Hamish Bowles is a British-born editor, fashion columnist and writer. Since 2011 he has been a consulting editor for the international editions of Vogue and is working to expand the geographical reach of Conde Nast magazines. Hamish is a creative consultant for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and has run his blog Hamishsphere since 2009.
Born in 1963 in England to a family of a teacher and a photographer, Bowles has spent his childhood in circles close to art, so it's no surprise that the Brit has excellent taste. "When most kids were collecting insects or Matchbox cars, Hamish Bowles was collecting fashion..."
At the age of five, he started visiting antique stores and buying vintage items there. Already at the age of 13 he bought a hand sewn Balenciaga suit at a big sale. Today he is famous for his collection of vintage clothes and often wears them to social events.
He graduated from Central St.Martins College of Art and Desing and started working at Harpers&Queen magazine in London as a junior fashion editor. A year later, at the age of 22, he was promoted to fashion director.
In 1986, during London Fashion Week, Bowles met Anna Wintour, then editor of Vogue UK.
In 1992, Vogue US published a report about Hamish Bowles' apartment. In the same year Anna Wintour offered him the position of fashion editor at Vogue US. By 1995, he had earned European editor-at-large status. He wrote about interior design, people, fashion, art, contemporary culture and history. He also started his own column, The Hamishsphere, on vogue.com.
By the early 2000s, Hamish Bowles had immersed himself in the arts. He became a creative consultant for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where he directed the exhibition "Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years-Selections from the John F. Kennedy Library Museum". It was very well received and was later repeated at a museum in Washington, DC.
Bowles has written several books on Jacqueline Kennedy, Carolina Herrera, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Vogue. A few years ago, one of his major works, "Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People," was published on his favorite subject - interior design.
In 2009, the editor published a 400-page book, The World in Vogue: People, Parties, Places. The book includes over 300 photographs of famous actors, models and other public figures who have appeared in the pages of Vogue over the past 40 years.
Since the 80's Bowles has lectured on fashion and art in the best museums and educational institutions - Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and others. Another major exhibition curated by Hamish opened in 2011. It is dedicated to Cristobal Balenciaga and is held at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute in New York and in San Francisco.
In the front rows of fashion shows or at social cocktails, Hamish Bowles can most often be found in folded double-breasted suits, serious overcoats in prim plaid or ironed shirts with ironic pants in mottled flowers. But when it comes to red carpets, the protagonist of American fashion is maximally reincarnated.
For the past few years, Bowles has outshone everyone on the Met Gala red carpets, from a modest black cape with a huge peacock embroidered in silver thread in 2017 to a mottled, campy-inspired robe at this year's event.
Since 2013, Bowles has been a Myser Metropolitan in New York City.
In addition, Hamish played a cameo in "Love is Money: Shades of Francis Bacon", a cameo in the historical-biographical film "Marie Antoinette", in the documentary "Valentino: The Last Emperor" (played himself), took part in the filming of the documentary "September Number", starred in two episodes of the series "The Gossip Girl" ("The Gossip Girl") and in the drama "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps".