"There's a warmth and accessibility to Dahl's style, so it's no wonder Victoria Stapleton, founder of Brora, asked her to replicate it in a capsule collection for the label"
BY Lisa Armstrong | 06 May 2013
Every famous model has her controversial moment. For Sophie Dahl it was the Tom Ford for YSL Opium campaign in 2000. You may recall it: Dahl, naked, back arched, acres of soft creamy-camellia flesh (actually, she'd recently lost a ton of weight: it was all about camera angles). The billboards were banned in the United States, where Dahl was sharing an apartment with the journalist Toby Young. When she came home she was astonished by the brouhaha. "All I could see was my feet, which looked huge."
Related articles
Ah, yes, self-image. When she was discovered in the mid-Nineties Dahl was a sexy, rebellious 18 year-old, fresh from St Trinians, incongruous in a class of Croydonian and Mancunian waifs. While she concedes the advantages modelling gave her, she says it also swivelled the spotlight on her body in a way that confused her - even more so when she went from a "shocking" (in catwalk terms) size 14 to a more conventional model size.
Nowadays, she under-accentuates her curves in Land Girly marl knitwear, flat ballet shoes and Forties-inspired tea dresses, the kind her favourite Nancy Mitford heroines, or Emily Lloyd in Wish You Were Here, might have worn. Even the home she shares with her husband, musician Jamie Cullum, and their two tiny daughters is quite Forties.
Lessons from the stylish: Gaby Basora
There's a warmth and accessibility to Dahl's style, so it's no wonder Victoria Stapleton, founder of Brora, asked her to replicate it in a capsule collection for the label. The floaty, silk Emily dress is a copy of a vintage one belonging to her: "I wanted the clothes to be the kind you could dress up with heels, but wear with flats and plimsolls or thick tights. Dressing in layers is really the only solution in Britain."
Sophie Dahl modelling pieces from her collection for Brora PHOTO: BRORA
It took Dahl a while to work out her uniform - it usually does. When the late Isabella Blow discovered her, she really was a naughty teen, lately expelled from boarding school, articulating her anti-authoritarian streak via unconventional daywear (Thirties nighties, fluffy boudoir mules) and a liberal application of red lipstick. Her hair was platinum. She began bleaching it at school: "It wasn't proper until you had blisters on your scalp from the bleach."
The fashion industry predictably adored her. She had the silhouette of Marilyn and that Dahl lineage. "I had a lot of chutzpah in my twenties. I just sort of made it up as I went along on the catwalk. I've got a feeling I looked like a drag queen." Her wardrobe included early jumble sale trophies and gifts from curve-loving designers, her favourites being Alaïa and Versace.
Lessons from the stylish: Deborah Lloyd
Once she moved to New York in 1998, inevitably things got sleeker. "It's easier to be groomed there. There's a nail spa on every corner." She still wore vintage, but now it was immaculate one-offs, which suit her fastidious streak. "I'm a Virgo. Obsessively neat and tidy." Her friend, the stylist Bay Garnett, introduced her to the Salvation Army thrift store and "teased me for being so pristine. I wish I could wear torn camisoles, but I'd look porny."
It seems to me Dahl's style is as much about playing against her body type as it is about nostalgia. She admires the perfection of the ever-tailored and cantilevered Dita Von Teese, but says if she dressed like that she'd look like Betty Boop.
Dahl at a children's tea party PHOTO: HULTON ARCHIVE
Pragmatism plays a part too. With two-year-old and seven-week-old daughters, jeans are a part of her everyday repertoire. "I was writing books and went off fashion for a while." But the freelance writer's uniform of pyjamas and slops wore her down. "You have to put lipstick on eventually, even when it's just you and the computer. Otherwise it's not writing, it's depression." At 35, she's happy in her skin, not least because she's worked out how to make fashion comfortable.
There not being much call for bombshelling in Buckinghamshire, her Alaïa and Versace are lovingly boxed in the attic - because, contrary to his protestations that he's not interested in clothes, Cullum occupies as much wardrobe space in the house as she does.
Sophie Dahl on how to make the most of your summer wardrobe
But she doesn't rule out pressing the Versace and Alaïa back into service. These days she'd wear them with flats - which sums up Dahl's pretty yet unpredictable style. This is the woman who was wearing jeans the afternoon she met her future husband, strapless Versace later that night when they sang a duet at the launch of the Lavender Trust, and long-sleeved, high-necked Alice Temperley when they married.
Q&A
Heels or flats? Flats. I love ballet shoes from Capezio. They're like respectable slippers
Favourite jeans: Skinnies from Topshop and when I'm going posh, Citizens of Humanity
Diamonds or lipstick? Both, but these days I go easy on the red lippy otherwise it looks too dolly
Hot date fallback It would still be Versace. It's just impeccably cut. Wear it with poker-straight hair and it's classic Versace, but tone it down with flats and it's timeless
Can't get by without… Rigby&Peller. The best underwear ever
Your daughters Lyra and Margot's style? They're only two and seven weeks, but it's probably Enid Blyton meets Picasso. I like JoJo Maman Bébé
Every home should have… Books, pictures, clutter. The first time I went to Jamie's flat I knew we were a match because he had all of the above
ncG1vJloZp%2BZo522sLqNrZylnZenrrG0jZymZ62bZLCwuNSmpaxnnJ7AonnAq6SsrKKku6h7s4Z%2BamhgaINzgZRog56ro6S7tHnFq6amZaSdsm6%2F07KjoquYYqCwvMeinGZ8kZ25b7TTpqM%3D