Above, Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou, on dressing for work
Away from the feverish consumption of seasonal fashion, there is a group of women who have honed one signature look that continues to deliver for them year after year. These are wardrobes that reflect their personality, that set the boundaries between work and play, on a non-sample-size body — it’s solution dressing at its most comprehensive.
An outfit that is perfected for you, your demands, your shape, your emotions, becomes a suit of armour. A signature also removes the morning’s “What to wear?” panic. Dressing takes minutes — useful for this generation of do-everything professionals. That’s not to say that a signature look and fashion must be mutually exclusive: your style can be updated with fresh accessories or new pieces that fit the remit.
Advertisement
Ultimately, it’s about building a wardrobe for life: free from fads, you can eliminate all those rash fashion mistakes and accumulate quality staples that work hard for you year after year.
Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou, editor of 10 magazine
Working in fashion, yet feeling that much of it is off limits, has not deterred the eminently stylish founder and editor of 10 magazine. “I have big boobs and hips,” she says. “I can’t wear print, miniskirts, jeans, polo necks. You have to stop thinking that you’re going to slim into something — embrace your body.” Neophitou-Apostolou has settled on body-con: specifically, tailored stretch dresses to the knee (think Alaïa, Mouret, Balenciaga), wearing them throughout pregnancy, and always with heels. “I’m a dwarf,” she says. “I feel I’m taken more seriously with height.” Even if she’s styling a shoot on, say, America’s salt flats, there are always Camilla Skovgaard’s rubber-tread heels (“Amusing for others on set”). To offset the body-con, she adds an element of masculinity — V-necks, men’s coats, suiting — “Otherwise, it can be a bit tarty.” The boy-girl fusion reflects her personality: “If I wore floaty chiffon, I’d look gentle and vulnerable, and that would be a lie.” Her clothes are not something she has to think about: “I dress like a man with a suit.” Handy now she’s designing cashmere sweaters for Pringle, as well as being creative director for Elie Saab and collection design director for Victoria’s Secret. She keeps things straightforward with a neutral palette — black, navy, grey, white, khaki — no-maintenance hair and clean make-up. Experimentation and colour take place on the fringes: a fluoro bag, a leopard-print scarf, a biker jacket. And holding it all together is her ready laugh.
Leith Clark, stylist and editor of Lula
Clark has built a career on whimsical fashion — with her own magazine, Lula, and as a stylist for Keira Knightley and Chanel — so it’s perhaps not surprising that her signature style is “dreamy”. She’s always snapped in pretty, innocent dresses (comprising 75% of her wardrobe, she says), and there’s a girlishness to her style. “I learnt the power of dress when I was young,” she says. “I was really shy, but I started doing ballet, and as soon as I put on a costume, I could be a total spirit. I apply that to my life.” Unusually for someone who works in fashion, Clark wears a lot of white. “It sets you apart,” she says. “It makes you feel like you’re floating and feels transcendent from everything else.” Dusty, chalky colours — so dreamy — and pink (“the colour of ballet shoes”) also feature heavily in her palette. Although Clark is finely tuned to fashion, equal influences are nostalgia and timelessness. “I often think, ‘This dress would be really cute when I’m old and crazy,’” she laughs. Not that she’s waiting till then — Clark doesn’t believe in saving things: “I’ll wear clothes that are meant to be worn once in a lifetime.” Which may be why she looks so fine.
Advertisement
Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company
Just what is it that lies beneath that ever-present turban? “Long, dark hair,” admits the colourful founder of the charity Kids Company. “The turban creates a boundary between my private and public space.” Batmanghelidjh’s working wardrobe — a richly patterned dress worn with the turban and “pantaloons” — is a solution she has cultivated since developing a pituitary disorder aged 12. “I had no control over what size I was going to be,” she explains. Given her sporty background, she found the usual “tents” too restrictive, so she gave up shopping and found her own way, with dresses made from collages that she pieced together. “I arrived at something fun and glamorous that kept me street.” Her distinctive look has helped her job. “The drug-dealers know who I am from afar,” she says. “They know my only agenda is the children.” Much of her look is about practicality — earrings are clip-on because “disturbed kids pull them”. She hates handbags: “Why give up one arm?” High heels are out because she needs to run. The end result is what she calls “a collage of joy”, expressing her intense optimism. Not to mention originality.
Sofia Coppola, film director
Advertisement
Coppola worked as an intern at Chanel while still at school, and has known Marc Jacobs since she was 18, so it is perhaps predictable that the Lost in Translation director has her own distinctive ideas on style. “Now it’s all pretty pared-down,” she says. Ever the observer, Coppola keeps her style deliberately understated so that she can see rather than be seen. On set, she likes a uniform, “so I don’t have to think about what to put on”. She wears Acne jeans “all the time”, while her bespoke button-down shirts are made by the high-end Parisian tailor Charvet. “And because I’m on my feet all day, I wear sneakers.” Still a firm friend of Jacobs, Coppola says she loves his pieces and should really wear more Louis Vuitton, which he also designs, but “I’m actually not that into status”.
