The Style Series: Angela Hill

Nearly three decades ago, the London-based fashion photographer Angela Hill began selling a handful of her used books of choice at the Parisian boutique Colette. Since then, IDEA Books, which she co-founded in the early 2000s, has opened up global outposts in Dover Street Market, produced sold-out publications in collaboration with the likes of Gucci, and—with its singular collection of sought-after archival titles—become a veritable treasure trove for everyone from Clare Waight Keller to Nicolas Ghesquière. It should come as no surprise, then, that Hill extends her exacting curatorial eye to her own wardrobe. Below, she discusses her style do’s and don’ts, fashion as an exercise in simplicity, and the pieces she’ll never give up. 

What’s your earliest fashion memory? 

When I was 14 or 15, we had penpals in France. My penpal lived just outside Paris. During a school trip, I remember being distinctly affected by seeing young Parisian teenage girls. Just the way they wrapped scarves, even down to the perfume…

Did you always think you’d work in fashion? 

No, the absolute opposite. I didn’t even think about fashion as a career. I thought of things like being a doctor and a lawyer—those were careers. All I knew was that I was very, very passionate and obsessive about clothes. After university, I came back down to London and was always looking in shops. I went past the Browns store, which was on South Molton Street, and there was a sign in the window saying that they wanted sales assistants, so I went in for a job. Then Browns opened a franchise store for Comme des Garçons around the corner. I loved working in that store. 

I started to assist fashion editors and did some styling work on my own. One day, I realized I didn’t have enough control over the image, so I just bought a camera and taught myself to take photographs. I worked as a photographer for a while in the '90s, but I wasn’t really making enough money to survive. When Sarah [Andelman] from Colette, a friend of my flatmate’s in London, came over and saw my vintage books she asked if she could buy them. I said, ‘No, but I’ll find you some doubles.’ I used to take a couple of plastic bags [of books] when I’d go to Paris for work, and she’d buy them from me. Then Dover Street opened in London, and they gave me a small space—a little table in a basement—and it filled up from there. I stopped doing photography because I’d become disillusioned, but, a couple of years ago, some people who knew me when I was shooting in the 90s asked if I’d do certain things, so now I’ve restarted.

In your photographs—even the ones that were shot for fashion magazines, like Purple and Dazed—the fashion has a sense of being natural and unguarded. Is there a certain sartorial sensibility that you’re going after in your photography?

I’m really glad that you think that the fashion in my photographs looks very natural because that’s exactly what I want you to think. I’m a complete nightmare on shoots when I work with stylists because I’m extremely opinionated. I often mix in the clothes that the stylist has brought with the girl’s own clothes or her school uniform, and I’ll often shoot the girl in her own home or in her own environment. I want you to think that I’ve just encountered this girl in the street, or maybe I’m her cousin and I’m round at her house, or these are little scenes from a film… Where is she going? She just seems to be lost in her own world, and she’s really interesting looking at the same time…

In the foreword to your book Sylvia, Nadia Lee Cohen wrote, “Angela just shows up with her camera, probably wearing a cap, jeans and maybe something from Hermès slung over her shoulder.” What’s your own style like?

I have a Miu Miu outfit for each day of the week—complete Miu Miu head-to-toe although today I’m wearing a Celine cap. I also have quite a bit of Prada, Hermès, Celine, and now Philo, and sweatpants from Supreme and Palace. A shirt and jeans is really my silhouette, but if I’m going to wear a skirt, I like little suits. I like matchy-matchy. My favorite thing ever is a Celine cream silk shirt with short puff sleeves and a little ruffle collar. It’s very ladylike and pretty. I wear it with cream sweatpants—oversized and rolled-up—and Celine strappy heeled sandals. 

I make my order at the beginning of the season with Miu Miu, and that’s it. Wow, I’m so excited about starting to wear them. [From the Fall 2024 collection] I got the black leather slippers, two pairs of the pajamas in white and blue, the dress that looks like a surgical dress, basically, and the huge navy-cashmere polo-neck sweater, which is really so oversized that you can wear it as a dress. I also bought a Prada navy coat that looks like a school girl’s coat.

What are your wardrobe heroes?

In general, I love the silhouette of a high-top sneaker, [like] Celine’s high-top white trainer. And I’m loving my Miu Miu trainers from their New Balance collaboration. I also like yoga sets—a bra top with black stretchy pants—but I only wear Hermès. You can put a big zip-up waterproof hoodie over, and it looks really cool, or you can tie the hoodie around your waist. I like this silhouette. But I wear it as fashion; I don’t wear it in a gym. God help me.

Do you wear or collect vintage? If so, what are some of your closet highlights?

I’ll always hold onto Prada cashmere sweaters, a Hermès navy cashmere crewneck, which I’ve had forever, and this Balenciaga trench that hangs off of one shoulder. I wore a creamy floral silk dress from an early Demna [Gvasalia] Balenciaga collection to my wedding, and I’ve worn it ever since. I don’t just keep it hanging as a memory. It’s very patterned—and I hardly ever wear patterns—yet it seems to be the thing that I can’t give up. I get 1000 comments everytime I wear it. I love clothes that are not screaming where they came from; you know when you look at it that it’s something special, but you can’t work out where it’s from. And I’m hanging onto my Chanel cream flag bag because I also wore it to get married.

Is there anything still on your wishlist?

There is one piece that I’m always looking for, but so is the rest of the world: Nicolas Ghesquière Balenciaga [Spring 2002] cargo pants in green. Everybody’s got them in black or white, but no one’s got the khaki green. I’m on every list and have every company looking out for those for me. I love vintage military [clothes]. You can always adapt some army pants—literal army pants, or a Balenciaga version, okay—with heels. It looks super cool.

IDEA has published books with a number of fashion figures, including stylist Suzanne Koller and photographers Glen Luchford and Willy Vanderperre. How do you choose who to collaborate with? 

We only work with people we like, so that’s a very big underlining factor. A lot of them are friends—I’ve known Glen since the late 80s—and someone like Willy, we’ve long, long, long admired. I’ve loved Suzanne since day one at Self Service. We’ve got a book in the pipeline with her. I just go up to people and start a conversation, or maybe they come in [to IDEA] and buy some books and say they love it here, and then I can say, ‘Well, I love you. Do you want to do a book?

In general, is there something about how they interpret fashion and style that you’re drawn to?

There has to be something about the look that we know we could do well and that people would like. I’ve published many, many books where I’ve adored the fashion. There are a couple [of our collaborators]—and I’m not going to say who—whose fashion/style is not really me, but I can appreciate what they do and know that it’s good quality. Therefore, we go ahead, and it’s super successful.

Do you have any style rules? 

I do an outfit a day on Instagram, which illustrates my rules. [For one] I don’t really wear color; I stick to navy, grey, and maybe dark forest green. That rule is for me, not for other people; it’s not like Diana Vreeland saying whatever. If other people want to wear bright things, or orange, or red, god forbid, so be it. 

What are your fashion pet peeves?

I don’t like sleeveless anything. If it’s a bra top, okay, it’s a bra top, but I don’t like a dress with cutoff sleeves. I hate it. I don’t like Crocs. They’re having a resurgence, and they were bad enough the first time around. I don’t like big ugly trainers that look like cartoon feet. I don’t like diamanté. I could go on for hours…  

Also I hate what other people consider ’sexy’ clothing—anything deliberately made and marketed to look ’sexy.’ Original Alaïa pieces, for example, are wonderful; I wore them not to attract anybody else but rather for the way that they made me feel. So I suppose what I mean is that the clothes must make me feel good and excited to put them on the next day.

What are some of your favorite books for style inspiration? 

Bernadette Corporation: 2000 Wasted Years because Bernadette van-Huy is the most stylish person I have ever met. The interiors books The Interior Book, 1979, Living Interiors Japan 1980-1985, and Styles of Living: The Best of Casa Vogue. And, lastly, Paris, Texas. I have always gotten my inspiration for making images from film—as I said before, I want everything to look like a film still—so [I love] books connected with film.

And, on that note, what are some of your favorite films for style inspiration? 

The Snow Goose (1971), The Railway Children (1970), Whistle Down the Wind (1961), Diva (1981), Subway (1985), The Go-Between (1971), and The Conformist (1970).

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