piecing it together ep.2
Esme Ingleby 👒
Hi and welcome to piecing it together, a new series I’m writing on this substack in which I torment my stylish friends to learn their stylish ways. The interviews are transcribed and slightly edited conversations, like a cross between Bella Freud’s Fashion Neurosis and Nell Dunn’s seminal Talking to Women. I’ve also been tech-savvy enough to attach the audio file of our conversation, so you can listen to it like a podcast if you’d desire (be aware it doesn’t perfectly match the transcription, if you’re following both.) This week I’m talking to Esme Ingleby. I also met Esme at university, as part of TWSS. I was immediately obsessed with her (who wouldn’t be?) and I believe our friendship officially started after we finally both admitted our friend crushes to each other at a wild swimming house party. Apologies if the audio is scritchy scratchy at any point - we had to do this over the phone!
Saskia Kirkegaard: Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me, Esme! My first question, and apologies for my voice if this [recording] is going in the substack, I have a really bad cold. The first question is: is there a particular person you model your style on or look up to stylistically, and how did they change your style?
Esme Ingleby: Yes, always! I feel like style is all about other people! I'm gonna apologise as well, because I'm eating in between mouthfuls of a croissant. So, if you hear any chewing, that’s what’s going on. But definitely my mum. She is kind of… both me and my sisters all, sort of, cater our style around her. And then sometimes we even get surprised when she owns the same things as us, because she happened to buy it before we had. And it’s like, well of course she has, cause we’re just copying her! But yeah, I think she changed it, kind of as I was reaching about, like, 16 years old. I think I sort of managed to slow my grip from the trends that I had at my school, and begin to start looking a bit more like her. Which intuitively made me feel a lot more like me.
Sass: Ah that’s so nice!
Esme: Yeah, I guess cos we’re so similar. So yeah, I would say my mum!
Sass: I kind of wrote that question with you in mind because I knew you would answer that and I really like it that you take your style from your mum. And also for the podcast: Esme’s mum is one of the most stylish people I've ever met. So, I would love to interview her one day, but I will settle for you! No, I’m joking. Okay, and then, can you describe your personal style?
Esme: My personal style. I don't know, I would say maybe it's quite utilitarian? Because I go in for kinda like block colours. I like a wide silhouette.
Sass: Yeah, you like boxy!
Esme: I like boxy and I like wide. A big trouser, I like a big trouser! And I like a— I wear a lot of vests, knitted vests. In the winter it’s turtlenecks only, like I don't really bother with anything else.
Sass: Love a turtleneck.
Esme: Yeah, I’m currently wearing a turtleneck, and a vest, and big jeans!
Sass: Oh perfect!
Esme: And a little black jacket with big buttons. So…
Sass: Oh amazing, we’ll have to get a photo of that.
Esme: That’s currently what I’m wearing! I will I’ll send one in.
Sass: Um, and then… Do you have any particular designers, fashion houses, or brands that you like?
Esme: Yeah, I definitely do. I really like Studio Nicholson. I think they did all of the outfits for Cate Blanchett in Tar.
Sass: Did they? She’s got great style in that.
Esme: Yeah, like very simple but very well-made clothes. And it's the kind of like—every time— if you're lucky enough to have some, you kinda treasure it, because it feels so special. I think that comes into why I'm so paranoid about stains, like I get so worried about things getting stained. Cause I don't feel like my lifestyle matches things I want to wear!
Sass: That’s such a great way of putting it, because I totally see what you mean in that. Like, your personality - you’re kind of creative and you flow and you’re kind of… spontaneous!
Esme: Yeah, I’ll be shovelling tomato pasta in my mouth while I’m walking somewhere and I'm like, oh my God, my trousers. It’s just ridiculous.
Sass: No, it’s great.
Esme: But yeah, Studio Nicholson… I wear a lot of YMC.
Sass: Yep. You Must Create for those not in the know…
Esme: You Must Create! And I really like this designer, her name is Hannah Cawley. C A W L E Y. I think she's really cool. Cawley studios. I think she's based in London. She wears— just these amazing frocks, these huge frocks. Ridiculous jackets and really funny hats. It's extremely playful, but also just kind of very tailored at the same time. And I really really like that. My sister, who lives in London, often frequents the sample sale. And for Christmas, she knocked heads together with my mum and that was my Christmas jacket! I’ll send that in.
Sass: Really! Yes, please do, I’d love to see that. That’s so sick.
Esme: The jacket in their sale, I’ll send that in. But yeah I think I'm saying Studio Nicholson, YMC, and Hannah Cawley.
Sass: Those are great, thank you. Would you say that your… I know we kind of talked about this, I guess, cos you said you felt like you discovered style at 16, maybe? But would you say that your personal style [car alarm goes off] is similar to your childhood style?
Esme: I would say it is, that’s a really great question, first of all. I think it's really fun. I think it is, in the sense that as a child, I refused to really wear anything that I could really reasonably call feminine. And I don't think I wear that feminine clothes now. I think sometimes I lean into that and I find it quite fun. But on the whole, I was sort of thinking the other day, that all the outfits I wear could very much be on a completely different body to mine. And look as if they were right, for a man?
Sass: Yeah. That’s actually part of— that was another question I was gonna ask actually, but I’ll go into that later. Sorry, keep going.
Esme: I think yeah, I think in that sense there’s a bit of connected tissue there, in terms of, like, not really playing into the pink and the floral. But I feel like that is also kind of a bit of an oversimplification. But I think it’s really how it feels when you’re growing up, when you have the boy's department and then the girl’s department, and everything is so one way or the other. It's such a binary. I really just didn’t feel comfortable in a lot of girl’s clothes. I remember when I’d get a Mini Boden [giggles] catalogue through the door of the house.
Sass: Mini Boden is so realllll!!!!
Esme: Oh God, I’m revealing so much.
Sass: No, that’s me as well.
Esme: I’d love all the boy stuff, all the pirate clothing, I was obsessed with. And I still love stripes!
Sass: Oh, stripes, yeah!
Esme: Stripes is something that has been a continuous thread from childhood to now. I think stripes are so objectively fun and also they look great. I just love stripes, I feel very very passionately about stripes.
Sass: How do you feel— so when you say stripes are we talking horizontal or vertical? Cos there's a very different vibe…
Esme: Vertical.
Sass: Oh you're saying vertical!
Esme: Oh am I?
Sass: Did you just say that?
Esme: I don't know. I think I did just say vertical, but now I'm thinking back to a stripey jacket that I have, and those are horizontal. So I think both. I was originally thinking vertical, sort of sailor stripes, because that also taps into a very large chunk of me, which is Scotland and the islands. And there's a lot of stripes that happen there. But actually now I think about it, in terms of some of my favourite clothes, favourite jackets, they’re horizontal, they’re like a pinstripe moment.
Sass: Yeah. Oh wait, no, wait! We’re talking at cross purposes, horizontal is… the horizon.
Esme: Oh my God!
Sass: Sorry!
Esme: Oh my God, you’re so right.
Sass: No, I always get that confused.
Esme: No, don’t apologise for me not knowing the right one!
Sass: No, no no!
Esme: Horizontal… Woah! Oh my God! A seagull just hit me on the head!!
Sass: What!? Oh my god??
Esme: Did you hear that??
Sass: No!
Esme: A seagull just hit me on the head! Yeah, It just fully attacked me!
Sass: Where are you walking cause that happened to me in Clifton? They hang out there.
Esme: It was circling me. Oh my! Also, everyone’s sort of looking, but no one’s looking at me? It’s so weird! I’m gonna go stand underneath something where a seagull can’t hit me on the head. Wow, that was crazy.
Sass: That’s horrible!
Esme: I thought someone was mugging me! Okay, sorry, back to topic.
Sass: No, if you want like, a moment to get over that traumatic experience please do!
Esme: Oh my god, it’s doing it to a boy!
Sass: What!
Esme: It’s crazy! I think it’s kinda got croissant all over my hands, I’m gonna eat it.
Sass: There’s a dangerous situation happening on the other end of the phone! I don’t know who to contact!
Esme: My head feels dirty. Okay. Horizontal. Vertical. You’re right, I was thinking of horizontal instead of vertical.
Sass: Okay, I’m glad we’ve established that.
Esme: In terms of stripes, I love them all basically.
Sass: Yeah. They're all pretty good.
Esme: I love both. I think I'm more comfortable, grounded, horizontal. But I don’t want to bash the vertical stripe cos I think they’re equally as important, just for a different occasion.
Sass: And I agree. I hadn't even thought about pinstripe, but I love pinstripe, especially right now, I feel like I've been really into that recently.
Esme: Yeah! It's such a great— such a good design, a pinstripe.
Sass: Yeah. And it’s so, like elegant but not overstated. Like, very…I don’t know, yeah.
Esme: Elegant, but not overstated. I think that’s kind of, what I want to try and wear sometimes. Like clothes that don’t actually say very much, but just… together say a lot.
Sass: Yeah, and you can also rock a matching set, which is something I really admire. You’re good at that.
Esme: Oh I love a co-ord!
Sass: Yeah.
Esme: Yeah, I feel very passionately about co-ords as well. I think there’s something about the way a co-ord makes you feel. And I don’t really spend that much— in terms of like, my appearance, on anything other than clothes.
Sass: Yeah.
Esme: And I think co-ords I find are quite helpful for that feeling of—
Sass: put together—
Esme: —that I am putting in effort without really trying?
Sass: Yeah, yeah. I get that, definitely.
Esme: So yeah, I feel— I just never really got into makeup, and I have no idea what I’m doing with my hair. So I think the way I express myself is through clothes. So, something like a co-ord is really helpful for that because it feels like my equivalent to a suit, in some ways.
Sass: Yeah, which I guess also goes into the next question, which is, how are you shaped by gender expression?
Esme: Yeah!
Sass: And I think that's quite an interesting, sorry just to [interrupt you], the co-ord as a feminine-masculine, or a feminized masculine, like the feminized version of a suit, is quite an interesting play with gender.
Esme: Yeah, I think it’s really interesting. I think that’s such a good thing to point out. The co-ord… It’s kind of like a soft suit.
Sass: Yeah!
Esme: And it’s something that I feel really good in, and I feel like really sort of secure, in my identity of a women, in a co-ord. I feel like it really sort of powers me up, in that way.
Sass: Yeah. It’s kind of a Sheryl Sandberg moment, but without the Girlboss-ery. But it is a bit “lean in”, isn’t it?
Esme: Exactly. Exactly that. I think, I love, I kind of— I am so interested in gender and the way that we all reproduce it and manifest it through our clothes, I think I do find it interesting for myself. Often I feel like a lot of the clothes that I wear would not necessarily be ‘womenswear’, but at the same time… I never really shop from ‘men’s sections’. For something like YMC, it just so happens that the clothing brands that I like, the outfits that they do for men and women, are exactly the same?
Sass: Yeah.
Esme: Just different cuts that suit different bodies?
Sass: Which is so great. And that’s something that I feel like used to—
Esme: Which I really enjoy.
Sass: —Never see, so [I’m] glad it’s becoming more common.
Esme: Yeah, I think I really enjoy the fact that the same outfit… like if I see a t-shirt online or something, yeah, it’s also in the men’s section. Or, the exact same thing, just like a little bit different, a little bit more fitted to a man’s shape. That feels really sort of, freeing for me, cause I feel like i’m not being hemmed in by anything [if you’ll pardon the pun]. I hate the fact that clothes will sort of do that to you and your sense of self sometimes, a sort of boundary about what you can be or how you can be it? And when… when that doesn't happen, you really notice it.
Sass: And it’s interesting that you’re talking about, for kind of wider silhouettes, not wanting to feel closed in… It's kind of like you're talking about literally feeling closed in by the material being too close..
Esme: Exactly! Exactly that. And that was something that I felt very conscious of as a fourteen year old, where I got quite a lot of shtick for only wearing extremely baggy stuff!
Sass: You’re cool.
Esme: [Giggles] Thanks! And it was the same time as Billie Eilish was getting famous and I was like, this is so useful for me. That she's doing this too. Because I suddenly thought I have a bit more of a shred of credibility to wear something where you actually cannot place where my waist is. I really like that.
Sass: Yeah, she’s immediately who I thought of, her style is so iconic. Even if it’s, it’s not incredibly crazy as a concept, baggy clothes, but you just immediately think of her when you think of that sort of [style].
Esme: I think that’s because it so feels like hers. That it’s not really something— I’m sure she has so many stylists, but it just feels like it’s something that she has said: ‘this is what I wanna wear and this is how I wanna do it', which is why it resonates. But the other thing about gender is that I really like laying into the other side of the coin with like, an extremely puffy sleeve!
Sass: Yes! Yeah.
Esme: That’s when I begin to feel like I’m some kind of Amish woman, and I could have a little apron on and then I’m just like, oh God I just love a puffy sleeve! Or in a previous life… am I a tradwife in the making?? I just love the feeling of, the milkmaid quality of, a big sleeve and a big lacy collar! Almost overdefined, or Elizabethan?
Sass: Yeah! Oh I love that.
Esme: That vibe, I just love that too. So I think, you know, that is something that extremely feminine, and makes me feel really pretty! I guess. So I like that.
Sass: Yeah! It still goes with the other shapes that you’re talking about, as well.
Esme: Yeah definitely.
Sass: It’s still kind of loose, I guess.
Esme: Yep. Exactly.
Sass: Hmm, okay. What's an outfit that you feel the most yourself in? The one that you would wear every day if you were a cartoon character?
Esme: [Giggles] Every day if I was a cartoon character, that’s so cool! That’s such a good question.
Sass: Thank you!
Esme: Most myself in… I think… what season is it? I guess it's just like a cloudy day isn't it?
Sass: Lauren actually chose a summer and a winter outfit, so you’re definitely allowed to do that. But cloudy day works too.
Esme: I think winter outfit where I feel very much like me is… I have these brown, I think they’re almost wooly, trousers. They’re dark chocolate brown, and they’re quite chunky. I’d wear them. And I really feel like in winter, I always go out in a combination of blue and brown. I have a very, very blue, kind of cornflower woolen jumper. So I would pair those together. And a nice trainer? Maybe my brown pair of trainers, Adidas trainers. Or some mary janes, or something. I really enjoy wearing them. So that’s my winter outfit. I also really like hats, I feel very passionately about hats. Hats and scarves, and gloves! And something, I don’t think I’ve mentioned, but something I always kinda try to do with what I’m wearing is have some kind of colour coordination. For a sock to match a jumper or a glove to match a hat.
Sass: I love that.
Esme: I like it when colours are in conversation with one other! And I think that’s definitely something that I’ve got from my mum.
Sass: Oh yeah?
Esme: Yeah I think it sort of ties in to what she does at work [Esme’s mum owns an art gallery], which is pairing so many colours together in a space! And she does it on her clothes as well, so I try and do the same.
Sass: Cool!
Esme: And then in summer… probably… again with the… It’s funny cos it’s basically the same! But it’s brown shorts.
Sass: That’s exactly what I thought you were gonna say, cos that’s the exact outfit I picture you in! Which is funny.
Esme: Yeah, I love those. Brown shorts, and maybe like a small white t-shirt.
Sass: Yup.
Esme: A small shirt and big trousers.
Sass: Perfect.
Esme: And maybe like a little cross body bag so I can have all my things!
Sass: Lovely! What brand is your cross body bag?
Esme: My bag is from… Ally Capellino. I really them, I’m wearing the backpack that I take to work with me everyday by Ally Capellino. They’re very comfy.
Sass: Lovely!
Esme: The bag is a green canvas bag with a sort of locking feature, and has many pockets for all my trinkets and stuff! So yeah.
Sass: Perfect. How lovely. Okay, when you're feeling low, do you dress up or down?
Esme: That's a really fun question.
Sass: I stole that. That's not one of mine. I stole that from Bella Freud of Fashion Neurosis.
Esme: Oh, of course! I love her. I feel like I’m lying down on the sofa!
Sass: Yeah!
Esme: I dress up. Like I was saying before, I don’t really do much else to my appearance that I'm that aware of, like constantly thinking about, other than my clothes. And, as a result, clothes are really where I get a source of confidence from. I also think it’s kinda storytelling as well. I think, if you’re in an outfit, and you’re wearing it with other people…
Sass: I love that!
Esme: Yeah, I feel like you’re communicating a bit of yourself. So that’s why, you know, I get so much joy out of the clothes that other people have made for themselves. Like it’s kind of the most beautiful thing in the world. It’s actually communicating with proper people themselves, not just something you’ve taken off a hanger. So, for that same reason, I dress up. Because, I kind of feel like, maybe if I’m not feeling that great in my own head, or my own capacity to communicate in my words, then I can probably do it with clothes instead.
Sass: Wow I love that so much! That’s such a great philosophy.
Esme: Yeah, that’s what I would say.
Sass: Cool! I’m aware of the time, so there are a few questions [left], I could ask the questions?
Esme: No no, let’s keep going!
Sass: Okay, all right, cool. Um, is there a particular item in your wardrobe that you only wear on specific occasions? So for example, I used to own a cardigan I only wore when I had a headache.
Esme: That's really great. Headache Cardigan?
Sass: Yeah.
Esme: Yes, I would say so, but can I include the weather or is that too functional?
Sass: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine.
Esme: I only wear this one jacket if it’s raining, I cannot wear it if it's dry. It's a yellow macintosh.
Sass: Oh yeah, I know the one.
Esme: And it doesn't look like a rain jacket, but it kind of is. And it’s absolutely huge. And people have laughed at me before because when I wear it I look like that… it’s a sort of shit representation of the It (2017) outfit, that yellow jacket. But I love it, I love it so much. And it’s huge, it’s very very baggy, but it’s also not, it’s kind of puffed out. It’s like a kind of penguin puffing out its chest, and it's kind of not actually that fit for purpose, in terms of the rain, because it doesn't have a hood.
Sass: Oh no!
Esme: So my head always gets really really wet, but it has a kind of big collar, and I feel like whenever I wear it when it's raining it’s sort of like my skin is turning into that water resistance sort of material, which I can kind of just sink into it. I'm protected from all the elements always. It's kind of like, something I always think about, and I know I’ve talked about this with you before, is the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009) spray-on shoes.
Sass: [Giggles] Yeah! We have discussed this before, and I think about them all the time as well!
Esme: Exactly, and this jackets is like my equivalent to that, the spray on shoes.
Sass: Such a brilliant image!
Esme: I feel invincible in it.
Sass: Oh, it just sounds so [great]! Also, just the colour yellow for a rain jacket has always always struck a chord with me. I just think it's so cool.
Esme: It’s really- yeah!
Sass: There was this particular rain jacket that I was really obsessed with from… the brand name escapes me, but it was French, like Frenchesque, and it was yellow, but it had blue and white stripes on the inside. People wore that a lot in like 2018-19 and I wanted one more than anything. Oh, it’s just Joules, the brand Joules. I know, it’s not that crazy!
Esme: Oh yeah! I remember that jacket!
Sass: Do you remember?
Esme: I remember. Yeah, people would wear it with wellies and stuff. It’s so playful, I really, yeah— It’s so fun. The yellow is… I couldn’t get that jacket any other colour, and I really appreciate it, it’s almost sort of gold-y as well? It has a kind of King Midas-ish-ness to it, which almost adds to the feeling that I could do anything when I’m in it, it could blow a gale and only my hair will get wet and that would be fine.
Sass: Yeah, and you can deal with wet hair, but like, when you’re soaked through, it’s the worst feeling. But I feel like wet hair feels… for me I don’t mind when my hair gets wet. But then, you know my thoughts on umbrellas.
Esme: I know! You’re so umbrella-averse, which I think is hilarious.
Sass: [Giggles] Okay, I have another. Yeah, so, do you have a dream personal style and is it different from how you dress now?
Esme: A dream personal style? Yeah. I look to both of my sisters. Who are older than me and have more money than me. And I just wanna look like them, and I get angry sometimes because I don't.
Sass: I think you all dress similarly to [one another], I wouldn't think, oh, Esme’s the odd one out here, out of these superbly dressed people.
Esme: I think for so long I did feel like I was! Just because I was like, mentally behind them, I was 15 when they were in their 20s, so I just wasn’t where they were at in terms of how they expressed themselves. And I feel like we have all caught up now, but there’s things like… Every time we see each other after it having been a while, I kinda catch a pair of shoes I’ve not seen before, or a cardigan, and I’m like, fucksake. I really like that and I want it.
Sass: They’ve beat me again!
Esme: Why didn’t you tell me you were getting that so I can have it too! But we all try to respect each other's right to having an item of clothing that we don't all have.
Sass: Aw, that’s very—
Esme: And we have to give each other the space to breathe, but also we all have kind of tabs on each other! So my dream [style], I think, I would like to borrow both from Molly and Edie [Ingleby] in that sense. Edie wears a lot of really cool Japanese clothes, cos she spent a year there, and her partner’s half Japanese. So she wears amazing cool shoes that look like she could bounce really high as she walks. I think they’re cool. I can’t pronounce them, they’re called SUICOKEs or something. I think my dream outfit of mine would include something like those?
Sass: Cool!
Esme: They sort of look like you could walk on the moon in them.
Sass: I love that! A word I learned recently that I don’t— you probably know it already, but the word ‘paperboy’? I mean no, sorry—
Esme: yes!
Sass: No, Paperboy is the magazine. [Paperboy is not the magazine. The magazine that coined the term ‘city boy’ is called Popeye. ADHD, huh?] But there’s a word for the street style in Japan, and it’s like this very— Hnghh it’s so embarrassing, I can’t remember the word now. Paperboy originally—
Esme: We could look it up?
Sass: originated it, and it’s kind of… workwear… yeah, Tokyo…
Esme: Ooh…
Sass: Boy fashion…
Esme: That sounds great. Yeah, that’s exactly the kind of thing…
Sass: If I find the word… Oh! City Boy! City boy. [Got there in the end…]
Esme: City boy!
Sass: Yeah!
Esme: Yeah, like that! I’m looking it up now, as we speak. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So cool.
Sass: So cool. Love it. Um, how do you feel about accessories? We've mentioned hats, I guess.
Esme: Yeah, I think when it comes to accessories, I really am such a big believer in a hat. In the winter this could be… like, a knitted bonnet?
Sass: Oh yeah.
Esme: I love a bonnet. I used to wear a lot of berets.
Sass: Yeah.
Esme: And in the summer… I guess there’s sort of less of a reason for needing a summer hat in the same way, but I do have a summer hat. Which I really like.
Sass: What’s your summer hat?
Esme: It’s like a knitted… You sort of, I kind of… plonk it on the top of my head. And it sort of feels like a… yeah, it has a— it has like a very rounded shape to my head and it sort of goes out in a ring? It’s blue.
Sass: Oh yeah!
Esme: And it’s knitted.
Sass: I think I know the one.
Esme: Knitted from like a cotton material. And I like that. I think… I think sunglasses are amazing.
Sass: Yes.
Esme: It makes sense to me. I think they do so much for one’s sense of self as well, when you’re wearing sunglasses. They kind of hold powers.
Sass: They’re so great, aren’t they, and you can really hide behind them. I discovered that I can do that with my normal glasses, too. Like if I’m feeling kind of bad about myself, I put my glasses on and I feel so much better.
Esme: You hide behind them?
Sass: Yeah.
Esme: That’s really cool. Yeah. I think that’s very true, I get a lot out of sunglasses, in that sense. Like, hiding behind them, but also, like, I really appreciate what they can do for my hair? Because, yeah, I always have my hair down and I never tie [it] up. So if I have a pair of sunglasses, I can push them up against my hair. And then it means my hair’s out my face. Then suddenly, like, everything feels really… easy. Because my hair’s not in the way.
Sass: I know, I wish there was something that [wasn’t] sunglasses but pushed your hair up in the same way, cos I’ve been hunting. I know there are like, you can get those kind of, cone clips. [Not sure what I mean by this - I might’ve made them up. Please comment if you know what I mean!] But—
Esme: Yeah, if you find something like that let me know?
Sass: I will.
Esme: I’d love that.
Sass: Do you have any clothes that make you feel like you’re playing a particular character?
Esme: [Tittering]. Yes, I always say, like, the puffy sleeves. I like to pretend, when I’m wearing one of those, that I’m like, some sort of… woman on the prairie type thing. That probably… that makes me feel like I’m a character. Maybe in a film or a musical! It’s like, yeah, that’s the best case scenario.
Sass: Oklahoma!
Esme: Exactly! Exactly. Which, seeing that with my Grandma when I was like seven, like, changed my life. So, you’re tapping into… So, yeah, I think something like that. I feel like, there’s quite a comedic quality to it all, which I enjoy. Like something that makes me laugh and it’s a bit funny and a bit silly. A bit, yeah, of a puffy sleeve Amish moment.
Sass: Yeah, you’re not taking yourself too seriously.
Esme: Yeah, I think that’s what I’ve tried to do a lot in all aspects of my life. But also with clothes, is try not to take myself too seriously. To like, have fun, with colours, experiment with weird shapes, and boxiness. That’s being understated, but also, those things together, kind of sometimes go against the ‘not taking myself too seriously’ thing? I think it kind of does? Cos I feel like, when I’m wearing clothes I don’t think I ever really am trying to make that much of a statement. I think I’m just trying to feel like me. Which…yeah.
Sass: Oh! That’s so lovely! My second to last question— I do have another one, but the second to last was, are you looking for any particular pieces right now?
Esme: Uuuummm… Yes. I really really want a big skirt, kind of like a kilt? I want like a big tartan kilt.
Sass: Oh cool.
Esme: But I want it to be really long. Claudia Winkleman actually wore a kilt on The Traitors by this brand called Le Kilt, which I think is beautiful. And I’d love to own something like that. But it’s like completely… never something that I could ever own cos it’s so astronomically expensive. So I think I’m searching sites for like, vintage M&S kilts. And see what I can find.
Sass: Vintage M&S is funnily a theme on this now, Lauren mentioned it.
Esme: Really!
Sass: Yeah. I mean it is great.
Esme: It’s so great.
Sass: They’re a mark of quality, I guess.
Esme: Yes, they really are. They care about you.
Sass: I feel that too. I feel like I grew up with M&S.
Esme: It’s like a hug.
Sass: Um, and my last question is, do you have any questions for me?
Esme: Do I have any questions for you? Aww! What’s an outfit you feel good in?
Sass: Yeah, I mean, for a long long long time I would have said, my dungarees and any stripey long sleeve. That was my kind of—
Esme: Yes! That’s so my… When I first met you.
Sass: Yeah. I wore my dungarees like every day, I loved them. But I didn’t bring them with me. And I don’t really know why? Because, like, there was never a point where they stopped feeling like me. But clearly, I just thought, oh I won’t bring them, I won’t wear them. So it’s kind of… I’ve been thinking about it and I guess… I mean, yeah. I struggle to think of a current outfit that I actually have with me that feels the most me. Which is kind of sad…
Esme: Well that jacket that you sent me a picture of is wonderful.
Sass: Ugh, I lurve [that jacket]. I mean, I love all my clothes, and I do feel myself in them! But, that was like, the most me outfit I’ve ever had. So I’m excited to go back and get all my long sleeves and my dungarees again!
Esme: Are you thinking more about clothes cos you’re away from your wardrobe?
Sass: Yeah.
Esme: I mean, that is like, making you think about how much you love having… your things?
Sass: I think so. And I think it’s like, weird, cos I’ve got a kind of capsule wardrobe. Oh, I have thought of an outfit that I like [that feels the most me]. You know my gingham dress?
Esme: Yes, I like that one.
Sass: The big dress. And then I would, I like to wear a long sleeve, like either a black turtleneck long sleeve or a white long sleeve underneath. Because it gives it a bit of shape.
Esme: That’s really cool.
Sass: That’s, that’s a big outfit for me.
Esme: I like that. I like that a lot. I like black and white together, I think it’s really cool.
Sass: Aw yeah, agreed.
Esme: Alright, I’m gonna have to love you and leave you, cos I’m late for work. But thanks so much for this!
Sass: Well that’s all I had, so that’s kinda perfect timing.
Esme: Amazing. Fabulous!
Sass: Thank you! Your answers were brilliant.
Esme: Thank you!
So there we have it ladies and gents, a true honour to interview such a personal style hero of mine, the fabulous Esme Ingleby. I hope it was as fun to read as it was to talk and transcribe, especially the seagull bit. Reader, Esme is fine (albeit slightly… ruffled. Lol.) See you next time for more piecing it together!
p.s. if you’d like to be interviewed for an upcoming episode, please just let me know and we’ll make it happen! I hope you are well.
i was waiting for this one!!!!!!!
absolutely savoured this!