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Kate Phelan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kate Phelan (born 1964)[1] is a British fashion journalist and stylist. She is currently the creative director of Harvey Nichols.

Biography

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Phelan grew up in Exeter, and studied fashion at Somerset College of Arts and Technology.[2] She then went on to study fashion communications at Central Saint Martins from 1984. In 1987 she took on a three-month internship with Sarajane Hoare at British Vogue which ultimately led to full-time employment as a fashion assistant.[1][3] In 1990, she left Vogue after three years to join Marie Claire as a senior fashion editor, but was asked back to British Vogue in 1993 by its new editor, Alexandra Shulman.[1] Until 2011, Phelan worked as a senior fashion director for Vogue, commissioning and directing some of the magazine's strongest photoshoots from the 1990s and 2000s.[2] Her favoured photographers included Paolo Roversi, Nick Knight, Tim Walker and Corinne Day.[2]

In June 2011, Phelan again left Vogue and joined Topshop as their creative director.[2][4][5] In 2013, she was asked to come back to Vogue in a part-time capacity.[1] In 2017 her job title at Vogue was senior contributing fashion editor.[4]

In 2017 Phelan was the fashion journalist selected to choose a defining look of 2016 for the Fashion Museum, Bath's Dress of the Year collection. She chose two male and female ensembles by JW Anderson,[6] a designer who had previously caught her attention in 2012 when he was awarded Topshop sponsorship for his Spring-Summer 2013 collection.[2]

She was appointed creative director of Harvey Nichols in 2024.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Kate Phelan". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e Blanchard, Tamsin (10 September 2012). "Kate Phelan's View from the Top - Telegraph". fashion.telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  3. ^ Woo, Kin (27 November 2012). "Kate Phelan". AnOther. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  4. ^ a b Conti, Samantha (24 July 2017). "More Big Industry Names, W Alums Set to Join New British Vogue Lineup". WWD.
  5. ^ Lantz, Jenny (2016). The Trendmakers: Behind the Scenes of the Global Fashion Industry. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781474259828.
  6. ^ "World-renowned Fashion Museum in Bath announces Dress of the Year 2016 | Bath Echo". Bath Echo. 2 June 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  7. ^ Shoaib, Maliha (2024-11-04). "Harvey Nichols appoints Kate Phelan as first-ever creative director". Vogue Business. Retrieved 2024-11-04.