Did you have many opinions about how Sophie dressed when she was growing
up?
SH: You used to force me to wear horrible dresses with awful starched
petticoats!
JH: Well, that was when you were about four or five.
Edie Campbell: And, Mum, you made me wear little dresses too.
SH: Yes, but you liked your little dresses.
EC: No! I wanted cool jeans!
SH: I got you cool jeans from Paul Smith when you were eight or nine.
But I had to wear dresses with stiff petticoats and matching knickers
and a hat with a floppy brim. The embarrassment!
JH: I can promise
you, God’s honor, you had no petticoats like that. But we won’t argue.
Obviously I was the most appalling mother.
Sophie, you started in the fashion department at Harpers & Queen at 17.
Why so young?
SH: I applied to be an editor of an all-teenage issue in 1978. After I
finished school, I hassled them until they gave me a proper job. Going
to fashion shows is a very fun thing to do in your late teens and early
20s—a lot more exciting than when you’re 30.
You also worked with some legendary photographers.
SH: Yes, Peter Lindbergh, Paolo Roversi, Bruce Weber…. I liked working
with Arthur Elgort very much, and David Bailey. He was grumpy but quite
liked it when people brought him interesting things to shoot, as he had
gotten stuck slightly in a rut by then, doing an awful lot of German
Vogue with models in Escada perched on rocks. I took a trip with him to
Peru. Mind you, the model I made him use was ghastly! French and silent,
and that was no good, because he likes a jolly person.
How did you feel when your daughter wanted to model?
SH: Modeling will give you confidence, particularly when you’re young.
There’s always a lot of competition in school, and some cow thinks she’s
the most beautiful person with the biggest tits. If your little girl can
just happen to have her picture in an ad, it shuts them up.
JH: I suppose that never really crossed my mind back then. I was just so
delighted to get money, a huge amount for those days. And I had a very
interesting time. Hermès once took me on a trip to North Africa. Those
were the days when the Mamounia hotel in Marrakech was very chic. You
would stay there and show the collection, and all these exceedingly rich
women would order.
Sophie, did your fashion background help you in designing boutiques?
SH: Definitely. It gave me a context. People think fashion is very
superficial, but designers follow what’s in the air. There’s a smell,
and they all get it. And they have incredibly strong views about what’s
right and what’s wrong.
Do you appreciate fashion more now that you don’t work in the industry?
SH: I’m not interested in clothes. I mean, I am interested in clothes,
but I don’t like 99 percent of the clothes that are out there.
EC: You like Comme des Garçons—and Alaïa, but you wouldn’t wear it.
SH: I keep telling him to do classic trousers again and he won’t! I even
took my old trousers to him, and he said, “Pfffth!” He’s the best
cutter.
