Introduce yourself! Who are you, what do you do and what was your journey to get where you are today?
I’m Naomi, writer and daydreamer in London. I’ve written stuff my whole life, through school, university, freelancing and many, many day jobs. About 15 years ago I went back to college to study MA Fashion Journalism – after which I went into the industry full time. It’s been an eternal effort to maintain that status ever since!

What excites you about fashion and beauty, both as artforms and everyday essentials?
Oh my god. It would be easier to say what I don’t like about fashion and beauty, as I feel both industries can be quite brutal, and as we’ve become increasingly aware of, incredibly flawed and wasteful. I still get excited about clothes, though. I guess the best thing about the fashion industry is the people – you meet amazing characters, fantastic talent and I’ve made lifelong friends through it. The other thing that’s great about fashion and beauty is the shared language. When you’re telling your friend about this great new knitwear brand you’ve discovered (I love knitwear) or admiring someone’s shirt or lipstick or earrings and asking them the story behind it, it’s a bonding experience. Latterly I’ve got excited about recent developments in tech that will fuel more sustainable fashion in the future. There’s always a narrative behind fashion and that informs my approach to writing about it.

Your job involves writing about fashion and beauty, which are both very visual forms and very personal to individuals. How do you approach translating that into words?
There are different approaches to this. When I first entered the industry I interviewed an amazing fashion journalist, Felicity Green, who was in her nineties! She told me it’s better not to describe the clothes, but the sort of character who would wear them: she’s an upper-class nanny, for example, or a bohemian art teacher. Sometimes you do have to describe the clothes though. Think about Balenciaga under [artistic director] Demna, or something like Comme Des Garçons – you end up describing shapes, at least. I’ll usually describe the clothing briefly, then dive into the back story.
UNTOLD is a storytelling agency. Do you think it’s possible to tell a story through fashion?
Of course! An outfit is worth a thousand words. Every day we look at people’s outfits and make judgments about them – the person in a bespoke suit, they want to be visible to the discerning eye – if you know, you know. Or the person in Crocs might be on their feet all day or might be conveying a child-like sense of wonder. Looking at five identical pairs of Adidas Sambas on the tube makes you think, these people like to be part of a tribe.

Which projects that you've worked on have you particularly enjoyed ?
I always enjoy my work, there’s not really a hierarchy. I once wrote a really long wellness story about people who can induce out of body experiences in themselves (no drugs involved). I remember staying up late interviewing each person over Zoom and getting goosebumps from the mad things they were telling me. I recently interviewed the co-founder of Ganni about how they reformed their working practices to make the business more sustainable, which is fascinating. More recently I’ve been spending time on creative writing, which is new for me.

Which writers and other creators are you inspired by? Fashion or otherwise…
My favourite classic writers are Evelyn Waugh, F Scott Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton; favourite modern writers are Viv Albertine, David Sedaris… and I enjoyed both Candice Carty-Williams books. I also LOVE a memoir – The Consequences of Love by Gavanndra Hodge is a great one. If I had unlimited money for fashion, there’s a label that’s closed down now called Sies Marjan, which did amazing one-colour outfits. I love Prada and JW Anderson accessories, and a brand I’ve recently discovered called Toogood which I’ll be perusing on Instagram. If you follow cool brands on there, the algorithm recommends you more… very handy for a journalist doing research, not so great for your bank balance and attention span.

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