There are no popping flashbulbs or hovering lackeys or grandstanding egos, when I arrive to interview one of the most powerful women in modern British fashion. Instead, Katy England has arrived early at the neighbourhood cafe she has chosen; when I walk in, she looks up from her coffee and smiles. Her hair is tousled not blowdried, she definitely put her black eyeliner on herself, and her grey and black Isabel Marant sweater has an under-the-radar chic; she has a kind of artless sex appeal which makes her seem younger than 47, despite the crinkles around her eyes.
Katy England has been art directing your wardrobe for two decades, even if you haven't the faintest idea who she is. And that, for the most part, is exactly how she likes it. England is an anomoly in a fashion industry obsessed with celebrity names and front-row photo opportunities, having forged a stellar career as a power behind the throne. As the right-hand woman to Alexander McQueen, Nick Knight, Tom Ford and Kate Moss – to name but a few – she has been in the inner circle of British fashion since 1994.
Now for the first time, she is launching a project under her own name, with a short film for Vauxhall entitled Made in England. The brief, says England, was that it would "have a sense of British style". The film is surprisingly gritty and unglamorous, a miniature road movie about ordinary British teenagers. "I think Vauxhall might have expected more of a high fashion content," laughs England, "but the thing with me is, I always take things really personally." So instead of making a slick, styled, aspirational piece of fashion fantasy, she made a film "about being an adolescent and discovering the world for yourself, about how intense and emotional it is, just getting dressed up for a Friday night, when you're a teenager". There is a nostalgia to it, "because it made me think about how things have changed from how they were when I was growing up. Fashion has become more homogenised. I hate the idea that 14-year-old girls are made to feel like they have to have their hair a certain way, to have a certain body. It's like there is only one ideal way to look now. It's really harsh."
England grew up in Cheshire, the youngest of three girls. (England is her real name, by the way. "I love my name, which is why I didn't change it when I married.") After studying fashion design at Manchester Polytechnic, she came to London for a placement on Elle magazine. "Up till then, I didn't know what a stylist was. But as soon as I did, I knew that was what I would do." She worked as a stylist on the Evening Standard, and on Dazed & Confused magazine, and one day in 1994 bumped into a young designer called Lee [Alexander] McQueen in a trimmings shop in Soho. "He came over and said: 'Are you Katy England? Do you want to go for a cup of tea?' And I agreed to style his next show, and pretty soon we were together all the time. He had a little studio in the basement of Philip Treacy's shop, which Isabella [Blow] had let him have. In those early days he was so much fun. A real practical joker. We were really close – he was almost like a boyfriend, although obviously not."
Stylist is a catch-all job description which can mean everything or nothing; for England at McQueen, it was very much everything. "Lee pushed everybody. He always wanted everything to be interesting. He made you work harder and think harder. I was involved at every stage: researching collections, talking and talking, working on fabrics, doing fittings, casting models, everything. It was incredibly intense." Especially because, as England points out, history has rewritten how the young McQueen was reviled by much of the media. "Everyone said he was shocking, and vulgar."
In 2002, England had her first son, Wolf, with Bobby Gillespie; Lux was born two years later, and the couple married in 2006. Soon after, she stopped working with McQueen. "There is a culture in high fashion that does not understand you needing to get home at the end of the day. My kids were little and Lee wanted me with him all the time. At that level, designers demand such loyalty, and they don't like it if you need any space from them." She is sure, she says, that they would have worked together again at some point, "but he died before we had a chance to come back together. That's really painful". The aesthetic that England helped express at McQueen was high creativity meeting raw reality. Intricate historical references and sublimely exaggerated silhouettes would be subverted by something dark or rude or uncouth: sex-shop latex, or asylum restraints, or punk. The best British fashion has always happened at this point, which is why we as a nation are brilliant at catwalk fashion and streetstyle, but rarely dominate the mid-market between.
England now works on Givenchy menswear for designer Riccardo Tisci, and with Tom Ford for his London fashion week show. "The really great designers, the ones who are really good, are seriously intelligent people. Lee, Riccardo, Tom, Marc Jacobs – they are so clever, which makes them amazing to work with. They are such strong characters. My job is to bring some air and light into the situation when it all gets too intense. I kind of coax out of them what they want to say."
After coffee, England is headed to the Topshop headquarters for a design meeting with Kate Moss. She has worked closely alongside Moss on all her collections for Topshop. Working with Moss is easy, says England, because "we know each other really well, and we share the same aesthetic. We both love vintage, we both love clothes that are special, that feel like they have stories. When she thinks of a dress she'll start talking about where she might wear it – it's all about her life, about that Kate spirit." The pieces being created for spring, says England, will be more high end than the early Kate Moss for Topshop collections. "They are going to be beautiful, special pieces that really celebrate Kate."
The collection is all about Kate's style and lifestyle. "It's Kate-themed," says England. But does Moss really design it? "Absolutely! She's completely designing it. She's really doing it, and, what's more, she's really good at it. She knows about fashion, she knows about fit. I mean, she's been in the industry for 20 years. She's worked with all the top designers and worn all the best clothes. That teaches you a lot about fashion, actually."
