Tatler September 2019 tatler.com[Her mother – who’s also an ex-fashion editor – is famous for always wearing men’s Comme
des Garçons. As for Olympia, ‘I like people to look a bit smart. I’ll dress quite masculinely at
times and then very femininely at others.’ She pauses, chuckles, then adds, ‘But there’s still a lot
of men who just want to see you in a skimpy dress!’ Which prompts extravagant mirth, and a
thumbs up for Joseph as a shop and Jacquemus as a line, particularly its summer collection.
Olympia enjoys both modelling and academia, ‘especially because I have the two of them.
Each is quite a welcome escape from the other. The problem I sometimes have with modelling is
that you can work really hard and be a lovely presence on a shoot, but in the end a lot of the
decisions are out of your hands. There’s not always a direct link between the work you put in
and the things you get in the end. Whereas with academia, it’s more strongly correlated. Though
there are still failures and rejections in both.’
Rejections? ‘You can’t help but feel insecure trotting into castings, looking around and thinking,
“F**king hell! There are so many good-looking people in the world, why should they pick me?”’
Worse, when she’s been running around for a few weeks and ‘haven’t got a job, I think, “I must
be hideous.”’ Which is self-evidently ridiculous. But modelling is tough. For example, Olympia
doesn’t do that many runway shows, partly because they’ve often conflicted with university, and
partly because ‘I’m a bit short.’ Short? How tall is she? ‘5ft 7 ½, 5ft 8. You need to be 5ft 10 –
I can look a bit dumpy compared to the other girls on a catwalk.’ You could have fooled me.
Modelling, though, can be both fun and creative – and provides ‘a very welcome allowance’ to
add to the £17,000 stipend she’ll get for her PhD. It’s a degree she intends to make use of: she’d
like either to stay in academia or use her PhD to get work in ‘policy; it has good links to public
health policy, things like that. Anything to do with societal behaviour would be good.’
Olympia’s own social behaviour is a separate issue. Though she’ll speak lucidly and at length
about phylogenetics, her idea of fun is dinner parties at home with a bunch of friends, a raft of
bottles and conversation that’s so gripping you don’t realise it’s already 2am. She loves a good
movie – ‘Cold War was unimaginably beautiful’ – and she loves books: Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies
made her howl with laughter, as did the Germaine Greer section of David Plante’s Difficult
Women. She’s hungry to go clubbing more, but ‘it’s so bad in London now. It’s either bougie
places or cool clubs with techno, and I really don’t like techno.’ What she does like is ‘disco, funk and
soul, anything I can dance to.’ And what she would have liked most of all is ‘to have seen some of
the Britpop bands when they were big – Blur, Pulp. And Madness – I’d love to have seen them.’
Ah, the good old days. But what Olympia’s also said is that, in modelling, the wild times of
Kate Moss and co. are over. Is that a pity? ‘In the sense that everybody loves a fun party, yes. It
has got more serious – you can’t mess around so much. People get pissed off if you turn up really
late with a massive hangover; you won’t get booked again. But there are still definitely fun parties.’
Like, perhaps, the notorious party that she and Edie gave in 2017. ‘Absolute Filth’ was the
theme, and Edie wore only knee-high boots, red knickers and the word ‘FILTH’ in red across
her breasts; their brother Arthur wore leather trousers with the bottom cut out; and their father
wore a Playboy Bunny outfit, complete with black leotard and fishnets. Olympia was a paragon
of restraint in a fluorescent see-through mesh dress and pink underwear. ‘That was a fun party,’
she says with a laugh as loud as any she’s uttered. ‘I don’t regret it.’
Not even though the pictures and the commentary will be forever online? ‘Yeah, um,’ she says,
pausing, grinning and then pronouncing that, ‘When I think about things I’ve done or posted,
I sometimes wonder, “Does that mean I can never be Prime Minister?” I don’t know. I mean,
David Cameron was Prime Minister, and he supposedly shagged a pig.’
That’s the spirit: Olympia for PM, PhD and the covers of many, many of the world’s best
magazines. It’s a winning – and laughing – package. (09-19WELLCoverstory.indd 78 11/07/2019 09:19
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