Sunday Times Style 03-2023 - Jenna Ortega

12 MARCH 2023
Scream! It’s
JENNA
ORTEGA
THE UNSTOPPABLE RISE OF
THE WEDNESDAY STAR
Plus
THE
SHOES
& BAGS
UPDATE
The Barometer Edited by Priya Elan
Fashion! Beauty! People! Things! Welcome to your weekly guide

to the stuff everyone will be talking about. Do keep up
Will the real Alexis Stone

please stand up?
Move over, Anna Wintour — there’s a new queen of the front
row (and she’s from Brighton). Alexis Stone is a make-up
artist and drag queen fast making a name by impersonating
celebrities at fashion shows, with makeovers so good they
even have the waiting paparazzi duped. The 29-year-old has
transformed into everyone from Dolly Parton to Jocelyn
Wildenstein, aka the Bride of Wildenstein, with the help of
jaw-dropping prosthetics. But it was Stone’s recent
appearance as Jennifer Coolidge at a Diesel fashion
show that had the great and the good (us included) truly Alexis Stone...
fooled.“Jennifer being an all-time icon, it seemed only
right to pay homage to a woman the world loves,” Stone
says, explaining that the makeovers are a “month-long
process of studio work and tests, ahead of the five-hour
transformation on the day of the event”. To quote
Coolidge herself: “Wow, wow and wow!”
... as Mrs Doubtfire
Welcome to the Cell Block H hotel

Austere, bare-brick walls, industrial vibes and … barred windows?
Spending a night in jail (kinda!) is now on the interiors
cognoscenti’s most-wanted lists. Wilmina (top) is a boutique hotel
in an abandoned women’s prison and courthouse in Berlin, ... as Jennifer Coolidge
converted by Grüntuch Ernst Architekten. It opened its doors last
year, welcoming guests to a reimagined cell block housing 44
rooms with original steel doors. At the five-star Bodmin Jail Hotel
(above) in Cornwall, dark Georgian prison spaces are now filled with
light thanks to a glass-topped atrium and huge skylights, while in
Offenburg, Germany, a 19th-century prison has been transformed
into Hotel Liberty, with a restaurant, Wasser & Brot, named for the
inmate staples: water and bread. Finally the Langholmen hotel ... as Dolly Parton
Getty Images
(once one of Sweden’s biggest prisons) is the spot to spend a night

behind bars in Stockholm. Don’t worry, the guards’ peepholes have
been sealed and you come and go as you please with a keycard. ... as Jocelyn Wildenstein
ON THE COVER JENNA ORTEGA PHOTOGRAPH GREG WILLIAMS STYLING CAROLINE NEWELL. DRESS, £740, CHRISTIAN COWAN, FROM SAKS FIFTH AVENUE. SHOES, £360, BY FAR. SOCKS, £13 FOR TWO PAIRS, FALKE
EDITOR LAURA ATKINSON DEPUTY EDITOR CHARLOTTE WILLIAMSON ART DIRECTOR ANDREW BARLOW FASHION DIRECTOR KAREN DACRE BEAUTY DIRECTOR SARAH JOSSEL ACTING BEAUTY DIRECTOR PHOEBE MCDOWELL
FEATURES EDITOR PRIYA ELAN ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR SCARLETT RUSSELL JEWELLERY DIRECTOR JESSICA DIAMOND ASSOCIATE FASHION DIRECTOR VERITY PARKER FASHION AND MERCHANDISE EDITOR FLOSSIE SAUNDERS
BOOKINGS DIRECTOR AND CREATIVE PRODUCER LEILA HARTLEY ACTING BOOKINGS DIRECTOR AND CREATIVE PRODUCER JESSICA HARRISON PICTURE EDITOR CATHERINE PYKETT-COMBES ACTING PICTURE EDITOR LORI LEFTEROVA
SENIOR DESIGNER ANDY TAYLOR JUNIOR FASHION EDITOR HELEN ATKIN STAFF WRITER AND EDITORIAL ASSISTANT ROISIN KELLY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR ALICE KEMP-HABIB CHIEF SUB-EDITOR SOPHIE FAVELL SENIOR SUB-EDITOR JANE MCDONALD
© Times Media Ltd, 2023. Published and licensed by Times Media Ltd, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF (020 7782 5000). Printed by Prinovis UK Ltd, Liverpool. Not to be sold separately
The Sunday Times Style • 13

The Barometer
Heating up
▲ INNER CIRCLES
A front row? How 2022.
The hottest catwalk
shows right now have a
circular seating plan
THOM BROWNE
▲ DESTINATION FABULOUS
Top style and life tips
THOM BROWNE
from fashion editor Anna

Murphy in her new book
▲ PAPER
The unlikely inspiration
LUAR
for Diptyque’s new
fragrance. A4 lined
notepads, anyone?
LUAR
Go, go gadget fashion is here

Forget David Byrne, the new jacket icon is Inspector Gadget’s
▲ THE BACK-ARM TATTOO inflatable trench coat. Supersized suiting has been around for a while,
Back of the upper arm, to be but this season’s shows have taken things up a notch: Raul Lopez of
precise, as seen on pretty Luar made his models look like they were positively drowning in
much every 20-year-old their coats, while the jackets at Thom Browne were fitted with a
model right now knowing wink of exaggeration. We say: go, go gadget shoulder pads!
Cooling down
▼ ‘COMPLETE
DARKNESS RETREATS’
No natural light, no
sound. It’s A Thing, but
sounds like solitary
confinement to us
▼ KALE
Additional words: Victoria Brzezinski, Phoebe McDowell. Photographs: Getty Images, Alamy
It’s all about Brussels

sprouts now (as seen on
the menu at the hot
London restaurants
Primeur and Straker’s)
▼ FLUTES
In Milan the fashion set
are currently drinking
their champagne from
Spice up your staircase
Forget the souped-up utility room — stair runners have become
“deep coupes”
the new interiors must-have. Yes, if you’re serious about keeping up
with the Joneses, your stairs must sing with something long,
▼ ‘HIPSTORIC’ skinny, punchy and patterned. Handwoven from New Zealand
New interiors term to wool, Sophie Cooney’s stair runners (above) are emerging as a firm
describe where hipster favourite among design doyennes. You also can’t go wrong with
meets historic — mixing anything by the French heritage house Pierre Frey. Adding instant
modern furniture with old. oomph, the alpha move is to paint the stairs underneath in a
Cease and desist complementary or, better still, clashing colour. Truly steptacular!
14 • The Sunday Times Style

Headline style
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verovidi dis sim aut optatur lorem ipsum Byline Credit
Scream
QUEEN
Jenna Ortega very nearly said no to Wednesday, the
Tim Burton series that made her a global star at just 20.
Now appearing in Scream VI, she tells Polly Vernon
why she can’t resist embracing her dark side
Photographs Greg Williams Styling Caroline Newell
Petal cutout dress,
£995, Christopher
Kane. Shoes
(throughout), £360,
By Far. Socks,
(throughout), £13
for two pairs, Falke

H
oly shit!” yells Jenna Ortega, say a vaguely controversial thing, they trot out the same
the Disney Channel child star anodyne, interchangeable platitudes, coated in a layer
better known these days as Net- of brittle charm that doesn’t hide how jaded they
flix’s incarnation of the adorably already are, so you start doing the mental arithmetic
creepy style-and-attitude icon on how long until they burn out, break down, career off
Wednesday Addams, straight the rails …
into my face. “I’m sorry, I’m In Ortega’s case, though, it would seem I’m wrong.
sorry, I’m so sorry!” She’s perhaps She has flashed more personality across my laptop
seven and a half minutes late to screen in the course of a minute than some celebs
our Zoom call — I have waited twice her age have in an entire interview hour; if
far longer for celebrities — but she’s not Wednesday Addams exactly, then real-life,
she’s mid regret-laden meltdown regardless. Ortega is unscripted Ortega seems to pack an equivalent person-
zooming from the driver’s seat of her car, parked ality punch — and bonus points for the swearing.
outside her LA apartment, wearing a hoodie, no make- Hooray for having all your daft prejudices overturned in
up, hair tied back in a ponytail, with her fringe, sorry, the time it takes one woman to say, “Holy shit.”
bangs, swooshing about in heightened emotional We’re here to discuss Scream VI, the latest venture for
disarray. “That is, like, the worst! I was trying to do it on the horror franchise that started in the Nineties with
my computer — I can’t do it inside my house because Wes Craven as director, in which Ortega reprises the
there are workers, they just knocked down a wall. I was role of Tara. I haven’t watched it or its predecessor
like, ‘OK! I’m going to do it in my car!’ But the wi-fi’s because I can’t watch horror. Am I pathetic, I ask her.
never been so shit. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m … ” “No. That does not equate.”
Breathe, I interrupt. Can she watch horror?
We inhale and exhale extravagantly, together. “Now I can. Now I love horror films. I used to be a
“Ah. That’s it. We took the breath. Now I feel good.” huge scaredy-cat. Then I became a teenager. And I’ve
As anxiety-provoking as all of this is to Ortega, it’s always been very interested in gore. I don’t know why,
rather great for me. Honestly: I’d thought she would be it’s just this thing I can’t turn away from.”
a bit dull. Though I adore Ortega’s Wednesday — that Is that why she keeps getting cast in horror, I ask.
wonderful, funny, cool, chic little oddball — I’d As well as the Screams, and Wednesday (which, though
assumed the actress who plays her must be not nearly rated 12, has an undeniable horror component), she has
so fun. My past experience of very young celebs (Ortega appeared in Insidious: Chapter 2, The Babysitter: Killer
is just 20) who have been performing for much of their Queen, American Carnage and season two of Netflix’s
brief lives — Ortega got an agent at eight after her slick millennial serial-killer series You. More than one
mother posted a video of her reading a monologue critic has called Ortega a modern scream queen.
on Facebook, started acting professionally at nine, “For some reason people see my face and want to
scored the lead on the Disney Channel’s Stuck in the throw blood on it … I don’t know what it is. I’ve had a
Middle aged 13, got famous, dialled it horror director tell me once my eyes
down a bit with some smaller roles in looked like they could be very inno-
bigger movies until Tim Burton and ‘For some reason cent. It was never intentional, but it’s
Netflix’s Wednesday came calling, and really fun.”
now she’s an international superstar
people see my It looks messy.
— is that they haven’t got a lot to say face and want to “Oh, so messy! I remember,
for themselves. All hints of authen- shooting the last [Scream], waking up
ticity, of odd sweetness, sweet throw blood on at four in the morning, hopping in a
oddness, tend to get buried beneath
media training. They’re so ferociously
it . . . I don’t know hot shower, blow-drying my hair,
ready for set … and then falling to the
briefed by handlers, terrified they’ll what it is’ floor, remembering in one hour I’m
From left Ortega as Wednesday Addams in the dance scene that went viral and with Catherine Zeta-Jones as her on-screen mother

This page Top
(worn as dress),
price on application,
Acne Studios.
Opposite, from top
Petal cutout dress,
£995, Christopher
Kane. Gathered tulle
dress, £2,750,
Dolce & Gabbana
‘I thought
Wednesday
wasn’t going to
be watched.
That it would be
a little gem that
someone finds’
Gathered tulle
dress, £2,750,
Dolce & Gabbana
going to be covered in blood and dirt and sweat and platform’s history, surpassed Stranger Things’s record
guts. You’re never clean. And very sticky. At the end of for the most amount of streamer hours in its first week
the day, when you’re peeling your clothes off, it does — and elevated Ortega to an entirely new level of fame.
that thing where your skin is attached [to the fake blood I ask her if she wanted the role desperately, from the
and prosthetic wound gore], so your skin is kind of first moment she heard about it.
raised up from your body as it slooooooowly separates “No, I didn’t. I got the email, passed on it.” Really?
itself. You’re going to lose a few arm hairs.” Why? “I had done so much TV in my life, all I’ve ever
So you don’t need to wax? wanted to do is film. When I first started acting, I don’t
“No, so that’s a benefit.” want to say nobody believed in me, but at the same
There may be no gore in Wednesday, but it’s her time nobody believed in me. You have to prove yourself.
deadpan stoicism in the face of mortal danger, super- It’s only in the last three or four years that I’ve been able
natural horror and vicious schoolgirl status games that to start going up for film. I was scared that by signing on
is much of the reason she is so adored — and by so to another television show it could prevent me from
many. Wednesday is a breakout success for Netflix; it doing other jobs I really wanted and cared about. The
debuted at No 1 on its release in 83 countries, became only reason I went back is because Tim [Burton,
the second most watched English-language show in the director and executive producer of Wednesday] is such a

This page Tailored
jacket-dress, POA,
Alaïa. Opposite Petal
cutout dress, £995,
Christopher Kane
Hair David Stanwell

using Oribe. Make-up
Mélanie Inglessis at
Forward Artists.
Nails Thuy Nguyen
at A-Frame Agency.
Local production
Fox & Leopard
legend, and we just happened to get along very well. But
even then I said, ‘Ah, no — I think I’m OK,’ a couple
[more] times.”
I tell her how much I enjoyed it, how much everyone
I know enjoyed it, and Ortega seems grateful, if
shellshocked by the vastness of Wednesday’s reception.
“I didn’t expect the reaction. The [Wednesday] cast
and I, I remember, we used to talk about it in Romania
[where the show was filmed], we were like, ‘Hey, what
do you think will happen with the show?’ That was it,
that was the most we ever really got into it. So I thought
it wasn’t going to be watched. That it will be a nice little
gem that someone finds, but … ”
Most people don’t?
“Yeah.”
Would that be preferable?
“Yeah,” Ortega says carefully, like someone who
doesn’t want to seem ungrateful but feels compelled to
be truthful nonetheless. “I used to do a Disney show
when I was younger. I was a little bit of a public figure,
used to get recognised, or whatever. When I look back,
I think I was so out of place. I didn’t understand where I
was … and you start to see Hollywood for the first time,
and it’s a bit intimidating, a bit off-putting … I felt like
I was a people’s princess. I didn’t really feel like myself.
Then it started to slow down and I lived a pretty normal their own versions of it. “No. When they were telling me
life … ” She tails off. Until Wednesday, until now, I think. [it was going viral] I was trying to seem uplifted about it,
Ortega is a perfectionist, she tells me, constantly like, ‘Oh, wow!’ But mentally, in my head, I was hoping
“mentally tweaking and adjusting and people wouldn’t pay so much attention
fixing things in my head: what I should to that part. It’s disorientating. I don’t
have done, what could have been ‘Some actors think people are naturally designed to
better”. I’m guessing she can’t watch
herself on screen? “No! Some actors
watch their have that many eyes on them.”
Nor do I, I tell her, thinking how far
watch their work like game-day work like away the actual experience of fame is
footage, like they’re athletes. I from the fantasy sold by primetime TV
completely understand, but I really game-day talent show impresarios.
can’t. If I have to go to a screening of
something I did, which is very rare, a
footage, like She tells me she needs to find balance,
time for her friends, a life that isn’t all
lot of the times I’ll say, ‘Mmmm, no,’ they’re athletes. work. I tell her I’m worried about her;
but if I do I try to go to the bathroom as she laughs and says: “To specify, I’m
many times as possible, or I’ll randomly
I really can’t’ not completely alone, I do have my core
take a phone call, like, I have to get out.” people I’ve known since I was four or five
I am presuming, therefore, that she hasn’t watched years old, and they’re beautiful and wonderful and
back her famous, pivotal dance scene in Wednesday, the amazing. I’m totally good.”
beautiful, crazy, episode four sequence that has become a Any love life?
TikTok sensation, with teenagers the world over doing “No. Love life — I truly don’t even really consider.
Love life … It’s a really weird job for that, and honestly
it’s never been … I don’t know. I’m definitely more of a
This picture Ortega as work person. I mean, some people figure it out, but I’m
Tara in 2022’s Scream, not really in a place where … I don’t know. It doesn’t
the fifth instalment of the really have anything to do with my work.”
franchise. Above On the But you’re single?
red carpet last month “Yeah.”
Got your eye on anyone?
“If something like that happens, it happens, but I’m
not going to seek it out. I do appreciate my solitude.
Netflix, Paramount, Getty Images
I need it.”
And because this is a gloriously Wednesday Addams-
ish point on which to leave Jenna Ortega, scream
queen, perfectionist, truly reluctant international
acting star, I do. ■
Scream VI is in cinemas now

1
Hello sunshine!
Summer is coming – to your wrist, at least. Think sporty
straps and colour-pop details with a sunny disposition
Edit Jessica Diamond
11
10
Main picture Defy Skyline 36mm in steel with diamonds, £10,600, zenith-watches.com. 1 Superocean Automatic 36 in stainless steel
with rubber strap, £3,750, breitling.com. 2 RM88 in ceramic and red gold with fabric strap, price on application, richardmille.com. 3 Defy Skyline
36mm in steel with rubber strap, £7,500, zenith-watches.com. 4 PRX 35mm in stainless steel, £320, tissotwatches.com. 5 True Thinline x Great
Gardens of the World in ceramic, £1,950, rado.com. 6 Bouncing Blue in bio-sourced material with silicone strap, £109, swatch.com. 7 Formula 1 in
stainless steel with rubber strap, £1,550, tagheuer.com. 8 J12 41mm in ceramic and steel with diamonds, POA, chanel.com. 9 Big Bang Tourbillon
Automatic in Saxem with rubber strap, POA, hublot.com. 10 Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M in stainless steel, £6,100, omegawatches.com. 11 Royal
Oak Selfwinding in yellow gold with turquoise, £52,800, audemarspiguet.com

Going for gold
Yellow, rose and white? This season it’s
all about mixing up your metals
Edit Jessica Diamond
11
10
5
8
Main picture Linkage earrings in white and Sakura gold with pearls and diamonds, £20,100, ring with pearl, diamonds and pink
tourmaline, £14,600, and bracelet with pearls and diamonds, £46,500, tasaki.co.uk. 1 Quatre Blue Edition Mini Ring pendant with
diamond, £3,040, boucheron.com. 2 Solarium ring in sterling silver and gold, £445, Spinelli Kilcollin, matchesfashion.com. 3 Aurora ring
in white and Sakura gold with diamonds, £5,380, tasaki.co.uk. 4 Bracelet in white and yellow gold with diamonds, £1,640, Yvonne Léon,
net-a-porter.com. 5 Scatter Orbit earrings in yellow, white and rose gold with diamonds, £4,900, ananya.com. 6 Stacked ear cuff in
blackened, yellow and white gold with diamonds, £3,640, Eéra, net-a-porter.com. 7 Flutter necklace in platinum and yellow, white and
rose gold, £1,525, siataylor.com. 8 Trinity ring in yellow, white and rose gold, £1,020, cartier.com. 9 Nova earrings in white and rose
gold with diamonds, £8,000, lilygabriella.com. 10 Offspring necklace and pendant in sterling silver and rose gold, £350, georgjensen.com.
11 Iconica bracelet in yellow, white and rose gold, £18,000, Pomellato

KHAITE
TOTEME
ACNE STUDIOS
Bags to basic Bye-bye, bling. The ‘blandbag’ is low-key, luxurious, logo-free

– and this season’s surprise hit, says Karen Dacre
Time hasn’t been kind to the It bag. Much like TFI Friday almost unidentifiable”, noting that customers are
(Chris Evans downing pints on primetime TV, anyone?) increasingly interested in “softer silhouettes with
and those platform trainers the Spice Girls pretended to subtle brand details rather than bold logos”. And
like, the idea that we would hanker for a bag that is loud indeed, you only have to cast your eyes down the New
and obnoxiously expensive is wildly out of date. In section of your favourite luxury fashion website to
These days, with “considered purchasing” a buzz see the evidence. While the big-budget brands once
phrase not just in fashion circles but among anyone went all out on bells, whistles and logos to titivate their
who gives a monkey’s about the future of the planet, latest arm candy, today things are deliberately
handbags are a whole lot more low-key. So much so that restrained, with the season’s hottest handbags defined
in 2023 the thing to have on your arm is not a bag that instead by their anonymity.
can be easily affixed to a particular designer or specific Quietly luxurious, the most-wanted bags of the
season but one that is intentionally understated. moment include the Row’s Park tote (a handbag
Getty Images
Welcome to the age of the blandbag. with its own trench-coat-and-navy-knit-clad fan club),
Liane Wiggins, head of womenswear at Matches- Khaite’s Lotus bag and a smooth leather shoulder tote
fashion, describes this season’s bags as “luxurious but by Saint Laurent (so low-key it goes by the humble

1
name of Shopping). Along with their hefty price tags — 2

anti-It bags don’t come cheap, with the Park weighing
in at about £2,000 and the Lotus even more — they are
all bound together by the fact that they are almost
entirely free of branding. The joy of the anti-It bag is not
the fact that everyone knows you’ve got enough cash to
shop at Bottega Veneta (famous for its £4,000 leather
trousers) but the complete opposite.
A friend who works in advertising tells me that
anonymity drew her to the Park tote. “It’s just the
perfect everyday bag,” she says when I quiz her. “It fits
all my essentials, including my laptop, and goes with
everything. Of course it’s expensive but I’ll still be 3
using it in ten years’ time. It’s definitely not about
showing off. I think I’m a bit old for that.”
She’s far from alone in her thinking. Net-a-Porter
reports that its customers are increasingly drawn to 4
quiet luxury, and particularly when it comes to hand-
bags. “The main inspiration and appeal of a quiet luxury
bag is that it can transcend trends and seasons and
slots right into our wardrobes,” says Libby Page, market
director at Net-a-Porter. Along with brands like the 1 Sigma bag, £695, neous.co.uk. 2 Landscape tote,
Row, newer labels such as Savette, Neous and Toteme £259, arket.com. 3 Second-hand Khaite handbag, £603,
are also making the decision to keep logos decidedly vestiairecollective.com. 4 Park tote, £1,960, therow.com
low profile.
“Timelessness and quality are being valued more
than ever across all areas of culture,” says Vanissa the shoulder. While It bags were adored for their
Antonious, the former fashion editor who founded ostentatious qualities, the antithesis is a bag that is
the accessories brand Neous. The brand’s elegantly nothing if not functional.
designed Sigma bucket bag is among its bestsellers. When shopping for yours, the other thing worth
“What everyone really wants is a bag that does it all,” knowing is that it need not be brand-new. On the
she adds. contrary, some of the most desirable bags around
Indeed, a do-it-all bag is more crucial than ever in this right now are available on the resale market. Vestiaire
age of working from here, there and everywhere. Collective says that searches for bags from labels with
The best quiet handbags are large enough to carry a low-key branding are up. While “shiny and new” was
laptop and come with long straps that can be slung over once the fashion diehard’s key motivation, “chic
and lived-in” is what those in the know
consider modern now.
The fashion website Coveteur recently
Plain and simple Low-key declared a “beat-up handbag” to be spring/
bags make their own summer 2023’s hottest trend, noting that
street style statement more and more of us are looking for less
polished-looking styles when shopping
for accessories. Vestiaire confirms the
demand for “less pristine” bags among
its customers, noting that searches have
doubled in the past six months and
tripled in the past year.
Of course, it’s a demand driven by
price: if you don’t have £2,000 to
spend on a Lotus bag, the second-hand
version is a more accessible alterna-
tive. But the pursuit of imperfection is
about more than that. If there is
fashion kudos to be earned from
wearing a low-key handbag on your
shoulder, the second-hand version will win
you even more.
Whisper it: the quiet handbag is going
nowhere. The rest is noise. ■ @karendacre

One wedding and
a baby (bump)
Photograph Grey Hutton
Due to give birth in just ten days, relaxed about having our son out of wedlock — what with
it no longer being the Fifties — but it felt romantic, and
Laura Pullman also found herself possibly easier, to get married with a manageable bump
rather than a mewling baby.
getting married. But what to wear? Post-proposal, driving through the wilderness outside
Reykjavik last November, I called our local register office
Hot pink with vertiginous heels – and in London, Old Marylebone Town Hall, looking for a
maternity shapewear (of course) slot before Christmas. Alas, the next availability for the
£250 “You Plus Two” ceremony — the couple and
two witnesses — was October 2023. So much for sponta-
A brilliant New Yorker cartoon came out last year that neity. Then a cancellation came up: midweek, late January,
showed a man on bended knee proposing to his girlfriend. 9.30am and ten days before my due date. Not exactly
“Will you spend 18 months and tens of thousands of dollars a no-brainer but we took it. First babies are always
planning a party with me?” read the caption. Shortly after- late, right?
wards, under a wide Icelandic sky on a final holiday before What to wear as a nine months pregnant bride is a
the arrival of our first child, my boyfriend of six years asked sartorial head-scratcher. An expensive meringue dress was
me to marry him. Geordie already knew what my answer out of the question: I’d never dreamt of being a princessy
would be: yes please, but let’s get on with it. bride and with a baby imminently incoming I was loath
Not for me the guest list quagmire, cake-tasting sessions to spend thousands on something I’d wear only once.
(delicious as they sound) and ballooning budgets. We were Children, I’m told, can cost a bit.

Having happily lived in black between the unborn baby being the
dungarees throughout my preg- size of a butternut squash and
nancy, I searched online for white the size of a cantaloupe melon (an
dungarees before it dawned on me app tracks these crucial things) my
that I’d likely resemble a beer- belly button, a lifelong innie, became
bellied painter-decorator. Then I an outie and protruded clearly
ruled against traditional white alto- through my dress. “I think it’s chic,”
gether — not many of us are virgin said one friend on seeing a photo.
brides these days, but it felt particu- “Cover it with a Compeed blister
larly unnecessary to stick to that plaster,” said another, warning that
monochrome script while heaving she’d used masking tape to squish
around actual evidence of my sex down her pregnancy belly button
life. Far better in the bleak and it had become infected. My
midwinter for my clothes to bring solution was maternity shapewear
some colourful sunshine. Opposite Laura with her new husband, shorts from Seraphine, which start
As my interest in outfit-hunting Geordie. Above In her Sleeper pyjamas below the boobs, end above the
waned, I roped in my most stylish knees and make Bridget Jones’s
girlfriend, Henri, who loves a knickers look positively skimpy.
challenge. I gave her the brief: Oh groan, what about wedding
bright, budget-friendly, bump-practical. “Tight or loose on night lingerie? I rifled through my linen bag of Agent
bump?” she WhatsApped, leaping into action. “No Provocateur underwear bought in sales by ex-boyfriends
disguising it at that point so let’s embrace but not in a years ago. Not a chance of any of that fitting, which was
Rihanna way,” I replied. She sidestepped my suggestion of a probably for the best. With any energy for shopping for
£22 Asos spotty viscose dress paired with silver cowboy sexy undies deserting me, I told myself that it’s best not to
boots with a polite “I see the direction”. set unrealistic expectations on night one of marriage.
On Henri’s advice, bouncing on my hot-pink birthing Rings also proved tricky. Geordie had proposed with a
ball, I ordered a hot-pink, feather-trimmed pyjama set gold wedding ring that was ideal except too small for my
from Sleeper (£227.50 down from £325 in the Black puffy pregnancy fingers. However, as we’d be exchanging
Friday sales). When it arrived it fitted with room to grow rings in the ten-minute ceremony, I needed something.
and — praise be — had an elasticated waist. The first thing While buying Geordie his wedding ring in Mejuri, I spied a
I tried on and I’d sorted my wedding outfit. Oh, what deli- bubblegum-pink enamel heart ring (£88) and its childish-
cious smugness. Now I could instead focus on how to ness made me smile. Girlfriend, wife or mother, aren’t we all
avoid the looming identity crisis that I’d soon be going playing at adulthood anyway? I was sold.
from an independent, career-minded girlfriend to a With two days to go, I dug out my mother’s wedding
mother and a wife within a matter of days. Answers to that shoes from 1986 — elegant ivory kitten heels by “Stuart
dilemma on a postcard please. Weitzman for Russell & Bromley”, perfect for my “some-
Fast forward to January, a few weeks until the (not very) thing old”. My dry cleaner reheeled and extended the strap
big day, and outfit anxiety crept in. Geordie would be so my swollen feet could squeeze into them. My soon-
wearing a navy suit designed by Charlie Casely-Hayford, to-be mother-in-law lent me her Theo Fennell silver heart
a knockout tailor and friend. Tiny wedding or otherwise, sod necklace for “something borrowed” and for “something
being outshone by the groom. I was suddenly irritated that blue”, to the horror of the manicurist who was pushing for
I wasn’t my usual size and couldn’t wear what I’d long more pink, I had my nails painted with an OPI polish
imagined I’d get married in: a white suit. Think Diane called It’s a Boy!.
Keaton in The First Wives Club rather than electioneering On the day, as I walked to the town hall in my tatty
Hillary Clinton in 2016. Converse trainers, clutching my mum’s shoes to change
After work I headed to Whistles on a last-minute scout. into last-minute, I felt like a beautiful bride, albeit one with a
A fuchsia velvet dress was nice on my newly acquired boobs sore lower back.
— pregnancy not plastic — but a smidge Sloaney. Another Certainly there are positives and negatives to a shotgun
dress, a collaboration with the London-based brand Hai, wedding. To be able to ignore completely the pernicious
was highlighter-pen pink, silk and felt suitably special. cultural expectations of losing weight before getting
Another £198 taken out the baby savings. married — #wedshred — was a blessing. My pre-wedding
Now I needed a jacket. At the best of times hitting Zara’s diet involved endless Mr Kipling Mini Battenbergs and
January sales on Oxford Street isn’t much fun; as an over- absolutely no guilt. On the downside, cheap heels and pelvic
heated pregnant woman it’s torturous. I retreated to Reiss girdle pain don’t make for happy bedfellows. In the evening,
and found a cream double-breasted blazer. Yes, sex is for dinner à deux with my shiny new husband, I wore shiny
great but have you ever had a full-price item sold to you new platforms with my Sleeper suit and the shooting
discounted because it was accidentally labelled in the sale? pelvis agony couldn’t even be relieved with alcohol. Geordie
I skipped home with my purchase — a reasonable £175 helped me hobble from the restaurant back to our hotel via
Make-up: Lucinda Worth
rather than a punchy £298 — to tell Geordie of my luck. a newsagent to buy Ferrero Rocher to eat in the bath.
“You’re practically saving money at this point,” he said, The skies were grey, it was bitingly cold, I couldn’t drink
eyebrow arched. cocktails or fit into a chic suit, but none of that stuff really
Never did I think my belly button would play such a large mattered. I stroked the bump poking out of the bathwater:
role in my wedding outfit planning, but at some point “Mummy and Daddy just got married and it was perfect.” ■

TUNE IN
I’m sitting in a Notting Hill church on a

Move over, manifestation – intuition is Saturday morning with 75 strangers who have
the new wellness buzzword in town. gathered, quite simply, to learn to trust their guts.
“You’re all intuitives,” Laura Day, author and
Emily Cronin speaks to the celebrity Demi Moore’s favourite intuitive, assures the
crowd. “Whether or not you believe in intuition,
coaches on how best to trust your gut it’s operating in your life at all times.”

Haven’t heard the i-word? Get ready to notice Participants say the courses have equipped them
it everywhere. If 2022 was the year that The with greater self-trust, confidence and decisiveness.
manifestation went mainstream, then 2023 is beginner’s Which appeals — I’m a deliberate overthinker,
shaping up to be the year of intuition. The concept
is simple: knowledge arising from the self. And Day
guide to a nice way to say I’m often frozen with indecision,
stuck between what I want, what I should want
is far from the only one talking about it. Fleur trusting and what seems most sensible or correct. I had
Leussink, Lana Del Rey’s medium, offers intuition
courses and retreats to help acolytes “recalibrate
your gut 20 wallpaper samples on the walls of my downstairs
loo for so long that friends asked if it was a
your intuition to give you a deeper and more By the A-list decorative choice, when it was the opposite.
profound connection of self-trust, inner peace and intuition coach Practitioners use “intuition” to mean different
tangible connection to spirit”. On TikTok, intuition Fleur Leussink things (Leussink and Nafousi’s intuition is
tests, testimonials to the power of intuition and self-knowledge, an internal GPS for how to live;
other videos with the hashtag “intuition” have FIND THE BEST Day’s definition of intuition is “the ability to
racked up nearly three billion views. The witchy, WAY YOU CAN know what is seemingly unknowable”, akin to
good-vibes fragrance brand Vyrao even has a TO RELAX psychic skills). But they agree: everything is better
perfume geared towards helping wearers access It could be going for when you listen to it. “I always try to go back to
their intuition. Called (what else?) The Sixth, it a run, gardening, asking myself, ‘What was the first instinct I had?’
smells of apple, basil, cypress and patchouli, among showering — or, Because that often helps guide me to the right
other allegedly intuition-promoting ingredients. ideally, meditation, if place,” Nafousi says.
“People are talking about intuition more that works for you. “I’ve used intuition in everything I’ve ever
because there’s more focus on inner done. When I haven’t, things haven’t always
transformation and taking control of our lives,” THEN START WITH worked out so well,” says Yasmin Sewell, the
says Roxie Nafousi, a self-development coach and A LOW-STRESS fashion consultant turned founder of Vyrao.
Gen Z’s go-to guru for all things manifesting. DECISION Following her instincts led her to back the right
“Part of that is being able to trust our own When you’re trying horses when it came to launching design
decisions and not constantly be looking for the to be intuitive, talents. (She mentored the designer Jonathan
answers from other people. And so to do that we instead of starting Anderson in the early days of his brand and
have to start looking at our intuition and trusting with a high-stakes encouraged him to launch womenswear:
how we feel about a situation.” situation — such “I don’t know why, it was just a feeling I had.”
For Leussink, intuition represents the other as “I have to Now he’s the designer behind Loewe’s agenda-
side of the psychic skills she uses in readings with know if I’m leaving setting collections.)
Del Rey, Emma Roberts and other celebs. “Five this job or this “Intuition is ultimately about being connected
or six years ago I had this moment when I realised relationship” — with yourself and listening to what you feel,
that all the information I was receiving was for practise in an even if it doesn’t totally make sense,” Sewell says.
other people. But when it came to my own life easy way. Train “If you tune into it and work with it, it’s a bit of
I wasn’t that connected,” she says. She had yourself from a a superpower.”
received intuitive messages before — most place of curiosity, OK, but … so much that falls under the
memorably in 2018, when she was travelling in not pressure. wellness umbrella seems like White Lotus
Cambodia and ignored an urge to cut the trip rubbish — the preserve of people with the
short and go home early. Yet she heeded another CHECK HOW time, money and (yes) privilege to contemplate
inexplicable compulsion, to “buy really good EMOTIONAL YOU ever-vaguer modes of self-optimisation. Do we
medical travel insurance” — a decision she ARE ABOUT IT really need to take special classes and buy special
appreciated after a horrific car accident days later. When you’re getting products to get better at trusting our guts?
The accident and warnings that preceded it an intuitive hit, “People do, actually,” Sewell says. “We do need
were the wake-up calls Leussink needed to be take a moment tools. I get caught up in life and work and worries,
more attentive to her instincts. In her mentorship and check: “How and I can very easily tune out. We all have an inner
sessions, online classes and week-long retreats in emotional am I about knowing. As much as that sounds a bit woo-woo,
Portugal and Sicily, she teaches others — mostly this?” If you are it’s true. We’ve got it all. The answers are there.”
women — to do the same. Which requires tuning stressed or feeling Shortly after speaking with Sewell I get an
out external feedback. “Intuition is the language anxious, it’s probably email about a work opportunity. Normally I’d say
of your own spirit to your conscious mind. It’s not intuition. yes first, figure out how to make it all work later.
the moment that your spirit is able to tell your But I’m staring down a crazy week; do I really
conscious mind its desires, its direction, the path IF YOUR want to accept a piece of work that’s going to
for you. But it’s not about anybody else.” EMOTIONS ARE make my days more frantic? I sit and think about
Bater & Street/Trunk Archive
Leussink guides participants through exercises HIGH, GO BACK it, noticing the emotions that creep in. I ask
designed to help them determine how they receive TO STEP ONE myself, do I want to take this on? A clear, calm
intuition and discern how it differs from anxiety Do that thing voice from within answers: no. I pass, and instead
and other emotions. And since “we cannot be that brings you joy/ of my usual second-guessing I don’t think about it
intuitive unless the body is relaxed”, there’s a lot of de-stresses you for the rest of the day. And guess what? That feels
that too, in the form of breathwork and movement. and try again. right, all the way to my gut. ■

WHAT A
CARRY ON
From bright feathers to power prints, spring’s bags are full of fun
Photographs Alina Asmus Styling Flossie Saunders

This page Suede dress,
£4,140, and double
pouch bag, £555,
Ferragamo. Large ruffle
bag, £1,290, Molly
Goddard. Opposite Ribbed
bra, £750, embellished
tulle top, £5,500, apricot
shorts, £650, white shorts,
£350, and embellished
tulle skirt, £5,500, Miu Miu.
PVC trench coat, £3,200,
Dolce & Gabbana. Pink
tote, £2,600, Prada. Small
Lola bag, £2,090, Burberry
From left Purple and
red biker coat, £4,520,
Chloé. PVC Sicily bag,
price on application,
Dolce & Gabbana. Red
trench coat, £5,570,
Tod’s. Peekaboo Cut
bag, £3,700, Fendi
Ribbed top, £260,
Toteme. Technical
fabric skirt, £970, and
bag, £1,200, Sportmax

Leather dress,
£4,050,
Louis Vuitton.
Oskan Moon
bag, £595,
Isabel Marant

From left Red
cashmere and
mohair dress, £3,150,
Loewe. Tights, £250,
Valentino. Tote,
£1,850, Valentino
Garavani. Blue top,
£380, Tory Burch.
Crepe trousers,
£1,000, and silver
Jackie 1961 bag,
£2,290, Gucci. Blue
bag, £7,000, Hermès
Vest, £590, cotton
top, £720, cotton
underskirt, £680,
cutout leather
skirt, £8,060, and
small Kalimero
bag, £5,300,
Bottega Veneta
Cardigan, £1,020,
and miniskirt,
£650, Missoni. First
bag, £2,450, Fendi.
Sunglasses, £300,
Stella McCartney
Hair Lewis Pallett at Eighteen Management using Keune. Make-up Sunao Takahashi at Saint Luke using Shiseido.
Nails Cherrie Snow using Dior manicure collection and Miss Dior hand cream. Models Elvina Patrick and Jessica Luostarinen at Wilhelmina

Scouting for

girls Kate Moss was
famously discovered at
JFK airport – but what
does it take to be the
next big supermodel
now? Good manners
and a savvy social
media presence,
finds Alex Rayner
Last June a blonde, middle-aged woman approached a

young girl in the car park of a Waitrose in Romsey,
a Hampshire market town on the edge of the New
Forest. Any onlooker standing by one of the parking
bays may have assumed this brief conversation was
somehow grocery-related; not so. That woman was
Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm Management and the
model scout who launched the careers of Kate Moss,
Cara Delevingne and Anya Taylor-Joy. That girl had just
been invited to join the agency.
We don’t know whether their summer ’22 meeting
will lead to great things. “She’s still sending me
pictures,” Doukas says today. Nevertheless, this brief
encounter shows how, in a time of great change and
in an industry dedicated to new trends, the practice of
model scouting has on the one hand evolved a lot over
the past few years — and, in other ways, remained
almost the same.
Late last year the Italian model Vittoria Ceretti
kicked up a storm (no pun intended) when she
reacted to a magazine interview with Lily-Rose Depp.
The daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis
pushed back at the idea she was a nepo baby — the
child of a celebrity who has capitalised on nepotism
to break into entertainment fields, including model-
ling. Ceretti, who has worked with Chanel and Prada,
said she’d love to see if Depp “would have lasted
through the first five years of my career … you have no
f***ing idea how much you have to fight to make
people respect you”.
Kaia Gerber, Iris Law, Eve Jobs — it certainly feels
like fashion is awash with the offspring of the A list.
Yet scouts admit this is simply part of the business.
“I would like to see a model who comes from
nowhere succeed,” says Ginny Edwards Maxwell, an
American scout who has discovered such faces as
the Victoria’s Secret model Hannah Jeter and Liza
Golden. “But to be honest this has been happening
Models waiting since the beginning of modelling. The first models
backstage at an back in the Sixties were socialites.”
Isabel Marant Hunting for young boys and girls in their natural
catwalk show, Paris habitat — and IRL — remains the chief way model-
ling agencies find their new faces. “We have most of

our success pavement-pounding,” says Tara Le Roux, Above The smartphones are making kids stay at home. “They’re
co-founder of the London modelling agency Linden model board getting so much stimulation from their social media.
Staub. “Shopping centres are great, for instance, backstage When I was growing up you were desperate to get out of
simply because kids go there. We’ve also found at a Tom Ford the house.”
models on the bus and at music events — though catwalk show. A big social media following can also spell modelling
those places can be saturated with model scouts. Opposite, success. “Brands don’t just want people for how they
A few years back at Justin Bieber concerts there used from top Cindy look, they want their social equity,” Le Roux says.
to be scout wars in the queues.” Crawford’s “They’ll say, ‘We’d love a blonde girl but she’ll need
Joey Tachie-Menson, a Storm scout, still favours daughter, Kaia 200,000 followers on TikTok, and as part of the deal
festivals, shows at the O2 and even the occasional trip Gerber, the social they’ll need to do a post.’” Le Roux came across the
to the airport. The arrivals hall at Heathrow is easiest, media discovery content creator Florence Baitio via social channels.
he says, as prospective models have more time to talk. Paloma Elsesser, Baitio was already well established on social media but
“In departures they’ve got to run because they’ve got and the Italian had never modelled. Now, with Linden Staub’s help,
a flight to catch.” (A famous exception to the rule: model Vittoria she has two income streams. “She pairs social jobs with
Kate Moss, who was discovered by Doukas in JFK’s Ceretti traditional modelling jobs,” Le Roux says.
departure lounge when she was 14.) Indeed, given the commercial incentives, pretty much
The biggest change to scouting in recent years, all models feel some pressure to have sizeable social
though, has been social media, both in how new talent followings. “It is essentially free advertising space and a
is found and in shaping a model’s subsequent success. great way of creating and promoting your image online,”
Maxwell says she often turns to Instagram (where Le Roux says. “We recommend our talents treat them as
former Style cover girl Paloma Elsesser was discovered) professional networks, like an online CV, but it is hard —
and TikTok for scouting, partly because she believes the lines between personal and professional life can

become so blurred we find it important to help them
establish good boundaries in their online presence.” ‘A few years back at
But they know not to meddle too much. “When an
account is overly managed it becomes less about the Justin Bieber concerts
personality and more of business page, which defeats
the point,” she continues. “All agencies these days will
there used to be scout
be scouting online. If they aren’t they are missing out.”
So what are these scouts looking for? The ideal
wars in the queues’
prospect “would preferably be a girl above 5ft 8in”,
Doukas says. “You’ve got to look at someone in profile good eye and is professional and friendly. “We only
and face on. They’ve got to have this aquiline nose, have female scouts, not out of choice, but when
they’ve got to have these cheekbones and a jawline, you’re approaching young women it helps to be a
and be photogenic.” young woman.”
Simple, high school sweetheart looks won’t cut it Doukas shares this gender bias. “It’s difficult for a
in couture circles, which can surprise some of the man to do it but they can.” Tachie-Menson has
people the scouts encounter. Maxwell remembers overcome any gender difficulties, but he recognises
coming across one of her finds, the Valentino and a lot of the success in scouting lies in soft, empa-
Marc Jacobs model Briggs Rudder, in the mall among thetic skills. “You approach from the front, never
a group of other girls, who were all accompanied by from behind. You hand them the card, you hand
their mothers. The parents made it clear to Maxwell them your ID, you encourage them to reach out —
they thought she’d picked the wrong kid. and if they’re under 18 you ask for the parent or guard-
High fashion aside, a growing call for more diverse ian’s details.”
looks has strengthened the demand for ages, faces He isn’t alone when it comes to looking for the
and body types you probably wouldn’t see on the adults in the room. “If they’re with a parent
catwalks of Paris or New York. “I now work with I approach a parent,” Maxwell says. This is more
girls who are all different shapes and sizes,” Le than simple politeness. In 2013 the state of New
Roux says. “Anything from Amazon to M&S, now York passed legislation restricting the age of
there’s a push for diversity.” catwalk models to 18 and over, while in Europe
When a scout approaches a prospective model, Kering and LVMH established a charter in 2017
initial reactions vary. Some will have been for the wellbeing of models that introduced an
approached by other agencies, and a few may age limit of 16 and over.
have been exploited by con artists posing as Scouts still sign kids under this age (often
model scouts. “We get calls from mums who say, just 14 or 15) and many prospective models are
‘We’ve just had to pay £1,000 for a photoshoot,’” entered into a kind of talent development
Tachie-Menson says. “It’s fake agencies posing as programme. “They have test shots taken, we
middlemen, offering to produce a book for kids or teach them to walk, encourage them to work
make introductions. None of this is necessary, you hard at school,” Doukas says. “There are a few jobs
can walk off the street and approach agencies.” they can do, but not many. That’s the development
Successful scouts aren’t simply those able to recog- process, we have to invest a huge amount. It might
nise exceptional looks, they also need highly cali- take two years to get them ready. That’s the bit of the
brated people skills. Le Roux says a good scout has a iceberg that no one sees.”
Not everyone makes it through this vetting process.
Maxwell says only about half the girls she approaches
Sarah Doukas with call her back, and fewer still end up working in the busi-
Kate Moss in 1998 ness. “Models need to be a bit older now, and it’s hard
to model and do college at the same time,” she says. “If
all your friends are going to college, it takes a pretty
big leap of faith to do something different.” Other
nonvisual qualities help a teen make it from the mall to
magazine covers. “They’ve got to be polite and they’ve
got to be professional,” Doukas says. “The days of
turning up hours late are over.”
At present good model scouting calls for a mix of
old-school connections and judgment combined with
new tech agilities. Storm’s founder explains how her
son-in-law met the NFL player Kenny Stills during a
heli-skiing trip to Vancouver. Intrigued, Doukas
checked out the athlete online and learnt that not only
Getty Images, Camera Press
was he at the vanguard of the Black Lives Matter move-

ment (Stills has been taking the knee before games
since 2016) but he also had his eye on the catwalk.
“He’s mad about fashion and absolutely beautiful,” she
says breezily. “I DM’d him on Instagram — and he just
walked at Paris Fashion Week.” ■

Specs appeal
A good pair of glasses
can be the ultimate
accessory. So where do
the fashion pack get
theirs? First-time wearer
Claire Cohen finds out
Call me smug, and many have, but I’ve
always had perfect vision. The sort of 20/20
eyesight that meant I could read any sign or
distant bus number. It became one of those
small things that defined me — every trip
to the optician producing the same perfect
result. I knew where I stood. Yet part of me
wanted glasses. It felt ridiculous to wish
my clear-sightedness away, but every time
I helped my husband pick a new pair of
frames I had a pang of envy. It can be tricky
to make your personality shine through in
your clothing, yet bold glasses seemed a
way to define yourself. Choose well and
people would remember them, and you.
Then it happened. A survey by the charity
Fight for Sight found that 38 per cent of
those who used screens more during lock-
down believed their eyesight had been
affected — and I was one of them, suddenly
finding myself with what one optician
described as a “baby prescription”. Small
but definitely there.
And it does feel a bit like that. By the age
of 39, after all, you figure you know your face,
what make-up works and whether to wear
gold jewellery. Now I feel as if I have to go
back to the start and get to know my features
again — not to mention stare at myself in
the mirror an uncomfortable amount.
“Most people don’t really want to wear
glasses,” says Tom Broughton, who founded
the “modern spectacle maker” Cubitts in
2012. “There’s a reason that every time my
dad has a photo taken he removes his. But
it’s changing and people are getting braver.”
You only have to look around to see that.
Gone are the days of rimless specs designed
to minimise the impact of glasses — now it’s
the bigger the better. On Instagram the
stylist Loïcka Grâce posts pictures of herself
in her oversized Celines, the Project Runway
judge Elaine Welteroth is rarely without her
aviators, and the pro-age activist Roz Kaur,

56, has an endless collection of graphic came from. But there’s no shame in it now.”
black frames. Broughton tells me Cubitts
has just sold a pair to Ariana Grande. Even
You’ve I don’t feel ashamed but I do feel daunted.
Having expressed a desire to wear specs for
my mum has orange glasses — something
Rufus Abbott, founder of the eyewear
been framed so long, now the moment has arrived I’m
wobbling. Of one thing I am sure: contacts
consultancy the Goods Agency, calls “the are not for me, having seen my husband
Prue Leith effect”. 1 1385 frames, £325, cutlerandgross.com. digging around in his eyeballs once too
We’re also buying more, which the 2 Barnsbury glasses, £150, cubitts.com. often. In fact, just 9 per cent of UK adults
experts put down to us spending so much 3 Marshall frames, £135, finlayandco.com. wear them. Dailies, the experts tell me,
time gazing at our own faces on Zoom and, 4 Hexagonal glasses, £149, Marc Jacobs, are increasingly seen by Gen Z as lacking
frankly, getting bored. “There has been a specsavers.co.uk. 5 Classic V Navigator eco-credentials. Meanwhile, vintage frames
revolution in how we see glasses,” says frames, £259, victoriabeckham.com are surging in popularity. Jo Skelton, of Peep
Claudia Croft, editor of the fashion maga- Eyewear, which sells preloved and vintage
zine 10, who has five pairs on rotation, specs, says they can be more affordable and
including her favourites from the Danish have the bonus of being unique. “Why wear
brand Orgreen. “For me now it’s about a mass-produced copy when you can wear
having an eyewear wardrobe — it’s like the real deal?” she asks. It can also be a more
we’ve all become mini Elton Johns.” affordable way to get those designer frames
1
Put simply, glasses have gone from neces- you’re lusting after — the site Retrospecced
sity to accessory — and seeing as about sells refurbished preloved specs, many of
75 per cent of UK adults need visual correc- 2 which are current models, for about £50.
tion, surely it’s time we took some pleasure While Klasik, online and at Old Spitalfields
in it. Hannah Smith, of the French brand Market, offers one-of-a-kind glasses that date
Jimmy Fairly, says its customers often buy from the 1920s to the 2000s for between
acetate frames for the week and sleek metal £150 and £200.
ones for the weekend, which look dressier. Ah, yes, the budget question. Do you go
Its current bestsellers — and every expert 3 with luxury stalwarts like Cutler and Gross
tells me the same — are Seventies-inspired and Oliver Peoples? Trend-led brands such
and square, particularly aviator styles, with as Cubitts, Jimmy Fairly and Bloobloom,
coloured lenses. which reduce prices by cutting out the
“We think it’s because of all the popular middle men? Or how about high street
serial killer series, like Ted Bundy and opticians like Specsavers and Boots, which
Jeffrey Dahmer,” she says. “It’s super- have upped their game in response? Abbott
strange but it works really well in playful 4 also tells me about a new wave of super-luxe
colours, on men and women.” Which, brands like Jacques Marie Mage and Lunet-
frankly, makes my ambition to look like the terie Générale, whose artisan Japanese
love child of Alexa Chung and Iris Apfel frames are sold as investment pieces. The
somewhat less alarming. former doesn’t even give prices on its
Still, it’s hard to know where to begin. website, telling customers to “contact an
After all a pair of glasses is something that 5 adviser”, but you can expect to pay a
sits in the middle of your face every single minimum of £600. Help!
day. It might be the first thing you reach for Croft suggests starting somewhere that
in the morning and the last thing you take stocks a big range, like David Clulow or
off at night. “You have a complex emotional Selfridges, to see what suits your face. Mine,
relationship with them,” Broughton says. I’m told, is oval — which means I can wear
Croft agrees: “I had to start wearing most styles and restores some of my smug-
glasses in my forties and it was a day of reck- Below Cohen wearing frames by, from left, ness. Even my small head isn’t a problem,
oning. You feel like you’re getting old and Cubitts, Jimmy Fairly and Bailey Nelson. given that many brands now produce
that’s probably where the shame about them Opposite Backstage at a Paul & Joe show multiple sizes, even for oversized frames.
Croft lets me in on some more tricks: a
cat’s eye or wide frame can lift your face;
detailing where the arms join the frame can
brighten your complexion; and consider
having sunglasses converted into opticals,
as they can be more adventurous. “It’s an
opportunity to do something stylish and
make yourself memorable,” she adds.
So that’s what I do, picking a pair of
caramel-coloured sunglasses and replacing
the lenses. Will I still love my starter specs
in a year’s time? Who knows? But as a mini
Imaxtree
Elton in the making, I can at least start

building my glasses wardrobe now. ■

Motherland
Cosy cashmere and jaw-dropping gems? Here’s how
to treat the No 1 lady in your life next weekend
Edit Helen Atkin
1
2 3
4
6
5
7
11
8
9 10
12
14 15
13
16
18
17
19
Token of love
1 Jumper, £330, madeleine-thompson.com. 2 Sunglasses, £150, finlayandco.com. 3 Wellies, £135, hunterboots.com. 4 Dior Prestige Le Cushion
Teint de Rose, £93, dior.com. 5 Bookworm Candle, £65, paulsmith.com. 6 Bookend, £35, conranshop.co.uk. 7 Ring, £410, rachelboston.co.uk.
8 Flower scissors, £28, Niwaki, woodandmeadow.com. 9 Glass tumbler, £95 for four, lamuertetienepermiso.com. 10 Hammock, £76,
thehammock.co.uk. 11 Bag, £410, missoni.com. 12 Heavenly Gingerlily, £120 for 100ml EDP, moltonbrown.co.uk. 13 Nailbrush, £15, and soap,
£5, oxfordbrushcompany.com. 14 Ring, £99, kurtgeiger.com. 15 Notebook, £30, dunelondon.com. 16 Earrings, £120, sandralexandra.com.
17 Nutrient-Charged Water Gel moisturiser, £65, murad.co.uk. 18 Lambswool throw, £185, issygranger.com. 19 Tin O’ Twine, £7, nutscene.com

2 3 4
1
6 7
5
11
9
10
12
13
14
15
18
16
17
Cool classics
1 Tank top, £99, Jaeger, marksandspencer.com. 2 Plate, £48.50, Minnie-Mae Stott, glassette.com. 3 Letterbox flowers, £35 (vase not included),
bloomandwild.com. 4 Hand mixer, £150, smeguk.com. 5 Bean pot, £105, Hay, couvertureandthegarbstore.com. 6 Botanist candle, £19,
Urban Olfactory, tkmaxx.com. 7 Spice spoon, £7, kabinshop.com. 8 Core Collection Brush Set, £30 for four brushes, No7, boots.com. 9 The
Longines Master Collection watch, £2,250, longines.com. 10 Pyjamas, £125, toa.st. 11 The Body Cream, £145, augustinusbader.com. 12 Leather
bag, £69, marksandspencer.com. 13 Memo block, £210, smythson.com. 14 Picnic basket, £195, Les Jardins de la Comtesse, selfridges.com.
15 Slippers, £45.50, geox.com. 16 Set of six spoons, £36, artemisdeco.com. 17 Napkins, £38 each, volgalinen.com. 18 Jug, £75, wovenrosa.com

HOT STEPPERS Boot season begone! From ballet
flats to wedges with a twist, here’s how
to step into spring
1
4
3
5
6
7 8
First position
Main picture Bow ballerinas, £46, mango.com. 1 Red ballet flats, £690,
therow.com. 2 Beige ballet flats, £300, atpatelier.com. 3 Bow ballet flats, £195,
Porte & Paire, net-a-porter.com. 4 Black ballerinas, £50, clarks.co.uk. 5 Neoprene
Edit Helen Atkin flats, £30, zara.com. 6 Satin ballet flats, £450, Chloé, net-a-porter.com. 7 Pink
ballerinas, £249, prettyballerinas.co.uk. 8 Blue flats, £245, aeyde.com
2
3
4 6
9
7
The new wedge

Main picture Orange wedges, £335, thereformation.com. 1 Black wedges, £350,
wandler.com. 2 Cream mules, £95, stories.com. 3 Toe-strap wedges, £215, St Agni,
smallable.com. 4 Pyramid-wedge pumps, £710, theattico.com. 5 Metal-slingback
wedges, £1,530, Bottega Veneta, matchesfashion.com. 6 Patent wedges, £55,
marksandspencer.com. 7 Gold wedges, £675, jimmychoo.com. 8 Black ankle-tie
wedges, £395, byfar.com. 9 Ankle-strap wedges, £430, paristexasbrand.com

2
3 4
5 6
Higher purpose
Main picture Block-heel mary-janes, £75, charleskeith.co.uk. 1 Patent shoes, £129,
kurtgeiger.com. 2 Satin shoes, £730, Versace, brownsfashion.com. 3 Maroon
mary-janes, £75, charleskeith.co.uk. 4 Pink shoes, £1,050, prada.com. 5 Block-heel
shoes, £120, mango.com. 6 Nude mary-janes, £595, nodaleto.com. 7 Patent
mary-janes, £390, carel.fr. 8 Black embellished-button shoes, £315, ganni.com
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
Loafing around
Main picture Square-toe loafers, £135, cos.com. 1 White shoes, £450,
toteme-studio.com. 2 Brown loafers, £169, arket.com. 3 Snaffle loafers, £225,
russellandbromley.co.uk. 4 Red shoes, £360, dearfrances.com. 5 Mimosa loafers,
£410, atpatelier.com. 6 Beige loafers, £510, tods.com. 7 Tan loafers, £95,
dunelondon.com. 8 Colour-block loafers, £100, stories.com

COMING UP
ROSES For the fashion designer
Simone Rocha, the
humble rose is more than
a source of inspiration, it’s
the secret to her success,
she tells Karen Dacre

Simone Rocha is the first to admit that even though she’s
not an accomplished gardener (Monty Don can rest easy)
she’s a passionate one. “I’m more of a clipper, a caretaker,
than a gardener, but few things give me more pleasure
than deadheading a rose,” she says. “One of my favourite
things in the world is to clip a rose in the garden and
then bring it into the house. What one flower can do to a
whole room is just incredible — and that’s until the last
petal falls off.”
If you have ever swooned over one of Rocha’s signature
tulle dresses, you will know that the 36-year-old designer
has built an entire fashion brand around her longstanding
love affair with flowers. And roses, in particular, are
her passion. The Irish designer (now based in London) first
encountered the garden rose growing wildly at her
maternal grandparents’ home in Birr, Co Offaly, and has
been infatuated ever since. “Whether it’s David Sims’
photographs or the flowers that I encountered in the This picture A look from Rocha’s 2021 collaboration with
garden of my grandad’s Seventies bungalow, I always end H&M. Opposite The designer with her favourite flower
up back at the rose,” she says.
While hemlines rise and fall and vibes
shift, on Rocha’s puff-shouldered dresses its honour. Noah Roses was born in 2021
and signature drop earrings, and even in her ‘Roses are (Rocha has another daughter, Valentine,
menswear collection, the rose is a Simone
Rocha constant. From a literal celebration
inviting and at who is seven).
She goes on to explain that it is the contra-
— rose motifs feature on her clothes as the same time dictory nature of the flower that holds her
embroidery, as hand-drawn prints or in
bead work — to more abstract representa-
slightly brutal’ attraction. “I’ve always loved the fact that
they’re inviting but at the same time slightly
tions, the rose serves an undercurrent to brutal. There’s fragility, there’s strength,
her brand. At her most recent London Fashion Week there’s regeneration and resilience.”
show, a spectacle that took inspiration from the Irish As a metaphor for Rocha’s label — adored for its modern
harvest festival, Rocha relied on the rose to give take on femininity and ability to make things pretty
detail to sweeping balloon-sleeved dresses and without ever being contrived or twee — it makes sense.
delicate lace skirts. “I am always trying to create clothes that stir an emotion.
Indeed, the infatuation goes beyond Nature is very much a part of that for me,” she says.
aesthetics — Rocha loves the flower so much A sense of heritage, for her Hong Kong roots — her
she named her second child, a daughter, in father, the Chinese-Portuguese designer John Rocha, was
born there — and those that tie her to Ireland, is another
driving force. “I don’t think I can separate my work from
This picture who I am,” she says. “It’s all one.”
and left Floral While some of Rocha’s contemporaries have struggled
displays on the to weather the aftershocks caused by Brexit and Covid,
Simone Rocha her business continues to bloom. Twelve and a half years
autumn/winter after launching her label, Simone Rocha is one of British
2023 catwalk fashion’s most successful independent brands, with four
standalone shops and outposts in department stores
across the globe. Meanwhile her jewellery line features
costume pieces that are among the most coveted around,
and her first foray into kidswear, part of a collection
launched with H&M, sold out within hours of its launch.
She does a roaring trade in wedding dresses as well.
“I honestly have the same design ethos I did when
I was a teenager,” Rocha says. “My knowledge has evolved.
Jacob Lillis, Getty Images
My aesthetic and the emotion I feel about designing is the

same.” But her brand is so much more than pretty dresses.
“The objective is to create clothes that people can indulge
in. I love to see them worn at all times, whether that’s for
something special or to do groceries.”
Or perhaps to wear in the garden. ■

Shop with Style
What our editor Laura Atkinson loves this week
FEELING FRUITY
2
I love a citrussy
scent, and this one
doesn’t disappoint.
Corsican
clementine and
Italian bergamot
mixed with warming
honeysuckle — it’s
the fragrance
equivalent of
MADE-TO-MEASURE
1
sipping an Aperol
Does the “perfect” pair of by the sea. Aerin
jeans exist? Thanks to Levi’s, it Mediterranean
does, because a new service Honeysuckle
called Lot-1 gives denim the Savile Clementina, £100
Row treatment. Head down to for 50ml EDP,
the Carnaby Street store, esteelauder.co.uk
London W1, where tailors will
3
ABOUT TIME measure you up. You then
The new Omega get to pick your denim,
Her Time buttons, thread colour and
exhibition, which pocket pattern and, a couple of
runs until March 29 months later, your made-to-
in Mayfair and measure, one- of-a-kind jeans
showcases will be ready. The perfect
women’s watches present for the woman — or
from the 19th man — who has everything.
century to today, Couture jeans, anyone?
has reminded me From £750 a pair, levi.com
how much nicer
it is to stare at a
beautiful timepiece
than my phone.
This Omega
Seamaster Aqua
Terra is top of my
list. £6,100, omega
watches.com
4 GREEN WITH ENVY

You can’t go wrong with
5
a classic bag shape,
and one in a shade
other than black is even
better. This green
ADD TO BAG version by Dara
With sunglasses season round the corner, it’s time for my Hamarneh will be slung
shades to go back in my handbag. Missoni’s retro-inspired over my shoulder for
frames are ready to slide between my purse and diary. the foreseeable. £560,
Sunglasses, £175, missoni.com darahamarneh.com

6
FLOWERED UP
Spring has
sprung (sort of)
and after months
HELL FOR LEATHER
A leather trench jacket may
sound intimidating on paper,
but Massimo Dutti’s khaki
version is easy to wear with
jeans and over dresses. £369,
massimodutti.com
of grey days I’m

looking forward
to bringing the
outdoors in.
These mini vases
from Arket will
7
look glorious
loaded with daffs
and hyacinths.
From £7 each,
arket.com
THE BLING RING

8
I normally subscribe to the less is more mantra when
it comes to my everyday jewellery, but this Coco Crush
Toi et Moi ring is too beautiful to keep for best.
Better start saving. £3,010, chanel.com
9
PRIME POSITION
10
I’m always looking
for a way to save time
when it comes to
skincare. As well as
being a moisturiser,
this vitamin-packed
cream acts as a
primer, making
foundation
application an THROWN OVER
absolute doddle. I’ve been snuggled under this Granite + Smoke blanket all winter
Vitamin Enriched long, and now I have less use for it to keep me cosy, its colours
Ben Parks
Face Base, £49, look delightful folded over the back of my sofa à la Architectural
bobbibrown.co.uk Digest. Cashmere and wool blanket, £665, graniteandsmoke.com

MALIBU BETSEY
Still performing the catwalk feat she

is famous for, Johnson does the splits
on the lawn outside her Malibu home
A bubblegum-pink trailer,
sweeping ocean views
and a home stuffed with
fabulous knick-knacks —
this is how to do life at 80,
according to the fashion
designer Betsey Johnson
Words Katrina Johnson
Photographs Frank Frances
Styling Kimberly Swedelius
At 80, Betsey Johnson is still cartwheeling,

but only on grass. “I’m in the best shape
of my life and the strongest I’ve ever been,”
says the fashion designer. Famous for
performing the splits at the end of her
catwalk shows, the quintessential cool New
Yorker was briefly married to John Cale of
the Velvet Underground, holidayed with
Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, and
launched her own pretty/punky label in
1978. She has seen her frocks rocked by
Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City, and
now her name is a key reference in the Y2K
revival. Lately, aside from appearing last year
as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race All
Stars, she has been contentedly cocooning
in her extravagantly decorated home, a
Barbie-pink, 2,500 sq ft, three-bedroom
trailer in Point Dume, Malibu, California.
Interior design has become her passion.
“Home should be your way or no way,” the
typically uncompromising Johnson says.
First, a note on Malibu trailer parks.
Johnson’s is a gated community of 250
homes with ocean views not far from the
more famous Paradise Cove trailer park —
the one where Minnie Driver, Matthew
McConaughey and Pamela Anderson have
had homes. A-listers who live close to
Johnson’s enclave include the actors Pierce
Brosnan and Sam Elliott (“He’s the
sweetest guy and he always says hi”). Her
local restaurant is a Nobu.
“I’ve always gravitated towards trailer
parks,” Johnson says. “After renting and
renting, I didn’t want a big home, I wanted

Right A regal Johnson surveys the
view from her terrace decorated with
quirky ceramics and vintage fabrics.
Below The wallpaper is a reprinted
1930s design from Bradbury &
Bradbury. Below right The white
façade lasted a month before being
repainted in “Betsey pink”
something small with a view, and Point

Dume has the best views of the mountains
and the ocean.”
It was Johnson’s daughter, Lulu, who
lives down the road with her two daughters,
who found Johnson’s present home, in 2020.
“It was a dumb-looking little white house.
I said, ‘Are you serious? I can’t live there. It’s
too white!’ She convinced me and, about a
month after, I asked could I paint it pink —
because I knew it had to be pink! I thought,
‘Oh, they’re going to kill me if I paint it pink.’
But there are no rules! It’s a very clean
bubblegum pink — I mean it’s Betsey pink.
The neighbours seem to enjoy it.”
Her interior-design mantra is simple:
“Just buy things you really, really love.” So
the rooms are a backdrop to Johnson’s
collections, with every flat surface used for
display. “Basically I’m a hoarder. I’ve saved
everything! On the walls I even have a
dance costume from when I was little.” Her
main categories of interest include baby
shoes, teapots, dolls, Murano glass, Astier
de Villatte tableware and champagne
‘I don’t like anything in my
drawers. If I love something
it’s always on display —
I want to see it at all times’
glasses — “Everything from Baccarat flutes Above In her

to kitschy fiestaware.” An assortment of bedroom the white
badges is pinned to a curtain and draped walls and ceiling
over a door. “I don’t know why I did it! provide a fresh
I don’t like anything in my drawers. If I backdrop for
really love something it’s always on display artworks and the
— I want to see it at all times,” she says. collection of
“I don’t see the point of owning these photographs on
treasures and not put them on display. the mid-century
I don’t have diamonds, but if I did they sideboard. Left
would be on display!” Even the marble
She has many enablers, and the treasures worktops in the
continue to pile up. “My friend Mark kitchen are laden
Digital technician: Olivia Demetros
[Vitulano, who co-wrote her memoir] will with ornaments,

send me a box every month of stuff that he including scent
finds in thrift shops in Brooklyn. Amazing bottles, painted
stuff ! Everything from Mickey Mouse to china and
Victorian shoes.” And then there is Ed, her candlesticks
artist “boyfriend/husband”, who shares her
penchant for eccentrica. Another reason
Johnson is head over heels in love with

her home is, well, she is head over heels in Left Johnson refers
love. “We met at this funky Pavilions to her three portraits
supermarket in Point Dume and we’ve of women as “the
been inseparable since the day we met. sisters”. Right Kitsch
We married ourselves a year ago and wear flea market finds in
our own rings.” the kitchen include
Johnson divides her time between French china
Malibu — shuttling between restaurants, canisters and a
family and friends on her golf cart — and plate adorned with
her home in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. She kittens. Below and
swears she doesn’t miss New York, having below left The
left the city in 2015, although a recent visit open-plan living
to the newly reopened Chelsea Hotel room is crammed
unleashed a flood of happy memories. with mementoes,
“I would live there off and on — when I including a poster
would leave a boyfriend or need time away from a Warhol
it was a home away from home for me,” she exhibition. “Every
recalls. “Seeing the restoration when I was surface is for display.
there recently brought New York back to The easiest way to
life for me. I remember I met Edie Sedgwick tie oddball things
there — she lit herself on fire wearing a together is through
dress of mine in my room, it’s a great a colour story,”
memory. I would also go out with Janis Johnson says
Joplin, my husband [John Cale]. It was a
fabulous time to be alive and living in the
heart of it all.”
As far as the cartwheeling designer is
concerned now, there’s no place like her
West Coast home, and no higher calling
than decoration. “Decorating is saying I like
this, not that. And that’s what shapes your
home — what you’re doing is describing
who you are. You’re saying this is the space
I want to be in!”
‘Home should be your

way or no way. If it
isn’t composed of things
you really personally
love . . . I just don’t get it’
Above Johnson in her bloomtastic
bathroom, with its old-fashioned
floral wallpaper and vases of flowers.
“I like to think I’m a florist. I get these
fake peonies that are gorgeous but
combine them with grocery store
roses and tulips,” she says
And sometimes, she has also learnt, you

are declaring: “This is the person I want to
be with.” Because love has brought an
uncharacteristic spirit of compromise to
Malibu Betsey’s aesthetic. She has turned
one of the bedrooms into Ed’s studio, and
since he moved in, dialled back the chintz.
“Originally I wallpapered the entire home
in these vintage floral wallpapers. When I
met Ed, I realised that the home was beyond
girlie-girl — every room was old-fashioned
floral wallpaper. When he moved in, I
painted the rooms white and created colour
by filling it with all of our things, but kept the
floral wallpaper in the bathrooms to make
these smaller spaces pop with personality.”
In fact, the couple have made decor their
joint project. “I think a home is living with
your favourite memories, your favourite
treasures. If your home isn’t composed of
things you really personally love … I just
don’t get it.” ■

‘I got a taste of
the chaos that follows
Meghan around’
Photographs Harry Crowder
Hairdresser to the stars (and a certain duchess) George Northwood is

famous for his effortless styles. With a new salon opening, he talks to
Karen Dacre about why people queue round the block for one of his cuts
If a pair of scissors could talk, we’d all be “undone” hairstyles he creates for his clients, 48-hour trip to Australia and ended when
lining up to spend an hour in the company of Northwood, 44, has built a brand out of an the Sussexes left the UK in 2020. “You might
George Northwood’s. Having chopped the easygoing approach to hairstyling. I’ve come imagine that travelling with them was really
split ends from the heads of everyone from to see him to discuss his latest venture, a glamorous, but that wasn’t always the reality.
Alexa Chung to the Duchess of Sussex second salon on buzzy Boundary Street, east I’d be doing a messy bun in the toilet, that
and coiffed Gwyneth Paltrow, Sienna Miller London — and for a haircut, of course (all in sort of thing.”
and Julianne Moore, his have undoubtedly the name of good journalism). “None of what Northwood first worked with Meghan in
heard it all. He’s seen as a god among hair- I do is as glamorous as people think it is, espe- 2018 on her wedding-day hair, creating the
dressers, particularly where fashion editors cially not the really big stuff,” he says, snipping dishevelled updo she wore to her evening
are concerned, so an appointment with and tonging as we talk. celebrations to complement her Stella
“George” is right up there with a pair of Northwood is referring to the time he McCartney gown, and became her go-to
box-fresh Bottega boots. spent “doing hair” for the Duchess of hairdresser in the months that followed.
Revered for his warm and personable Sussex, a period he describes as “a very As per Palace rules, the arrangement was
chair-side manner, as well as the deliciously special” moment in his life that included a shrouded in secrecy. Northwood, though,

has now had time to reflect. “I certainly got
a taste of the chaos that follows them
around. It was very intense, like nothing
else I’ve ever experienced. On those tours
there’s barely any time, so everything is
really pressurised and, of course, it’s always
intense working with someone who is as
photographed as she is.”
Meghan, like all the women who sit in
Northwood’s chair, saw value in the easy,
natural hairstyles he is known for. “My
customers don’t want to look like they’ve just
stepped out of a salon, they want to look like
they’ve stepped off a page in a magazine,” he
says. “The irony of what I do is flying round
the world with someone only to make them
look like they’ve just got out of bed.”
As anyone who has ever had the pleasure
of a Northwood haircut knows, what he does Above Northwood, centre, and his clients the Duchess of Sussex, Sienna Miller, Rosie
is so much more than styling: he’s all about Huntington-Whiteley and Alexa Chung. Opposite and below The new salon in east London
low-maintenance cuts for those who want to
look effortless. “Not like dragged through a Daniel Hersheson (now Hershesons) before customers coming from as far as Malta to
hedge backwards effortless,” he assures me, branching out on his own. have their hair snipped by the team. Aside
“just like they haven’t had to try too hard.” “The salons I grew up around had real from Meghan, his most famous client is
Is that the request he hears most in the identities and I wanted to create the same probably Alexa Chung, since Northwood is
salon? “One hundred per cent,” he says. thing here. I wanted a movement where you behind her near-iconic choppy bob (surely
“People rarely come in asking for a blow-dry. come to be known for something. People the “Rachel” of the late Noughties).
Instead they want a hairstyle that people come to a George Northwood salon knowing “Every so often you get a moment when a
don’t know they’ve had. And if they do want what they’re going to get.” haircut becomes a thing, a sort of cultural
a blow-dry, they want it to look like they’ve Part of that is creating a salon experience moment, and the Alexa bob really was that,”
done it themselves.” for customers that is welcoming — whether Northwood says. “At the time it was the
To achieve this, Northwood, along with that’s one of the many high-flying CEOs most searched-for thing on Pinterest and
the many stylists he is training with the or television presenters he cuts hair for, or certainly it is the haircut I’m asked for most.
same philosophy, offers clients a bespoke a teenager who has saved her cash for a cut. At one point people were practically queuing
service, acknowledging that no two heads “I really mean it when I say I want everyone round the block for one.”
are the same. “It’s sculpting the hair. It’s not to feel at home here. I spent a lot of my child-
cutting it. Hairdressing is not as technical hood as a minority gay man feeling like I had George Northwood, London E2, opens on
as people say it is. It’s very visual. And it’s to pretend I’m something I’m not. That has March 21, georgenorthwood.com
really personal.” driven me to create an environment where
Originally from Bristol, he first considered everyone feels welcome.”
hairdressing as a career while watching his The classic Northwood salon experience George’s top three tips
grandmother Tess, a mobile hairdresser, at
work. But it was years later, when a teenage
is part therapy session, part haircut, with
clients known to pour out their hearts in his
for a good hair day
George tried out hairstyles in his friend’s
bedroom, that he would fall in love with
his craft. Inspired by the greats, among
chair. “Someone told me once there’s some-
thing in having your head stroked or touched
that makes you open up.”
1 Perfect the “effortless” look with tongs
Using a barrel tong, wrap only the
midsection of your hair, leaving out the
them Vidal Sassoon and Nicky Clarke, he His original outpost on Wells Street in roots and ends to avoid curls and bounce.
worked at the London hairdressing chain central London opened in 2014, with Don’t feel the need to tong every section
— often a few left undone is what makes it
look most natural.
2 Get a “slob” Yes, that’s the cut of the

season — and contrary to its name, the
slob is a modern version of a slick bob. It’s
straight but has movement, so ask your
stylist to remove texture at the front and
heaviness at the back.
3 Blow-dry — but make it messy Rough-

dry without the nozzle to add body to the
hair and volume at the roots. Then using your
Getty Images
nozzle and a barrel brush, smooth any frizz.

Finish with my Moisturising Cream (£15),
which gives that lived-in, day-old-hair look. ■

Skincare SOS
Spots, redness, dark circles? We ask a top dermatologist for answers to your
skincare problems. This week, Dr Beibei Du-Harpur on rosacea
I have rosacea and, as I get older, I feel I should be

incorporating more “active” products such as vitamin C and
retinol into my routine — but I’m scared. I don’t want to spark
a rosacea flare-up. Is there a way I can safely include these
types of products in my routine, or do I need to accept that
I just have to stay away from them altogether? Bec, 34
Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory skin retinoid into your evening routine. Keep the tolerability, so can be a good place to start.
condition characterised by redness, flushing rest of your skincare exactly the same. Start You seem interested in vitamin C, but
and sometimes small spots. When I say twice a week, so that you’re only minimally I would prioritise introducing the retinoid
flushing, I don’t mean when your nose or rocking the boat, and always look at the first. As a dermatologist, I’ve tried a lot of
cheeks go pink when you’re cold or too hot; formula; don’t just pick up a random different vitamin C products and many
it’s persistent redness, worsened by things product. Look for one designed for sensitive have irritated my skin, so you do need to be
like sunlight, alcohol and spicy foods. We skin with soothing ingredients, such as cautious. That said, I have found two prod-
don’t know exactly what causes rosacea and Kiehl’s Retinol Skin-Renewing Daily ucts that didn’t cause me any irritation:
it can be difficult to diagnose — it’s often Micro-Dose Serum (4 £49). It contains SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic (7 £165) is an
mistaken for acne. This means finding the peptides and ceramides, which help to keep investment, but in terms of evidence of effi-
appropriate treatment can be a process of the skin barrier intact. I’m also a big fan of cacy and clinical studies it’s the best on the
trial and error. Allies of Skin Retinal & Peptides Repair market. Another option is Naturium
My first piece of advice with rosacea is Night Cream (5 £112) — I acknowledge that Vitamin C Complex Serum (8 £22), which
always to consult a dermatologist. From your this is pricey, but it’s very gentle, with is very skin-friendly and unlikely to disrupt
question, I assume you’ve already done this. minimal risk of irritation. the barrier.
So, on to the case of active ingredients and Seeing a dermatologist in person is the Mishaps can happen when using active
how you can apply them to your routine. best option, but if that’s not accessible to ingredients, so if a rosacea flare-up does
One of the most common symptoms of you then I would recommend the support occur, stop using the offending product and
rosacea is sensitivity, so I see a lot of fear of an online dermatology service, such allow the skin to settle. If it doesn’t seem to
around cosmetics and active ingredients as Dermatica (£20 a month), which I be getting better on its own, do go and see
when speaking to patients. mentioned earlier, or Skin + Me (6 £25 your doctor. With the exception of Azelaic
Before introducing anything new, make a month). These online services provide a Acid 20%, no products available on the
sure your rosacea is under control. Your daily consultation assessing your skin and life- high street can effectively or directly treat
skincare routine should be centred on gentle style factors before you begin treatment, rosacea, so a prescription — whether that’s
products developed for sensitive skin: a which is very helpful. They’re also able topical or oral — may be more suitable. ■
cleanser, moisturiser and SPF. Avène to formulate things like tretinoin, a form
Tolérance is great for this: the Extremely of retinoid, at low doses to help improve Dr Beibei Du-Harpur is an NHS dermatologist
Gentle Cleanser (1 £14.50) is soft and
creamy, while the moisturisers (from £18) 3 4
contain no fragrance. Beauty of Joseon Relief 1 8
6
Sun: Rice + Probiotics SPF 50+ (2 £16) is
hydrating and non-irritating — apply daily.
Many people manage rosacea by avoiding
ingredients like retinol altogether, but actives 7
aren’t necessarily your enemy. Speak to your 2
5
doctor about azelaic acid, an ingredient that
helps to keep inflammation at bay. You can get
topical products over the counter like
Dermatica Clarifying Azelaic Acid 20%
Cream (3 £20), or if your doctor thinks it’s
necessary, they may prescribe something.
If it’s anti-ageing benefits that you want
from introducing actives, gradually build a Submit your skincare question to skincaresos@sundaytimes.co.uk or via Instagram @theststyle

India Knight
Scared of wearing red lipstick? Try this nourishing lip oil instead
I will not rest until people who are scared of red lipstick
understand its goodness and unbeatable transformative
power, at any age. But if you’re still fearful of the full red lip,
I have an excellent gateway drug, though it’s so good that you
may stop right there and go no further. I would understand.
A more modern way of wearing red is to apply it and take
half of it off, so it’s more of a stain and doesn’t semaphore
“Hi, I made an effort!” (The way of not semaphoring this
message if you still want to wear a full red lip is to pair it with informal clothing, flat
shoes and not much else that looks like obvious make-up.) But back to the stain concept.
The issue is that this looks lovely for a couple of hours, but since you’ve removed half the
product, you’ve also removed half the emollient properties of hydrating lipsticks. This
means that after a while the stain looks slightly dried and withered, which is the opposite
of the idea — you want the stain to look juicy, if artless and almost accidental. You want the
stain to look French, basically.
How you do this is with Typology Tinted Lip Oil (£19), which happens to be one of the
products I always have about my person — it’s weird that I haven’t written about it before.
So, as the name tells you, this is a lip oil (no flies on me). This means that its primary
purpose — Typology is first and foremost an ethical skincare brand — is to look after your
lips by keeping them supple, nourished and hydrated. It does this via squalane, jojoba and
vitamin E, and doesn’t lob in a ton of pointless and/or dubious other stuff to fill up the
space in the container, as many other brands do. It’s all of the goodness and none of the
crap, so no nanoparticles, no mineral oils, no silicones. (It’s vegan, by the way.)
Now, I’m going to tell you to buy the red one, Ruby Red, because it’s perfect. Being a
mere tint, it is only very, very mildly red — dramatically less red than you’d think it was
from the little glass bottle — but it does exactly what I’ve just been describing, namely give
you a slightly oomphed-up version of that bitten or “I’ve casually been eating cherries”
look. It’s also shiny without being gloopy, either in appearance or in feeling. But it does
come in other shades too, including a jaunty coral, a hyper-natural blush pink and a
plummy purple that is lovely on darker skins. Really, though, with the colour being this
subtle and barely there, you might as well go for the red. Its lasting power is not great,
because there’s nothing in there to glue the product effectively to your mouth, but I’m OK
with that, especially given how comfortable this is to wear. Just reapply as needed. The
little bottle is very pleasing and the applicator is tiny enough to ensure that the stuff goes
on your lips and not anywhere else. ■ @indiaknight
It gives you
a slightly
INDIA LOVES oomphed-up
BUY I know it feels ridiculously early to think about garden furniture, but it’s always sold out — version of that
or has an eight-week lead time — when the weather gets warm. My best purchase in years was
‘I’ve casually
Victoria Adamson
some Adirondack chairs from a Canadian company called CR Plastics Products. They’re
completely recycled, comfortable, handsome, substantial and absolutely bombproof. Nothing
gets near them: they don’t fade in a heatwave or suffer in subzero temperatures, because they
been eating
are Canadian and used to extreme weather. Tons of colours. £350, mobek.co.uk cherries’ look

Dear Dolly
Your love, life and friendship dilemmas answered
by Dolly Alderton
Last summer I ended an eight-year relationship. It was the right thing to do and I don’t regret
it, but I really miss him. So now I’m in my early thirties, single and spending a lot of time on
my own. I have an amazing group of friends who I see regularly, but the majority are buying
homes, having babies, etc. I’m doing a lot of shagging. I’ve joined Feeld and I’m having a lot
of fun. But as I settle into this kinky space, I’m worried I’m getting too caught up in it. Two
dates a week have turned into three, a threesome on a Monday one week into a threesome
(Monday) and a foursome (Tuesday) the following week. I feel really empowered, sexy and
adventurous but I can’t help but wonder if feral girl winter is going to catch up with me? SOS.
Oh sweetie, you don’t need me to save your I wonder if you’re also worried that you
ship! Read back the penultimate sentence aren’t fully processing your break-up
of your letter — you feel “really empowered, because you’re having so much sex. This
sexy and adventurous”. Do you know may be true and if it is, don’t worry, any
how many women long for this? You’re unresolved heartbreak will come knocking.
young and enjoying yourself and, thank It makes itself known at some point, no
God, we live in a time when your life matter how many threesomes you’re
won’t be ruined because of it. You won’t be having. But I also wonder whether this
thrown into a nunnery. You won’t be locked goes back to the idea of female norms —
up and hidden. You won’t get pregnant and whether you’re worrying you’re not moving
be forced to have a baby before you’re ready. through the break-up because you’re not
You won’t be publicly disgraced in the village. You won’t eating Häagen-Dazs alone and crying. Or on a solo trip to
be forced into marriage with someone you don’t want to Bali while keeping a daily journal. Eight years is a long time
marry. You’re having fun and that’s allowed. You’re doing to be with one person in your twenties, and perhaps this
what so many women would have loved to have done sexual awakening is a part of the journey of you working
before you but couldn’t. out what it is you like, and what it is that you want next.
And yet there is a part of you that’s worried you’re doing You also mention that you’re getting “too caught up in
something wrong, that this is going to “catch up with you”. it”. Now, this is one to keep an eye on. Perhaps you’ve
I think your choice of words is telling: they imply repercus- started to get the feeling that you’re losing control — that
sions or a day of reckoning. I can’t give you the exact reason you’re becoming obsessive or even compulsive in this area.
you feel that, but I can suggest the questions you should be If that’s true, it’s worth looking at how you can try a period
asking yourself to work out where this fear comes from. of moderating it all. Try giving yourself a limit on the apps
The first thing to ask is where this small voice of judg- or messaging people or meet-ups and see how you feel —
ment around female promiscuity originates: is it cultural? if it’s really difficult, then you may have to look at whether
Religious? From your parents? Or is it because your you’re using sex as a way to avoid other feelings. It sounds
concept of what is normal as a woman, at your age, is deter- like this could be a really fun adventure for you, but it
mined by those around you? I spend a lot of time thinking shouldn’t monopolise your life or become something in
about what’s normal in adulthood and the truth is the which you feel powerless.
norm is only ever dictated by what your friendship group Because being part of the kink community does not
is doing. I remember once telling my therapist that mean having mindless sex. Quite the opposite. Kink
I felt like I was doing adulthood wrong because I was the culture is about having thoughtful sex. Sex where desire,
only person who was single and childless in my early thir- consent, safety, health and boundaries are discussed. If you
ties. She pointed out there are many friendship groups of feel that all those things factor into your new sexual life
majority child-free, single women in their early thirties that with like-minded partners, if you can find a way to enjoy it
exist, and the odd one out would be the woman who is a without being dependent on it, then I think you should just
Alexandra Cameron
married mother. She suggested that my sense of my own enjoy it. You are doing the thing so many would love to dare
strangeness was not a fact but a feeling. A feeling that to do but don’t. Stay honest, mindful and safe and enjoy
would be entirely different if I happened to spend my time your freedom. Bon voyage to you, and your ship, and to all
with an entirely different group of women. who sail in her. ■
To get your life dilemma answered by Dolly, email or send a voice note to deardolly@sundaytimes.co.uk or DM @theststyle
74 • The Sunday Times Style*

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12 MARCH 2023

Fashion! Beauty! People! Things! Welcome to your weekly guide

Will the real Alexis Stone

... as Mrs Doubtfire

Welcome to the Cell Block H hotel

(once one of Sweden’s biggest prisons) is the spot to spend a night

The Sunday Times Style • 13

from fashion editor Anna

Go, go gadget fashion is here

It’s all about Brussels

14 • The Sunday Times Style

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18 • The Sunday Times Style

22 • The Sunday Times Style

Hair David Stanwell

Scream VI is in cinemas now

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Bags to basic Bye-bye, bling. The ‘blandbag’ is low-key, luxurious, logo-free

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name of Shopping). Along with their hefty price tags — 2

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I’m sitting in a Notting Hill church on a

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Last June a blonde, middle-aged woman approached a

The Sunday Times Style • 49

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was he at the vanguard of the Black Lives Matter move-

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Elton in the making, I can at least start

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The new wedge

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My aesthetic and the emotion I feel about designing is the

The Sunday Times Style • 59

4 GREEN WITH ENVY

60 • The Sunday Times Style

of grey days I’m

THE BLING RING

The Sunday Times Style • 61

Still performing the catwalk feat she

At 80, Betsey Johnson is still cartwheeling,

The Sunday Times Style • 63

something small with a view, and Point

glasses — “Everything from Baccarat ﬂutes Above In her

[Vitulano, who co-wrote her memoir] will with ornaments,

The Sunday Times Style • 65

‘Home should be your

And sometimes, she has also learnt, you

The Sunday Times Style • 67