Amanda Harlech: I’m no Lagerfeld muse
Amanda Harlech is not Karl Lagerfeld's 'passive muse'.
The creative consultant has been described by the Chanel designer as his 'outside pair of eyes' and has also worked with shamed fashion mogul John Galliano.
While she has input when it comes to Karl's work, she is in no hurry to describe herself as his muse.
'Because that's not what I am,' she curtly pointed out to UK's Grazia magazine.
'Karl can be inspired by a piece of white jade, by the corner of a building overlooking the sea, by something he's read or a scrap of fabric on the inside of a book.
'And there are so many women - the Marquesa di Casati, Vita Sackville-West, Cara Delevingne, Choupette [Karl's cat]... I'm certainly not the conduit of all that. And a muse gives herself up to the artist, she's almost passive.'
Amanda starred in Karl's film The Tale of a Fairy and also curated the Happiness exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Although her life may seem glamorous now, it wasn't the case when she was growing up.
'When I was six, seven, eight, nine, ten, I made dolls very badly,' she chuckled.
'Scissors, cut, hole, glue. I was brought up in a sort of ghetto of writers, artists, theatre people, a prima ballerina and the exotic woman at the end of the road who wore a wig. We dressed up for Halloween, for plays. We had serious dressing-up boxes.'
The style queen recently visited London to attend the opening of Chanel's largest ever flagship store on New Bond Street.