INTERVIEW WITH MADDIE HUGGINS

Interview with Maddie Huggins, former Editor and Stylist at Vogue UK.

Huggins left Vogue over 10 years ago to enable her to look after her newborn son, Dan. Although she has left London her influence still continues through her freelance work. I was fascinated to find out more so I arranged an exclusive interview with her.

How did you get into working in the fashion industry?

“Basically, I did Bi-Chemistry at University which of course didn’t get me into fashion but it sort of didn’t matter. I knew I wanted to work on a magazine and a job came up in PR and of course I was emptying bins and carrying clothes to different magazines (offices). Through that I got to know all of the assistants of the editors so that meant I heard when jobs came up and I got to know the editors. I also got to know the other side of it so for example they would phone up and say ‘we’re doing a ballet story, do any of your clients have things that would be of use?’. So you’d be putting together things for them. You’d be kinda used to gathering clothes and getting to know the people that were leaving the jobs. Then a friend of mine said they were leaving Vogue and to go for their job… and I did and I got it. It was great!”

What is your favourite memory from working at Vogue?

“I was an assistant to the fashion director who did a kind of amazing epic fantasy fashion shoot. We went to Africa to the middle of Tanzania and we flew in a tiny plane which I had to squeeze five massive suitcases into. We landed in the middle of the runway and there was a golden light and everybody just got out of this little plane and it was just magical.”

Do you have a most memorable photoshoot that you worked on whilst working for Vogue?

“Well I think the one in Tanzania was amazing! I did a fantastic shoot in Mexico with this bright white sand and this blue sea with a girl running through the water and it was all sort of saturated. I think that was one of my favourites!”

Do you feel like you have truly left the fashion industry?

“I’m interested still. I still like photography. Quite a lot of friends of mine still work in the industry so I’m always hearing things. Like I say it’s not just the clothes, it was the images put together so the sort of combination of the clothes, the hair, the make up, the photographer, the look. I’m still interested in it all! I still read Vogue but I don’t read as many magazines as I used to. I keep up with Style.com to see what’s in the shows and what is going on. So yes, I mean I’m not working in the fashion industry particularly but I feel I’m still interested.”

What made you leave London?

“Change of everything. When I had Dan, my son, I never thought for a second I wouldn’t go back. I had the date to go back and I was going to go back then. I didn’t empty my desk. Then… I didn’t go back. It’s a brilliant job but you do travel a lot so you work out what you want to do. Plenty of people do carry on with kids but you then have to have a really good structure with childcare. It’s not about someone being able to do a day. Twice a year you do the shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Then you also have the shoots. I didn’t want to do that. That’s when we moved and carried on doing bits of freelance but I didn’t do that sort of relentless travelling that is part of the job. Especially with Vogue which has bigger budgets so the photographers you work with are often in New York. Although you’re doing a studio shoot you go to the photographer because it’s cheaper to fly you there than bring the photographer, equipment, hair, make up to the studio here (England). But plenty of people do carry on (after having a child).”

Who’s your biggest inspiration in the fashion industry?

“I think at the time when I started Sarah Jane Hoare who was my Editor at Vogue was amazing. I mean she was my boss and she was incredibly difficult but her pictures at the time were epic stories always led by artists, films, it wasn’t just about the clothes. It was much more storytelling and researched. But the new wave of people were really what I loved. When I first went into fashion it was all about the superstars and the supermodels. They were very big personalities, glammed up, glossed and kind of larger than life… not in size but in everything! Very Glamourous. Then the new wave of David Simms, Corinne Day, Craig McDean and all the new models like Kate Moss. Grunge. Then it was all stripped back! They looked fresh, they wore flat shoes, they were dressed up like powerhouses. That was really my time.

A girl called Anna Coban who worked at Harpers and Queen. She did a kind of dash cash story and she’d put a girl in a sort of school boy trousersuit with flat shoes and a t-shirt. At that time everybody was in suits, shoulder pads, heals and coppel chokers! So I thought that was brilliant.”

With the new laws in France about model’s health checks - Do you think this law will be enforced in the UK?

“I don’t know… I mean it will change if everybody helps it. I’m struggling here because I really don’t know how model’s would be monitored. It’s a very difficult thing. At Vogue the Editor's were against using very thin girls but of course there’s trends in girls in the same way as everyone else. There’s always a top girl that everyone wants to use! They’re not trying to use them because they’re thin.

It’s a massive issue. I think just general attitude needs to change about it. It’s hard to say who’s ill and who’s not ill. It starts right back at the shows. There should be rules and like I say magazines should have taken responsibility. I can only think of it from that point of view but I guess you’ve kind of got to change how you see things! Like I say, my editor (Alex) was very anti using someone really thin. If you said you wanted to use a girl in a shoot who’s very thin she wouldn’t let you use anyone she considered to be too thin. I think everyone should take responsibility in the business because I don’t think models should be allowed to be ill. I think the agencies should be the ones to take responsibility. So yes I think it should be enforced. However, I’m not sure how you would do it because someone at nine stone could look ok and someone at eight stone could look ok but then someone could easily not look ok at the same weight. It’s not just that you’ve got to be a certain size because some people are broad but look really thin at nine stone.

I think that’s a huge thing that needs to be taken responsibility for by all of the people in the industry not to use those girls. The agencies would then lose money because they weren’t used. Then they would make sure their girls didn’t drop in weight. The agencies will react if nobody books them because they’re too thin. In the same way that they aren’t booked they aren’t thin enough! There’s got to be a middle ground.”