HAMISH BOWLES
By wendy goodman

Hamish Bowles is too young to be called a legend.  Yet he occupies a position of such unparalleled authority in all matters of fashion and style that he cannot be called anything else.
He is both a gentleman and a scholar who can just as easily look authentically royal in 18th-Century court dress, as he did playing an extra in Sofia Coppola’s film, Marie Antoinette, as he can dashingly modern in a Bespoke double-breasted suit designed by Paul Smith.

As the curator of the costume exhibit, Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years, which opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2001, Hamish orchestrated a feat that escalated his already towering reputation to lack of oxygen heights.
Just as Hamish emphasized Mrs. Kennedy’s sense of duty and scholarship in restoring the White House when she was First Lady, his own sense of dedication and scholarship researching the show made it an unprecedented success.

Not only the European Editor at Large for American Vogue, Hamish is also the Editor in Chief of the recently launched Vogue Living. He began his career in London at Harper’s and Queen in 1984, going from Fashion Editor to becoming the magazine’s Style Director in 1989. He became American Vogue’s Style Editor in 1992 promoted to his current position in 1995. Hamish wrote the introduction to the book, Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People, published in 2007, and it is within these pages that you begin to get a sense of his unique point of view illuminating the lifestyles of leaders in the worlds of entertainment, fashion, and society.
Madonna, Oscar de la Renta, Manolo Blahnik, Karl Lagerfeld, Marella Agnelli and Christian Lacroix are but a few of the creative forces whose private domains have been brought to light with Hamish’s unique eye. “I think environments are telling, aren’t they? Even when the environment is created by a decorator that is telling in itself. Yes, they are uniquely personal.” Hamish says,  “That is what is so exciting about my job is to explore other people’s environments.”

He is also a collector. His archive of between 1500-2000 pieces of Couture fashion is so vast that it is housed in warehouses in Paris, London, and New York. He is called upon by museum curators to contribute rare vintage gowns for special exhibitions such as the recent Cristobal Balenciaga retrospective at the Musee de la Mode et du textile in Paris.

A visit with Hamish in his own New York City apartment is a rare treat.  It is here that you get a bird’s eye view, a Cliff notes version if you will, of the worlds he inhabits and holds dear.
On one of the hottest days of the year Hamish opens the front door to greet you with such prevailing charm and good cheer, and looking so cool and dapper that you think a party might just be in full swing beyond. This is a manifestation of his impeccable manners, welcoming in this bedraggled interviewer who has interrupted his busy day writing at home.
Ushered into his creamy pink painted living room and settling into the Sister Parrish designed sofa centered among his treasures, you get the distinct feeling of Alice falling down the rabbit hole into one of Cecil Beaton’s albums. Treasures abound: violet colored lampshades designed by Nicky Haslam create a soft light where drawings by Oliver Messel glow. There is a well-known sketch of Truman Capote by Rene Bouche on one wall, along with an early collage by Tony Duquette on another amidst countless framed photographs by Cecil Beaton. “That little table is Jansen from Doris Duke’s house” Hamish points out, “I was having a major David Hicks for Helena Rubinstein moment,” he explains, citing one of the many inspirations that have led him to his acquisitions. Less will never be more or even adequate for this consummate collector of all and everything he deems beautiful. Shock notes are welcomed too. The industrial metal bookshelves flanking the fireplace are hardly in keeping with the décor. They were the suggestion of Jeffrey Bilhuber who has used them in some his decorating projects. 
“I thought it might be..Not a bad idea to introduce a vaguely butch element into a décor that was very far from that.” Hamish muses.
“But I sort of just like the counterpoint really.”

His life is punctuated with counterpoints. “I was a Luddite for a very long time and now I am addicted to my Treo, those days are long gone. I am on Face book. Unfortunately, I can be reached in just about any corner of the globe”
Admitting that he feels totally Victorian in so many ways, Hamish relishes change. “It is a new world out there! I mean the idea that I worked in magazines before faxes and computers and had to type everything up with carbon copy paper! I think it is very exciting the world has opened up in this way. Being a collector, it is very exciting.”

Currently in the throws of organizing moving into his new apartment downtown, he is faced with a conundrum  “I am so relentlessly acquisitive,” he confesses. “ I cannot bear to de-accession anything.”
When asked what modernist house he could see himself living in, Hamish pauses for a good minute before answering. “I was sort of dragged kicking and screaming to (Philip Johnson’s) the Glass House this year and although it is very much a period piece and could not be described as contemporary, I did have something of an epiphany there, the consummate elegance and the most graceful and harmonious environment. I have tremendous admiration for people who can be disciplined enough in a way that isn’t as chaotic and layered and confusing and visually intense as the way I live.”

Although his desire is to take all of his present collections with him from his cozy, compact apartment, changes seem inevitable. “The drawing room actually has delusions of grandeur, much like its owner,” he laughs. “It has a coved double-height ceiling and faux Jacobean work. It has a more architectural physical presence, and I think that will call for a slightly different approach.”
Hamish’s approach to collecting has also undergone a revolution due to the astounding access the Internet affords. “The way that the Internet has completely opened up the world to collectors, for me it is just astonishing! I am finding incredible things from parts of the country, parts of the globe, I would never, EVER find myself in. I would have no idea that a 40s Dior was lurking in a thrift store somewhere in the Midwest.”
By just examining the fabric and construction of a garment, Hamish is able to identify the Couturier and the year the garment was designed. And it is this unerring eye always tuned in to beauty and its provenance that has made him a talent to inspire generations to come. 

FASHION: I love fashion that transports you ­ from the work of the Mulleavy Sisters at Rodarte to the haute couture of Christian Lacroix ­ and I am always drawn to designers with a strong point of view and the courage of their convictions. I think its a very exciting moment for young designers, and among the most exciting I would cite Christopher Kane, Proenza Schouler, Rol and Mouret, 6267. I admire the infallible taste of Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, and the vision of Nicholas Guesquierre at Balenciaga.

I collect vintage couture, and I am interested now in the early work of Gianni Versace which, in the fullness of time, is revealed as extraordinarily innovative and imaginative.

 For myself, I have just ordered a French navy double-breasted suit from Paul
 Smith bespoke, cut with a nod to the Tommy Nutter suits that Manolo used to
 wear, lined in two shades of pink. I love Charvet ties and pocket squares for their sensational and subtle colors, prints and weaves. I am crazy for the handwoven straw hats in wondrous colors ­ viridian green, magenta, brick red ­ that I found in Cartagena in Columbia. They go very well with these hand woven straw shoes that I have made in Tangier.

 FABRICS: Carolina Irving’s exquisite humble chic prints. The 18th century archive silks of Gainsborough Silks in England. Also, in Florence, the archive textiles of the Antico Setificio Fiorentino.

 ENTERTAINING: For me, it is all about a card evening, so finger food and stiff drinks. I play Oh Hell! And am in the (desperate) throes of learning Bridge. I fear it will defeat me. 

 COLOR: Always and forever any and all shades of mauve, lilac, and purple. I am also thinking about maroon glace, mossy greens and bitter chartreuse greens, dead shrimp, Rose du Barry and magenta.

 TRAVEL: I am heading to Patmos for August and not before time. Longing to explore the wonders of Iran, Syria and Libya.

 GARDENING or FLORAL: I like wildly romantic, unkempt English flower gardens. I admire the work of Miranda Brooks, Arne Maynard, Dan Pearson, and Tom Stewart-Smith. I adore the private gardens of Dries van Noten just outside Antwerp.
  

In flower arrangements I like an exuberant mix of color and texture ­ very Constance Spry, grand but spontaneous and unforced. I am loving all those
 very old-fashioned, and indeed out of fashion flowers ­ carnations and gladioli among them.

In the garden I love old fashioned roses ­ Chapeau de Napoleon, Reine de Danemark, Gertrude Jekyll and most of the glorious David Austins but my list of favorites goes on and on - under-planted with lady¹s mantle and Cosmos Daisies so they don’t look municipal. Talking of municipal gardens, I think the Paris plantings are a triumph ­ especially at the crossroads of the Champs Elysees and Avenue Matignon, and in the Tuileries. They always manage to achieve a sort of shimmering effect in the planting, with feathery leafed plants, so that whilst there is a formality to the layout, the effect is ultimately dream-like.

 ART or DESIGN: I am currently sitting for Michael Landy for his Fall show at the Thomas, Dane Gallery in London, which is a hypnotic experience. I admire his dissecting eye. I am enjoying the return of figurative painting, and indeed of portraiture ­Elizabeth Peyton of course a favorite.

In Milan I loved the Meta collection that Mallett had worked on. The Tord Boontje wardrobe was tear-jerkingly wondrous.

 BOOK: CAIRO, The City Victorious by Max Rodenbeck Charlotte and Leopold by James Chambers Norah Lindsay: The Life and Art of a Garden Designer by Allyson Hayward. The Bachelor Duke by James Lees-Milne.

 MUSEUM: The Gayer Anderson Museum, Cairo.

 RESTAURANT: J. Sheekey, London, Cibus, Paris Waverly Inn, New York.
  

HOTEL: Adrere Amellal Ecolodge, Siwa, Egypt, Al Moudira Hotel, Luxor, Hotel Nord Pinus, Tangier, Morocco, Riad Madani, Marrakesh.

 MUSIC  CD: Original Cast Recording of the new Broadway production of South Pacific. Bruckner’s Symphony Number 7, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler (because I was so fascinated by Taking Sides.) Nova Tunes, #1.7.

 GIFT: The Nymphenburg porcelain heads, modeled by Franz Anton Bustelli in the 1760s, and created as walking cane handles ­now adapted as bottle stoppers.
 Heaven. 
  

SHOP: Spazio Rossana Orlani. Milan, for visionary contemporary design. The gift shop of the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh.