36 ·^ COSMOPOLITAN
CELEBRITY
what colour luggage
she carries. (She will,
however, enthusiastically
disclose that it’s Rimowa
and that’s mainly because
you can stack all the cases,
which is handy as she
usually carries her own
luggage.) There is lots of
colour-coding, I ascertain.
And grouping of separates.
“Mine is probably very
different than other
people’s – I don’t have
a seasonal wardrobe
because I’m in different
climates all year. But
colour-coordinating
helps,” she says. “That’s
a good way to start and
keep jackets together and
pants together. And to
consolidate space, use
those black velvet hangers
from Amazon. They’re
cheap [and] they’re thin.”
She’s equally non-
committal when I ask her
how much stuff she gets
sent when she travels to
Paris for the shows, as well as the
number of times she’ll change outfits
to accommodate the hungry fashion
bloggers who live for a shot of her
mid-stride between collections.
“Honestly, my schedule is so tight.
I have a show on the hour every hour,
and appointments. So my priority is
the designers and the collections. Of
course it’s nice to change once in a
while, and support the designers, if you
can, by changing, but there’s not
always enough time in the day.”
When I meet her publicist of 10 years,
Barbara, the next day, as well as Jillian,
the editorial director of her website,
Oliviapalermo.com, however, they are
more forthcoming. “She zip-locks
everything when she’s travelling...”
says Barbara, miming a zip-lock bag.
“Foundations in one zip-lock,
make-up brushes in another...”
“And then she pops the zip-locks
inside these monogrammed pouches
that she has,” chimes Jillian. “We’ve all
been inspired to do the same.”
As though to prove the point,
Barbara gets out her phone and
shows me a pap shot of
Palermo in an elegant white
jumper and skirt. “See
that...” she says. Barbara
swipes left. A second later,
a bedroom selfie of Barbara
appears in the same outfit.
“My style has changed
a lot, too, since I started
working for her,” adds
Jillian. “There’s so much
I have learned from her
about style. There’s a nuance
to everything she does. I’ve learned
the importance of tailoring, for
example. When people see her in high
street they wonder why it doesn’t
look the same when they wear it. Butit’s because she gets most
things tailored – even
high street.”
It may not surprise you
to learn that the sort of
woman who gets even
her Zara trousers tailored
comes from a family
with an eye for detail.
Palermo’s mother, Lynn,
is an interior decorator,
and her aunt worked in
the couture department
for Doyle auction house
for 25 years. “I grew
up going to antique
roadshows and trade
shows and auction
houses so I was very
aware of fashion from a
young age,” she tells me.
At school, however, it
was sports she gravitated
towards. And indeed at
one point she had hopes
of becoming a sports
commentator. “I was
very studious at school.
I was very into sports.”
There’s a pause.
“You know, everything was a bit
harder for me because I grew up
with a learning disability.” It’s the
first time she has ever spoken about
this. When gently pressed for more
information she retreats
at lightning speed.
“I don’t want to go
into details but... what
was wonderful is that
people can be very
creative in different
ways. And we [she refers
to her childhood friend
Jonathan Simkhai, a
designer, to whom she
was close at school] really
strived to be creative and
that really evolved as we got older...
and not necessarily in school.”
Straight out of college, however, she
was cast in The City, a frothyprecursor
to the swatches of scripted reality i“I was very
aware of
fashion from
a young age”T-SHIRT, £50, REBECCA MINKOFF. JEANS, £186, MOTHER. EARRINGS, £170, ASHLEY WILLIAMS