The Fashion Proust Questionnaire
Live from a pile of fluffy pillows, obviously.
After a long week, this newsletter was the last (best) thing left on my to do list Friday aft, and feeling somewhat pooped, I decided to compose it from bed. Staring at the blank page before me, (my windows are clean Natasha,) I got to thinking about a conversation I’d had recently with Pandora Sykes about not feeling guilty about working from bed. Just think of all the luminaries in history who produced staggering works of genius from the position of ultimate comfort! OK, yes, Proust had terrible asthma and Frida Kahlo had a better excuse than anyone after her accident, still, I think we all deserve to hit the hay once in a while.
This then got me thinking about how Proust gets a bad rep for being impossible to get through. I was made to study him at uni, and I will say that if you can possibly teach yourself to make sense of the run on sentences, In Search of Lost Time is actually brimming with saucy early 20th-century-style gossip. Ironically I do not recommend attempting to read it in bed unless you’re looking to cure insomnia, but the tea is ultimately worth the effort.
Proust was a legend at working out what made people tick, as evidenced most famously by his questionnaire. I bought Vanity Fair religiously for years just to read their version of it. The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair reminds us, “has its origins in a parlour game popularised (though not devised) by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.”
This got me thinking how annoying it is that no one in the fashion industry ever seems to reveal their true nature anymore, or at least their true opinions about the hit-and-miss nature of fashion shows and other various absurdities and mishaps. I will never stop yearning for the old Style.com magazine for this very reason, even though it’s been defunct for nearly a decade now. Sigh.
In the absence of such a publication, and as a tribute to Proust who really was quite a fashionable chap, I have, on a random whim, converted and tailored the most famous questions from his questionnaire into the fashion versions of themselves.
And, in the absence of company here in my bedroom mid- afternoon, I suppose I will have to be the first to answer them and *reveal my true nature* ( insofar as personal style is concerned.) Though maybe if you like this format you can tell me who else in the industry you’d like me to send these questions to to and I can attempt to badger them into answering. If manage, I promise to publish them here.
OK, here’s my FPC:
What is your idea of a perfect outfit?
One that’s both timeless and relevant.
What is your greatest fashion fear?
That it will destroy the planet and not even a fig leaf will be left for us to don.
What, in hindsight, is the worst outfit you ever worn?
It’s a toss-up between these two. Both as a result of terribly-judged proportions.
What is the worst outfit you’ve ever seen on someone else?
Any outfit a person clearly didn’t choose to wear to a show, to please a brand (this is the brand’s fault too btw.)
Which living person’s style do you most admire?
Miuccia Prada.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Sneaky catnaps before inconveniently late fashion dinners.
What is your current state of mind with regards to the fashion industry?
Cautious optimism fuelled by breakout collections like Chemena Kamali’s Chloe.
What do you consider the most overrated style virtue?
Newness.
On what occasion do you lie about someone’s outfit?
When it’s definitely too late to go get changed.
What is the quality you like most in a man’s outfit?
Nonchalance.
What is the quality you like most in a woman’s outfit?
Confidence.
Which fashion trend do you most despise?
Pointy men’s lace-ups.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse when describing fashion?
Chic. Dying. Dead.
Which runway collection in history was your greatest love?
Hermes SS1999 (by Margiela)
Prada FW2013,
Celine SS2017.
When were you happiest with your own look?
In my wedding dress designed by Louise Trotter.
Which designer’s talent would you most like to have?
An Haute Couture seamstress.
If you could change one thing about your wardrobe, what would it be?
No more God Damn moths.
What do you consider your greatest achievement, career-wise (so far!)
Writing anything people can connect with.
If you were to die and come back as a fashion item, what would it be?
I’d like to hope I’d reincarnate as newly-designed pendant sprung from the brilliant mind of my friend Rosh Mahtani of Alighieri.
Where on earth do you get the most style inspiration?
At my local in the 6th, lucky me.
What is your most treasured possession?
My Dinh Van handcuff bracelet with my kids’ names engraved on it.
What do you consider the lowest depth of fashion rock-bottom (ie. Karl’s sweatpants)
Losing inspiration and resorting to throwing money at the situation.
What is your favourite fashion-related occupation?
Trying everything on while my daughter comments with brutal honesty.
What is your most marked style characteristic?
Transatlanticism.
Who are your favourite fashion writers?
Robin Givhan, Tim Blanks, Cathy Horyn, Lauren Sherman, Elizabeth Paton, Maya Singer, Sophie Fontanel.
Who is your style hero in fiction?
Patricia makes coffee nervous.
Which historical figure’s style do you most identify with?
Elizabeth I and Katharine Hepburn. They did what they had to do.
Which individual that you know (or have known) personally most influenced your style?
My Gran.
What would you like to wear to your own funeral?
My great grandmother Monica’s Chanel suit (inherited via aforementioned Gran), a generous layer of Violette_fr blush (I’ll be needing it), a liberal spritz of Frederic Malle’s ‘Portrait of A Lady’ and the handcuff bracelet.
What is your style motto?
“Fashion is what you are offered four times a year by designers. Style is what you choose.” (Stolen from Lauren Hutton, natch.)
Ok, now hit me with ideas for my next targets in the comments section!
Bon weekend!
Pandora!
Suzanne Koller and Leandra Medine please!