wearable<\/em> clothes. Today Howell, who graduated in fine art from Goldsmiths back in 1969, is dressed in a wrinkled Gitane-blue dress-shirt (made for her by a former member of her team), black vest, threadbare jeans and Birkenstock sandals that appear to have wandered off the beaten track, many times. While her home is in South East London, she does now spend more time in her 60s house on the Suffolk coast. \u201cWhen I am not working I like to get away from everything\u2026\u201d she says.<\/p>\nThis ability to meld past and present is the key to Howell\u2019s appeal and has made her a constant fixture on stylish shopping lists over the years, regardless of the vagaries of high fashion. \u201cI have never felt particularly comfortable in real fashion circles,\u201d she confesses. \u201cI know that there is a connection with fashion in what I do and I like the imagery you can play around with for a fashion show; but I want to do something very real and loved. When I like something then I like it and it doesn\u2019t change too much.\u201d Howell cites the d\u00e9gag\u00e9 elegance of Katharine Hepburn as an early influence, alongside photographs and films from the 30s. Her designs offer a lived-in familiarity. They are the kind of clothes you imagine you already own\u2026 or wish you did.<\/p>\n
Her earliest sartorial memories are positively Proustian \u2013 the softness of her father\u2019s shirt and a pleated chiffon dress her mother wore to go ballroom dancing. \u201cI think that\u2019s why some of my clothes hint at nostalgia, why people respond to them,\u201d she continues. \u201cThere has to be something more than just a shirt. It needs a character behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI found this man\u2019s shirt in a jumble sale,\u201d says Howell, explaining how she made the transition from selling painted papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 beads to opening her first shop in London\u2019s South Molton Street in 1977. \u201cAt the same jumble there was a slipover, a tie and a pair of cotton trousers and I put them on my boyfriend and thought, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s a good outfit\u2019 and it went from there.\u201d Fashion retailer Joseph Ettedgui (creator of Joseph) spotted Howell\u2019s potential and bankrolled that first store. \u201cI was supplying him with men\u2019s shirts and then a linen jacket and then a pair of trousers and he said, \u2018When you\u2019ve made the complete men\u2019s outfit I will open a shop for you.\u2019\u201d Howell\u2019s entry into womenswear in 1980 was equally accidental. \u201cWomen were buying the men\u2019s jackets so we did them in smaller sizes and then a skirt came along,\u201d Howell laughs, aware of the irony presented by the na\u00efve beginnings of a business that now has a \u00a350 million annual turnover and 48 retail outlets in Japan alone.<\/p>\n
This season Howell has revisited her own archive. As she takes me through the new collection, she highlights a bright blue drill overall coat that bears the stamped MHL label of her secondary line. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to get people to understand what MHL really is,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s something very basic; raw, almost. Naturally it\u2019s a lower price point but it can\u2019t look cheap. It\u2019s the difference between a really good caf\u00e9 and a really good restaurant. You like them both for what they are.\u201d She describes MHL as \u201cthings to be worn with something at the other end of the scale. Contrasts are nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
MHL underscores the dichotomy in Howell\u2019s design ethos. While her pieces offer effortless chic, they also require a bit of imagination. Does she agree that at times they are deceptively basic? \u201cYes, but sometimes there is quite a bit going on that you\u2019re not really aware of,\u201d she insists. \u201cThere are little subtle details; maybe even on the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is an endearing pragmatism to Howell\u2019s designs that cuts through the catwalk capers of so many designers obsessed with front-row swooning and front-page headlines. \u201cI think most people would think it\u2019s nice when you put something on and you know there\u2019s something about it that you like,\u201d she says, as she reaches for a sleeveless V-neck knit and draws my attention to a wider-than-usual ribbed armhole. \u201cThis is our take on an Argyle slipover. The shoulders sort of slip off, hang over.\u201d She offers the garment for the touch test and tells me it\u2019s made with a mix of cashmere and silk. \u201cOr cashmere and cotton? Whatever it is, it feels nice and soft.\u201d There couldn\u2019t really be a better description for Howell\u2019s aesthetic.<\/p>\n
Interview over, Howell heads back to join her design team and I take a look around the shop-floor. As I am about to leave she reappears with an old newspaper advert for the original 1977 store \u2013 a sketch of a man wearing a T-shirt with rolled sleeves. She smiles. \u201cI think the style has remained pretty constant, don\u2019t you?\u201d <\/p>\n
Photograpy: John Lindquist \nFashion: Lauren Blane \nWords: Iain R. Webb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Flair without fuss. Chic without chi-chi. Style without showing off. Margaret Howell, British fashion scion and understated style queen, tells Wonderland the tricks of her trade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9418],"tags":[100,72,121,50,112,122,115,120,92],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Margaret Howell Spring 2009 | Wonderland<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n