A fortnight after Ingle told her story, I was in Dublin for
the March for Choice. On a sunny September day, I ran into
old friends and vague acquaintances. At the pub afterwards,
we shared our stories. We spoke of details in a way we hadn’t
before: of the pain and fear that can take hold after the abortion
pill is administered; of the sanitary towels, thick as paperbacks,
we wore for days. Amid the stories, anger swelled. Our gov-
ernment had been failing thousands of people a year, exporting
a problem, forcing women to travel, causing expense and grief.
In our newfound frankness, we finally recognised that.
Over the coming weeks, every day until the morning of
the referendum, there will be more stories. Women will hope
that by sharing their own experiences they can show that
abortion isn’t an abstract problem and that those who have
a termination are not wicked or evil or fallen. It won’t be easy.
A fortnight after Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister,
announced the referendum, I told my parents about the
abortion I’d had almost four years ago. It was nerve-racking:
they’re Irish and have always lived in a country where abortion Irish women
is illegal. Besides that, Irish or not, it’s just plain difficult to had been
talk about sex and pain and tears and blood with people who
yearn to love you simply and easily, as though you are still a having
child. In the end, they were loving and supportive because abortions all
that’s the kind of people they are. But they seemed sad as well.
They certainly worried about me sharing this story openly. along. We
Perhaps they thought it isn’t the right kind of abortion story knew that,
– that it’s not sympathetic enough. But as the possibility of
the Eighth Amendment being repealed approaches, all Irish
but pretended
women’s stories are essential. I needed to add mine too. Q we didn’t
99
The platonic ideal
Can men and women ever be just friends? Of course, says Salman Rushdie,
as he reflects on his deep and lasting rapport with the late Carrie Fisher
F
orty-one years ago, while driving from Chicago to
New York, Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) told Sally
Albright (Meg Ryan), “men and women can’t be
friends because the sex part always gets in the way”.
Well, it was 41 years ago – 1977 – in the movie. Rob Reiner’s
romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally was released in 1989.
When I saw the film, I felt strongly that Harry’s assertion
was wrong. I grew up with three sisters and no brothers and
consequently I’ve always had at least as many women friends
as men. I say “consequently”, because I’ve always thought
that that family circumstance was the reason for my
many female friendships. Then, in 1997, I met one of the
co-stars of When Harry Met Sally, and the closeness that
developed between us became perhaps the best rejoinder to
Harry’s proposition. That actress – that extraordinary
individual – was Carrie Fisher.
We met as guests on Ruby Wax’s late-night talk show
Ruby, sitting around a dinner table talking and pretending
to eat, and we got on so well that soon afterwards Ruby
invited the two of us to dinner at the River Café. Now, it’s
possible that Ruby thought she might be matchmaking
(I don’t know, I’ve never asked her), but I was happily married
and my son Milan was about to be born, so that wasn’t an
option. At the restaurant I put my “banana phone” down on
the table and said, “If that phone rings, I’ll have to leave
because it will mean the baby is on the way.” That took care
of romance. Instead, we became, and remained, the closest
and deepest of friends.
I have so many happy memories of our friendship.
I remember a dinner in New York with Peter Farrelly of the
Farrelly brothers at which I told Carrie and Peter about a
urologist who had recently died in New Jersey, leaving behind
a macabre collection of arcane objects including the
bloodstained shirt worn by President Lincoln at Ford’s
Theatre; and, even more wondrous, the penis of Napoleon
Bonaparte, with a full provenance authenticating it.
Immediately Carrie imagined a documentary. We would
acquire the detached organ and bring it ceremoniously to
Paris and place it with all due solemnity on Napoleon’s tomb
in the Hôtel des Invalides, making the Emperor whole once
 VIEWPOINT

more. It would be our gift to the French people in return for There were days when I visited her gloriously eccentric home
the Statue of Liberty. We tried to acquire the penis. We failed. on Coldwater Canyon and found her manic bad-Carrie side
She showed
When Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor were playing in charge. (To see her, you usually went to her place; she often up for us all
Othello and Iago at the Donmar Warehouse, Carrie got us seemed reluctant to leave that gated redoubt.) I recall one as if she was
a couple of hard-to-get tickets by calling Ewan and using afternoon when I was sitting on her bed, as her friends did,
the Star Wars connection. Afterwards Ewan, Carrie and while she soliloquised about whatever was eating at her for family, and
I had dinner at the Ivy, and Ewan suddenly asked her about two long (very long) hours. Then abruptly she stopped, that’s how
the famous speech in the original Star Wars, the one hidden grinned wickedly at me, and said, “So! And how are you?”
inside R2-D2. “Do you remember it?” he asked her. “Of She befriended my sons as well as me. She met Milan we thought
course I fucking remember it,” she said. “Can you do it, then?” when he was still very young but already a major Star Wars of her. Carrie
he asked her, and without missing a beat she went into aficionado, and she started sending him the most delightful
Princess Leia mode and did the speech with full dramatic gifts – a Chewbacca rucksack, a flip-top R2-D2 dustbin; she
was family
intensity. “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only ho!” showed up at Zafar’s engagement party. She showed up for
she finished. “You see,” she explained, “the recording was cut us all as if we were family, and that’s how we thought of her.
off before I could say hope.” Carrie was family.
Another time in London we were photographed coming In October 2016 I sat with her at the New York Film
out of a restaurant and the next day a newspaper Festival premiere of the documentary Bright Lights, about
ran the photo with the headline, “Salman dines with her relationship with her mother, Debbie Reynolds, who in
blonde”. I can’t remember why her hair was blonde then, her later years would telephone her daughter every morning
but it was, and amazingly it meant the newspaper failed from her house at the bottom of Carrie’s garden and say,
to recognise her. She was overjoyed, got hold of a copy of “Good morning, Carrie. This is your mother, Debbie.”
the paper, framed the article and put it in pride of place As if she needed to introduce herself. There’s a clip in
in her home. After that for a the documentary that shows
time she signed her messages the teenage Carrie being
to me “Mystery Blonde”. summoned on stage by Debbie
And… we had dinner and told to sing; whereupon
together in New York on she sings “Bridge over Troubled
Halloween, and, because Water”, revealing a great,
neither of us felt like dressing powerful voice. “I never knew
up, we told people we were you could sing like that,” I said
there as each other. And… we to her. “ Why haven’t you
went to George W Bush’s done it more?” “Oh,” she said,
White House together during “I always thought singing was
the National Book Festival in my mother’s thing.” After
Washington, DC, and Carrie the film Carrie complained
was magnificently, regally that she didn’t look good in it,
disdainful, as if she were Leia but eventually conceded that
scorning Jabba the Hutt. it was a touching record of an
And… she practised her exceptional mother-daughter
material on me, so that long bond. Now, of course, the film
before I saw her triumphant seems even more precious than
one-woman show Wishful Carrie Fisher with Salman Rushdie in 2004. “Behind the it did then.
comedy was fragility,” says the author. “Her close friends
Drinking I knew, for example, all felt very protective of her” She had a love-hate
that when she asked George relationship with Los Angeles.
Lucas why there weren’t any bras and panties for her to try In some ways she was the ultimate Hollywood insider – she
on during her first Star Wars costume fitting, he answered, knew everything about everybody – but she also hated all
as if he knew: “Carrie, there’s no underwear in space.” the bullshit. She loved London, and wanted to spend more
Behind the comedy was fragility, and her close friends all time there, rummaging about on Portobello Road. Just two
felt very protective of her. She was open about her difficulties months after that New York premiere we were both in
– a history of drug abuse as well as acute bipolar disorder – London, she breaking the journey on her way back to LA,
using comedy to triumph over adversity. She had shock therapy I to see my family for Christmas, and she summoned me to
regularly, and even though that disturbed me, and others, she her hotel, the Chiltern Firehouse. It was Thursday, December
swore by it and said it helped – though, as her answerphone 22. I found her in the residents’ bar with Sharon Horgan,
message told us, it meant she probably didn’t remember who with whom she had been making the television series
we were. So, fragility, yes, but also immense courage. Catastrophe. I remember thinking that she seemed really
CAN NGUYEN/LANDMARK MEDIA

We were a motley crew, the princess’s courtiers – Bridget well, in fine, lively, good-Carrie form; and that she was very
Jones creator Helen Fielding, the filmmaker Griffin Dunne, excited about having bought herself a London base, a house
the actors Craig Bierko and Tracey Ullman, the novelist and on Old Church Street, and was full of London plans. Then
screenwriter Bruce Wagner, the comedian and comedy writer she went to bed because she had to catch a plane the next
Kevin Nealon, several more – but we all loved her and guarded day. And the next day, she caught her flight to nowhere.
her fiercely. It wasn’t always easy. Sometimes she was I loved her, and I believe she loved me. But it had nothing
despairing and wild. Sometimes she was at the bottom of a at all to do with what Harry Burns called “the sex part”. It
dark well. Often she ranted, and we had to hear her out. went much deeper than that. Q
101
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W
ithout wanting to get boastful, there’s one skill
I’ve acquired that I’m proud of: I am the don
of sober partying. In September, I’ll have been
sober for four years and, yes, there are lots of
reasons for me giving up drugs and alcohol, but the basic truth
is that it was simply time. Now, like lots of people of my
generation, I have friends who are stopping drinking and
taking drugs and they often ask me how they can have fun
without it. Here are some tried and tested methods that have
kept me sane through everything from industry events
to birthday celebrations. Honestly, it can be done.
Follow the music
I used to be the first person on the dancefloor, but when
I stopped drinking and taking drugs I became hyper-aware
of my surroundings and felt like everyone was watching me.
Then, one night, some really great disco came on and I threw
myself into it. Now, you can’t stop me. As soon as Madonna’s
“Vogue” comes on, I perform an entire dance routine. If you
want to dance sober, ensure that you can depend on the DJ.
Embrace the benefits
These days, I like being in situations that are a bit uncomfortable,
like going to new places with new people. Before, I’d have
VIEWPOINT
Sober girl’s
guide to
partying
Giving up alcohol doesn’t
mean cancelling your social life,
says Adwoa Aboah. Here are
her tips for teetotal happiness.
Portrait by Scott Trindle.
Styling by Jack Borkett
been terrified to do that, but when you aren’t drinking you
can start to challenge yourself in different ways. When I first
went into treatment, we used to go on these weird outings,
to bowling or karaoke. Doing that made me realise I can do
anything sober, which was empowering. I have met some
incredible people at parties while I’ve been sober – and I’ve
remembered them, and our conversations, the next day.
Invest in yourself
When I went sober, I bought myself a Prada coat in celebration.
I never used to have any money because I spent it all on drugs
and alcohol. Now, I invest in myself. I just had a really good
year and celebrated by buying a beautiful ring from Solange
Azagury-Partridge. Use what you save to do something for
yourself: it gives you a tangible reason why it’s worth it.
Know when it’s time to go home
In the old days, I would go out and stay out just for the sake
of it – even if I was having a bad time, or the energy was
off-key. Now, if I stop enjoying something, I get straight out
of there; if I miss out, I miss out. So don’t be ashamed to call
it a night, or get FOMO. And when you’re scrolling through
social media the morning after, always remember that things
often appear far better on Instagram than in reality. Q
103
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 ARTS & CULTURE

Drama queens
From reinvented musicals to a new
take on Strindberg, this will be an
excellent season for women in theatre.
Olivia Marks pinpoints the highlights

T
his year, as women directors and actresses continue
to fight for space in the male-dominated worlds of
film and TV, a multitude of exhilarating, female-led
theatre openings will prove how change can take
hold in the performing arts. First up: Michelle Terry, whose
inaugural season as artistic director at the Globe begins this
month with her hotly anticipated take on Hamlet. Terry,
whose predecessor, Emma Rice, is to take up residency at
the Old Vic with her new company Wise Children, is
committed to female helmers, and five of her first season’s
offerings are directed by women. Among that talent is award-
winning Blanche McIntyre, who is overseeing The Winter’s
Tale in June. (Head to the Almeida to see her direct Ella
Hickson’s eagerly awaited work The Writer.)
Still, it would be wrong to assume that it
doesn’t take a concerted effort for women to
get their voices heard. Natasha Gordon was
moved to write her debut play, Nine Night,
after the death of her grandmother four years means in a modern context and what would
ago. But her transition from actress to National make a young woman do that today.”
Theatre playwright was also born of necessity. War Horse director Marianne Elliott will
“I have a group of friends who were all perhaps have a more straightforward time with
approaching 40 and we were frustrated not her feminist revision of Stephen Sondheim’s
only at the lack of parts for women, but the musical Company, which, this autumn (at the
lack of representation,” she says. “We set each Gielgud), will see 35-year-old bachelor Bobby
CECIL BEATON; JULIA HETTA; SARAH LEE/EYEVINE; JAMIE SIMONDS/BAFTA/CAMERA PRESS

other projects and created work ourselves to
make it happen.” Further north, actress Maxine
Peake ensures great parts keep coming by
drawing on the real lives of four women for
her new play Queens of the Coal Age, directed
by Bryony Shanahan, at the Royal Exchange
Theatre from June.
Meanwhile, theatrical wunderkind Polly
Stenham will bring a younger perspective to
bear on Julie – her adaptation of the 1888
Strindberg tragedy, updated to contemporary
London. “I had a desire to look at the play
through a feminist lens because quite often these
ostensibly female-led plays are written, directed
and adapted by men,” Stenham says of her
reimagining of Miss Julie. Her take, at the
National from June, will be directed by Carrie
Cracknell and star Vanessa Kirby. That isn’t to
say the modernisation of Strindberg’s melodrama
was easy. “In the original, Julie kills herself out
of class shame. I don’t think that works now.
The challenge was investigating what shame
replaced by Bobbi, a single woman juggling three
boyfriends, surrounded by married couples. Sound
familiar? “I’m 51, but I feel it could be me,” says
the Tony- and Olivier Award-winner. “When
you tackle a play like this you’ve got to find what
it can mean for an audience today, and this feels
relevant. I know many women in their mid-
thirties who are struggling with where they go
next: should they get married, have babies? Bobby
in Company is an attractive, successful, independent
man who has three girlfriends. If you transplant
that to now, everyone would just think: ‘Great,
have a lovely life!’ But if you transplant it to a From top: Vivien
woman I think everyone has something to say.” Leigh, 1936; Polly
In fact, the feminist musical might become Stenham, whose
modern retelling
a genre of its own: Joan Littlewood, the anarchic of Strindberg heads
theatre revolutionary, will be celebrated in song to the National
Theatre in June;
at the Swan Theatre in June; Alison Bechdel’s Michelle Terry,
Tony award-winning musical Fun Home comes artistic director
to the Young Vic, and, in September, Sylvia of Shakespeare’s
Globe; Vanessa
Pankhurst’s life will be set to a score at the Old Kirby, star of
Vic. Music to our ears. Q Stenham’s Julie

105
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“I had never
seen a woman
like that before.
It was like looking
at someone from
another planet,”
Mapplethorpe
said of Lyon

The power of the muse

Robin Muir looks back at an anomalous shoot of the bodybuilder Lisa Lyon
by the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Vogue May 1984

B
y 1984, American photographer Robert
Mapplethorpe was one of the art world’s
most controversial figures. His polished,
sometimes bloodless portraits were much
admired, while his nudes, just as elegant, possessed
a shock value that followed him to his death in
1989, and resonated for years afterwards.
This set of photographs, Mapplethorpe’s only
commission for British Vogue, was half fashion
shoot, half portrait sitting, and in the end the
magazine found it difficult to place. Laid out on
single pages at the front of book, it is flanked by
advertisements and you have to look hard to find
it. The model was also unconventional for the
magazine – although not for Mapplethorpe.
Bodybuilder Lisa Lyon, shot wearing the latest in
swimwear, was his current muse. They had met at
108
a party in a Manhattan loft, where he had admired
her form encased in black latex. “I had never seen
a woman like that before. It was like looking at
someone from another planet,” he later recalled.
In 1983, the year before this shoot, they had
collaborated on the cult book Lady: Lisa Lyon.
A commercial assignment by Mapplethorpe was
a rarity. While keen to work for magazines, he
was often a hard sell. Anne Kennedy of the Art &
Commerce agency told his biographer that magazines
“wanted things that were funnier and lighter, more
amusing, and Robert was not really about that”.
Defiantly not. He was hardcore, emotionless,
transgressive, shocking. This shoot for Vogue was a
one-off. It remains an anomaly, a brave choice of
photographer and a stunning set of images – even
if they confounded the magazine at the time. Q
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 Fashion travel
Helena Christensen
in Venice, Vogue
September 1995.
Opposite: Marisa
Berenson in
Sardinia, Vogue
January 1968

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BEAUTY
FACE:
THE FUTURE
It’s about to unlock more than
just your phone: your face is set
to reveal your health issues, your
bank balance… and, of course, your
beauty. Nicola Moulton reports.
Photograph by Richard Burbridge
Y
our future is written all over
your face – that much we
know. Even before Apple
launched its iPhone X with
facial-recognition security late last year
– apparently your thumb is no longer
bulletproof enough, so this phone comes
with an inbuilt camera that projects
and analyses more than 30,000 invisible
dots to create a “depth map” and an
infrared image of your face – we were
studying, photographing and altering
our faces like never before.
Faces are the new social currency:
forget that image of an envy-inducing
sunset; studies show that on Instagram,
It makes pictures are 38 per cent more likely
sense that to receive likes and 32 per cent more
likely to receive comments if they
our faces feature a face – regardless of its age or
should come gender. People talk endlessly about
social media affecting our ability to
to be our create meaningful human connections,
calling cards; yet there is also huge evidence to show
the involuntary surge of emotion we
our digital can feel when we see an image of a face
handshakes we love. Even Facebook, that love-
114
it-or-loathe-it behemoth of social
networking, has “face” in its very name.
Would it have caught on to the same
degree if it hadn’t been inviting us to
put our best face forward?
This is music to the cosmetics
companies’ ears. Sales of make-up are
booming: at last count they were nudging
close to £1 billion in the UK for the first
time ever. And rather than the increase
coming from the show-stopping lipstick
or glittery eyeshadow, it is “perfecting
products” that are driving the boom – the
concealers, brow products and tools, such
as brushes and sponges, born of a need
to enhance all those details we obsessively
critique when faced with staring back at
our own image on Instagram.
And why wouldn’t your face be your
future? There’s almost nothing you can’t
convey just by using your face – ask the
third of millennials who now say they’d
STYLIST: ANNE CHRISTENSEN. HAIR: JAMES PECIS. MAKE-UP: DIANE
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rather use an emoji to convey their
feelings than a word. Because what is
an emoji if not a graphic representation
of a wink, a raised eyebrow, a grimace,
a smile? It’s no coincidence that, prior
to the emoji revolution (is there an emoji
for a revolutionary?), it was thought there
were only six distinct human expressions:
happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, fear
and disgust. Now, scientists have
increased the number to 21 – including
specific countenances such as “sadly
surprised” and “happily disgusted”. (Feel
free to practise those at your leisure.)
It makes total sense, then, that our
faces should come to be our calling >
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cards; our digital handshakes. Your face
is personal, but it is also public. It is
uniquely yours; yet you can alter its
expression to suit your needs – via
make-up, via filters, via simply screwing
up your face in mock horror, or raising
a sarcastic eyebrow. And, generally
speaking, most of it is normally on
display. It can be recognised near or far.
As ready-made, access-all-areas ID
cards go, it’s pretty perfect. Why travel
with a credit card, a driving licence,
a medical history and a passport if
it can all be right there staring you in
the… face?
What the new iPhone shows us is
that we’re at the intersection of face plus
technology. It cranked into life a few
years ago when the facial-recognition
scanners began appearing in airports.
Still clunky, even when they do work,
there’s nothing worse than staring up
at the exhausted, dehydrated you, bathed
in fluorescent strip lighting. Perhaps
Instagram could collaborate with them
on a filter to make weary travellers feel
better about themselves. And the
rumour is that because they work by
capturing your facial topography – the
unique bone structure of your face – the
over-enthusiastic use of collagen and
fillers can throw the results off, leading
some border authorities to consider
asking people to declare any invasive
work they’ve had done on arrival.
You’ll soon need your game face when
you go shopping, too: already, in China,
“smile-to-pay” technology involves
paying for goods by staring into a
camera, which then links up to your
bank details and completes the
transaction. And in America, schemes
are being trialled where in-store security
cameras capture your image and then
access your contact details to serve you
adverts for similar things to the ones
you were filmed browsing.
But in the future, your face could
unlock a whole lot more than just your
PIN. Medical research is now so
advanced that machines such as
Face2Gene claim to be able to diagnose
up to 4,000 rare genetic conditions just
by analysing your face. And even beyond
the medical, some claim that computers
can also now make an attempt at
knowing whether you’re gay, straight
and even how you vote. Researchers at
Stanford University found that when
shown pictures of one gay man and one
straight man, humans guessed correctly
61 per cent of the time; the computers
scored 81 per cent – but some say the
algorithms are still a long way off being
usable. The ramifications for such tech-
nologies in countries with, for example,
more questionable human-rights records
are fraught. Being able to determine
such characteristics could be problematic
to say the least. “It’s a double-edged
sword,” says James Temperton, digital
editor of Wired. “Facial recognition is
powerful in terms of convenience but
also in terms of surveillance.”
But what does it mean for your own
attitude towards your face if it starts to
become something not just aesthetic but
transactional – like your signature or
your fingerprint? Will it change the way
we think about our faces? Will we alter
our expressions? Will we wear more or
less make-up? (Apple says its facial
recognitions are not fazed by changes
in make-up, and, in fact, even hats,
scarves, glasses, contact lenses and
sunglasses won’t throw it off.)
We’ ll certainly become more
experimental. Artificial intelligence (AI)
is finding its way into beauty faster than
almost any other sector, with the ability
to create, “try on” and adapt new looks
an obvious advantage. Meitu is the
Artificial
intelligence is
finding its way
into beauty
faster than
almost any
other sector
industry leader, with apps installed on
more than a billion devices around the
world already – including its latest filter,
a hand-drawn anime effect that went
viral after Jimmy Fallon, Kate Beckinsale
and James Corden all shared pictures
of themselves created with it. Its
managing director, Frank Fu, says beauty
customers will “increasingly look to
lifestyle and beauty brands to leverage
this technology and give them more
opportunities to try on and experiment
with products from the comfort of their
own phones”. Meanwhile, Smashbox
has partnered with the AI tech company
ModiFace to become one of the first
beauty brands to use eye-tracking
technology to see which areas of the
screen you’re giving most attention.
The trouble with beauty apps that
tell you what make-up will suit you,
however, is that at some point, a
judgement has been made on what
“beautiful” really looks like. “You’ve got
to think of the technology that’s lying
behind these things,” says Temperton.
“Who’s to say what will suit you? Why
BEAUTY
should a computer know more about
what’s right for you than a human being?”
But there’s also a strong argument to
say that, as facial recognition becomes
more ubiquitous, we’ll get less hung up
about our looks, if our images are to be
captured hundreds of times in a day.
Of course, the opposite might also be
true. Who wants terrible photos of
themselves hanging around in digital
archives for eternity? And isn’t facial
recognition yet another technology that
favours men over women, since they are
generally less concerned about
how they look on camera?
Maybe we’ll start to embrace THE BEST
our “augmented reality” facial IN BEAUTY TECH
features, moving away from
thinking about our faces
solely in terms of beauty and
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devices, the human interface
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phones and tablets.
That’s what I was thinking
when I road-tested the
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image when you peer into it
and, helpfully, superimposes a
terrifying map of your pores, HiMIRROR PLUS+, £319,
wrinkles and dark spots on can spot skin issues,
specify care and let you
your face. I now know that
what I lack in wrinkles (just try on make-up,
virtually
11, thank you, accounting for
a mere 0.28 per cent of my
complexion), I certainly make
up for in enlarged pores, with
a “pore count” of 1,135. (A
friend, a good decade older
than I, came with me to try
out the gadget, and had half
as many, which I mutteringly
pointed out must be because
she has “so many more laser
treatments than me”.) The TOM FORD
One thing’s for certain: now, MEMOMI mirror records
more than ever, our faces need your in-store
our attention. Not in a vanity- consultation and sends
obsessed, youth-chasing way, it to your phone
but in a way that understands
their unique abilit y to
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honesty in the faces of others.
Maybe it’s the face cream that
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it’s the kick-ass red lipstick
that gives you your game face.
Or maybe it’s the dimple you
get when you laugh. In a world NATURA BISSE
of fake news and altered THE MINDFUL TOUCH
reality, it feels like your face FACIAL, from £160, uses
might just be the one thing a VR headset to put you
you can rely on. Q in a tranquil state
117
condenastjohansens.com
Anantara Siam Bangkok, Thailand
 Erdem’s exclusive
make-up collaboration
BEAUTY
with Nars was two
years in the making

From top: Lip

Powder Poison
Rose Palette, £35.
Lipsticks (from left)
in Bloodflower,
Wild Flower and
Larkspur, £22
each. All Erdem
for Nars. Available
at Selfridges from
April 15 and
nationwide from
May 1

IN FULL BLOOM
When Erdem and Nars collaborate, only good things can come of it.
Jessica Diner has an exclusive preview

F
lower decals on the inside of the packaging, flowers
printed on the palettes, floral-printed sheets to
protect the powders inside the palettes, an array of
JASON LLOYD-EVANS; JAMES COCHRANE; PIXELATE.BIZ
Nars has done to date, and comprises unique items such as
a lip-powder palette, a holographic highlighter pencil and
pretty blotting papers. An extension of his ethereal, eccentric

odd but beautiful colours… Strange Flowers, the aesthetic, the project has been hugely personal. “I love the
new Erdem for Nars collaboration, is everything you might idea of bringing someone into my world; there’s a little part
imagine it could be – and more. Talking of the inspiration of me in every aspect,” he says. Case in point: the music box
for the make-up, Erdem Moralioglu says, (below) he had made to send the products to friends and
“I’ve always been fascinated by family. Even the duck-egg-blue
the contrast you get with packaging – a total departure
flowers: they can be beautiful from Nars’s usual matt black
and soft, but also poisonous, – is particular to Erdem, as it’s
dangerous and odd. That the exact same shade as the
tension is something I like bespoke paint in his South
to explore in my work.” Audley Street store. “Would
At 13 pieces strong, it’s I do it again?” he says.
the biggest collaboration “Yes, in a heartbeat.” Q
119
DIRECTOR’S CUT
can have an in-between shade mixed up on-counter. Brands
such as Mac Cosmetics, Bobbi Brown, L’Oréal Paris and
Lancôme have long had an impressive range of shades, but
the fact that diversity of skin tone is becoming part of our
beauty vernacular is game-changing.
Personalised packaging has also become of the moment.
This month, Guerlain launches 14 new cases for its Rouge
G Lipsticks, ranging from leather to rose gold or marble, so
that how you present your lipstick can be suited to your mood.
So, too, at YSL Beauty, where you can choose one of two
limited-edition lipstick cases, like a fashion talisman for your
chosen shade. At Estée Lauder’s Lip Lounge in Selfridges
you can not only custom-engrave your lipstick case, but also
mix up a bespoke formula of its popular Pure Color Envy.
When Trinny Woodall launched her Trinny London brand,
the Match2Me technology on-site was key, with an extensive
questionnaire that ensures you’re getting the right shades of
her stackable make-up. I’ve tried it, and the colour matches
were spot on. Where skincare is concerned, nothing is more
pleasing than seeing diagnostic tools at the counter becoming
best practice for brands such as Elemis, Dior, Carita and
Clinique, making it possible for anyone to have a professional
level of expertise to diagnose skincare concerns and remedies.
The launch of the Experimental Perfume Club sees bespoke
fragrance blends with entry-level prices starting at £95, while
a new haircare brand, Function of Beauty, allows you to choose
everything from the scent to the treatment, all online through
its brilliantly guided service. And this is just the tip of the
iceberg. There are too many projects to mention in one
column, but what we are witnessing is a watershed moment
in our beauty purchases having a real and an authentic personal
touch. Long may it continue. Q

2
1

Personal effects
Bespoke products for all? We’re making progress,
finds beauty director Jessica Diner
3

I
have always loved personalisation. A monogram on a 4
new handbag, a shirt, a notebook... it’s the ultimate luxury.
And while this isn’t particularly new in fashion, the beauty
industry has long been trying to find its own way to
make things personal: DNA-dictated skincare regimes,
1 Experimental bespoke fragrance consultations, engraved make-up
Perfume Club
bespoke fragrance, compacts… Such offerings, while wonderful, have more often
£180. 2 Function of than not been prohibitively expensive. But times have
Beauty shampoo,
from £36.
changed, and brands are now really tapping in to the fact
3 Guerlain Rouge G that, whether we are selecting a foundation or a lipstick case,
Double Mirror Cap, we all want choice – something that feels personal to how 5
ARIS JEROME/ART PARTNER; PIXELATE.BIZ

£12.50, and
Lipstick, £24.50. we look and that’s also to our taste. And why shouldn’t we?
4 YSL Rouge Pur With so many beauty launches a year, knowing that we can
Couture in Le tailor something to our specific wants and needs is compelling.
Rouge, £28.
5 Lip2Cheek in Pia, What we are seeing now is personalisation becoming
£25. 6 Lip Glow in democratised, with online diagnostic tools and on-counter
Thea, £16.
7 Cheekbones in
bespoke initiatives becoming mainstream.
7
Kate, £25. Indeed, the launch of Fenty Beauty by Rihanna has been
All Trinny London. a big wake-up call, with its strong messaging about its wide 6
8 Estée Lauder Pure
Color Envy in range of foundation colours. If your complexion doesn’t
8
Rebellious Rose, £27 conform to any of the 40 shades on offer, no matter: you
120
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BEAUTY

In-house spin

T
here may now be a spin
studio on practically
every corner, but if you
can’t commit to classes,
TechnoGym has recently launched
MyCycling (£1,790). An at-home
static smart trainer, it’s a stand that
allows you to fix your own bike in
one place and a Neuromuscular
Training system to personalise your
training over 18 weeks, building
power and endurance levels. The
MyCycling App, which connects
to your bike, then offers feedback
on workouts, well-known cycling
routes, tests and expert-led training.
Technogym.com

BEAUTY MUSINGS
Lauren Murdoch-Smith reveals the newest products,
launches and trends that you need to know.
You heard it here first

CERTIFIED
NEON
Remember when Essie
launched neon nail polish
back in 2013? The first
true neon shades,
many more followed but
since then neon polishes
have been on a hiatus. The
ingredients used to create
VANILLA NICE true neon pigments are banned,
Erase any preconceptions you have about vanilla – the new instalment of the but skilled chemists have now
love-it-or-hate-it note is subtle. Tom Ford’s latest Private Blend, Vanille Fatale created a way around it and Chanel
(£158), is a warm mix of Madagascan vanilla, while Armani Privé Bleu Turquoise and Christian Louboutin have come
(£240) has salty, spicy, woody notes. Jo Malone’s Jasmine Sambac & Marigold up with chic shades that are guaranteed
Cologne Intense (£75) uses amber and vanilla, and By Kilian Love The Way to be this summer’s must-have hues.
You Feel (£185, refillable) balances vanilla and coconut with neroli and bergamot. Christian Louboutin Crosta Meteor
Nail Colour, £23; Chanel Le Vernis in
Rose Néon, £22
Models Own
Bareminerals
Cover It Full Hourglass Veil 16-Hour Full
Coverage
Concealer,
£9
Retouching
Fluid, £25
Coverage
Concealer, Concealers revealed
£23
Concealers have had a revamp. Not satisfied with just covering
HELMUT NEWTON; PIXELATE.BIZ

dark circles and blemishes, they are now filters, concealers and
glow-givers in one. Taking on a fuller consistency with innovative
technology, they have added value. Charlotte Tilbury’s Hollywood
Flawless Filter can be used as a concealer over foundation or on
Laura Mercier
Flawless Fusion its own; its underlying glow acts like a soft-focus filter. Hourglass’s
Ultra-Longwear Veil Retouching Fluid gives skin sheer but illuminating coverage,
Charlotte Concealer, £24,
Tilbury and Laura Mercier’s Flawless Fusion Ultra-Longwear Concealer
available in
Hollywood 12 shades is so brilliant at hiding imperfections you’ll forgo your foundation.
Flawless
122 Filter, £30
 C LUB

CA L L I N G
ALL
B E AU T Y
A D D I CT S!

Sign up to the GLAMOUR Beauty Club today and be first to receive

samples of the latest beauty, skincare and fragrance products,
delivered straight to your door. No fee, no subscription,
just a chance to join the GLAMOUR beauty conversation online
by leaving reviews telling us what you think.

R E G I S T E R N OW AT G L A M O U R B E AU T YC LU B .C O M
 WELLNESS

Plant life
Is veganism the healthiest
way to eat? Lorraine
Pascale, chef and Vogue
contributing editor,
finds out. Illustration by
Nicola Kloosterman

F
ood is my ever ything. It
preoccupies me. It’s what I do
for a living. It’s my passion,
and I take it very seriously.
Once a year I have 30 vials of blood
taken by Aidan Goggins, a nutritional
medicine consultant and pharmacologist
who analyses the findings, and then we
adjust my diet accordingly. It might
sound excessive, but I’m adopted and
don’t know my medical history – as a
result, I lean towards the paranoid side
of health. Normally, nothing serious
comes out of it; we make a few tweaks.
But this year’s results were a bit different.
They showed my mercury levels to be
so high I was advised to steer clear of
fish for the foreseeable future, which led
me to explore other options. I’ve never
been much of a meat-eater and, as much
as I love dairy, it has never agreed with
me – so did this mean I should go vegan?
The arguments for it are compelling:
vegan newbies often report they feel
on top of the world when they first
make the switch. This is most likely HOW TO SUPPLEMENT
because they’re eating more vegetables, YOUR VEGANISM
fruit and nuts, which contain those Source Naturals Vegan Omega-3s
energy-inducing, phytochemical-rich day, unless you’re supplementing EPA-DHA, £16 for 30 softgels
antioxidants. These magical beauties are correctly, after six months your Fatty acids essential for good hair, skin
and nails, plus optimum brain health
anti-inflammatory, blood-stabilising, deficiencies will begin to take over and
fat-metabolising wonders. They are also the post-vegan glow will start to wear Floradix liquid iron and
in things such as wine, coffee, tea, cereals off. When you reduce your intake of vitamin formula, £11
Avoid anaemia by supplementing with
and legumes. All the good stuff. omega-3s, iron, B12, iodine, protein and iron, most commonly found in meat
I considered this way of eating and calcium there can be consequences.
Doctor’s Best Fully Active B12,
went back to consult Goggins to see if I’ve decided to become an occasional £7 for 60 capsules
it is for me. “Veganism is a great way of vegan. On those days, I sleep better, Often confused with iron, B12 is just
eating,” he explained. “But you can’t be feel lighter and my skin is so much as essential for healthy blood cells

a lazy vegan. If you’re going to stop
eating meat and just chomp away on
cornflakes and chips, you will land
yourself in nutritional trouble.” Even if
you go the healthy route and eat three
Instagram-worthy meals of veg every
clearer. I would love to go all in, but
giving up my camembert on a baguette
with salty French butter? No, I don’t
think I am there yet. But is a vegan diet
healthier than a meat-eating one? For
me, I would say a resounding yes. Q
Iodised salt
Iodine works to regulate the thyroid,
so season meals with this
Citracal Maximum Calcium
supplement with vitamin D3,
£16 for 180 caplets
For bone, muscle and teeth health

125
BEAUTY

CHANEL HAUTE COUTURE

RALPH & RUSSO

VIKTOR & ROLF COUTURE

DIOR HAUTE COUTURE

DIOR HAUTE COUTURE

BOLD BEAUTY
When fashion fantasy is on the catwalk,
beauty is sure to follow. Lottie Winter
looks at couture hair and make-up

T
here were many standout moments at spring couture:
netted hats at Chanel; holographic crowns at
Maison Margiela Artisanal; heraldic flags at AF
Vandevorst and neon tulle at Giambattista Valli. But
one thing shone out overall: the boldness of the beauty presence.
As always, the collections exuded glamour and ethereal
elegance, and the craftsmanship was as impressive as ever
(see Elie Saab’s beading) but perfectly juxtaposed with this
GIORGIO ARMANI PRIVE

whimsical fashion daydream, this season’s beauty had bite.

Dior’s slogans had been transferred onto the skin with
GIORGIO ARMANI PRIVE

BENOIT PEVERELLI; JAMES COCHRANE; JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS

poetic one-liners on models’ chests and fingers, and with the
fierce, phoenix-feathered eyeliner by Peter Philips, creative
and image director of Dior make-up, they served to cement
the striking surrealism of the show. “It’s important to celebrate
the artistry and fantasy that differentiates haute couture from
ALEXIS MABILLE HAUTE COUTURE

ready-to-wear,” says Philips. “This look was graphic, in line

with the collection, and we made it painterly to elevate it.”
Viktor & Rolf showcased glittering eyes in attention-
demanding shapes. Then there was a rainbow of structural,
space-age up-dos showcased at Jean Paul Gaultier by Stéphane
Marais, and cloud-like pastel eyeshadow at Giorgio Armani
ELIE SAAB HAUTE COUTURE

Privé, by Armani international make-up artist Linda Cantello.

More striking still was the seamless way that beauty inter-
acted with the fashion. At Alexis Mabille, hairstylist Damien
Boissinot clipped jewelled earrings to the ends of braided hair;
at Chanel Sam McKnight draped delicate veils over models’
faces to mysterious, alluring effect; and at Dior floating, cut-
out masks effectively framed Philips’s intricate eye make-up.
It’s safe to say couture has never looked so beautiful. Q
126
BANGKOK DUBAI KIEV MOSCOW
 From left: Karly
Loyce wears
jacket, to order,
Gabriela Hearst.
Top, £245. Skirt,
£245. Both
Longchamp.
Sandals, £675,
Stella McCartney.
Orange bag, from
£670, Balenciaga.
Python bag,
£2,625, Loewe.
Earrings, £130,
Katerina
Makriyianni, at
Browns. Lineisy
Montero wears
jacket, £995.
Skirt, £660. Both
Longchamp. Shirt,
£680, Charvet.
Sandals, £580,
Tod’s. Earrings,
£75, Cloverpost,
at Shopbop.com.
Necklace, £195,
Kenneth Jay Lane,
at Merola. Bag,
stylist’s own

HAPPY
HAIR: CYNDIA HARVEY. MAKE-UP: LUCIA PICA

DAYS
WARM SUNSHINE, SHORT SKIRTS, COOL GIRLS: LAYERS ARE SHED, SILHOUETTES LIGHTEN
UP AND SPRING BRINGS A BURST OF PURE OPTIMISM. FROM THE DYNAMIC NEW GENERATION
OF MODELS CHANGING THE FACE OF FASHION TO THE JOYOUS GOWNS THAT SYMBOLISE
THE PURE PLEASURE OF DRESSING UP, THERE’S PLENTY TO LOOK FORWARD TO. ALSO IN THIS
ISSUE, VOGUE CELEBRATES STRENGTH: SPOTLIGHTING REI KAWAKUBO’S POWERFUL
CREATIVITY AND THE FIERCELY FUNNY PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE. GOOD TIMES ARE COMING.
STYLING AND PHOTOGRAPH: VENETIA SCOTT.
GENERATION
NEXT THE NEWEST FACES IN MODELLING
ARE REBELLING AGAINST INDUSTRY
NORMS. ELLIE PITHERS MEETS NINE
BRILLIANT WOMEN – WITH SINGULAR
BACKSTORIES – DETERMINED TO MAKE
2018 A TURNING POINT FOR FASHION.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CRAIG MCDEAN.
STYLING BY EDWARD ENNINFUL
 Faretta
Faretta Radic, 21, has been
modelling for three years,
but has a back-up plan:
pharmacology. “I’ve done all
my diplomas. I can sell
drugs,” she says. Cut from
the same smoking-hot cloth
as the 1990s supers, she
won’t be leaving fashion
any time soon though,
unless it involves flitting
back to her native Croatia.
“I’ve just bought a house by
the beach. If I’m not near
the sea, I go crazy.”
OVERSIZED COTTON
SWEATSHIRT, FROM £820.
BLANKET, WORN AS SKIRT,
FROM £760. MOLESKIN
TROUSERS, FROM £700.
SUEDE AND LEATHER
TRAINERS, FROM £580.
ALL CELINE
 IF MODELS
WERE ONCE
OPENING PAGES, FROM LEFT: HALIMA WEARS SOCKS, £14, PANTHERELLA. SHOES, £595, JIMMY CHOO. NECKLACE, £12,600, TIFFANY CITY HARDWEAR. FRAN WEARS BOOTS, £1,390, ALEXANDER McQUEEN. ADUT WEARS BOOTS, £1,450,

BOOTS, £740, PACO RABANNE. EARRINGS, £5,150. BRACELETS, FROM £6,850 EACH. ALL DIOR JOAILLERIE. FARETTA WEARS EARRINGS, £4,050, CARTIER. PALOMA WEARS BOOTS, £1,060, GIANVITO ROSSI. WATCH, £22,600, CHOPARD
LOUIS VUITTON. RADHIKA WEARS SOCKS, £25, FARLOWS. WATCH, £11,900, CHOPARD. BANGLES, PRICE ON REQUEST, NIRAV MODI. YOON WEARS EARRINGS, FROM £260. RING, FROM £200. BOTH JENNIFER FISHER. VITTORIA WEARS

SEEN BUT
NOT HEARD,
THIS NEW
COHORT IS
RESOLUTELY
NOISY

T
hree o’clock on an icy New York afternoon and high up in a
studio, Selena Forrest has commandeered the sound system.
This is not out of character for the 18-year-old Louisiana
native. Possessed of the easy confidence of a natural ringleader,
Forrest has a habit of blasting out R&B and hip-hop bangers
backstage before catwalk shows to get her fellow models in
the zone. As she hits play on NERD and Rihanna’s feminist
body-popper “Lemon” – “The truth will set you free/But first it will piss you
off ” intone the opening lines, borrowed, incidentally, from Gloria Steinem – she
dances her way back to the set, calling out to the other girls as she goes. It’s
clear she’s lit the taper that will ignite Vogue’s cover shoot.
Today’s cast comprises nine of fashion’s freshest new faces, all remarkable
individuals; all confidently flying their own flags; all asserting, with little trace
of self-advertisement, the unequivocal need “to be myself ”. Hailing from seven
different countries, and with backstories that include refugee camps, hurricane
displacement centres, poverty-stricken homes or mere small-town boredom,
the girls are currently twerking and sashaying in sync, shrieking with laughter
and emanating a camaraderie that would make Steinem proud. Post-couture-
salon mannequins, post-supermodels, post-waifs, post-Victoria’s Secret and
post-Insta girls, this is modelling’s defiant new generation, keen to challenge,
rebel and reform an industry whose dark underbelly – eating disorders, substance
abuse, sexual coercion – is in the process of finally being exposed.
If models were once seen but not heard, this new cohort is resolutely noisy. Take
Paloma Elsesser, 26, who sways her body with the self-possession of someone who
knows she is spectacularly attractive, yet who also admits that “as a woman of colour,
as a curvaceous woman, I am dealing with historically being told that I am not
worthy”. Next up is Italian Vittoria Ceretti, at 19 a sleek femme fatale whose OPENING PAGES, FROM LEFT:
HALIMA ADEN WEARS PARKA, £1,760.
backstage pep talks to sleep-deprived modelling pals have led her to believe a career SHIRT, £1,230. CROPPED TROUSERS,
in psychology beckons if the Vogue covers dry up. Across from her is 20-year-old £2,290. FRAN SUMMERS WEARS
Korean Yoon Young Bae, freckle-faced and Bambi-legged, all giggles and slightly SWEATER, £700. MINIDRESS, £1,140.
BELT, £490. ADUT AKECH WEARS
awkward wiggles as she links arms with Faretta Radic, also 20, a dewy-skinned, DRESS, £1,405. BELT, £490. RADHIKA
angular-faced, preternaturally confident Croatian who insists on mononymous NAIR WEARS POLO SHIRT, £790. SHIRT,
£875. CROPPED TROUSERS, £660.
status, like any other self-respecting super. (“I have amazing skin, right?” she remarks, BOOTS, £880. YOON YOUNG BAE
early on during hair and make-up. “That’s because I live near the sea.”) WEARS DRESS, £1,490. SHIRT, £670.
BOOTS, £1,140. VITTORIA CERETTI
Add to the mix Radhika Nair, at 26 one of the oldest of the group, and a WEARS SLEEVELESS KNIT TOP, £490.
mop-haired, strong-browed Indian beauty and wannabe DJ. She dances with SHIRT, £1,230. SKIRT, £1,239. FARETTA
RADIC WEARS DRESS, £2,250. PALOMA
born-and-bred Yorkshire girl Fran Summers, 18, baby-faced and high on the ELSESSER WEARS DRESS, £1,230.
recent discovery that Morrisons is to launch a Yorkshire-pudding pizza, while SHIRT, £1,105. SELENA FORREST
WEARS BLOUSE, £2,200. TROUSERS,
Adelaide resident Adut Akech, 18, a South Sudanese émigrée with an adorable £700. BOOTS, £970. ALL CHLOE. HAIR:
Australian twang, declares that she marked her recent birthday with tattoos of ORLANDO PITA. MAKE-UP: DIANE
KENDAL. NAILS: MEGUMI YAMAMOTO.
her parents’ names on her wrists “to stop me getting homesick”. Lastly, shimmying SET DESIGN: PIERS HANMER. DIGITAL
around delicately, is the diminutive but dazzling Halima Aden, 20, the former > ARTWORK: SILHOUETTE STUDIO
 “I’M PUTTING
A FACE TO
MUSLIMS
BESIDES WHAT
YOU SEE ON
THE NEWS
ABOUT ISIS,”
SAYS HALIMA.
“I FEEL LIKE IT’S
MY JOB TO SET A
PRECEDENT FOR
OTHER GIRLS” refugee whose refusal to remove her hijab for the 2016 Miss Minnesota USA
beauty pageant catapulted her into the spotlight, and ultimately fashion’s major
leagues: she is the first hijab-wearing model to be signed by a major modelling
agency, and the first to appear on the cover of British Vogue.
Halima – first on set this morning, along with her chaperone – has challenged
industry norms since day one. Born in Kakuma, a refugee camp in Kenya, to a
Somali mother, she moved to Missouri aged seven, then finally settled in
Minnesota. The pageant was a turning point, a chance to address misconceptions
about Muslims that, as in Britain, continue to plague America in a fractious,
often anti-immigrant climate. “I’m putting a face to Muslims besides what you
see on the news about Isis,” says Halima, who is earnest and articulate. “Even
though we have bad people within the faith, there are also a lot of good people.”
At her first meeting with her agency, IMG, she laid down her conditions. “This
girl with zero modelling experience!” she squeals, marvelling at her own tenacity.
“But I do a very good job of saying what I am comfortable with.” Halima’s unique
requirements included wearing her hijab at all times, being styled in clothes that
do not reveal any skin, a cordoned-off changing cubicle, and female-only fashion,
make-up and hair assistants to work with her. She also stated that she wanted
to build another career in tandem, by working with Unicef. In fashion – an
environment, especially during show season, in which girls are expected to change
their clothes in full view of strangers, and where charitable work is often an
afterthought to world domination – this is tantamount to revolution. To her
surprise, IMG agreed to everything. “I never had a reference for somebody to
look up to, but I feel like it’s my job to set a precedent for other girls,” she says.
Strikingly, that sentiment is repeatedly echoed by her peers today, most of whom
seem supremely comfortable with their role-model status. Perhaps that’s because
social media has given them a hotline to the very people they set out to inspire.
“I was recently made the face of Australia’s biggest department store, David Jones,”
says Adut – who, it transpires during the course of the fittings day, was born in
the very same refugee camp as Halima. “It was the first time they’ve used any
model of colour. I don’t want to sound ‘up myself ’, but people say I’m making a
positive impact, and I get a lot of dark-skinned girls messaging me for advice.”
“It’s about re-establishing a conversation – that’s why Instagram is so powerful,”
agrees Paloma, whose start in modelling came via what she calls “the curve space”.
“Your imagery, your commentary can be your activism. And it doesn’t always have
to be a post that’s all, ‘Today, I’m body-positive!’ It can also be, ‘Today I’m wearing
this top.’” For Vittoria and Selena, it’s as simple as being open about their sexuality.
Even Radhika, who admits to feeling uncomfortable with tokenism, “because
India is a very diverse country, and I’m not trying to make a statement,” knows >
 Vittoria
With her classic decadent
beauty, it’s no wonder
Vittoria Ceretti, 19, was
signed immediately after
having sent snapshots of
herself to the Elite modelling
agency in Milan – or that
she subsequently snared a
Dolce & Gabbana beauty
campaign. Unflappable and
easygoing, she is the cool,
calm type comforting tired,
emotional models backstage
before shows. “I like
helping people with their
problems,” she says.
SILK DRESS WITH WOOL
CAPE, £3,105, VALENTINO.
LEATHER GLOVES, £45,
DENTS. SILVER AND GOLD
VERMEIL EARRING, £385,
CHARLOTTE CHESNAIS, AT
MATCHESFASHION.COM
 Yoon
Yoon Young Bae, 20, could
hardly have a more
Instagram-friendly name,
nor a more beautiful
quirk: a cluster of moles
on her left cheek has
made her Korea’s latest
It-girl. Keen to dispel any
notion of rivalry, she says
her generation of models
are “very kind and
friendly”. After walking in
all the major shows, she
enjoys dining out with
model friends. “They’re
French, German, Italian,
so there are a lot of
cuisines we can enjoy.”
SLEEVELESS SILK TOP,
£850. JACKET WITH
FLORAL SLEEVES, WORN
UNDERNEATH, £1,150.
WOOL JOGGING
BOTTOMS, £800. HI-TOP
TRAINERS, £450. ALL
LOUIS VUITTON
Paloma
Paloma Elsesser, 26, calls her
modelling career “a resistant
burn”. “I always thought I was
too short, too big, too this,
too not that.” After Instagram
propelled the Los Angeles
native into the path of make-up
supremo Pat McGrath, and
growing stardom, she’s
changed her tune. Now, she
leads by example. “So often,
sample-sized clothes don’t fit
me. They’ll put me in lingerie
and throw a designer jacket
over my shoulders. But it’s
important for other girls that
I don’t look out of place –
it helps them to believe.”
METALLIC RIBBED KNIT
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Adut
Adut Akech, 18, got
a taste for the catwalk
when she walked in an
amateur fashion show
in an Adelaide mall,
aged 12. Five years later,
she was shooting the
Pirelli Calendar alongside
Naomi Campbell – now
a surrogate big sister.
“She calls me, checks
I’m eating.” But her
biggest inspiration?
“My mum – she’s a single
mother with six children
who works super-hard
as a supervisor at a
laundry. I just want
to make her proud.”
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 “I FEEL LUCKY
TO BE COMING
INTO FASHION
WHEN IT IS A
SAFER SPACE
FOR INDIVIDUALS
ACROSS THE
BOARD,” SAYS
that a fellow countrywoman seeing a brown-skinned girl on a magazine cover is PALOMA
a positive thing. “A lot of girls are not aware of this job as a career and how it
opens doors. I love being independent. To be able to do whatever I want with the
money I’m making is great. There’s so much freedom,” she says, before extolling
the virtues of club nights in Peckham, where she currently lives.
With freedom comes responsibility – but this generation is keen to give back.
Selena, who has so far appeared to be the shoot’s bullshit-free version of Miss
Congeniality, quietly remarks that “there are lots of kids from broken homes,
and they take that hurt into their adult life. It’s not healthy. I want to break that
cycle. Start a foundation.” Adut intends to found a modelling agency for girls
from her native South Sudan. Halima, who visited detainment centres in Mexico
last summer as part of her ambassadorial role with Unicef, is determined to go
back to the camp in Kenya where she grew up. “I want to say, ‘I’m here! I’ve
lived a day in your life, but I grew older and wiser and now I’m doing this.’
A dream beyond the border – kids don’t see that. You don’t dream like that.”
How will their generation shape the future of fashion? They’ll be kind to each
other – that’s a given. From sharing face masks (Yoon) to Cheez-Its (Halima),
trading favours (Selena, concealing an e-cigarette in her back pocket on set for
Vittoria) and cultural tics (Radhika and Halima huddling round Fran’s iPhone,
looking surprised as she shows them pictures of British girls who are addicted to
fake tan), they’re a gang that looks out for each other. “Modelling is competitive,
for sure,” says Vittoria, who comes across as hyper-focused and far older than her
years – she began modelling, she says, at 14 – “but it’s important to be nice to
everyone.” They’ll also educate each other. “Your mom is forcing you to cook?”
Halima asks Radhika. “I learnt a long time ago that if you make bad food – put
loads of salt in it, burn it – then they won’t want you in the kitchen,” she advises,
laughing. Meanwhile, Yoon trades Greenwich Village restaurant recommendations
with Adut, as Paloma explains to Faretta the differences between her native Los
Angeles and New York. “My neighbourhood is blindingly hip,” she elaborates, of
her digs in Chinatown. “I mean, I’m grateful – it’s a cool place where a lot of
people want to live – but sometimes I want to just drop off my laundry anonymously.”
Most of all, they’re aware that 2018 is vibrating with possibilities. “I feel lucky
to be coming into fashion when it is a safer space for individuals across the
board,” says Paloma. “I’m so grateful for the models, the editors, the creators
who have come before me, to allow me to be in a space where I can say, ‘I’m not
OK with this,’ and not be fired because of it.” Radhika agrees: “I stand for
individuality – equal chances no matter where you come from.” And as for
Halima? “What a great time to be yourself – it’s the year of female empowerment,
it’s the generation of uplifting young women, finally getting our voices heard,
from all different backgrounds and walks of life.” Watch this space. Q
 Fran
Like all good Yorkshire
girls, Fran Summers,
18, has a hearty sense
of humour. Case in
point: her secondary
“Funstagram” account,
@fransfeasts, where she
details her culinary
adventures – including all
the questionable backstage
buffets she sees – with
typically dry commentary.
She’s feisty about the
future: “My generation is
about inclusivity – there
are no restrictions on
who you can be.”
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 Selena
“When you first get into
modelling they try to teach
you, make you walk in a
certain way – it’s whoever
they want you to be. I don’t
do that.” Selena Forrest, 18
and from Louisiana, has a
fierce, uncompromising
attitude – which is arguably
why she ended up opening
Proenza Schouler, her first
catwalk show, at 16. Now
living in New York, she hasn’t
let success go to her head.
“If you don’t speak up for
yourself, who will?”
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 Halima
Halima Aden, 20, from
Somalia via Minnesota, is
the current poster girl
for “modest” fashion –
not that she likes the term.
“It immediately implies
something derogatory
about other women.
We shouldn’t be judging
people on their wardrobes.”
With a burgeoning public
speaking career, how does
she switch off? “I love
watching videos of weird
facts on YouTube. Top 10
animals that will be extinct
by 2020. Is that a thing?”
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Radhika
For Radhika Nair, 26,
a life of accountancy, tax
and finance beckoned –
until she was scouted by
Balenciaga, and became
the first Indian woman to
walk its catwalk. Now
based in London, she’s an
infectiously funny, down-to-
earth presence at the shows.
“Modelling was a fluke, so
I don’t take it seriously. The
money is good – not rapper
money, but enough that
I can do whatever I want.”
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Opposite: patchwork
leather and crochet coat,
from £10,160. Jersey
top, from £700. Python
trousers, from £8,825.
Python shoes, from £895.
Hoop earrings, from £410.
All Céline. Leather belt,
£119.50, Elliot Rhodes.
Leather bag, £485, Carven.
Vintage necklace, from
a selection, Elizabeth
& James. Cuff, £305,
Dinosaur Designs.
This page: silk shirt,
£680, Charvet. Ponyskin
skirt, £2,350. Suede jacket,
under arm, £1,995. Both
Roberto Cavalli. Leather
belt, £105, Elliot Rhodes.
Faux-leather sandals,
£675, Stella McCartney.
Sunglasses, £180, No 21
x Linda Farrow. Gold
earrings, price on request,
Ana Khouri x Narciso
Rodriguez. Rings, from
£145 each, Pebble London.
Tote bag, stylist’s own

heat
wave
Set the temperature to max on your summer wardrobe
with an audacious mix of exotic fabrics, kaleidoscopic prints and
exhilarating colour. Photographs and styling by Venetia Scott
 This page: embellished
velvet jumpsuit, £6,390.
Crocodile belt, £2,250.
Both Bottega Veneta.
Ponyskin sandals, £720,
Gabriela Hearst, at
Matchesfashion.com.
Earrings, from £410, Céline.
Opposite: silk dress and
matching trousers, £2,025.
Embellished sandals,
from a selection. Both
Marc Jacobs. Jewelled silk
turban, from £735, Stephen
Jones for Marc Jacobs. Ring,
on model’s right hand,
£8,900, Victoria Durrer-
Gasse for La Galeria
Elefante. Ring, on model’s
left hand, £360,
Bounkit, at Merola
 This page: cloqué gown,
£2,900, Emilia Wickstead.
Yellow turban, made by
stylist. Green cashmere/
silk scarf, £930, Hermès.
Vintage earrings and
gold-plated choker, from
a selection, Elizabeth &
James. Multistone choker,
£65, Nectar Nectar. Chain
necklace, £129, H Samuel.
Tassel earring, worn as
pendant, £260, Elie Saab.
Labradorite ring,
£165, Pebble London.
Opposite: leather blouson
jacket, £5,310. Wool/cotton
sweater, £675. Silk shirt,
£1,170. Python skirt,
£8,820. All Gucci. Shoes,
from £895, Céline. Leather
bag, £1,250, Marni.
Sunglasses, £440,
Pomellato. Lapis ring, from
£370, Aurélie Bidermann
 From left: Karly wears
jacquard playsuit, £2,300,
Emanuel Ungaro. Leather
sandals, £495, Jimmy Choo.
Hoop earrings, from £400,
Annelise Michelson. Cuff,
£447, Elizabeth & James,
at Luisaviaroma.com.
Lineisy wears coated
linen jumpsuit, £1,070,
Philosophy by Lorenzo
Serafini. Leather sandals,
from £620, Derek Lam,
at Galeries Lafayette.
Earrings, £255, Katerina
Makriyianni, at Browns.
Bangle, £810, Roberto
Cavalli. Ring, £121, Sylvia
Toledano, at Monnier Frères
Opposite: embellished
towelling dress and turban,
to order. Towelling beach
bag, £2,250, as part of a
set. Satin sandals, £460.
All Emilio Pucci. Tassel
earrings, £45, Nectar
Nectar. Bangles, from £82
each, Elizabeth & James, at
Shopbop.com. Gold vermeil
cuff, £370, Pippa Small.
This page: chenille dress,
from £690, Véronique
Leroy. Leather sandals,
£630, Stuart Weitzman.
Enamel earrings, from
£180, Lizzie Fortunato.
Tassel choker, £44, Nectar
Nectar. Gold-plated cuff,
£21, Saskia Diez. Beach
towel, £425, Hermès
This page: swimsuit, £205,
Michael Kors Collection.
Faux-leather sandals, £675,
Stella McCartney. Earrings,
from £385, Aurélie
Bidermann. Tourmaline
ring, £3,000, Pippa Small.
Beach towel, £175, Goyard.
Opposite: swimsuit, £150,
Kenzo. Leather tote, from
£2,240, Balenciaga.
Leopard-print headband,
£315, Gucci. Earrings,
£210, Katerina Makriyianni,
at Browns. Bangles, from
£82 each, Elizabeth &
James, at Shopbop.com.
Cuff, £450, Pippa Small
 LIGHTING DIRECTOR: RYAN O’TOOLE. COLOUR PRINTING: DAREN CATLIN AT BAYEUX
This page: leather
windbreaker, £3,500. Suede
top, £550. Leather shorts,
£1,320. Leather loafers,
£380. All Tod’s. Enamel
earrings, £150, Jane
Koenig. Bangles, from £310
each, Aurélie Bidermann.
Opposite: suede jacket,
£4,410. Snakeskin skirt,
£2,575. Crocodile belt,
£2,250. All Bottega
Veneta. Silk shirt, £220,
Equipment. Sunglasses,
£510, Elie Saab. Earrings,
from £850, Céline.
Hair: Cyndia Harvey.
Make-up: Lucia Pica.
Production: Bellhouse and
Steel Productions. Digital
artwork: Idea Digital
Imaging. Models: Karly
Loyce and Lineisy Montero.
For stockists, all pages,
see Vogue Information
 OF
GOWNS
& GLORY
I
Perhaps it’s the had my hair dressed up in a huge chignon. It was so big that
I could not fit it through the neckline of the gown. It took three
uncertainty of the people 10 minutes to squeeze me in. I got stuck!” says jewellery
times, but the grand, designer Sabine Getty. Disaster was narrowly averted and Getty
did go to the ball – the surrealist ball, hosted by Dior at the Musée
expressive statement Rodin during January’s haute couture shows. She wore a treasured
of a ballgown black velvet gown by Alexander McQueen with a low lace-covered
somehow feels right back, balloon sleeves and an intricate-painted “lace” mask.
Getty joined the throng of light-footed beauties shielded in masks
again. Harriet Quick that ranged from discreet lace bands to gigantic peacock headdresses,
welcomes its return. wearing outfits as diverse as a Gucci chinoiserie-embroidered mint-green
Photographs by Paul floor-sweeping cape (the stylist and blogger Tina Leung) to numerous
variations of Maria Grazia Chiuri’s tulle ballet gowns, flashing Dior-
Wetherell. Styling by branded big knickers and bras (an ingenious redux of the house’s epic
Gianluca Longo New Look princess gowns). Chiuri’s daughter, Rachele Regini, looked
a picture in a black leather corseted gown and tulle mask. “Every single
time I wear haute couture, I feel like I’m a different person,” says Regini,
who studies art history at Goldsmiths. “I feel at ease, caressed by the
dress. And it does not end when you get out of it and slip back into your
jeans. The feeling stays – it’s a powerful, emotional memory to have.”
In our hyper-accelerated lives, the gown might seem an anachronism
– a relic of bygone times when displays of pomp and power counted for
all. Gowns were part and parcel of the débutante’s rite of passage. Young
beauties, enrolled by their mothers, were trained in dancing and etiquette,
attended a season of costly, flamboyant events with the mission of finding
a husband and ascending the social hierarchy. “On the whole, my mother
was more interested in my clothes than my morals. ‘I am determined you
shall wear a pink dress,’ she said, so I did, pink chiffon with rose petals
which soon got dirty,” wrote former débutante Philippa Pullar in Gilded
Butterflies, her 1978 book about the rise and fall of the London Season.
Back then; the big gown was all about propriety. Now, it is about
self-expression, and joy. We are as likely to see a neon tulle Molly >
158
 Grand designs:
wearing a beaded tulle
confection by Chanel
Haute Couture, actress
and muse Ellie Bamber
poses on the staircase
in Coco Chanel’s
apartment at 31
Rue Cambon. Hair:
Sebastien Bascle. Make-
up: Karin Westerlund
DIGITAL ARTWORK: TABLET RETOUCH
 Rachele Regini – daughter of designer Maria Grazia
Chiuri – wears a surrealist-inspired trompe-l’oeil Dior
Haute Couture gown in the house’s Paris atelier

Left: Rihanna in tiered tulle
by Molly Goddard, styled with
trainers and shades. Above:
entrepreneur and ballgown
aficionado Wendy Yu surveys
the Seine in Alice Temperley
Goddard frock in an East End dive bar or at a protest march
as we are on a red carpet or at the palace. Perhaps it is because
we have become so reliant on clothes that expedite our lives
– multitasking, hybrid, seasonless clothes that can be rolled
into a Rimowa and pulled out for black-tie banquets and
boardroom showdowns alike – that the novelty and absurdity
of a ballgown is making a comeback.
Real “numbers” look desirable again – a symbol of
empowerment, and a flag-waver for dreaming and optimism
in these often discombobulating and distressing times. They
give us wings, transforming us into otherworldly beings.
Fashioned in metres of crystal-spangled tulle, in embroidered
silks, with their tiny waists and shape-altering silhouettes
they allow you to float through space to alternative galaxies
of glamour. Check Meghan Markle in her engagement gown
(a gold-embroidered bodice with a cascading ruffle skirt by
Ralph & Russo); Lady Gaga in an Armani Privé lace-topped
taffeta skirt at the Grammys; and singer Janelle Monáe at
the opening of Black Panther wearing a bustier top, huge skirt
and contrasting sapphire and white silk sleeves by Christian
Siriano. Or take a look at Charles Jeffrey Loverboy’s hand-
painted leg-o’-mutton-sleeve gown that closed his spring
show – it was a statement of exuberant rebellion.
Elsewhere, Mary Katrantzou created empire-line bubble
gowns featuring embellished exotic floral prints, techno nylon
panels and toggle fastenings. Burberry paired tulle ball skirts
with graffiti-daubed hoodies, and even players as unexpected
as Virgil Abloh at Off-White ventured into big dress territory.
A one-shoulder exploding tulle gown in marshmallow pink
with a just-seen corset featured in the spring collection.
These are pieces with vitality that leave the old twee “seen
but not heard” princess clichés in the dust.
GETTY; ALEXI LUBOMIRSKI
Not since the 1980s, when the club scene generated the
New Romantic movement and men and women dressed up
in punkish grandeur (Westwood mini-crinis or Lacroix
puffballs) and legions of teenagers flocked to Laura Ashley
to buy taffeta meringues for sixth-form balls, has the gown
been so poignant. “A great gown should have a spectacular
Left: Lady Gaga in Armani
Privé at the Grammy Awards.
Right: Meghan Markle wore
Ralph & Russo for the official
photographs marking her
engagement to Prince Harry
effect and make you feel immediately like a princess, a
Madonna or a queen. I think we are drawn to that as women.
For me (and I don’t want to sound pretentious) the gown is
an art form, a masterpiece – and it should take up a lot of
space,” says Italian-born stylist and fashion editor Giovanna
Engelbert. “Luckily today you can fit a big dress into an SUV,
even if sometimes you have to lie down,” she laughs. With
her taste for flamboyant froth and finery (including
Giambattista Valli gowns that are made of more than 350m
of tulle; Richard Quinn’s stately floral swing coatdress; Carolina
Herrera and Valentino) her joy in glamour is infectious.
Modernity does impact on the new breed of gowns, however
big the dimensions. “You want to feel powerful, elegant and
upright, but not wooden. I love a pocket, too!” says 21-year-
old actress Ellie Bamber, who looks like a Pre-Raphaelite
muse with her long marmalade locks and big doe eyes. “My
first big dress-up was for the premiere of Nocturnal Animals
in a Chanel Métiers d’Art dress, beautiful but with an edgy
aspect, too. For the Vanity Fair Oscars party, I wore a plunge-
neck Chanel gown with gold and silver embroideries until
7am. I did not want to take it off.”
The picture of young debutantes fainting in overly
constrictive corsets has been banished by a new breed of
super-lightweight construction, something at which Laura
Kim and Fernando Garcia of Oscar de la Renta excel. “I’m
a brat at night. I’ll be kicking and screaming unless the dress
is really comfortable and light,” says Kim. “If you’re not
comfortable, you are not exuding confidence throughout the
“The gown
night, and that’s not a modern gown,” adds Garcia. “We put should take
a lot of research into fabrics and now there are jacquards and
fils coupés that are airy and use elevated heat-pressed
up a lot of
techniques and laser cuts.” The duo sent out ethereal creations space. Luckily
for spring, including painterly ombré tulle gowns that make today you
the wearer look airborne. For Tamara Ralph of Ralph &
Russo, too, a sense of dynamism is supreme. “I always seek can fit a
a lively air, grace and modernity in a ballgown.” big dress into
Rather than being dressed by their mothers, a new generation
of collectors and wearers are choosing and paying for > an SUV”
161
 Left: Janelle Monáe in graphic
Christian Siriano couture at
the premiere of Black Panther.
Right: Giovanna Engelbert
wore a McQueen princess
gown for her wedding in 2016
gowns themselves. Entrepreneur Wendy Yu first discovered
her love of dressing-up watching Leighton Meester flaunt
her beaded Matthew Williamson in Gossip Girl. “Growing
up in China, we were not encouraged to be creative – it was
all about studying hard. At school you did not wear make-up
and your hair was cut short. Now the culture has changed,
and I am happy for that,” says Yu, who threw a Chinese New
Year party at Kensington Palace wearing a poppy-red eyelet
cotton ruffled frock by Huishan Zhang.
That dress will join a collection of more than 200 gowns,
including 10 couture pieces. Dresses by Giambattista Valli,
Roksanda, Dior, Ralph & Russo, Valentino, Elie Saab and
Temperley are all in Yu’s collection. “One of my dreams is to
open a fashion museum in China, so I want the collection
to be an archive, part of fashion history,” says Yu. Her criteria?
“I want something refreshing, that’s inspiring on a creative
level,” says Yu, who attends eight big-gown events a year.
Wearing a gown takes daring, learning and imagination.
“I never want to tone it down,” says Getty, who married in
a Schiaparelli couture gown, embroidered with more than
500,000 sequins, that took six months and six fittings to finalise.
She also has pieces by Peter Dundas and Alexander McQueen
in her collection, alongside vintage Yves Saint Laurent, Loris
Azzaro and Pierre Cardin. “I grew up idolising Catherine
Deneuve. If I wanted to define glamour, that is the pinnacle.”
While gowns are a big public statement, they also have an
intimate personal history, with tastes and obsessions often
“I never want formed in childhood. “My first gown moment? It must have
to tone it been my baptism robe. I probably thought, ‘I like this!’” says
Engelbert, who in girlhood staged an annual Barbie-doll gala
down. I grew with her sister Sarah. It was Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and
up idolising the City who influenced Laura Kim. “I remember wearing a
huge pink silk ballgown aged 20,” she says. Meanwhile, Regini
Catherine grew up surrounded by gowns. Her grandmother, like her
Deneuve – mother, worked as a dressmaker. “I love to wear my mum’s
clothes and keep the tradition going. There’s a sense of
that is the continuity and a sense of love. One of the most treasured is a
pinnacle” lace skirt, blouse and a cashmere coat that my grandmother
Above: stylish Tina Leung
takes Gucci couture to the
beach. Right: FKA Twigs in
baroque, full-skirted Versace
at the British Fashion
Awards in December 2017
made for my mother’s wedding day. She refused to wear a
dress and had shaved hair,” says Regini. For her Vogue portrait,
Regini donned a Dior couture design with a trompe-l’oeil
effect of bare breasts fashioned in metallic sequins, as if seen
through X-ray eyes. “I was thinking about how much time
women spend in front of the mirror,” says Maria Grazia Chiuri,
who is fascinated by our personal and public faces.
Getty discovered her passion through endless games of
dress-up and themed parties as a child. Not that the habit
has faded with age. She held a Liaisons Dangereuses
engagement party (her hair took four hours of preparation)
and last year staged an Auntie Mame ball, based on the 1958
film with Rosalind Russell. In tribute, Getty wore a vintage
purple and pink patterned marabou-trimmed gown by Pierre
Cardin. “Everyone made such an effort. Charlotte Dellal
came with fully set hair in a pink feather-trimmed peignoir,”
says Getty. For Auntie Mame, as for Cosette in Les Misérables
(Ellie Bamber is playing the part in the forthcoming BBC
production) and for every variation of Cinderella, the gown
marks a blossoming, a triumph of glamour and exuberance
– often in the face of adverse circumstances. “I have always
been obsessed with the way models wore haute couture in
Richard Avedon and Irving Penn images from the 1950s,
and the way cut and proportion can really change the way
you look,” says Richard Quinn, winner of the Queen Elizabeth
ALEX BRAMALL/KINTZING; REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; GETTY
II Fashion Award, who interprets that extreme elegance with
a macabre touch. “It is a sort of poetry, because of the use of
rare materials and savoir-faire. It is also a sort of resilience,”says
Bertrand Guyon, creative director of Schiaparelli. And so
the gown persists, and evolves to suit each new generation.
“This period in fashion has been dominated by the Vetements
effect – hyper-real clothes,” says Engelbert. “But the dream is
at the very essence of fashion and the gown is the dream. It’s
fascinating to see how teens and twentysomethings will
influence its future. Maybe a giant hoodie gown or a giant
bathrobe style?” Whatever its permutation, today the wearing
of a gown offers up a thrilling, unbeatable experience to be
enjoyed in real time. Consider it a love letter to fashion. Q
Sabine Getty
reclines in
feather-strewn
Schiaparelli Haute
Couture, beneath a
screen painted for
Elsa Schiaparelli
by Marcel Vertès
in the late 1930s
 DIOR
MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI PAID
HOMAGE TO SURREALIST
ARTIST LEONOR FINI IN A
MONOCHROMATIC COLLECTION
THAT DREW ON THE MOVEMENT.
FROM LEFT: MARYNA WEARS
CASHMERE COAT WITH POINT-
D’ESPRIT SHIRT AND TIE.
HE CONG WEARS SATIN COAT
WITH DOTTED TULLE SHIRT AND
TIE. SIGNE WEARS SILK AND
VELVET DRESS WITH VINYL MASK.
ALYSSA WEARS ORGANZA
BUSTIER DRESS WITH
EMBROIDERED FEATHER
CAPE. JEWELLERY, FROM A
SELECTION. ALL TO ORDER,
DIOR HAUTE COUTURE.
HAIR: ANTHONY TURNER.
MAKE-UP: LYNSEY ALEXANDER.
NAILS: ANATOLE RAINEY.
SET DESIGN: EMMA ROACH.
SEAMSTRESS: CAROLE SAVATON.
PRODUCTION: PRODN PARIS.
DIGITAL ARTWORK: TRIPLELUTZ
TEAM. MODELS: XIE CHAOYU,
HE CONG, SELENA FORREST,
JONAS GLOER, PAUL HAMELINE,
MARYNA HORDA, LEA JULIAN,
HIANDRA MARTINEZ, ALYSSA
TRAORE, SIGNE VEITEBERG,
SARA GRACE WALLERSTEDT,
KIKI WILLEMS, ANOK YAI

A
HAND-MADE
TALE No longer the preserve of the elite, haute couture is
transforming – reaching a younger generation in tune with
its celebration of diversity, uniqueness and craftsmanship.
Not to mention its magic, says Anders Christian Madsen.
Photographs by Willy Vanderperre. Styling by Venetia Scott

B
etween massive sets, monster trucks and live
performances, designers go to great lengths to
create epic show experiences in the age of social
media. And yet the most rock’n’roll fashion moment
I’ve had in recent seasons took place in the small gilded
salons of the Valentino couture show in January, where
splendid taffeta ballgowns brushed against my knees, their
ruffles rustling to the violins of Puccini and Bach. I felt as
if I were inside some exquisite Deborah Turbeville fashion
image. On Instagram, my fellow thirtysomethings gushed
at videos from the show, the number of “likes” soaring by
the thousands. Quite the reaction for this supposedly archaic
branch of fashion so rooted in elitist exclusivity.
In recent years, haute couture has gained new momentum.
In the dream world embodied by the enchanting eveningwear
of this old craft, young people find the pure creation they
crave and miss on a commercialised ready-to-wear platform.
SCHIAPARELLI
BERTRAND GUYON
After all, exuberant creativity is what attracted us to fashion
PROCESSED in the first place.
SCHIAPARELLI’S LEGACY Take the Maison Margiela spring/summer 2018 couture
THROUGH AFRICA AND
ASIA, EMBELLISHING show, at which John Galliano conjured up a sensory overload
TULLE DRESSES WITH of knitted coats forged in rubber and dark fabrics that turned
FANTASY JUNGLE
NEEDLEWORK AND into rainbows with the flash of a camera phone. It was
DELICATE FLOWERS. trippy, mind-boggling and rare. In a corporate fashion world
ABOVE, FROM LEFT:
MARYNA WEARS PLEATED that panders to retail figures, haute couture can seem like
TULLE DRESS the last bastion of honesty. Here, garments follow the strict
EMBROIDERED WITH
LEATHER FLOWERS. HE rules of a Parisian federation, which currently acknowledges
CONG WEARS TULLE AND just 14 bona fide couturiers, including designers from
CHANTILLY LACE DRESS.
SIGNE WEARS Valentino, Givenchy, Dior and Chanel. Each look they create
EMBROIDERED TULLE can only ever be sold to one person, and every handcrafted
DRESS. ALL TO ORDER,
SCHIAPARELLI garment must tick a string of boxes to be granted the
HAUTE COUTURE hallowed stamp of haute couture.
Ironically, this obsession with exclusivity isn’t far off the
contemporary streetwear scene. On social media, my own
generation proudly posts pictures of their newest trophy
T-shirt or trainers from hyper-coveted brands such as
Supreme, Palace and Yeezy. It’s a desire for limited-edition
pieces in which haute couture – that fusty old dinosaur –
represents the ultimate dream. “Now people speak about
the human touch; about something that is one of a kind;
about craftsmanship,” Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri told
me, reflecting on her haute couture. “There’s a different
conscience about what’s happening in fashion, in food, in
everything.” You only need to look at the personalised phone
cases launched by fashion insider brand Chaos last year
to see her point.
Around the fashion landscape, every young person now
has their initials embossed into the leather of their case. It’s
a more affordable take on the individuality offered by haute
couture, but our fascination with this artisanal institution
isn’t necessarily about owning it. Rather, it’s the comfort in
knowing that the wild creative expression, which enthrals
fashion fans in the first place, is still free to flourish. “I’m
seeing this normality in the world that’s kind of being
lionised and deified,” Rick Owens said after his spring/
summer 2018 men’s show, where boys in otherworldly
couture tailoring descended from the roof of the Palais de
Tokyo like alien angels. “I need to be surprised. I need effort.
And I need things to be rare and not banal. Celebrating
the prosaic and conventional is amusing, but it’s not the
spirit of my spirit,” he continued. Owens is one of few
designers – Rei Kawakubo, Marc Jacobs and Galliano
included – who are increasingly imbuing their ready-to-wear
with a creation level inherent to haute couture, rebelling
against a fashion climate that’s largely going the other way
and, in turn, jading a young generation of fashion fans who
yearn for magic over reality. We can’t buy into couture, but
its presence in fashion is more invaluable than ever.
Designers such as Chiuri and Galliano inform their ready-
to-wear through the haute couture they design. At Givenchy,
newly baptised couturier Clare Waight Keller conferred with
her couture ateliers to finesse her ready-to-wear silhouettes
last season, and when it came to her first haute couture
collection in January, the process was a creative epiphany.
“I was working in the best laboratory in the world. In the
beginning the amount of endless choice was overwhelming,”
Waight Keller admitted after the show. “It’s a little bit of an
old soul in a new incarnation,” she added, basically summing
up the newfound relevance of haute couture.
“As a couturier – and I never use this word – I think you
have to face your past and all the dreams of couture and
make it contemporary for the future,” Pierpaolo Piccioli
said after his Valentino show that same week, echoing the
sentiment. The designer doesn’t see haute couture as an
exclusive extravagance for the elite, but as a manifestation
of the present-day values of the youth. “Couture talks about
a one-of-a-kind uniqueness. It’s not something that belongs
to a beautiful past. It’s about valuing diversity,” he told me.
“And in this moment I think it’s super-important to talk
about diversity as beauty.” Q
GIAMBATTISTA VALLI
THE SAVAGE NATURE
PORTRAYED IN VICTORIAN
HORTICULTURAL MANUAL
THE WILD GARDEN
INSPIRED VALLI’S
COLLECTION. FASHIONED
IN THE COLOURS OF
HIBISCUS, BOUTON DE
ROSE AND ABSINTHE, HIS
CREATIONS USED SOME
350M OF SILK TULLE PER
DRESS TO CREATE THE
THREE MULTI-RUFFLED
TULLE GOWNS THAT
CLOSED THE SHOW.
FROM LEFT: ALYSSA,
XIE AND ANOK ALL WEAR
SILK-TULLE BALLGOWNS.
ALL TO ORDER,
GIAMBATTISTA VALLI
HAUTE COUTURE
VALENTINO
PIERPAOLO PICCIOLI
WANTED TO FREEZE-FRAME
THE WAY HAUTE COUTURE
APPEARS IN FASHION IMAGERY
AND GIVE MAJESTIC GARMENTS
A CONTEMPORARY SENSE OF
EASE. HE USED LIGHTWEIGHT
FAILLE FOR A GOLD RAINCOAT
WHILE RIGID TAFFETA ADDED
CLASSIC COUTURE DRAMA
TO COATS AND DRESSES.
FROM LEFT: MARYNA WEARS
FAILLE TOP, GABARDINE
TROUSERS AND LEATHER
GLOVES. HIANDRA WEARS
TAFFETA COAT, SATIN TOP,
GABARDINE TROUSERS AND
LEATHER GLOVES. LEA WEARS
MOIRE DRESS AND EARRINGS.
HE CONG WEARS TAFFETA
DRESS. ANOK WEARS TAFFETA
WRAP DRESS AND SANDALS.
ALYSSA WEARS FAILLE RAINCOAT,
MIKADO TOP WITH BOW,
GABARDINE TROUSERS
AND HAT. ALL TO ORDER,
VALENTINO HAUTE COUTURE
VIKTOR & ROLF
THE DUTCH DESIGN DUO
DEDICATED THEIR ENTIRE
COLLECTION TO THE
FABRIC MOST EMBODIED
BY COUTURE: HAND-WOVEN
DUCHESSE SATIN. ONE
DRESS WAS CRAFTED WITH
NO SEAMS, EVERY CROSS
LINE FASTENED BY HAND.
FROM LEFT: SARA GRACE,
HIANDRA AND MARYNA
ALL WEAR DRESSES AND
MASKS IN TECHNICAL
DUCHESSE SATIN. ALL
TO ORDER, VIKTOR &
ROLF COUTURE. SHOES,
TO ORDER, REPETTO
JEAN PAUL GAULTIER
THREE SPECIALISTS, 200
HOURS AND 25M OF THE
FINEST FABRICS WENT INTO
GAULTIER’S FUTURISTIC
FOLKLORE GOWN, WHICH
PAID TRIBUTE TO PIERRE
CARDIN, THE LEGENDARY
COUTURIER WHO GAVE A
17-YEAR-OLD GAULTIER HIS
FIRST JOB IN FASHION.
TAFFETA, LAME AND
RADZIMIR GOWN WITH
LEATHER BUSTIER AND
JEWELLERY. ALL TO
ORDER, GAULTIER PARIS
GIVENCHY
CLARE WAIGHT KELLER,
WHO JOINED GIVENCHY
LAST YEAR, APPROACHED
HER FIRST COUTURE
COLLECTION WITH
CONTEMPORARY EYES,
EMPLOYING CLASSIC
COUTURE FABRICS – TIERS
OF SILK GAZAR, FAILLE AND
DOUBLE SATIN – IN HIGHLY
STRUCTURED DRESSES.
FROM LEFT: ANOK WEARS
SILK-FAILLE BUSTIER
DRESS. KIKI WEARS
ASYMMETRIC WOOL COAT,
AND SILK-GAZAR DRESS.
SELENA WEARS DOUBLE-
SATIN BUSTIER DRESS
EMBROIDERED WITH VELVET
AND SEQUINS. JONAS
WEARS EMBROIDERED
EVENING COAT, SILK SHIRT
AND LEATHER TROUSERS
WITH HAND-LACED SEAMS.
ALL TO ORDER, GIVENCHY
HAUTE COUTURE.
JEWELLERY, BOUCHERON
 CHANEL
AT KARL LAGERFELD’S
COMMAND, THE CHANEL
ATELIERS DEVOTED 324
HOURS TO EMBROIDERING
AN A-LINE SILK-TULLE
DRESS WITH OSTRICH
PLUMES AND PINK PEARLS,
WHILE A WHITE SATIN-
TWEED JACKET WAS
EMBROIDERED WITH MORE
THAN 14,000 BEADS.
FROM LEFT: HE CONG
WEARS IVORY MINI TRAPEZE
DRESS EMBROIDERED
WITH PEARLS AND
PINK FEATHERS, PINK
EMBROIDERED BOOTS AND
LACE VEIL. LEA WEARS
SEQUINED AND BEADED
WHITE TWEED JACKET
WITH CULOTTES, TWEED
BOOTS AND LACE VEIL.
ALL TO ORDER, CHANEL
HAUTE COUTURE
GIORGIO ARMANI PRIVE
ARMANI BASED HIS
COLLECTION ON THE
NUANCES OF THE SKY,
DRAWING ON NATURE’S
OWN MATERIALS AND
PATTERNS. HIS BESPOKE
MEN’S EVENINGWEAR
MATERIALISED IN A
HAND-STITCHED VELVET
TUXEDO WITH SATIN
SHAWL REVERS.
ALYSSA WEARS CROCODILE
JACKET, SILK-CREPE SHIRT
AND SILK-SATIN TROUSERS,
TO ORDER, GIORGIO
ARMANI PRIVE. PAUL WEARS
VELVET TUXEDO SUIT, TO
ORDER, GIORGIO ARMANI
ALEXANDRE VAUTHIER
VAUTHIER BASED EACH OF HIS LOOKS ON
CHARACTERS FROM ART AND CINEMA, INCLUDING
CATHERINE DENEUVE’S MIRIAM IN THE HUNGER,
BLADE RUNNER’S RACHAEL AND THE FIFER BY MANET.
FROM LEFT: SELENA WEARS LEATHER DRESS, CAP
AND BOOTS, ALEXANDRE VAUTHIER HAUTE COUTURE.
NECKLACE AND RING, CHANEL FINE JEWELLERY.
HE CONG WEARS EMBELLISHED GRAIN DE POUDRE
JACKET, BUSTIER, TROUSERS AND HAT, ALEXANDRE
VAUTHIER HAUTE COUTURE. NECKLACE, PIAGET.
SIGNE WEARS TWILL DRESS WITH BROOCH, ALEXANDRE
VAUTHIER HAUTE COUTURE. BRACELET, DE BEERS. ANOK
WEARS EMBROIDERED VELVET JACKET WITH BROOCH,
LEATHER TROUSERS, SUNGLASSES AND HAT, ALEXANDRE
VAUTHIER HAUTE COUTURE. RING, DIOR JOAILLERIE.
FOR STOCKISTS, ALL PAGES, SEE VOGUE INFORMATION
 THE
LINE
OF
DANGER
W
henever there is a serious terrorist attack in
Britain, a sleepy basement underneath the
Foreign Office in Whitehall becomes a hive
of activity. Specialists from across the
government gather to watch the news roll in and to talk to
their contacts on secure lines, co-ordinating the national
response. “Half the time you don’t even know each other’s
names because you’ve never seen each other before,” says
Shubline Ghuman, who has worked as a maritime and aviation
threats officer since 2015. “You don’t have time to stop and
The delicate
think. It’s quite a surreal feeling when you see all the big screens,
work of the stuff going on, real people calling in asking about their loved
government’s ones,” she says, when we meet several floors above the “crisis
Counter- centre” in a quiet room overlooking an impressive Victorian
Terrorism Unit courtyard. “I’ve seen quite a lot of trauma. It doesn’t hit me as
has never been quickly as it does some others, but it does hit you.”
Jane Marriott – a former acting ambassador to Iran and
more crucial. ambassador to Yemen, who, as director of the Joint International
Helen Lewis meets Counter-Terrorism Unit, is now one of the highest-ranking
four Whitehall professionals in British intelligence – maintains the terrorist
women fighting threat to Britain is “not existential”. By which she means it
to keep us safe. doesn’t threaten to overwhelm the country. But that doesn’t
mean it’s nonexistent. There were five terror attacks in Britain
Portraits by
last year, including the Manchester Arena bombing, which
Bastiaan Woudt. killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert. Four of the
Styling by attacks were linked to Islamic extremists, and one was carried
Julia Brenard out by a far-right sympathiser against worshippers at a north
178
London mosque. “What’s really important is how we respond
as a society to terrorist incidents,” Marriott tells me, cradling
a cup of mint tea in a café under a converted church in
Westminster. “If there is fear, or reaction against a community,
because of the actions of one person, then the terrorists win.”
Marriott and Ghuman are part of a generation of trailblazing
women working in counter-terrorism roles at the Foreign
Office. The once-stuffy Whitehall department is undergoing
a profound change as it becomes less pale, male and stale –
and has allowed Vogue a rare glimpse into the lives of its
employees, who normally shun all publicity. In 2008, there
were just 22 female “heads of mission” – ambassadors, consuls
and other senior representatives abroad – out of 200. Today,
there are 66. Across all grades, women now make up 45 per
cent of employees and can be seen taking on roles that would
have been unthinkable a few decades ago. They are smashing
both the stereotype of what Christopher Meyer, a former
ambassador to the United States, called the “aristocratic
diplomat, clad in pinstripes, quaffing champagne” and the
James Bond cliché of a devious, superior Brit turning up in
other countries to cause trouble before making a quick exit.
Kate Shaw is a prime example of this new generation. Over
coffee in the Foreign Office’s canteen, she occasionally stops
herself to check she’s not revealing any classified information.
It’s clear that – like most employees of this secretive
department – she isn’t used to talking to journalists. There’s
a good reason for that. As a “kidnaps manager”, Shaw >
DIANE WEARS SHIRT, SHARON WAUCHOB. HAIR: KOTA SUIZU.
MAKE-UP: REBECCA WORDINGHAM. NAILS: PEBBLES AIKENS

Diane Smith,

officer, Baghdad
counter-terrorism
and counter-extremism
 Shubline Ghuman,
transport threats officer Kate Shaw,
(aviation and maritime security) kidnaps case manager
co-ordinates efforts to recover British citizens and dual
nationals taken hostage abroad. It’s a high-stress, high-risk
job, where lives are at stake every day. Nonetheless, when we
meet she looks calm and composed.
Shaw heard about the job from her former flatmate, who
held it during the reign of “Jihadi John”, a British man who
joined so-called Islamic State, also known as Isis or Daesh.
Jihadi John, whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi,
appeared in many of the group’s propaganda videos, beheading
at least four hostages on camera. (He was eventually killed
by a drone strike in 2015.) “It sounds strange, but I just knew
then it was the right job for me,” she says. “You are doing
something to help. You are doing something interesting –
I don’t mean that to sound callous.”
Based in London, Shaw’s job is to chase down leads, liaise
with local police and security services and keep victims’ families
informed. One of the first pieces of information she tries to
discover is whether the kidnap has been driven by the desire
to raise money or to make propaganda using a Western hostage;
the latter reduces the chances of a successful negotiation.
Thanks to growing up in Dubai, she speaks fluent Arabic,
“You have which is useful because so many kidnaps occur in the Middle
East. (There are other hotspots where Isis-affiliated groups
to develop operate. “We have a huge number of people who go to
resilience. It dangerous places on holiday and there’s only so much you can
can be tougher do to stop them,” Shaw says. “Every year we go to the Adventure
when you Travel Show and we have a stall and try not to be po-faced”.)
meet families Although Britain does not negotiate with terrorists, the
truth is that, as Shaw puts it, “we will talk to anybody who
of hostages
can help solve the case”. What the British government does
and it’s not allow, however, is ransom payments to terror groups:
not just a case families would only be funding the next kidnap, or the next
any more” terror attack, goes the reasoning. However, although not
encouraged, if a hostage is taken by a criminal group, it is
not illegal for their family to pay for their release – which is
what happened in a case that was resolved just weeks after
Shaw took the job. An Australian-British woman in her
sixties, who had worked for 20 years on girls’ education in
Afghanistan, was kidnapped in November 2016. Her family
mortgaged their house, withdrew their life savings, and paid
the criminals half a million dollars. With the help of the
kidnap team, the woman was released in March 2017, and
they soon received a picture of her, back at home with her
family. Shaw remembers thinking: “This is why we do it.”
Inevitably, the arrival of so many women, from a range of
backgrounds, has changed the culture of the Foreign Office
– which once had a reputation as the natural home of the
kind of former public schoolboys who wore double-breasted
suits at home, and safari suits abroad. In the early days, even
Marriott’s accent raised eyebrows. “People would go, ‘Oh,
you’re not from round here’, because I have the slightly flat
vowels of a Doncaster girl. But now it’s not commented on.”
With her brisk diction and quick answers – and her office
uniform of impeccably tailored grey herringbone dress and
knee-high boots – it’s hard to imagine anyone talking down
to Marriott these days. One-quarter of the cases dealt with
by her current unit are far-right terror groups. At the same
time, Islamist groups such as Isis not only plot attacks
themselves, but specialise in radicalising British Muslims
through the internet. Marriott estimates that 30,000 to 40,000
foreign nationals (including about 850 from Britain) travelled
to fight in Iraq and Syria and are now returning to their home
countries: “And are they content to go stack shelves in
Sainsbury’s?” she says, raising an eyebrow.
As it has become less male-dominated, the workplace has
become less macho, though it remains an incredibly tough gig.
 Because of the stress of working in counter-terror operations,
Ghuman and her colleagues in the Terrorist Response Team
have the chance to see a psychologist every couple of months.
“It’s a chance to offload and have a cry if you want to,” she
says. For Kate Shaw, the job was hardest when Isis was at its
most brutal – burning captives alive and drowning them in
propaganda videos. “One particular video was of a guy who
was being slowly stabbed to death, and it was utterly horrific,
and I couldn’t tell anybody – not because it was secret but
because I didn’t want to burden other people,” she says. “You
have to develop resilience. It can be tougher when you meet
families of hostages and it’s not just a case any more.”
But though the work is challenging, it’s also fiercely
interesting. Jane Marriott says, “I have three criteria for any
job: is it going to make a difference? Is it going to be
interesting? Is it going to be fun?” Though, naturally, “everyone
assumes you’re a spy, which gets a bit tedious, because you
can’t give an answer that works”. In 2011, she was working
in the British embassy in Tehran when protesters stormed
the compound in response to the sanctions imposed on the
country. “The building was set on fire, and we all had to
hunker down and try not to be found by the large mob who
were looking for us,” she says calmly.

S
ometimes, the challenges are more mundane. In
countries gripped by civil wars or regular terror attacks,
simply staying safe is a priority. Diane Smith, 32, is
a counter-terrorism and counter-extremism officer
in Baghdad, teaching Iraqi police to combat local threats. Jane Marriott,
Over a scratchy phone line, she tells me that she lives in a director of the Joint International
“pod” – a bedsit, essentially – in the British embassy compound, Counter-Terrorism Unit
working for six weeks at a time before getting two weeks off.
Her office is two minutes’ walk from her bedroom and all
the meals are provided on-site because the security situation minority ethnic] colleagues said – yeah, and if you’re black,
makes nipping to the shops impossible. She was greeted on take another 20 points off that. But the guard sometimes feels
arrival at Baghdad airport by a close protection officer because a bit more let down if people feel they’ve underestimated you.”
it is too dangerous to take a local taxi. Still, it’s a minefield. In conservative environments, even
Naturally, the conflict between the glamour of globe- deciding what to wear is more fraught than the usual 8am
trotting and the demands of family and relationships is a panic over what’s clean and ready. Shaw speaks fondly of a
common one. Ghuman is single and lives with her parents quilted three-tone pink dress – “everyone called me the Queen
SHUBLINE WEARS TOP, MM6 MAISON MARGIELA, AT MATCHESFASHION.COM. EARRINGS, SARAH & SEBASTIAN.

– “normal working-class folk” – in south London. “I’ve been Mother when I wore it” – which she reluctantly decided was
KATE WEARS COAT DRESS, TRUSSARDI. EARRINGS, ALIGHIERI. JANE WEARS JUMPSUIT, RALPH LAUREN

able to do what I wanted to do because I’ve not had
responsibility for kids, or a man hanging around,” she says.
It’s a situation that has traditionally been easier for men to
navigate than their female colleagues. In foreign postings,
Shaw says, “generally the men are attached, and the women
are single… It’s still much more acceptable for a man to have
his family back in the UK, and a woman to look after them.”
The 35-year-old doesn’t have children, saying that for the
moment, she has “itchy feet”.
But Jane Marriott feels that expectations are evolving – not
least because there is no longer an automatic expectation that
a woman who gets pregnant on a tour overseas has to come
home immediately. “The model when I joined was that it
was either a childless single woman, or a woman who parked
her family somewhere and then got on with it,” she says. “We
have lots of good role models now where the couple has
compromised, but it’s still not easy.”
Do women get treated differently – particularly in countries
that are more socially conservative than Britain? “Rightly or
wrongly, I have higher standards for what equality looks like
in my own country than I do in a ‘dusty boots’ environment,”
says Marriott. “I always say that you probably get more
invitations to things as a female, because people are curious
about you. There’s a kind of knocking off 20 points from your
IQ when you walk in the door... One of my BME [black and
not the right thing for meeting camo-clad army officers. “I
suppose there is a certain degree of self-censorship, but I’ve
never felt the need to blend in,” she says.
Marriott says she can remember only one occasion when
she lost her temper because of a conservative dress code.
Walking round Tehran in 45-degree heat in a hijab and manteau
– the long black cloak mandated for women by sharia law – a
male Iranian contact complained about the heat. “I rarely do
it, but I just turned round and gave him both barrels: ‘I, too,
am quite hot, but you are able to take clothing off,’” she fumed.
Still, it’s complicated. Smith says that in her early days in
Baghdad she got used to being treated as a secretary or
sidelined as a junior member of the team. “How I deal with
that is that I embrace it,” she explains. “It gives me the
opportunity to observe who it is we’re meeting.” Often, male
colleagues push her to the front when meeting Iraqi police
officers, and she enjoys “the look of shock and surprise on
their faces. ‘Oh right, you’re not the PA.’ By that time, they
also become quite charming.” Yet she cautions against any
simplistic view which positions women purely as victims
in counter-terror work. In this profession, nothing is
straightforward. “Last week in Baghdad there was a suicide
bomber who was female,” she says, her voice crackling on
the line from the heart of the danger zone. “They also play
a frontline role in this fight sometimes.” Q
 “I
MAKE
CLOTHES
FOR
STRONG
WOMEN”
Over her 45-year career, Rei Kawakubo has radically
transformed fashion. However, as the famously reclusive
Comme des Garçons designer tells Olivia Singer, hers
is an agonising creative process – and the only way to
move forward now is to never look back.
Photographs by Tim Walker. Styling by Kate Phelan

I
n Place Vendôme, amid some of the world’s finest
jewellery houses and just across from the Ritz, is a
discreet passageway that leads to Comme des
Garçons. Tucked between the glittering façades of
Piaget and Cartier is the brand’s European
headquarters, where, contained within a splendid 18th-
century building, its very ordinary décor is in stark contrast
to the historic glamour of this Parisian square. Here the
floors are unlacquered, lighting comes by way of neon
strips, and tables are of that plain wooden sort found in
classrooms around the world. At the end of the room,
raised a few feet above the rest of us, is a big glass window
that gives a glimpse into the main office. When editors
and journalists come to inspect her creations in the days
after she presents them on the runway, this is where Rei
Kawakubo sits, her chair precisely arranged so that while
you examine her designs, you can just glimpse her
silhouette. She is omnipresent yet removed. This is, of
course, the perfect analogy for the way that she operates.
Kawakubo is famous for her deliberate detachment from
fashion’s conventions, as well as for her profound impact
on the industry at large. When, in 1981, she started
showing her collections in Paris instead of Japan, she
provoked interest and outrage in equal measure: then,
182
continental fashion was defined by the material-girl
flamboyance of Thierry Mugler and Gianni Versace – but
Kawakubo defiantly rejected those high-octane aesthetics
in favour of an anarchic unglamour. Her first Parisian
collection, titled Destroy, comprised dishevelled black
garments loosely draped around the body, and was crudely
dubbed “Hiroshima chic” by the press. When she sent her
version of “lace” on to the runway, it was not the precious
sort, but fabric distressed into near-oblivion: perforated
by malfunctioning machinery, distended and laddered and
torn. In the 1990s, when bodycon silhouettes and Tom
Ford’s highly sexed Gucci were all the rage, she designed
Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body – a groundbreaking
collection that distorted the female form and padded it
with tumorous goosedown appendages. Hers is a
revolutionary vision of womanhood, unbound by idealised
femininity. “I make clothes for strong women,” she says.
“Women who wouldn’t necessarily care what their husband
thinks – or a lot of other people.”
Statements like these, made by Kawakubo herself, are
few and far between. She grants interviews only rarely; in
lieu of the traditional post-show explanation of a collection,
she offers a few sparse words to the journalists trying to
decode her creations. (This season, those words were >
 “THE WEIGHT OF
EXPERIENCE IS HEAVY
ON MY SHOULDERS,”
SAYS REI KAWAKUBO.
SCULPTURAL PATTERN
DRESSES AND SHOES
THROUGHOUT, ALL

S/S’18. HAIR: SHON.

MAKE-UP: SAM BRYANT.
PRODUCTION: PADBURY
PRODUCTION. PRINTING:
GRAEME BULCRAIG
AT TOUCH DIGITAL.
MODELS: PRIMROSE
ARCHER, XIE CHAOYU,
LILY NOVA, AYOBAMI
OKEKUNLE, AMELLEAH
THOMAS, DUCKIE THOT
 “The only way to
try and make
something new is
to do something
extremely personal”
“multidimensional graffiti”.) In the mid-1990s, journalist
Susannah Frankel interviewed Rei about Body Meets Dress,
Dress Meets Body and asked her to explain the collection;
Kawakubo sat down, drew a black circle on a scrap of paper
and summarily departed. When I am invited into her glass-
walled office to speak with her, I am nervous – but as soon as
she shakes my hand and pre-emptively apologises for how
difficult she will find our conversation, it is clear that she is
more nervous still. She is tiny and birdlike, with high cheekbones
and an angular, greying haircut, and she sits down with her
arms protectively curled around her body, the collar of her
black blazer pulled high around her neck. It is disarming to
see a woman whose proposition of womanhood is so fiercely
radical appear momentarily so vulnerable.
Last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art staged a
gargantuan exhibition of Kawakubo’s work – a 115,000sq ft
exploration of the recurrent themes that have arisen
throughout her career. That exhibition, curated by Andrew
Bolton, was only the second ever granted to a living designer
there (the first, in 1983, was for Yves Saint Laurent) and was
universally acclaimed for its powerfully emotive presentation
of her work. Kawakubo was involved in everything from the
selection of pieces to the exhibition space itself; she had a
full-size recreation of the space installed in Tokyo to ensure
it would accurately reflect her vision. Before it opened,
Kawakubo was worried that nobody would attend, claiming
that she was not particularly famous in America: instead,
more than 560,000 people did. I ask her whether she feels
proud of its success, but she says, “I enjoyed nothing…
Recently, I haven’t been much enjoying anything about work.
I have been doing it for so long that the enjoyment has gone
out of it… The weight of experience is heavy on my shoulders.”
When Rei speaks, it is through Adrian Joffe – her husband
of 25 years, and the president of Comme des Garçons. He
lives in Paris and she in Japan, but their partnership is
remarkably effective nonetheless: where Kawakubo is cautious
and clipped, her voice quiet and low, he is charming and
effusive, her perfect foil, all smiles and rows of kisses at the
end of emails. For the purpose of this interview, Joffe operates
as his wife’s translator: she speaks only Japanese (at least
supposedly, she can certainly understand plenty of my
questions), and he elucidates concepts to her that appear
outside her realm of understanding. When she tells me how
Rei Kawakubo photographed by Paolo Roversi in 2017
she hated looking back through her work for the exhibition,
he tries to explain to her that “most people love retrospectives”.
She doesn’t seem to believe him. “Each time I do something,
there’s never total satisfaction and so it is painful to be reminded
of the things that I was dissatisfied with,” she says. “She thinks
everyone is like that,” he explains, and smiles apologetically.
Part of the problem at hand is that Kawakubo’s ambition
with Comme des Garçons is, she says, “to attempt to create
things that didn’t exist before”, which paradoxically means
that “there can never be success because as soon as you’ve
done something, it’s not new any more”. Nine seasons ago,
in 2013, she reached a breaking point: paralysed by the
aforementioned weight of experience, she realised that “the
only way to do something that didn’t exist before was not to
do it”. So she stopped sending clothes on to her runways and
instead presented a collection titled Not Making Clothes,
which set out a blueprint for her new mode of creation. What
she has been offering in lieu of clothing ever since is
explorations of form and fabrication, magnificent processions
of sculptural silhouettes. These avant-garde abstractions then
filter down to inform the more easily wearable pieces that
later appear on shop floors the world over: their graphics or
details applied to everything from A-line coats to embellished
T-shirts. Incidentally, Kawakubo explains that this method
is far from foolproof: it is now causing her the same level of
trauma as her former collections. “I will have to have another
idea as good as that, it has to have another change,” she says.
“Each thing has a time limit; things get old, I get tired of
them. There will have to be another way in.”
But, in the meantime, we still have not-clothes – and this
season they incorporated the works of 16 different artists, >
 “The process is
not something
I understand.
It’s things
that come from
everywhere,
something from
inside, something
from a dream
– often I don’t
remember”
 “I do it in order
to move people,
to make them
feel something…
But what you feel
is free: there is no
right or wrong”

from Renaissance masters to manga cartoonists, collaged into

prints, while artefacts of girlhood – plastic trinkets and stuffed
animals – were tangled into wigs and turned into breastplates.
Huge dresses were exploded into torn folds and frills, or
exaggerated with oversized horsehair bustles and foam-padded
petticoats. Sent out to the teenage lullabies of FKA Twigs
and Aisha Devi, they felt painfully melancholic, like a
meditation on lost innocence. For the finale, as Samuel
Barber’s agonisingly emotive Adagio for Strings played, all of
the 15 models walked on to the runway together and stood,
completely still, facing the audience.
Rei asks me how the collection made me feel, and
I tentatively tell her: that the still lifes and the wide-eyed
cartoons and these giant overblown dresses, some with wings
protruding from their backs or sides, felt like a heart-
wrenching memento mori, and that I wanted to cry. I ask if
that was what she had intended. “If people didn’t feel anything,
there wouldn’t be any point doing it,” she responds bluntly.
“I do it in order to move people, to make them feel
something… It is important for humanity, for the progress
of humanity, to feel things and to see things that didn’t exist
before. I hope that each person, in feeling whatever they feel
[about the collections], would then have their own progress.
But what you feel is free: there is no right or wrong.”
This sense of freedom exists in part, it seems, because
Kawakubo has no singular inspiration in mind when creating
the collections: they are born from instinct. “The process is
not something I understand, so it’s not easy to talk about,”
she explains. “It’s things that come from everywhere,
something from inside, something from a feeling, something
from a dream and so it’s very hard to go back and unravel
– often I don’t remember. The only way to try and make
something new is to do something extremely personal.” This
painstaking intimacy is, perhaps, why it is so hard for her to
talk about her work: she is notoriously private when it comes
to her personal life. I have heard rumours, of course – that
she has a wicked sense of humour; that she is fascinated by
horoscopes; that someone once saw her buying bundles of >
 “The people who
make that kind
of distinction of
whether you’re
a feminist or not
are already the
problem. Everyone
is equal, everyone is
a human being”
Toblerone at an airport duty-free – but, for whatever reason,
her personal proclivities are closely guarded. She will concede,
however, that she vehemently dislikes Donald Trump, that
she likes London for “the feeling and the trees”, that she
particularly enjoys visiting White Cube and is rather fond
of Gilbert & George. She has an Instagram account and,
although she neither posts nor follows anyone, she likes
looking at animals and landscapes. She has enjoyed holidays
to “strong, exciting places” like Yemen, Vietnam and Ukraine
– but when I ask where she’d like to visit next, she retorts,
“Have I ever told you the amount of work I have to do?”
While with a different designer it might be tempting
to push further, or to try to investigate and decrypt their
autobiography (Kawakubo is 75 years old; was born in 1942
in wartime Japan; has two younger brothers; worked as a
stylist before becoming frustrated with the clothes available
to her and evolving into a designer), the mystery that
enshrouds Rei is, in part, what makes her world so fascinating.
You cannot ascribe a personal narrative to her collections if
you do not know what that narrative is: instead, her work
provokes internal reflection, and an astonishingly personal
connection with the pieces themselves. In a world of celebrity
culture and extreme exposure, her silence is refreshing – even
more so the reverence she commands, which makes further
interrogation feel intrusive.
However, there is one aspect in Kawakubo’s work that begs
biographic reference: that of gender. Mutated archetypes of
femininity are some of the most frequently recurring themes
in Kawakubo’s oeuvre: crumpled frills and ragged ruffles,
Peter Pan collars and the polka dots that are now a Comme
des Garçons signature. Even the logo for Play – one of the
19 lines under the brand’s umbrella – is an illustrated heart
drawn with sweet cartoon eyes. Her vision of women is
staunchly self-determined, and these malformed tropes serve
as visual reminders of her consistent subversion – but she
directly refutes the idea that her gender has anything to do
with her work. She considers herself a strong woman, yes,
but not a feminist – in fact, “the people who make that kind
of distinction of whether you’re a feminist or not a feminist
are already the problem. Everyone is equal, everyone is a
human being, but the person asking that question is the
problem by the fact of them asking.”
Kawakubo herself is resolutely independent: she stands at
the head of a $300 million-a-year business, refuses to acquiesce
to any sort of industry demands (regular interviews, cocktail
parties or celebrity-dressing, to name but a few) and, while
she is married to Joffe, she has no children – although she
has often referred to her 1,200 employees in that way. They
are, as with many parents, where she finds her drive. “I am
responsible for all of the staff at Comme des Garçons and
I have a sense of responsibility,” she explains. “If I were on
my own, I would stop.” When I ask why she continues to
expand, then, she explains, “Nothing is static, everything
moves on. I want to increase their wages, to give them raises…
to grow, little by little, so that people can grow themselves.
It’s a natural process of business. There’s no choice.”
Only once during our hour-long conversation does Kawakubo
concede to feeling happy – in fact, such a word appears so
unfamiliar in her vocabulary that Joffe double-checks his
translation with her – which is when she talks about seeing
the women who wore her pieces to the Met Gala. There was
Rihanna, dressed in the opening look from Kawakubo’s 18th-
Century Punk collection, which fused couture fabrications
with the spirit of revolution (“I love it – it feels fucking
awesome!” she said); Stella Tennant in deep-blue ruched and
ruffled velvet (“I felt at home – defiant, and like I was wearing
the armour of a tribe”); Caroline Kennedy in a voluminous
layered gown patterned with floral prints. (“In today’s world,
where we each need to figure out what we believe in, and how
to stand for something, this exhibition has a lot to teach us,”
she stated in a press preview to the show of Kawakubo’s work.)
“What I like to hear most is when somebody buys something
in the store and tells me that it makes them feel good,”
Kawakubo explains now – and whether that thing is an avant-
garde ballgown, a perfectly formed leather jacket or a Converse
collaboration seems beside the point. After all, to buy and
wear Comme des Garçons – no matter how extreme, or how
apparently ordinary – is to invest in, and proclaim affinity
with, Kawakubo’s boundless and defiant originality. Hers is
creation in its purest form and its transformative impact
reverberates through every person who wears her designs.
You’d be hard pressed not to feel good about that. Q
 When Kawakubo first brought Comme des

waves through the industry: the rejection of

conventional glamour in favour of her own,
renegade aesthetic was a radical statement
of intent. That defiant creativity has defined
her work over the decades – from the
transformative silhouettes of her early
years to the sculptural artworks of recent
seasons. From far left: 1994; a/w 2012; 1993.
Right: s/s 1983. Second row, from far left: s/s
2016; 1983; 1983; s/s 1997; s/s 1992; 1991

Comme des Garçons through the years

A visual history of Rei Kawakubo’s radical creativity
MICHEL HADDI; SARAH MOON; RAYMOND MAIER; TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS; JUERGEN TELLER; JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL SAMS
ARTHUR ELGORT; PETER LINDBERGH; PAOLO ROVERSI; HANS FEURER/TRUNK ARCHIVE; TERENCE DONOVAN; GUY MARINEAU; DAVID SIMS;

“Everything is about trying to do

something that didn’t exist before” –
Rei Kawakubo. Left: 1990. Above:
1997. Above right: 1998. Far right:
a collaboration with choreographer
Merce Cunningham translated the
Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body
collection into dance costumes, 1997

“It has not been a

deliberate decision to
grow the business; it has
just happened… The
main objective… is the
fact of wanting to make
things” – Rei Kawakubo.
Above: 1996. Near right:
a/w 1984. Right, centre:
2012. Far right, top:
1995. Far right, bottom:
18th-Century Punk
collection, a/w 2016
Quiet
by design
For one of the
world’s most
influential men,
Apple’s chief design
officer, Jony Ive,
is also one of the
most humble, says
Naomi Campbell,
who travelled to
California to meet
him. Photograph
by Mikael Jansson.
Styling by
Jack Borkett
 Naomi Campbell and
Jony Ive at Apple Park,
the company’s new
headquarters in
Cupertino, California.
Naomi wears suit,
Alexander McQueen.
Shoes, Saint Laurent.
Jewellery, her own.
Hair: Peter Savick.
Make-up: Fran Cooper.
Digital artwork:
Gloss Studio NY
 I
’m on the outskirts of Cupertino in California, visiting
a gargantuan building that looks like a spaceship: a newly
built, glass-walled office that has recently become home
to the £650 billion Apple empire. There’s also a 175-acre
campus with a forest of drought-resistant trees that, they tell
me, are designed to encourage morning jogs, a 100,000sq ft
wellness centre and a canteen where you can place your lunch
order using iPads and facial recognition. Everything here is
custom-made: even the pizza boxes are engineered to prevent
the crusts from going soggy. It might have cost £3.6 billion,
but as I head to the canteen for a very special audience, Apple
Park looks exactly like the friendly face of a tech revolution
– after all, that’s what has made it the most valuable brand
in the world.
The architect of the Apple universe is Jony Ive: a 51-year-
old industrial designer from Essex, who has become a part
of every Apple consumer’s life. He joined the company in
1992, rising to his current position as chief design officer in
2015. He is the man who encouraged Steve Jobs to turn
everything white; who developed the touch-sensitive swipe
screen; who designed the iPod, the iPhone, the iMac. His
brilliant eye has overseen all the elements of every Apple
device, which probably makes Jony one of the most influential
figures on earth, whose power now goes beyond smartphones
into the worlds of fashion, art, commerce and politics. He’s
Far left: the
blueberry iMac,
1999. Left: Ive
(centre left) with
Steve Jobs (centre
right) and Apple
colleagues, 2007
likely to be spoken of in the same breath as design greats
such as Azzedine Alaïa or Zaha Hadid, but I’ve always felt
the most amazing thing about Jony is that he’s so normal:
friendly, without airs and graces, and actually a bit shy. Yet,
to appropriate the Apple lexicon, he is a genius. Here’s what
happened when I sat down with Jony in the Cupertino canteen
to talk about his incredible career and the power of seeing
things differently.
Naomi Campbell: I’d like to start at the beginning – what did
you want to do when you were growing up?
Jony Ive: Well, I always liked drawing and making things.
The reason I would draw was to help me make something
– not drawing for its own sake, but as a means to an end.
“I think I was I later found out that was called design.
fortunate in N: And did your parents encourage you?
J: My father was a really good craftsman – he was a
that I found silversmith – so I grew up understanding how things were
not only what made. That’s something that’s easy to take for granted, but
everything that has been made has been thought about,
I loved to do designed, and I think that growing up with an appreciation
early on, but of the nature of objects was hugely influential to me.
N: What was school life like? Were you a high achiever?
what I was J: I wasn’t very good at anything else, but I was competent
able to do” at drawing and making: it’s where my heart was, what I
194
loved. Ironically, not being very good at other things helped
me focus. I think I was fortunate in that I found not only
what I loved to do early on, but also what I was able to do.
N: So were you a good boy?
J: I was very quiet, because I was – and remain – very shy. One
of the things about drawing and making is that it can be a very
solitary thing… I don’t know if one reinforced the other, but
it felt comfortable to do because I could do it by myself.
N: What do you do to overcome your shyness?
J: Avoid people! My area of focus is quite deep, but it’s not
very broad. I’m just aware of the things I can do and I’m very
aware of the majority of stuff, which is what I can’t do.
N: Are there any examples of design from your childhood that
stand out? What was the first thing you ever made that you
were proud of?
J: Aged around 10 or 11, I liked making very simple things
from card. I remember making a box with a lid, and trying
to do it as perfectly as I possibly could: making and remaking
it, being completely unforgiving with the result. But it wasn’t
really about the object – it was about the process and seeing
if I could make something perfectly.
N: So how many did you make?
J: Half a dozen? That’s a lot of boxes.
N: What is it about objects that interests you? Is it the way
people use them; how they can make people feel?
Left: the iPod, 2001. Above:
the Apple Powerbook, 2001
J: You and I might see the same things, but what they mean
to us is based on so many historical and cultural references.
There isn’t this universal truth to a single object. I was
interested in how you go from what you see to what you
perceive, what something might mean to you.
N: Your relationship with Steve Jobs is often talked about as
the ultimate creative partnership. What was it like when you
met? What did you have in common?
J: We looked at the world in the same way: we’d struggle to
perceive things, we’d argue in our own heads, and we were
very conscious about the conclusions we came to. We started
working together in 1997, and he was just remarkable. As
time goes on, I appreciate him more, and miss him more; how
truly extraordinary he was becomes clearer. Steve understood
the creative process in a way that’s extremely rare, but he also
understood how you make a company with lots of people.
N: And what did you learn from him? Are there any ways that
he worked that continue to inspire you?
J: There was an incredible liberty in the way he would think.
He wouldn’t obey rules that were perceived to be accepted
wisdom, and he had an extraordinary optimism and enthusiasm.
He was so inquisitive – and very supportive of me.
N: How involved are you in the manufacturing process? I heard
a rumour that you slept on factory floors when you were making
the first iPhone…
 J: One of the key characteristics of how we work is that
we’re very involved in how you make something: you can’t
just design in abstract and then tell someone else to make
it. You know that from the fashion designers whose work
you love: they are there for every step. I’ve stayed for months
in places where we make products. I don’t know how you
can be an effective designer and not do that.
N: Everything you work on is kept top secret – is it hard not
discussing what you’re up to?
J: I don’t really see it as being secretive – if I’m working on
something and it’s not finished, I don’t want to show
somebody! One of the defining things about the nature of
ideas is just how fragile they are: when you’re not sure
whether something is going to work, the idea is vulnerable.
Part of protecting the idea is to be careful about who you
show it to; premature criticism can shut something down
that perhaps deserves more of a chance.
N: Do you not get stressed and want to talk about it?
J: I’d say I would be characterised as an anxious person, so
yeah, I do worry about work a lot… You know, Heather
[Ive’s wife of 30 years] knows roughly the products I’m
working on, but I don’t talk about it specifically, which I’m
sure she’s enormously relieved about.
N: How do you balance your life and work, then?
J: Appallingly!
Left: Ive with his wife,
Heather, at the Met
Gala in 2017. Below:
the first-generation
iPhone, 2007
Left: the Duchess of
Cambridge meets
Ive in 2012. Above:
the iPad, 2009
N: Can you sense when you’ve overworked yourself and have
to take some time out to get inspired again?
J: The difficult thing with being a designer is that it isn’t
something you just do in the studio. If you walk around
with your eyes open and truly see, and think about what
you see, then you’re constantly wondering, “Why is that
like this? Why could it not be like that?” Or, “That’s fantastic,
that’s interesting.” I don’t know if “working” is the most
accurate description, but the very way you engage in the
world is atypical. That feels like designing.
N: Is there anything you’ve been particularly proud of designing?
GETTY; REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; JONATHAN SPRAGUE/REDUX/
I never thought I’d be alive to see something like Facetime exist
EYEVINE. THANKS TO THE ST REGIS SAN FRANCISCO
– when I first heard of it, I thought it was just too futuristic.
To be in the middle of somewhere like Nairobi or Delhi and be
able to talk to my mum, to actually see her face, is like magic.
J: I agree. I would say that Facetime is one of the most lovely
examples of communication – connection can be very
transactional, like with a text message, or incredibly nuanced
and intimate like it is with Facetime. Seeing someone’s eyes
is really important.
N: You’re sponsoring an exhibition of Azzedine Alaïa’s work at
London’s Design Museum next month. What was it about his
approach to the world, and design, that resonated with you?
J: He was the consummate craftsman. I loved the physical
studio in which he worked, I loved the way, and how directly,
he worked – his process. I was in utter awe watching him, and “Alaïa was the
I loved that he let me watch. I thought that was so generous.
It was incredible to see the way that he understood material, consummate
and the way he would be frustrated with material and so create craftsman.
new ones. And then these beautiful forms would emerge.
N: If the pin didn’t go through, he knew it wasn’t going to work.
I was in utter
J: He wouldn’t impose anything: the shape would appear awe watching
because of his mastery of his materials, because he understood
them so profoundly.
him, and I
N: Exactly – sometimes I’d put on a dress and think it was going loved that he
to be fitted a certain way, but instead it would flare out in a let me watch”
particular area. I’d always wonder, how does he know it’s going
to fall like that?
J: Yes, he had such a purity of creation: he wouldn’t just say
“This is the shape”, but it would be built into the way the
garment was made.
N: The only people I’ve seen work with fabrics to that degree
are Japanese. Are there any cultures you think have been
particularly influential on design today?
J: In most cultures, if you engage enough and look beyond
what’s obvious, there’s incredible beauty. That’s a good
practice. I love travelling, I love Japan. I hadn’t even been
on a plane until I was 21.
N: What went through your mind on the plane? Were you
thinking you could design it better?
Below: the Apple
Watch, 2015.
Right: Ive received
his knighthood
at Buckingham
Palace in May
2012. Far right:
the current-model
iPhone, 2018
J: I was like a kid, I was just so excited to be going on a big
plane. And also, in that predictably odd way, I thought, “How
can this fly?” Because my suitcase was really heavy…
N: Last year, you were appointed chancellor of the Royal College
of Art – how did that come about? Why did you take on the role?
J: I’ve always had a real affection for the Royal College, and
I think it’s a particularly special place in terms of the diversity
of its creative disciplines: from painting to sculpture to
graphic design and architecture. It has a very particular sort
of energy. I’ve worked with some great people, and I’ve been
doing this for a while, and I like to think that some of
what I’ve learnt would be useful to other people. That’s
the primary reason: to try and share some of the things
I’ve learnt – although I don’t presume that it’s all relevant.
Also, you sort of think, “Well if I can describe what I’ve
learnt, it somehow makes sense of some of the personal
pain of learning.”
N: I’m sure. One last question: when you hire a new team member,
what are you looking for?
J: The main thing is how they see the world. Ultimately,
Steve’s legacy is a set of values and, I think, the belief in
trying. Often the quietest voices are the easiest to overlook,
but he was brilliant at listening as well as leading and speaking.
A lot of communication is listening – not just listening to
figure out what you want to say in response. Q
195
 FURIOUSLY FUNNY
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is about to hit superstardom.
And rage has a lot to do with it. By Eva Wiseman.
Photographs by Scott Trindle. Styling by Jack Borkett

I
t seems appropriate to meet Phoebe Waller-Bridge in
the evening, as darkness falls over London. We are sitting
in a Soho attic office, the walls of which Waller-Bridge
has quickly scrubbed of Post-it notes detailing season
two of her dark, award-winning and much-loved sitcom
Fleabag. All that is left is a sharp little envelope on the table,
labelled “Jokes”. Can they really be called jokes, though, these
pointed diamonds of pain she’s mined from her life? Her
insights into the female condition make you laugh, but they
also make you cry a bit, and reach for someone’s hand. It’s a
skill, and one that has seen her join that rare group of voices
– your Lena Dunhams and Nora Ephrons, your Helen
Fieldings – that expose the sometimes uncomfortable truths
of what it is to be a woman today.
At almost 6ft tall, Waller-Bridge has the face of a silent
movie star, but one that’s maybe two seconds away from
cracking up. There’s a clownish elegance to her, and she sits
with her legs everywhere – she leans in affectionately when
she talks, like everything’s a secret. Until now, stylists have
always dressed her in boyish tailoring, a severe red lip, but
that belies her Pre-Raphaelite beauty, and her lightness too
196
– she laughs a lot, and generously. Today she is wearing
a jolly yellow T-shirt that says Mac & Cheese, a gift from her
friend, the actor Jessica Knappett, who made the shirts
for a group of them – all women in film and television –
who get together once a month to eat macaroni cheese and
talk about their lives. “We have these aggressive chats till
4am, but we’ve started switching from booze to tea around
11pm because we need to remember the conversations,”
Waller-Bridge says, with an accent that could cut crystal.
“It’s one of those really lovely trusted groups where you can
just go, ‘Am I crazy or…?’ If you’re lucky, it might turn out
that you’re not.”
Her life sped up in 2016, when Fleabag was picked up by
the BBC after a sell-out Edinburgh run, knocking another
of her scripts, Crashing – on which Channel 4 had been
sitting – swiftly into production. Suddenly, Waller-Bridge,
who writes and performs in both, was famous. She was hired
to adapt the Villanelle novellas about a female assassin for
BBC America, she won a Bafta, and for a while there was
a lot of fuss online about whether or not she would be the
Thirteenth Doctor in Doctor Who. She would not. >
 OPPOSITE: CHECKED
WOOL JACKET, £1,525.
TOP WITH FEATHERS,
£1,100. BOTH MAISON
MARGIELA. EARRING,
£355. RING, £360, BOTH
CHARLOTTE CHESNAIS,
AT MATCHESFASHION.COM.
THIS PAGE: ASYMMETRIC
LINEN-MIX DRESS, £2,160,
YOHJI YAMAMOTO. LEATHER
SANDALS, £565, HELMUT
LANG SEEN BY SHAYNE
OLIVER. RING, AS BEFORE.
HAIR: JAMES ROWE.
MAKE-UP: LUCY BURT.
NAILS: PEBBLES AIKENS.
DIGITAL ARTWORK: IMGN
STUDIO. WITH THANKS TO
KO PRODUCTIONS
 THIS PAGE: EMBELLISHED
LEATHER JACKET, £7,890,
PRADA. TOP WITH FEATHER
TRIM, FROM A SELECTION,
DAVID KOMA. WOOL
TROUSERS, £79, COS.
EARRING, AS BEFORE.
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£1,675, BALENCIAGA,
AT MATCHESFASHION.COM.
SILK-GAZAR DRESS, £960.
LEATHER SANDALS, £565.
BOTH HELMUT LANG
SEEN BY SHAYNE OLIVER.
FEATHER BOA, £500,
ANN DEMEULEMEESTER.
RING, AS BEFORE
 “I think rage can be harnessed.
I find it exciting in women.
That’s something that goes
through my work, for sure”
She will, however, appear as a droid in the new Star Wars Soon after, he wrote her the part of an angry young woman.
film, Solo – invited to audition after the directors saw Fleabag. “He said, ‘It’s because you have the gift of rage.’ I realised
Her agent called her up, chuckling. “I remember thinking, ‘I that’s what I’m always looking for, because I don’t think it
must watch Star Wars first.’” She didn’t. “So I wasn’t entirely necessarily has to be a negative thing. I think rage can be
sure what a droid was, and I was just performing it like a human. something that motivates and galvanises and changes things,
And they were like, ‘Wow, you’re really loose with the whole and I think that’s what’s happening now.” While anger stews,
droid idea. Maybe you could just try it again a bit more… she says, rage is active: “It has a forward motion to it. When
like a droid?’ Luckily, one of I was in my twenties I used
them did a tiny robot thing to have these flash rages all
with his arms when he said the time, I would just get
‘droid’, and I was like, ‘It’s really, really ragey for, like,
a fucking robot. It’s a robot. five seconds, and then it
Thank you.’ Strangely, would pass. And it was always
I think it worked in my a weirdly positive feeling. I
favour, because they thought think rage can be harnessed.
my humanness was a choice.” I find it exciting in women.
When she was cast in the That’s something that goes
role, she quickly watched the through my work, for sure.”
films. “It’s a really moving Luckily, then, for a woman
story, as well as being a kind inspired by rage, she is writing
of hysterical adventure romp. in a time that vibrates with it,
It’s very surreal to suddenly when years of insults, forced
go into that world.” intimacies and hidden abuse
Surreal for her fans, too, are finally being discussed.
more used to hearing her Nowhere more noisily than
nihilistic commentar y in her own industry where,
about sex and failure than post-Weinstein, daily news
watching her fl y the of historical harassment
Millennium Falcon. It ’s seems to emerge. The worlds
difficult to overstate the Waller-Bridge writes are
impact Fleabag had on populated with women who
its audience. The story of are dealing with their own
a woman in pain, it is a furies, whether focused in-
mordant black comedy in wards or out. “The #MeToo
which the eponymous and Time’s Up movements
heroine (she has no other have been a roar on behalf of
name) pours sex over every women, and the voices are
agony, breaking the fourth genuinely empowered now.
wall to talk to her audience while clues as to the source of her I really feel that.” Does she think we’ll see change? “I really
distress – the violent loss of her best friend – unravel. It is hope so. But I suppose there’s a risk that it’s all just so much
profoundly sad, dark as tar, and very, very funny. But while talking, when we need to see the actual fundamental system
it feels like it’s about sex, the comedy is about platonic love change. I know that the more work I make and the more
– it’s the very darkest valentine. powerful I get, the more outspoken and controlling I’m going
Why does this speak to us today? Why does Waller-Bridge’s to be about that sort of stuff.”
work, with its sex and fury and jokes about death, ring This bodes well. She is on the verge of superstardom. The
so clearly for her international audience, gaining her an Bafta-winning writer of This Is England, Jack Thorne – who
embarrassment of awards and accolades? The answer, or part is a huge fan of her acting, having worked with her a number
of it anyway, is folded away in the envelope on the table. Writing of times – tells me, “She is our generation’s Maggie Smith, and
series two, she has been thinking a lot about female rage. she will still be glorious in 60 years.” But her next project, the
“It feels like, recently, a lot of female anger has been high-budget thriller Killing Eve, is unusual in that she doesn’t
unleashed. Articulated anger. Which is exciting for me because star in it – she’s written her glittering dialogue for two women:
I’ve always found female rage very appealing.” Now aged 32, Eve (Sandra Oh), a bored MI5 security officer drawn towards
Waller-Bridge was in her third year at Rada when she ranted darkness, with fantasies of being a spy, and Villanelle ( Jodie
to a director that she didn’t want to play any more “passive Comer), a mercurial psychopathic killer. The genre is subverted
princess parts”. “I was like, ‘Why can’t I do a role where she’s by Waller-Bridge’s focus on the shadowing and obsession
the agent of her own violent destiny? Where are those parts?’” between them. Telling a story about a woman who has no >
 The audience shouted that she
was a slut. “It was then I realised
you just have to talk about
penises as much as you can”
guilt, she says, was very liberating. “That was what was
glorious about writing Villanelle, who looks at the world and
goes, ‘Hmm, all these little rules you guys have created – they
aren’t really that interesting to me.’ Our laws and moral codes
don’t apply – she lives totally fearlessly and absolutely without
fear of consequence. I haven’t seen a character like that before.”
away too, from discussing her new boyfriend – even though
he’s director Martin McDonagh, even though there are photos
of them at the Golden Globes (and later, at the Oscars) him
with his barrel of awards for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,
Missouri, her grinning in a gown with toothy pride, even though
the two are already being stamped a cultural “power couple”
– instead telling me about the real romance of her life, her

W
aller-Bridge female friendships. The great
began acting thing to come out of these
at the age months of busy heartbreak is
of eight. that she is currently looking
Growing up in Ealing, the for a flat with Jones, a second
middle child of parents who chance at being young. Free.
divorced when she was in She pauses briefly with a
her teens, she was constantly dazed smile, to consider it.
performing, singing, playing, The question, then, is how
reciting monologues about Waller-Bridge will maintain
car crashes. Looking at old focus on the things that
photos with her brother make her work so resonant
recently, she found one of – the domestic details of
her as a teenager, two feminine competition and
Smirnoff Ices in her hand, obsession – when busy
dancing up against what managing her new
appeared to be a child. Hollywood career. She
“I asked him, ‘Was I a lot as returns to her muse, her best
a teenager?’, and he was like friend. “Whenever Jones
‘Yeah… you were a lot.’” and I see each other, that’s
It was meeting Vicky when we analyse our lives
Jones, who would later for each other’s enter-
become her co-creator on tainment. And if either
Fleabag that shifted her one of us says something
direction to writing. She was particularly interesting, the
cast in a theatre project that other one is like, ‘Stop, write
ended when Jones was it down; that was really
humiliated and fired from poetic, darling, write it
the set. In solidarity, Waller- down.’” These moments that
Bridge walked out, too. they write down, though,
They created their own those truths they lived – they
theatre company, DryWrite, in 2007 and spent two years staging will surely change, post-divorce, post-Star Wars, post-30.
short experimental plays by new writers. Under Jones’s direction, It’s clear we’re meeting at that moment just before her
Waller-Bridge wrote her first play – about a girl and boy breaking entire life turns inside out, that calm before the stardom.
up because every now and then the girl (played by Waller- Currently, she can walk down the street largely unbothered,
Bridge) said she needed to have sex with someone really well- she can still make notes on strangers’ conversations on the
endowed. By the end, the audience were on their feet shouting Tube. But the next time we see her might be on a billboard;
that she was a slut. What did that teach her about writing, after that, surely, a fashion campaign. Already, breathy
about storytelling? “It was then that I realised you just have to details of her new relationship are in the gossip magazines.
talk about penises as much as you can,” she grins, winningly. What if the path she’s on leads only to cash and sunshine?
Next up for the pair is a new comedy-thriller series, Run. What if she’s exhausted all relatable truths? Her grin flickers
In person, Waller-Bridge is far gentler than the women a moment, a slight panic. Her breathing speeds up, theatrically.
she writes. For someone famous for playing with the likeability “Oh God, you’re right. What if that was all of the truth?
of female characters, she is furiously nice. And though she What now?” She looks towards the envelope on the table, a
believes in honesty to an almost religious degree, it’s when loaded gun. “I’ve learnt that I just need to keep being honest”
she gracefully bats away questions about the recent break-up – about femininity, anxiety, the struggle for human
of her 2014 marriage to Irish documentary producer Conor connections. “But if you’re telling the truth, you’re likely to
Woodman (“I’d rather… not?”) that the difference between be frightened by it.” She smiles darkly, with teeth. “I suppose
her and her oversharing characters is most clear. She veers that’s when I’m most enjoying it.” Q
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Holly Lodge is
discreetly positioned
moments from the Fulham Road
in a quiet and secluded location,
with tranquil green views
over the communal gardens
of Evelyn Gardens. Dating
EDFN WR WKH V WKLV VSHFLƌF
neighbourhood was a small
village called Old Brompton
with Thistle Grove originally
being the name for Drayton
Gardens.
Nowadays Little Chelsea and
Old Brompton have merged
into a bustling metropolis
with a multitude of fantastic
restaurants and shops within
walking distance.
With its own private entrance
on Thistle Grove, Holly Lodge
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grand entrance hall leading
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entertainment rooms. Created
and designed for the current
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is made up of a large open plan
kitchen dining room with
elegant Victorian features and
a bay fronted window to the rear.
+ƨƥƥƲ/ƨƝƠƞ
6287+.(16,1*7216:Ʒƶ
This double fronted building
enables the owner to live with
fabulous lateral space; a grand
living room and secret study
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enables you to have the entire
rare opportunity to own a
turn-key home, situated in
a discreet and quiet position
Leo Russell
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RƋIRUSHUVRQDOXVH
Every inch of the apartment has
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the best quality in mind and the
attention to detail makes for an
exquisite home. A large master
bedroom suite is followed by two
further good sized bedrooms and
bathrooms.
For sale £4,250,000
Joint Sole Agents – Savills
020 7225 0277
www.russellsimpson.co.uk

Harley Gardens is
set within the highly
desirable Boltons Conservation
Area – one of the most historic
parts of Chelsea. The Boltons
was built, along with St. Mary’s
Church, during the 1840s, which
was soon followed by the terrace
of houses at Harley Gardens
starting in 1851.
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PDJQLƌFHQWO\SURSRUWLRQHG
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Lara Askew
parking and front gardens,
still to this day carry an air of
elegance with the beautifully
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period features throughout.
Harley Gardens is a quiet and
secluded enclave moments from
the Fulham Road where there
is a multitude of buzzing cafés,
restaurants, shops and bars.
The current family have enjoyed
the house for the past ten years
+ƚƫƥƞƲ*ƚƫƝƞƧƬ
&+(/6($6:Ʒƶ
taking advantage of a large rear
garden, fantastic raised ground
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bedrooms. Combining the
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house with the modern way
of living, this home enables you
to live in an open plan manner on
the garden level with a kitchen,
dining room and conservatory
leading directly to the fabulously
tropical garden.
This house is sold with the added
EHQHƌW RI SODQQLQJ SHUPLVVLRQ
granted to extend via a basement
level increasing the size of the
house by over 1,000 square feet,
approximately 30% growth in
size should an incoming family
feel the necessity for more room
at a later stage.
For sale, asking a price of
£9,700,000
020 7225 0277
www.russellsimpson.co.uk
S U P E R YAC H T C H A R T E R

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GUIDE PRICES THURSDAY TO MONDAY
From £4.995m 10AM – 4PM
OR BY APPOINTMENT

BISHOPS ROW
STEVENAGE ROAD,
FULHAM, LONDON
SW6 6PB 020 8481 7500 | OCTAGON.CO.UK 020 7731 7100
 FROGNAL END
HAMP S T EAD V ILLAGE, N W 3

ONE OF THE FINEST VILLAGE HOUSES TO COME TO THE MARKET

IN MANY YEARS ON A PLOT APPROACHING HALF AN ACRE

On the market for the first time in over 75 years, ‘Frognal End’ is a magnificent
double-fronted detached, Victorian house, currently arranged as two separate
apartments, now in need of modernisation.
Discretely located at the end of a long gated private driveway, the property
comprising almost 6000 square feet (556 sq. m.) arranged predominantly over three
floors, occupying an elevated site approaching half an acre. The extensive gardens
encompass the house on three sides and in addition there is off street parking for
numerous vehicles.
The property offers the opportunity for a discerning family to acquire this rare and
exquisite home, which could be restored to its original state as a single dwelling, or
alternatively, there is the possibility that the existing property could be replaced with
a new bespoke home, subject to the usual local authority consents.

TERMS
Tenure: Freehold | Sole Selling Agents
Guide Price Upon Application
 London is our city
Embassy Gardens is our home
Eg: life, captured on Instagram

To view the newly released

suites, 1, 2 & 3 bedroom
apartments, contact our sales
team on 020 3930 4574

Prices start from £750,000

embassygardens.com

Claimer: These are real residents, who really do live in Embassy Gardens! Images from Instagram @embassygardens #embassygardens
VOGUE ASKS

You spent your youth in nightclubs. Do you still

love to dance? “Every New Year’s Eve I go dancing
at the Cotton House in Mustique [above]. I like disco
music – Gloria Gaynor’s ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’,
Sylvester or A Taste of Honey... the old stuff.”

Which item of clothing

should every woman own?
“A tuxedo. I have a YSL one
from Yves, as well as some
by Anthony Vaccarello, Hedi
Slimane, Haider Ackermann
and Jean Paul Gaultier
couture.” Tuxedo jacket,
£1,965, Saint Laurent by
Anthony Vaccarello

The film that changed your life?

“Koyaanisqatsi [above], the 1982
film directed by Godfrey Reggio – What would
Farida Khelfa do?
an ex-seminarian with a totally
different point of view.”

Advice on love, life and fashion from the model,

actress and documentary filmmaker
What is your idea of bad taste? elegant in a white suit dress – and she was very
There is no bad taste. What was ugly yesterday is funny, regaling me with stories.
beautiful today; and what is beautiful today will What makes a great model?

SAMS; GETTY; GOFF PHOTOS; PIXELATE.BIZ; REX FEATURES/SHUTTERSTOCK

INTERVIEW: ELLIE PITHERS. TOM MUNRO; JASON LLOYD-EVANS; MITCHELL
be ugly tomorrow. A particular face. Not necessarily a beautiful one,
You’ve modelled in numerous fashion shows. but a face you remember. An expression you catch.
Whose was the wildest? How do you deal with creeps?
What’s the best outfit I do not know if it was the wildest, but the most I do not see them. They do not appear in my field
you’ve ever worn?
“My wedding dress unforgettable was when I walked with Tina Turner of view.
[above]: a white for Azzedine Alaïa in the early 1990s. Who taught you to pose?
guipure gown by
Jean Paul Gaultier. It
What’s your worst habit? Nobody did, actually. I learnt by myself. And I’m
originally featured in Sorry, I can’t tell you. still learning.
his couture show, What makes you laugh? How do you know when to trust someone?
when it was orange
[above right].” I laugh easily, but right now I am into Key & Peele, You never know when you can trust someone, you
which my son introduced me to. Jordan Peele was have to take the risk. It is always a risk.
also the director of Get Out. Great artist! What’s your approach to getting older?
How do you feel Of all the people you’ve met, who has surprised It is a chance; to grow older. You are less scared, you
about being called a
muse to designers
you the most? feel better, but you also feel that you are losing
such as Azzedine Alaïa Arletty, the great French actress from Les Enfants something – it’s indefinable, but it’s lost. To live
[right, with Farida]? du Paradis. We had a three-hour lunch. She was with someone you love helps you grow old gracefully.
“My relationships are
about friendships. I do 90 years old and blind, but full of life – her voice What is the last thing you do at night?
not feel I am a muse.” was like a teenager’s. She was marvellous – so I put in my ear plugs. Q
givenchy.com Documented by Steven Meisel
yslbeauty.com

THE NEW FRAGRANCE FOR MEN