Fashion loves nothing more than a throwback, which is ironic considering it thrives on newness. And, at the spring/summer 2024 shows, there was no better jolt of nostalgia than Rosemary Ferguson walking the Miu Miu show on the final day of Paris Fashion Week. Yet this was more than just the return of a beloved Nineties face. Instead, it was a perfectly timed placement with a deeper context.
When Miuccia Prada established Miu Miu in 1993, it was the English model, scouted at a McDonald’s aged 15, who became not only the face of the label but also entirely representative of what it stood for. Ferguson’s boyish features, all angular and strong-browed, proved to be the ultimate counterbalance when set against Ms Prada’s new aesthetic, which riffed on a fresh sense of femininity, and were perfectly primed to front the campaigns, shot by Corinne Day. These were cool clothes for cool girls that spoke to their lives and point of view – the same energy that has once again put Miu Miu back at the top of the world’s hottest-brands lists in 2023.
To be back on that catwalk was an absolute no-brainer for Ferguson, who has since traded in the world of fashion for nutrition and the giddy heights of modelling for the Cotswolds, where she lives with her three daughters – Elfie Reigate, and Bliss and Blythe Chapman – and husband, the artist Jake Chapman.
‘It felt like it meant something. It wasn’t as if I was just doing a runway cameo, because there was history there. It’s a good story to have the very first girl to have done a Miu Miu campaign walk the show 30 years later,’ she tells me afterwards. ‘It was really nice to be back in the Miu Miu family.’
Returning to what was once her daily reality, Ferguson says she found herself feeling ‘not nearly as terrified as I used to. I thought, being there and walking, I’d feel much older, and I did, but I still felt really good about myself. There’s really something to be said about being established in your life. I’ve been around the block, so it’s going to take a lot to knock me.’
Ferguson’s catwalk comeback occurred in the same week that the world went wild for another Nineties icon, Pamela Anderson, going without make-up during Paris Fashion Week. ‘I saw her at Victoria [Beckham]’s show and she looked f*cking incredible. Breathtaking,’ she says. ‘It’s so amazing that she has let herself age. She’s so cool.’ Much like Anderson, Ferguson, now 48, made a bare-faced turn on the Miu Miu runway. ‘I have to say, I don’t think a lot of make-up works particularly well as you get older. I’m not a massive make-up wearer, so I’m used to seeing myself without it.’
As for any differences she’s noticed at shows today? Well, says Ferguson, there’s a distinct lack of champagne backstage now. The shift, she admits, is ‘thoroughly appropriate. Back then, we used to get it at every show. It would be nine o’clock in the morning and there’d be champagne,’ she says, smiling.
Ferguson spent much of the early Nineties living in a New York flatshare with celebrated hair stylist Guido Palau, model Emma Balfour and photographer David Sims. ‘We were there for four years and we pretty much only hung out with other Brits, like Kate [Moss], Glen Luchford and Diane Kendal – when you think of it now, it sounds ridiculous, but that’s what it was. We were all working together and they were all my friends, and they’re still really, really good friends of mine. I think it speaks to how special that time was by how many of those people are – and I hate this word – still relevant.’
Ferguson has herself found new relevance in the industry as two of her daughters, Elfie and Bliss, make their own strides in the fashion world; both are signed with Kate Moss Agency. Ferguson says this shared career path has brought them even closer together, since they can talk about the industry with transparency and have the benefit of an experienced model-mother on their side. ‘I hope that they appreciate having someone who knows and understands,’ she says. But she has noticed that greater care is shown now towards the models, especially at the shows. ‘They’re so young, and I was so young. Because we were all in the same boat, we relied on each other for mutual support and camaraderie.’
Naturally, modelling advice isn’t the only thing that Elfie, Bliss and Blythe get from their mum. Her wardrobe is heavily borrowed, too. ‘I’ve got so much stuff from the Nineties, which the girls nick,’ she says. ‘There’s a Marc Jacobs [skirt], which is definitely from one of his shows in the Nineties – that has just gone to the dry-cleaners. There’s a lot of Helmut Lang and Prada and Alexander McQueen.’ Imagine. While her daughters inherited her clothes, Ferguson admires how they approach fashion. ‘I love the way they shop, using things like Vinted, and the accessibility that brings.’ This sense of fashion as familial is nothing new for her. ‘I have always thought of the fashion industry as an old family,’ she says, reminiscing about the 30-year-plus friendships first made on set or backstage. Here’s hoping her homecoming will be a lasting one.
ELLE's December issue hits newsstands on November 8, 2023.
