At the SS16 Chloé show, creative director Clare Waight Keller dedicated her collection to a group of girls – Kate, Chloë, Cecilia, Corinne, Emma, Courtney and Rosemary – all of them stylish pin-ups of that most irreverent decade: the Nineties. Standing before me now is Rosemary Ferguson, who, along with Moss, Sevigny, Chancellor, Day, Balfour and Love, was one of the grunge-glamour queens of that decade.
The model-turned-nutritionist, now 40, hands me a lemon and honey tea in the rustic bohemian surroundings of her Cotswolds home. The walls of her barn conversion are plastered in a print of tiny grimacing faces – a hallmark of her husband’s, artist Jake Chapman, one half of the art duo, the Chapman Brothers. Also adorning the walls are portraits of her girls – Elfie, 16, Bliss, 10, and Blythe, nine – alongside framed covers from cult Nineties magazines, starring Rosemary in her modelling days.
‘Ketamine, The New Ecstasy?’ shouts one cover line on the June 1992 issue of The Face, shot by the late Corinne Day. Greasy haired and moody faced, with the words ‘Young Style Rebels’ stamped across Rosemary’s midriff, it’s tricky to reconcile that sullen teenager with this perky mum-of-three.
‘When I think of the torture Corinne used to put me through to get those shots, it’s no wonder I look grumpy,’ she says, smiling. ‘I’ll never forget the Penthouse shoot we did in 1997. I was naked in a freezing cold lake. To make me feel better, the whole crew stripped down to their pants – it was hilarious.’
It was Corinne who discovered Rosemary, aged 15, in a McDonald’s on Oxford Street. A couple of jobs in, Rosema
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‘These were made by stylist Chris Baker, who’s a good friend of mine.’
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A tartan miniskirt from Rosemary's modelling days.
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‘This was one of my first-ever covers – I was 17.’
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Leopard print occasionally makes an appearance in Rosemary's wardrobe.
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‘This Louis Vuitton blanket is a 40th birthday present from my dear friend, Louis Vuitton style director Kim Jones.’
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Rosemary's bicycle.
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‘This is my dog, Buffy. I also have a cat called Will Ferrell and a horse named Garfield.’