A Muse by Any Other Name (But Don’t Call Her That)

VITAL STATISTICS:

NAME AMANDA HARLECH

CURRENT JOB CHANEL SOUNDING BOARD

FIRST JOB JUNIOR FASHION EDITOR AT HARPERS & QUEEN

INSIDE TRACK WORKED ALONGSIDE JOHN GALLIANO FOR 12 YEARS

CLAIM TO FAME ONCE SPRINKLED GALLIANO MODELS WITH LAVENDER POWDER BEFORE A SHOW

IN A SECTION DEDICATED to women in luxury, where do you fit a slim 48-year-old English horsewoman whose role (can it even be called a job?) is to waft into Paris and inspire Karl Lagerfeld for a few weeks before voyaging back, as if through time, to a farmhouse in the rugged English county of Shropshire? Amanda Harlech has been called a muse—a term she doesn’t much care for, perhaps because it seems so passive, focused mainly on her magnificent jade-colored eyes, storm-black hair and delicate frame that is perfect to carry clothes. She is also possessed of a considerable intelligence, itself at odds with what is now called fashion intelligence, which means tracking trends, being In, going out. So what does Harlech do? She reads, she thinks, and ever since she joined England’s Harpers & Queen as a junior fashion editor post-Oxford, she’s had a marvelous way with old lace. That wouldn’t lead to a position of influence for most people, but then, most people do not have Harlech’s ability to weave romance through clothes. John Galliano was entranced for a dozen years and then Lagerfeld, who hired her away 11 years ago. At Lagerfeld’s side during the run up to Chanel collections, Harlech is the sounding board, the outside pair of eyes. Her job description may remain elusive, but Harlech manages to be exactly of her times and yet timeless, which is what designers seeking style—not trendiness—yearn for. She is, in her own way, a fashion compass set to true north, a rare and enduring force.