Olivia Williams Britain’s sophisticated answer to Hollywood

Photographed in the glorious Queen Mary’s Gardens at the heart of Regent’s Park in London, here, Olivia wears a navy and white polka dot silk blouse with a black cotton lace skirt, both from the PRADA 2012 resort collection. In the opening image, Olivia wears a black cotton lace dress and black silk slip, both from PRADA 2012 resort collection. 

Olivia
Williams

Britain’s sophisticated answer to Hollywood

Text by Alex Needham
Portraits by Alasdair McLellan
Styling by Jonathan Kaye

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Issue n° 4, Autumn & Winter 2011

Olivia Williams has always been the actress whose screen presence leaves you wanting more – just think of her spellbinding moments in An Education, Rushmore and The Ghost Writer. And now, her career, which began with Shakespeare and today alternates between London’s West End and Hollywood, is ratcheting up an Oscar-winning momentum. 

Beyoncé She runs her world

In the opening image, Beyoncé wears a black cashmere jumper and white cotton and nylon floral print ball skirt, both by DIOR. Here, she is wearing an orange cashmere jumper by CÉLINE.

Beyoncé

She runs her world

Text by Paul Flynn
Portraits by Alasdair McLellan
Styling by Jonathan Kaye

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Issue n° 7, Spring & Summer 2013

Everyone knows Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, the incandescent megastar with the mesmeric voice, dazzling dance moves and stage costumes that resemble miniature suits of sparkly armour. But beyond the rump-shaking entertainer, there’s an elegant, reflective 31-year-old who’s also a recent mother and a no-nonsense businesswoman. 

Adele in The Gentlewoman

 

Adele

Text by Jude Rogers
Portraits by Alasdair McLellan
Styling by Jonathan Kaye

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Issue n° 3, Spring & Summer 2011

2011 saw a perfect start for Adele Adkins, a British singer with incredible international appeal. When her second album was released in January, it went straight to the top of the iTunes charts in 16 countries. Meanwhile, her debut album returned to the top 10. Born in north London into a clan of strong women, Adele grafts hard over her songs, which are based on her own experiences – in the case of this particular album, a crushing break-up. The events behind her lyrics still sting, and you hear it as soon as she starts to sing. Adele is a legitimate heiress to the great tradition of amazing torch singers. She’s also an adorable, down-to-earth girl.

Inez van Lamsweerde in The Gentlewoman

 

Inez 
van Lamsweerde

The world’s best fashion photographer

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Issue n° 2, Autumn & Winter 2010

As a disco-dancing, punk-loving teenager in Amsterdam, Inez van Lamsweerde launched herself into a career in fashion with some zeal. Now 46 and the industry’s most powerful image-maker, she is responsible for defining what fashion looks like, season after season. Her vast back catalogue reflects not just one style but a total fashion photography universe, so seamlessly can she slip between the high-production commercial shoots, intimate portraits and informal street snaps that describe each style epoch.

Yoko Ono in The Gentlewoman

 

Yoko Ono

Text by Liz Hoggard
Portraits by Willy Vanderperre
Styling by Olivier Rizzo

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Issue n° 2, Autumn & Winter 2010

The passage of time has been miraculously beneficial for Yoko Ono. While previous generations held grudges and questioned her motives, in the 21st century Ono is cherished for her provocations and wisdom. As a musician and multimedia artist since before the term was coined, Ono holds the rare position of courting a global audience without ever having to compromise her work, which is often wilfully impenetrable. 

Susan Sarandon / Fearlessly outspoken and super fun

 

Susan Sarandon

Susan
Sarandon

Fearlessly outspoken and super fun

Text by Jina Khayyer
Portraits by Juergen Teller
Styling by Jodie Barnes

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Issue n° 7, Spring & Summer 2013

It’s not just Susan Sarandon’s wide-eyed looks and languid voice that distinguish her from all the other actors of her generation. Her range of roles, from ingénue Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to cinema’s most stylish lesbian vampire ever in The Hunger, has marked her out as fearless and brilliant in equal measure. 

Marlene Dumas in The Gentlewoman

 

Marlene 
Dumas

Inside the studio of the world’s most expensive female painter

Text by Cristina Ruiz
Portraits by Viviane Sassen

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Issue n° 10, Autumn & Winter 2014

The Dutch artist Marlene Dumas insists she’s not an activist, but her provocative, unnervingly intimate portraiture runs the gamut of race, sexuality, deformity and every other complexity of being human. People get in the way for Marlene, though, at least during the work day: the 61-year-old likes to be alone in her Amsterdam studio with just photographs and press clippings for company. But once the painting’s done, Dumas is always up for a big glass of wine – she grew up on a vineyard in South Africa – and a hearty discussion about art. She also does an excellent Lucian Freud impersonation.

Ravi Gevinson in The Gentlewomen

 

Tavi Gevinson

Tavi is wearing an indigo denim jacket with contrast stitching by DIANE VON FURSTENBERG.

Tavi
Gevinson

From bedroom blogger to new-media mogul: Tavi’s passion project becomes big business

Text by Sophie Elmhirst
Portraits by Clara Balzary
Styling by Emma Wyman

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Issue nº 17, Spring & Summer 2018

Tavi Gevinson is the original social media starlet. Arriving in 2008, aged just 11, she was greeted with bemusement by her Gen X and baby-boomer media peers as they grappled with the new digital frontier. Tavi powered ahead regardless, amassing an adoring, mostly female young audience through sheer ingenuity and intellect mixed with good old-fashioned fun.

Diana begins the day by opening the many letters she still receives from admiring readers. For these portraits, she was photographed in her room in Highgate on 2 June 2016.

Diana
Athill I Think being dead es an expensive business

Diana Athill / Creo que estar muerto es un asunto caro

Text by Erica Wagner
Portraits by Alasdair McLellan

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Issue n° 14, Autumn & Winter 2016

Diana Athill, 98, has a beady eye and a way with words. She used both on the likes of Jean Rhys and Philip Roth during her 50 years as London’s most respected literary editor. But for the past 15, she’s turned that gaze on her own storied life with eight volumes of autobiography. Erica Wagner met Diana at the residential home where she lives and works.

Tilda Swinton in The Gentlewomen

 

Tilda Swinton

Text by Penny Martin
Portraits by Benjamin Alexander Huseby
Styling by Jonathan Kaye

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Issue n° 5, Spring & Summer 2012

The next time you see Tilda Swinton, it will be in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, a story of love and revelation set in 1960s New England. And if the phenomenal, Oscar-winning Scottish actress has her way, it may be her last movie for quite a while. 

The Wardrobe with Val McDermid

When Val McDermid’s fans recount tales of sleeping with the lights on after reading one of the 15 million books she’s sold, it’s evidence that her position as Scotland’s queen of crime is in no danger. Under interrogation, this expert on the dark side reveals a fiercely intelligent and gregarious persona – one that’s characterised by a love of a statement T-shirt and a passionate advocacy for her craft. So let’s take a trip to Val’s stalking ground to find out where the bodies are buried.

You might consider a strip-lit interview room down the local nick or, better yet, a quaint tearoom filled with tinkling china and home baking to be a fitting place to interrogate one of Britain’s best-known crime writers. But no. Val McDermid, 62, has requested that we meet in the top-floor cafe of the newly refurbished John Lewis in her home town of Edinburgh, a venue that makes up for any lack of character with panoramic views over the capital’s slate rooftops. “It’s good for people watching,” she says.