. There's a metallic lilac Versace mini in which she was photographed by Richard Avedon, an image that featured on the cover of Captivate!, her 2021 book celebrating '90s fashion photography. There's her bespoke Valentino wedding dress (she and her film director husband Matthew Vaughn recently celebrated their 20th anniversary), an Azzedine Alaïa dress embroidered with the message 'my heart belongs to daddy', and a button-through, pearl-embellished Balmain gown worn to the premiere of Vaughn's most recent film, The King's Man, on which she was an executive producer. It is all tidy in the extreme, neatly folded and colour-coordinated, organised with the precision and care of a museum curator. 'I'm a Virgo, and I'm also German,' she laughs. That said, there's nothing precious in the way she talks about fashion, rather an infectious, almost girlish joy. She is even relaxed about her 17-year-old daughter Clementine 'nicking' her Chanel dresses: 'She wears my old things mixed with new brands. Clemmie always says that to her it's like going thrifting in the most fabulous vintage shop for free; I adore the nostalgia I feel when I see her wearing something.' But it's not just those red-carpet pieces that Schiffer treasur){kind=link}
The mother of three discusses Cadbury’s Buttons, the secrets of longevity and her admiration for old friend Linda Evangelista
Filed neatly behind the doors of Claudia Schiffer’s vast walk-in wardrobe is one of the most enviable fashion archives in the world. ‘Archive’ might sound a little grand, but if she chose to, the 52-year-old original supermodel could easily fill a wing of the V&A.
For someone who insists that she’s ‘not given to nostalgia – it can prevent you from moving forward,’ Schiffer is as sentimental as they come. ‘My truly precious pieces are all connected with a story or a moment in time,’ she tells me, reeling off a list of her most treasured fashion possessions.
As you’d expect of the one-time muse to the late Karl Lagerfeld, there’s plenty of Chanel, including a hand-painted bag given to her by the designer (‘because I was admiring it so much at the fitting’). There’s a metallic lilac Versace mini in which she was photographed by Richard Avedon, an image that featured on the cover of Captivate!, her 2021 book celebrating ’90s fashion photography.
There’s her bespoke Valentino wedding dress (she and her film director husband Matthew Vaughn recently celebrated their 20th anniversary), an Azzedine Alaïa dress embroidered with the message ‘my heart belongs to daddy’, and a button-through, pearl-embellished Balmain gown worn to the premiere of Vaughn’s most recent film, The King’s Man, on which she was an executive producer.