Laura Bailey is finding it somewhat hard to talk about her personal style. Not because she’s a difficult interviewee – on the contrary, she’s generous and thoughtful from the off – but because it’s an instinctive, diverse, almost intangible thing.
“I’m such a strange person in the sense that when I talk about style, it sort of disappears,” she says. “I’m so attracted to mystery and spontaneity that the minute I try to deconstruct or analyse it, it doesn’t make sense.”
Bailey’s career is similarly tricky to pigeonhole. She’s best known as a model, a familiar face from jobs as diverse as being one of the original M&S “girls” in the 2000s (alongside Twiggy) to becoming a Chanel muse during Karl Lagerfeld’s era as creative director of the fashion house. But she’s also a photographer, a compelling writer whose work has been published in Vogue and The Telegraph, an advocate who’s campaigned for causes including Save the Children and a keen tennis player (“I try to play every day”).
She is, in a sense, the thinking woman’s model. Her career began at the age of 21, when, to her surprise, she was scouted on the King’s Road in London. “I certainly didn’t expect it to happen, but it did,” she says. “I was very new to London and did want to work in creative fields, but I really didn’t know anything about that world. I never planned to be a model, but it gave me unexpected, unbelievable freedom to travel and to create and to learn.”
Bailey has applied the same creative freedom to her style, resisting “rules” and boundaries as she continues to model – alongside many other creative projects – in her 50s. “I’m much more physically ‘in’ my body now,” she says. “Maybe that’s connected with sport, maybe it’s just a different kind of confidence. I think I’m probably much more free in my body than I was in my 20s.”
Despite this shift, certain fashion signatures have remained for Bailey, including a penchant for sportswear influences, respect for great denim and a longstanding love of vintage. Among her most treasured items are a “little black Chanel jacket from Karl” that she’s worn at least once a week for the past 20 years, a secondhand Burberry trench coat that she bought at a market, the same Levi’s cut-offs she’s worn since her 20s, and some simple Prada stilettos.
These took something of a backseat when, about a year ago, she took some time off to spend with her teenage children, Luc and Lola. She says this period brought her “scruffy, tomboy, sporty” side to the fore, but that this didn’t mean losing an appreciation for playfulness, femininity and a connection to the joy of getting dressed.
Now that she’s shifting back into a more work-filled period of life – which includes a new collaboration with knitwear label Madeleine Thompson – she says her wardrobe is more “edited”, partly because of juggling different demands, partly because of age. “I think I used to be more tempted to be three different people at once: maybe more easily influenced, maybe more anxious, maybe trying to change myself depending on the job I was trying to get,” she says. “Rather than doubling down on the essence of who I am and what I love, which is why I feel way more confident with less now. It’s not that I don’t want to be playful and creative, it’s just that I want to do it within a tighter framework.”
Bailey’s style may be minimal, but it contains multitudes. Sometimes it’s a romantic pale-pink Simone Rocha slip skirt, other times it’s Grace Wales Bonner for Adidas. It could be vintage Ossie Clark one day, and Matthieu Blazy’s latest for Chanel the next. Often, though, it’s many of these things at once. She’s clearest on what she wears on the tennis court: Lacoste, Live The Process, Bella Freud socks and a Chanel racquet bag she’s had for more than a decade. And perhaps some vintage or pieces borrowed from her son for good measure.
Her influences are equally varied. As well as designers, she looks to actors like “Sixties Deneuve”, Romy Schneider, Monica Vitti and Diane Keaton. Also on the mood board are Florence Welch, Zadie Smith and Jürgen Teller, who she sometimes spots in her west London neighbourhood in his “hot-pink running shorts”.
Bailey certainly has a lot of sources to draw from – old and new. “Working with Twiggy was a dream and she is both a friend and an inspiration,” she says. “And still so beautiful now – true grace.” Then there are the “wise and wonderful” women she’s surrounded by, including Sam Taylor-Johnson and Christiane Amanpour.
Quizzed on fashion maxims, she prefers to quote another wise woman, the late Gloria Steinem: “Fashion in the present means being unique and finding oneself.” That’s a process that continues to unfold regardless of age.
Five personal style rules
Pieces get better with age
Sometimes I’ll save or borrow something special for a night out, but I’m happy to wear things over and over again and get obsessed with my favourite things. And I love reinventing pieces.
West (London) is best
I’m a west London girl. I love the stores on Golborne Road like Rejina Pyo and Arte House, or on Chiltern Street, like Bella Freud and Monocle.
Inspiration can come from anywhere
I get inspired by concerts and films, street style and my amazing girlfriends, magazines and print media. I love going to fashion shows, but I’m not overly fixated on trends.
Go with your gut
I’m very much a gut instinct person and am very decisive – for better or worse. It doesn’t mean that I don’t love to follow a vintage trail or get inspired, but I’m very clear.
It’s OK to contradict yourself
I love a gorgeous dress and getting dressed up, but also being scruffy, and my style is rooted in sport. I’m attracted to contrasts.
Laura Bailey x Madeleine Thompson collaboration will launch on October 20.