The Most Stylish Women I Follow On Instagram (Part 1)
Plus fashion wisdom from Fran Lebowitz - and what on earth happened to Matches?!
The topic for this month’s newsletter has been brewing ever since I interviewed Fran Lebowitz for the Sunday Times Style back in January (you can read the piece, which ran in their Spring Fashion special a few weeks ago, here).
I’ve been lucky to interview Fran a few times now, though it’s always been for her live tour events, which haven’t really felt like the right forum to dig into one of my favourite topics - and one of the things she’s most celebrated for - her dress sense. Given this is someone who counted industry icons like André Leon Talley and Bill Cunningham (or “Billy” as she called him) as close friends, perhaps it’s unsurprising that she herself dresses so precisely - speaking to her, it’s clear she’s absorbed much of their enthusiasm for a well-cut piece of fabric.
Please enjoy this reel my friend Emma sent me while I was putting the finishing touches on this newsletter, highlighting the last line as likely to be of particular interest to me (she was correct).
As always, when we spoke she was less interested in talking about herself and what she wears (though we did get into that), and more so everything else that’s going on in the world - in this context that meant the culture of fashion, and how it’s evolved over the last few decades. She had a lot to say about what constitutes real style, citing Paloma Picasso, the supermodel Iman, and Pharrell as people who possess it (and Kim Kardashian as someone who does not). One observation in particular stuck with me, and unsurprisingly, ended up being the headline The Times chose for the piece:
“There’s a tremendous difference between fashion and style. Fashion is something you can buy. Style is something that you are. So there are never a huge number of stylish people — there are always more fashionable people. And of course most people are neither.”
As she spoke I found myself vigorously nodding along, thinking about how the most stylish people I know are people who understand that a great outfit is often far more than the sum of its parts. That it’s not just what you wear but how you wear it.
And so, I thought I’d turn this month’s newsletter into a compendium of said people, a directory of the women I follow on Instagram who have truly impeccable personal style, and whose outfits have clogged up the Screenshots folder of my phone for years now. Very few of them are straight-up fashion influencers, a category I follow pretty sparingly on Instagram (I remember doing a mass unfollow sometime around 2018, when I realised that constant exposure to all the latest must-have items was a) giving me unrealistic expectations of what my own wardrobe should look like/how extensive it should be; and b) encouraging me to buy things that weren’t really ‘me’ just because I’d been exposed to them over and over again. That’s not a dig at influencers, who I do think play a role in the fashion ecosystem - but that role is largely about showcasing the latest must-have items, which just isn’t a realistic way for me to shop or dress.)
Some of the women I’ve included below work in fashion or other fashion-adjacent jobs, but many also do not - there’s a chef and a lawyer, as well as a gallerist and a DJ. In fact, I actually discovered many of them via their work first, before realising that they also had a really great sense of style. And, as is often the case in life, their good taste extends to other corners beyond fashion - literature, culture, interiors - so hopefully you’ll find inspiration for areas far beyond just your wardrobe here.
And of course, as always, I’ve included a few items I currently have my eye on/have recently bought (I finally copped some Phoebe Philo guys….…the hype….…she got me!!)
A few bits and bobs before we get to all that though:
I was interviewed for this Vogue Business piece exploring why fashion editors (or mere enthusiasts like myself) are increasingly turning to Substack as a way of escaping the algorithm. Lots of interesting insights, and I definitely concur with the person who commented that newsletters hold her attention span more than other social media, and are where she’s finding the most thoughtful consumer insight (though I’m wary of crediting any one specific tech platform for that shift - any medium that prioritises long form analysis over the bite-size nature of social media gets credit in my books, whether that’s a Substack dispatch or a print magazine feature).
Speaking of print - the new issue of The Gentlewoman is out now, and I’m looking forward to spending a leisurely afternoon reading it ASAP.
Two long reads that have stayed on my mind this month: first, a fairly meaty profile in ELLE US of the OG girlboss Sophia Amoruso, which explores life after ‘cancellation’ (and bankruptcy) and serves as an interesting look back at the shape of feminism during the 2010s. And the New Yorker’s Sam Knight wrote a brutally honest (and I have to warn you - frequently depressing) account of what fourteen years of Tory rule have done to the UK.
News of luxury e-tailer Matches Fashion going into administration was as shocking as it was sad - I hadn’t realised quite how fond I am (was?) of the brand until finding out it would be no more! Its demise has plucked similar emotional chords as the closure of Topshop did back in 2020 - Matches is one of the first places I started shopping when I could afford to buy ‘nice’ clothes… my home is a graveyard of those marbled boxes! There are some good reports on what went wrong in the New York Times and Vogue Business. I’m not sure quite how long the website will be sticking around for (and while I’m loathe to encourage people to put more money into Mike Ashley’s pockets), fans of Matches in-house brand Raey would be wise to stock up on it while they still can…