Most Influential People2019

Clare Waight Keller has an early memory of being told to hold still while her mother pinned clothes on her little body. Tellingly, Clare credits that experience for her love of fashion.

As a kid whose mother also sewed, and who requested special purple pants, I grew up believing that fashion was personal and expressive. But while my pursuit of sartorial splendor was dependent on my mother’s labor, Clare was inspired to seek a career. Armed with incredible talent, Clare graduated from the Royal College of Art, where she was taught the importance of exploring opportunities and learning the business.

Clare stood out because she learned the business so successfully and artfully, and because her clothes reflected the innately human and beautiful. Clare’s simple wedding gown for ­Meghan ­Markle was exactly that—a reflection of the lovely and modern young woman who just happens to be a 21st century princess. The world gasped when they saw that bride, and everyone wanted to know who had made that dress.

We are drawn to Clare’s work because she doesn’t design from the outside in, she designs from the inside out. From the place of pinning clothes on a body.

Moore is an Oscar-­winning actor