TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND?
I’m from up north (born in Manchester) via Scotland (where I was brought up since the age of 6) and moved to London on a whim aged 20. I knew I wanted to work in fashion but knew no-one, had no money and so ended up working in fashion shops and pubs. Around this time, house music was huge and I threw myself into the club scene. It was here I met the women who eventually went on to hire me as assistants.
I started my career working in PR for Paul Smith, Giorgio Armani and Prada, but I’d always wanted to work in magazines but couldn’t afford to work for free. When the editor of Elle met me at a Prada event, she stole me and, aged 30, I finally had a job I loved. I stayed at ELLE for a decade and it was here I discovered I could write. My editor gave me a back-page column, Mademoiselle, Confessions of an ELLE Girl, was born and I wrote about ‘her’ mad life for 4 years.
WHAT LED YOU TO WORKING IN FASHION?
Aged 12, I had a job working in a chemist. At the end of the day, I’d go to the newspaper shop next door and blow £10 on magazines. I read Vogue, The Face, I-D. I became utterly obsessed with moving to London, which I did rather unsuccessfully when I ran away from home aged 17. Sorry mum. I loved the way the images took me to a fairy-tale world, but unfortunately, Edinburgh in the 1980s wasn’t the place to seek out advice on ‘how to work in fashion’. With zero guidance, I had to find my own way.
