CHLOÉ YEARS
Philo was born in 1973 to British parents in the suburbs of Paris and later went to the prestigious London fashion school Central Saint Martins. In 1997, a year after she graduated, she joined French luxury-fashion house Chloé as an assistant to Stella McCartney, who had just been named creative director. After McCartney’s 2001 departure, Philo took over and immediately put her own stylistic mark on the brand. Falling somewhere between confident femininity and natural assertiveness, her pieces brought a modern, sleek, bohemian breath of fresh air to Chloé. Sales went through the roof, and Philo was named Designer of the Year at the 2004 British Fashion Awards. A year later, she debuted the Paddington—her first It bag—heralding many more much-loved accessories thanks to her innate ability to know what women want before they want it.
Success naturally followed, but the designer had her sights set elsewhere; pregnant with her first child in 2005, Philo chose to take maternity leave. In a male-dominated industry that values a constant and frantic output to keep up with new trends, such a career move was almost unheard of. The world of fashion didn’t stop spinning without her, but Philo had other priorities, and after a year-long break, the creative director quit Chloé to dedicate more energy to her family. Many people in her shoes would have feared oblivion and being replaced by yet another male creative director, but Philo—the embodiment of the liberated woman she unleashed on her runways—operated on her own frequency.