Who's That Girl? Do We Know Her?

Flipping through some old magazines, I all the sudden notice that interesting trivia of how some heavyweight people in fashion come into this industry! We always do "tagging" between bloggers, so I thought that maybe "tagging" them can be quite fun!

- Girl No. 1

• She served cod, chips and mushy peas at 17. One of her regular customers in the chip shop was Henry Holland, designer and creator of the House of Holland rhyming slogan T-shirts. Now, she is the face of the house.
  

• She went to London and worked in a burger joint in the day and a bar at night.

• She visited Model 1, slammed down a portfolio and refused to leave until she was signed.

• She was recently dropped by Burberry after Mario Testino dubbed her "over-publicised". He was tired that she had been promoting her face everywhere. He has replaced her with Rosie Huntington Whiteley.

• She is Agyness Deyn.

School Photo

Agyness (was named Laura) with mother Lorraine

Photographed by Terry Richardson for i-D, may 2008

Photographed by Terry Richardson for i-D, may 2008

Paul Smith Women 05 Fall

- Girl No. 2

• She moved to New York in 1979 to study Ancient Chinese Art and shared a flat with the actress Catherine Oxenberg.

• Starting as an assistant to Anna Wintour in 1981, she then soon assisted André Leon Talley, now U.S. Vogue’s editor-at-large.

• She discovered Alexander McQueen with the purchase of his entire graduate collection for £5,000, paying it off in weekly £100 instalments.

• Discovered model, Sophie Dahl, & described her as "a blow up doll with brains".

• According to a 2002 interview with Tamsin Blanchard, it was she who brokered the deal in which Gucci purchased McQueen's label. Her friend, Daphne Guinness, said that “She was upset that McQueen didn't take her along when he sold his brand to Gucci. Once the deals started happening, she fell by the wayside. Everybody else got contracts, and she got a free dress".

• She is Isabella Blow.

- Girl No. 3

• Her father, legendary Charles Vere Wintour CBE, was an editor of the Evening Standard; and her mother, Eleanor Trego Baker, was the daughter of a Harvard Law professor.

• At 15, her father arranged a job for her in Biba boutique. She soon started dating older and well-connected men. She briefly dated Piers Paul Read, then 24. In her later teens, she dated gossip columist Nigel Dempster and became a fixture on the London club circuit with him.

• Dropping out of school at 16, one of her boyfriends, Richard Neville, gave her first look at magazine production when she hung around the offices of his controversial Oz.

• She entered fashion journalism in 1970 when Harper’s Bazar merged with Queen, and the new magazine needed editorial assistants.

• Her salary is reported to be $2 million a year and generous perks including Mercedes S-Class, a $50,000 shopping allowance, and the Coco Chanel Suite at the Ritz Paris during Pairs Fashion Show. Condé Nast president Si Newhouse had also provided her an interest-free $1.6 million loan to purchase her townhouse in Greenwich Village.

• She encouraged fashion houses to hire younger, e.g. her invention of John Galliano for Christian Dior.

• She gets up at 5:40 am everyday, plays tennis and gets to Vogue's offices at 8am. She seldom stays at a party over 20 minutes and gets to bed by 10:15 every night.

• An intern at Vogue was told she must not make eye contact with her or initiate conversation with her. One day in the hall, the intern saw her trip and stepped over her rather than violate this taboo.

• She is Anna Wintour (with her trademark bob since age of 14).

- Girl No. 4

• At 18, She began modeling, having been scouted on the street in Paris by a British photographer's assistant.

• She then became a writer and then a stylist for French ELLE.

• She worked as a consultant and muse for Tom Ford at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent for six years.

• She describes her professional progress as a series of accidents. She was working as a freelance stylist and her daughter was in a children's fashion shoot. The photographer was Mario Testino. They hit it off and began working together as a team for American and French Vogue.

• She said: 'You can wear a completely transparent shirt and show all the breasts - I don't care. But I prefer to have my hands in my pocket than to have a nice little bag. So I am not good for all these fashions. They have to sell bags, bags, bags, bags, bags, bags. I hate handbags.'

• She is Carine Roitfeld.
  

Carine Roitfeld in Purple Magazine