Alice Olins
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What is your favourite item in your wardrobe and why?
An Ossie Clark cream crepe dress that I picked up in a charity shop for £1.
It goes some way to making up for his pieces my mother had but destroyed.
She cut them into minidresses and let them go mouldy.
What is your fallback outfit?
If I have to dress up, a black kimono-inspired Vanessa Bruno dress. For day,
jeans, Vans trainers and an American Apparel batwing sweatshirt.
What is your one piece of fashion advice?
Shop with someone who helps you to push your boundaries. I know what I feel
comfortable in, but sometimes there are two voices in my head: the
adventurer and the conservative.
What was your biggest fashion faux pas?
I wore an inappropriately short, tight dress to an ex-boyfriend's sister's
wedding. I only got through it with several stiff drinks.
What aspect of fashion do you dislike?
I find jeans that I love, then they seem to be discontinued.
How do you think people perceive you from your clothes?
Being an artist means that most days I tend to dress down - jumpers with
holes in them are a prime example. I'm sure I'm seen as a total slob. I know
this largely from people's surprise when they meet me at an event and I look
half-decent.
If you could steal a wardrobe from anyone - past or present, fictional or
real - whose would it be and why?
Lauren Bacall, whom I have loved and aspired to be like in vain since I was
about 13: the hair, the suits, the dresses.
Which part of your body would you like to change?
First impulse is to say my legs: longer, leaner and straighter. But with
dieting and exercise I can kind of come around to accepting them. But
nothing short of surgery, which will never happen, will give me back my
pre-baby boobs.
List your five desert island staples.
A long-sleeved shirt, a knife, a bag of rice, a cooking utensil and a book
(preferably a farming almanac).
What is a day in the fashion life of Natasha Law?
Tracksuit for breakfast mayhem, jeans and a little jumper for travelling to
the studio and then into my overalls and moon boots. If there is no studio,
it's a treat to do a dress, tights and boots, or black cigarette pants and a
scarf.
Natasha Law has collaborated with Matches' Art Project to rework her nude series into paintings, prints and scarves, available from the Marylebone store or matchesfashion.com until December 31.
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