EDW: A Nose For Fashion

As well as stealing the identity of hapless feline bloggers for their nightwear ranges, Marks & Spencer have a new ad out for Christmas and it sure looks pretty. Of course, for me, Erin O’Connor rather steals it. Okay, maybe it’s a cheap shot hailing a model for being elegantly dressed; it is, after all, her job. But there’s something about Erin, a grace, a luminous charm, an intelligence, that somehow lifts her above the usual rash of tall, skinny birds who wear expensive clothes for a living. Unlike many of her ‘super’ pals, Erin hasn’t launched a stinky perfume, claimed to have written a novel, or ‘designed’ a range of clothes for a high street retailer. No, Erin knows her business and she has made her fortune being damn good at it, thus maintaining her dignity. She’s posed for artists and sculptors - her profile was the basis for a recent bust of Queen Nefertiti. She lectures on fashion, and she takes her job seriously, bringing a designer’s vision to life on the catwalk.

Maybe I like her so much because she is so extraordinary. Over six feet talk, short, dark hair, and strong features leave her a far cry from the usual bland models who are no more than a tabular rasa (or coat hanger) for the make-up artist and designer to mould and shape. She has been described as an ‘anti-beauty’ but I can’t see it myself, for to me, true beauty has an ethereal quality to it, a sense of other-worldliness that sets it apart from the rest of us and makes us gasp. Erin O’ Connor has that quality in spades and that’s why she’s this week’s nominee for Elegantly Dressed Wednesday.

* If you’re interested, there’s an interview with her here which amply demonstrates her good sense and elegance.