Women I return to
Marilyn Monroe
Make it stand out
Marilyn is often remembered for image and performance, but equally defined by a quieter intellectual life visible in her journals, her reading, and a sustained attention to self-understanding.
She always had a book with her on set, and spent her time between takes immersed in her reading. You can indeed have beauty and brains.
Audrey Hepurn
Audrey carried quiet grace, later defined less by image than by action—her work, her restraint, and a consistent orientation toward helping others. A sense shaped by discretion rather than display.
Grace Kelly
A real-life Princess.
Associated with a particular form of elegance defined by restraint, distance, and control,
her transition into royalty extending this image into something more fixed and formal.
A presence that remained composed and largely inaccessible, Grace largely influenced our vision of elegance.
Jackie Kennedy Onassis
My first lady.
Jackie O. maintained her composure under constant visibility, with a carefully maintained sense of control and elegance shaped through restraint and presentation. She was a figure who understood and shaped the role of appearance in public life.
Joan Didion
Observation, precision, and emotional restraint, with language used as a tool for clarity. Joan revealed a form of presence grounded in thought, rather than image. A control so refined it seemed effortless.
Sofia Coppola
She invented girlhood.
Atmosphere, softness, and restraint—her films emphasise mood over narrative and reveal a quiet, interior form of expression. I find myself in each of her films, whether through Lux or Charlotte. Only Sofia could express girlhood so authentically and aesthetically.
Marlene Dietrich
Androgony, and defiance of traditional femininity.
She approached femininity as something adjustable rather than fixed. With her identity maintained through precision and emotional strength, only Marlene truly ever defined herself as she often played with ambiguity and duality.
Jane Austen
Womanhood through wit, social observation, and structure.
Her precision and controlled use of language with restrained made her the icon she is. Jane’s work shaped by close observation of social hierarchies, expectancies faced by women, and human behaviour formed her famous expression grounded in clarity, discipline, and at times, humour.
