21 stand-out moments in Phoebe Philo's career
It's official. Phoebe Philo is back on the fashion scene with the launch of her own label Phoebe Philo Studio. Vogue looks back in images at the moments that shaped her career.
Gruber1/211973 Phoebe Philo is born in Paris to British parents. Her father is a surveyor, and her mother is an art dealer and freelance graphic designer. The family soon moves back to the UK and Philo grows up in Harrow, a borough in northwest London.
2/211987 Philo, who has been customising her school uniform since the age of 11, receives a sewing machine for her 14th birthday and starts experimenting with her look.
Michel Dufour3/21
PIERRE VERDY4/211997 A year after graduation, Philo moves to Paris to join McCartney, the newly-appointed design director of Chloé, as first design assistant.
PIERRE VERDY5/212001 Philo takes the helm at Chloé, following McCartney’s exit to launch her own label. The designer naturally transitions from assistant to design director. “It was a decision based on intuition. I told her she would have to work very hard, and she said she wanted to,” Chloé’s chief executive of the time, Ralph Toledano, recounted in 2002.
Eric Ryan6/212002 Philo launches Chloé’s first handbag line and opens a new flagship store on London’s Sloane Street, designed by architect Sophie Hicks.
REX/Shutterstock7/212004 Philo’s effortless femininity, interspersed with references to Chloé’s 1970s heydays and British cool, increases sales by 40 percent year-over-year. She is named British Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards.
Serge BENHAMOU8/212005 Philo launches her first “it” bag, the Paddington, dubbed “the most wanted accessory in the history of the fashion business.” All 8,000 samples produced for 2005 sell out before reaching stores and waiting lists are closed.
