It girl, art graduate, face of YSL, top model, hair muse … Edie Campbell wears so many hats atop her ever-changing hair, it’s impossible to put this elusive style star into any one box. Here she chats to L’Officiel about makeup, hair, and her preference for simplicity when it comes to both of those.
Edie Campbell was born into a world of style. Her mother worked as a fashion editor for Tatler and British Vogue before turning her aesthetic to architecture; she designed store interiors for the likes of Chloé and Yohji Yamamoto. Campbell’s grandmother, Joan Hicks, was a model in the 1950s, posing for such photography luminaries as Norman Parkinson and David Bailey. Despite having an art history degree tucked under her (Hedi Slimane) belt, the 24-year-old Campbell has followed in her grandmother’s chic footsteps, into the world of top modelling. With a long list of campaign credits on her CV, one of Campbell’s breakout roles is as the face of YSL Black Opium. “YSL Beauté is a very French brand,” says the English model, “but I think the Black Opium fragrance is a little more liberated than the stereotypically chic and restrained Frenchness.” The utterly modern Edie also brings to the Opium brand her urban kind of cool. “Previous Opium campaigns have portrayed a very languid woman, a little bit passive perhaps,” she muses. “I like that the Black Opium woman is very active, she doesn’t wait for things to happen to her.”
I love Hedi Slimane’s clothes. I love what he has done at YSL and I love that everything he designs feels like it is to be lived in, not simply to be looked at, or to parade around in. His classic suede jackets are perfect.
My style is quite boyish. I like to prioritise function over form and I like simple things. I find it very hard to think about what my personal style is when I’ve been working a lot—you start to see clothes through the eyes of all the people you’ve been working with and start to forget your own personal point of view. Which is a good thing and a bad thing, I suppose.
My makeup look is very simple. I don’t wear very much in the daytime, just a bit of mascara, concealer and lip balm. If I’m going out I’ll put on a bit more: some eyeliner in a very imprecise way, some brown eyeshadow, again in a vague way. And more mascara. I find that’s what suits me and is pretty much all I can manage.
I like changing my hair all the time. I’m lucky that I have access to amazing colourists and hairdressers to advise and help me. Who knows what’s next, maybe a buzz cut. I’ve always been secretly jealous of Sinéad O’Connor and Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta. But who knows what shape my head is under there.
I try not to shampoo my hair too much … as it strips out all the oil. And I never do any styling unless I’m working, in order to try to save it. Plus I use lots of conditioner.
My beauty routine … is to wash my face with hot water and use an Avène cleanser and toner. I’m also really disciplined about putting SPF50 on my face because I tend to burn like a newborn baby.
Black Opium seems strangely familiar to me, which is really important, I think. It doesn’t seem alien or overpowering, it has a bit more subtlety. I like the unique contrast in Black Opium, the combination between the bitterness of coffee bean and the sweetness of vanilla.
My health philosophy is simple. Basically, I try not to eat too many cakes; I eat more vegetables and lean protein than chocolate. For fitness, I spend as much time outside, in the countryside, as I possibly can. Riding and having horses keeps you pretty active and if I’m in the city I walk or cycle everywhere, or swim. I try not to think of exercise as exercise.
Words: Katrina Lawrence
Photography: Sonny Vandevelde
