About A Girl: Lisa Armstrong

 

Lisa Armstrong’s rise through the ranks at British Elle, Vogue, The Independent and The Times, to the revered post of fashion editor at The Daily Telegraph, was not the career path she envisaged from her bucolic ‘fashion-free’ childhood in the Devon countryside. Today, Armstrong is an authority on fashion and how to wear it, but there was some experimentation along the way – exasperatedly, she recalls when living in Paris as an au pair, she spent her salary on an entirely mauve wardrobe.
Her break came when then editor of Elle, Sally Brampton, spotted her freelance writing while she was working at a small London fitness magazine after graduating in journalism from City University. She joined Brampton’s team, editing the arts section, but her attention was soon diverted: ‘I was mesmerised by the girls in the fashion department,’ she says. ‘They wore outfits by these wonderful Japanese designers that I’d never heard of and they were always flitting off to Marrakech or some exotic location.’ The passion that was to shape her career had been ignited. Read full article here...

‘When I see Phoebe Philo or Sofia Coppola, I think, “Oh, I want her style!” They look perennially stylish, and that’s how I want to dress. I admire people who can wear ornate clothes, but only if it looks natural to them. Looking self-conscious is really uncomfortable.
‘I don’t think anyone can have it all. Why would you want it all? It would be exhausting. I think it’s more important to choose – do you want a fabulous career, to be a domestic goddess and have an amazing social life? Well, you’ll go mad if you try to do all those things. Perfection is awful, anyway. That’s one of the great things about living in the UK – the British don’t feel they have to be perfect, which is refreshing.’