They said whaaat?! Lucinda Chambers #VogueUK.
You are probably familiar with US Vogue fashionista Grace Coddington but do you know Lucinda Chambers? She’s the genius behind all the amazing fashion pages for British Vogue. And as the fashion director of Vogue UK she was chosen to style the Kate Duchess of Cambridge.
To coincide with the launch of Absolutely Fashion: Inside British Vogue ( a two part documentary on BBC Two) Vogue UK and The Telegraph have interview Lucinda about her life in fashion. She is hilarious, down to earth and totally British (read quirky and self deprecating).
“I know I can come across as pretty dotty and if I looked at me, honestly, I might think, ‘Oh my God, if she’s fashion director of Vogue, I might stop buying it’.”
“My first concern was that it would be very boring’”, she says of the six months filming process of the documentary. “Kate Moss isn’t in the office every day. We’re not swinging from chandeliers. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d ever watch it, but I suppose I’ll have to. It would be disrespectful to Vogue not to”.
“I’ve turned a disorder into a career. I can buy a ton of stuff and either wear it, make it into a cushion, or file it under ‘inspiration”.
“I’m a tart, aesthetically. I love sparkly, I love vintage, I love ethnic. So many people working in fashion just look like one thing..it’ a sign of insecurity”.
“I don’t lead a Vogue-y life. The only thing that matters to me work-wise is doing beautiful pictures for Vogue”.
“I wanted to keep it quite generic because I knew one picture would end up in the National Portrait Gallery and because the Duchess felt she’s been photographed in quite a lot of evening wear already. But she’s very open. She’s intelligent and engaged with everything. That girl next door is just shtick. You can’t do that job and be ordinary. What strikes me is that she really loves William.” On the shoot of the Duchess of Cambridge.
“If someone had said to me 30 years ago, ‘You’re going to be interviewing Grace Coddington at a (Vogue) festival’, I’d have just gone, ‘Get out’,”. Grace is sort of my idol. I don’t find her scary but if you didn’t know her you would. I was possibly the worst assistant she’d ever had – as she always says – because I was hopeless at everything except calling clothes in. I’d do anything to get even a whiff of a fabric from Berwick Street into a shoot and never sent any of the clothes back because that was the boring bit. I’d shove them all in a cupboard. I remember Liz Tilberis opening it and everything falling down on top of her and she said: ‘Tell that f****** girl to send some f****** clothes back’.”
What is your first memory of Vogue?
My first memory of Vogue and my first day are intertwined. I didn’t see Vogue as a child or growing up, I wish I had. So when I went to Hanover Square I couldn’t believe how something as magical as this magazine came out of such shabby and higgledy-piggledy offices. And I thought the people looked very ordinary. I thought they would be exotic and eccentric and wear very outlandish clothes. I was working in a small cubicle typing out petty cash forms so I didn’t get to meet many people, but I do remember on my first day a fashion assistant came in and was wearing a sweater dress. I couldn’t believe it, it seemed too normal. I was wearing a tutu that I had made the night before. In hindsight I looked ridiculous but you have to try things out.
Everyone was very friendly, which I wasn’t expecting. I remember I was asked who I knew there and when I said ‘Nobody’ they didn’t really believe me. It was very much friends of friends and god children etc. Thankfully it is very different today, but still friendly.
What has been an invaluable piece of information that you received and passed on?
Two things, I think. One which I have said to every young photographer just starting out, from Tim Walker to Josh Olins, is to find your woman. The one that you want to photograph, she can be lots of different things, behave and dress in various ways, but essentially there will be a core of a girl that you love. Another piece of advice that was given to me by Mario is that a job is never about the money. You put your heart and soul into it.
What would we find on your bedside table at home?
On my bedside table and all around it are piles of books, lots of them, but I do get through them. This summer, I have read The Girls, A Little Life, The Green Road and The Vegetarian, so they will all have to go and have another life somewhere else. To be replaced. Always looking for good books.
How would you describe your sartorial style?
I’m not sure that I have a ‘style’. I know I like a lot of different things and I love to tinker around with clothes. I do know that I don’t look cool. I can’t do that. I like too much stuff. I love colour, pattern and textures and to mix them all up. I also think comfort is very underrated. You just can’t look stylish if your heels are too high and your jacket is too tight. I love decoration so maybe that’s how I would describe how I dress – decoratively. I dress how I do up a room, for me it’s very much the same thing. Oh, and love earrings. And shoes. And belts. All the bits that go with the clothes!
Read more on Lucinda here, here and on Business of Fashion.
