As with most good things in my life, I have my mother to thank for my love of luxury fashion—but not in the way you might assume. Unlike many of my peers, I did not grow up with one foot already in the industry, surrounded by glamorous people, with access to a designer-filled wardrobe, or the lucky recipient of some seriously epic hand-me-downs. My mother is an academic, and while she always dressed more flamboyantly than her colleagues, clothes were more of a means to an end than a passion—and certainly no reason to splash more than necessary of her hard-earned cash.
That said, she did have one style quirk that she inadvertently passed down to me, and that was that she almost always shopped second hand. Where most of my friends would spend their Saturdays traipsing around Topshop and hitting up the high street, much to my dismay I instead accompanied my mother to our local second-hand shop in search of cut-price clothing—and it was here that I got my first taste for luxury fashion.
