Camille Charrière

I’m good, thanks! How are you?

Yeah, yeah, it was cool!

I mean I thought it was nice that Margiela got such a sudden turnout and so many people decided to wear it, but I was disappointed because I think that there was an opportunity for people to do more vintage and archival looks and I felt that didn’t happen and so that was a bit disappointing.

No one feels authentic; it’s all branded now. I don’t know; it doesn’t feel fun and cool; it’s more performative.

I have imagined, and I don’t know how it works because I’m assuming that when you get taken by a brand, you don’t always get to choose unless you’re being brought by TikTok or something that is not a fashion house, but I would have wanted to do something archival because the theme, sleeping beauties, is the idea of something that you’ve brought back to life that’s been asleep for a long time, so I think that’s what I was expecting more of, and I think a few celebrities did it and did it well, like Isabelle Huppert, you know? I don’t think the theme really came through; there were a lot of people in it that looked cool, but I’m not crazy about it.

It’s a very good question. It’s a question that I often don’t really know how to answer, especially in a few words, because my career has just been a meandering journey filled with lots of different ventures. I just kind of say that I’m an Internet person. I was brought up by the Internet, and I’ve spent a lot of time forging a name for myself online, and as I’ve got a little bit more experience, I’ve been able to kind of take a step back from that and also focus on writing and other things I enjoy.

Oh no, actually, I’m always really pleasantly surprised because when people come up to me, they’ll say things like, “I read your piece about falling in love, and I really needed it now to feel better,” or “I listen to your podcast” or “I’ve seen your Vogue video.” I feel like the people who come up to me on the street seem to always reference the things that I’m the most proud of, so that’s a really nice feeling. I’m not a celebrity, so I don’t get fans coming up to me all the time, but there was definitely a moment after my wedding (because my wedding had a bit of a virality) where people were coming up to me a lot and just saying nice things and wishing me congratulations. That was just really special because it was such a beautiful moment in my life, so having people say that it inspired them as well was quite magical.

I just graduated from law school and I was working in finance, and I was very aware of the fact that (and I think things have changed now) at the time you had to be very careful with your CV. You had to do things in a really logical and clever way, and I was worried that if people in my industry learned that I had a fashion blog, then I would not be taken seriously, so Camille Over the Rainbow was meant to be my parallel universe, a place in which I got to experiment and be more creative, and you know, do dirty things that I would be judged for in the finance world, and that’s why my surname wasn’t attached to it.

Well, my email address is still that (laughs).

Yeah, people get a good laugh when they ask me for my email, and I mean, I got another one that is more professional, but I don’t really use it. I’m just attached to that one; I can’t explain it.

Fashion has definitely changed. Social media has changed the industry because fashion magazines and the media have become less relevant, and therefore social media has had a really big impact on the way we consume and see the industry. I think nowadays there’s a lot more about how to go viral than about developing your own sense of taste and style. I know there’s been a big conversation lately about gatekeeping, like whether it’s good to gatekeep or not, and I do think that when we were a bit younger, it was very difficult to, well, not very difficult, but you had to really research things if you wanted to find out about them, whereas now you just open your phone and Instagram has like all the archives of all the designers, all the pictures from celebrities from back in the day, all the films that they have been in, and you can see everything there without even having to know about it properly. You don’t have to watch the film to know what they were wearing, and I think that has taken away from the way that you develop fashion. It has become about copying, pasting, and creating a moment instead of digging inside yourself and finding the things that make you feel like you.

I mean, I took a sort of resolution post-Covid. It was to try and wear fewer brands and become less of a shoppable Instagram page so that people come to my account more to get inspiration and get ideas rather than just pick and buy, which I feel sometimes fashion has become a little bit too much about. There’s a lot of joy in the hunt, and I think it’s really fun to spend hours away looking for that one piece, even if it’s like a black blazer – finding the one that’s going to suit your shape, your silhouette, and your lifestyle. I think now it’s just like looking at what another girl is wearing and being like, okay, I want that one. I don’t want to lament the past because I do think fashion has become a lot more open-minded, but on the other hand, I think that the industry has become too much about pure consumerism and less about appreciating nice things and understanding how things are made and what they mean. I mean, fashion and shopping are two different things.

I actually feel very inspired by the younger generation. You go on TikTok, and you look at the way that they’re thrifting and building outfits out of everything. I really like the idea that something doesn’t need to have been expensive for it to be cool, and thrifting and shopping for second-hand or even new things are all about finding a way of wearing them that works for you, and I have found it really inspiring to see that on TikTok. Obviously, there are two sides of the same coin. There’s the side of the malls where people are shopping, and there’s the other side of the whole category of Gen Z and younger going to buy things secondhand and making their outfits really personal, and I think that has been a huge shift; that high fashion isn’t necessarily as aspirational as it used to be, and it’s almost cooler to not be that girl who wears head-to-toe brands. If you compare a celebrity like Bella Hadid versus Kendall Jenner, and I’m using those two girls because they are friends, Kendall is only going to wear new things and things that are straight off the runway and wear them in a very different way, and Bella is going to go and picks things and make her style very personal, and actually you could go and recreate any one of Bella’s looks with not very much.

Fashion is so important; it’s not something you want to brush aside. And when I say fashion, I mean personal style. It really is something that we can all use. We use it every day in our daily lives to express ourselves, and it’s a conversation starter. A good outfit is something to be remembered by. I always find that you have more fun when you’re wearing a good outfit; it just increases your enjoyment. Cool clothes bring joy. That said, you don’t need to be wearing new things every day or trying to find new trends every day to be interesting. Looking interesting doesn’t come from that; it comes from the details and the way you’ve layered things, the way you mix-and-match, and I think that’s what’s become a little bit terrifying in this generation. It’s all about getting new things because that’s what’s going to get hyped, and I think that’s where it gets lost a little bit.

Unfortunately, Instagram cannibalised the blogger world, and after a while, nobody was doing it anymore. Writing a blog is an enormous amount of work. I remember spending all my weekends writing when I started it; I literally did it every evening and weekend. Any time that I had a spare moment from my actual job, I would be writing for my blog, taking pictures for my blog, and editing for my blog. It’s an incredible community, and Instagram kind of cannibalised that after a few years. It became all about social media, and I think I just stopped when it wasn’t fun anymore. From the beginning, it was something that had an amazing outcome, and from the second it became something stressful that I was not enjoying anymore I thought, right, well, this is time to move on. I’ve always been someone who’s very good at adapting. I do think it’s interesting and funny that now we’re in the era of Substack, which is basically just blogs, and everybody’s in there writing again. It’s funny how things always come full circle. And as they say, everything is always coming back. And I don’t just mean clothes, all the trends, how you read, how you consume magazines, etc. 

It has different sides. I mean, obviously, blogs would be better to develop a more intimate relationship with your audience because you can speak for longer, but I think that’s a different thing. I think YouTube is a very good platform for that, where people film longer videos where they show more of who they are. Instagram is a lot more of a kind of window into your world; it’s not really the whole world, and I’ve always seen it that way, and I think that’s fine. I think the danger is if you only rely on that and base your whole personal career on one platform that you don’t control; you don’t control the algorithm; you don’t control how people perceive you.

There was none. I really didn’t grow up in a family where fashion was talked about or even tolerated. My first foray into fashion was when I moved to London when I was twenty-six. And even then, it wasn’t really that much when I started my blog. I was kind of exploring trends, trying to write about brands, and crashing fashion week for the first time. I didn’t grow up with fashion as part of my world. So it was a really fun world to explore. And obviously, being someone who didn’t come from it and who didn’t work in the industry was also very freeing because nobody knew who I was. I got to explore the world and do and say whatever I wanted, which I don’t think I can do anymore. I have to be a lot more careful because a lot more eyes are on me. Sometimes I remember that time with nostalgia because it was so fun. You just got to stay and do whatever you wanted because, at the end of the day, there were no responsibilities.

I don’t know if I was more secure, but I think at that age, you’re scared of nothing. I remember quitting my job once the blog had taken off and deciding to do this full-time, which was a pretty ballsy move because, at the time, influencing blogging wasn’t a career at all. And the fact that I had faith and was able to take that leap, now when I look back, I’m quite impressed with myself, and I do think that’s an age thing. In your mid-late twenties, you’re very, very ballsy. You’re able to go out in the world and take risks – a lot more than I feel able to do now. Now I’m a lot more careful. But I do think that’s a big part of it. There’s something about that young rebel vibe where you’re just following your gut because you don’t really know where it’s going to take you, but you’re prepared to take that risk because you don’t have a mortgage, you don’t have children, you don’t have responsibilities, and you’re still a person in formation. That was what made it so incredible. I would go with the flow and see where the wind was taking me; it was just magical. 

100%. I have zero regrets. Sincerely, the biggest thing that really changed things for me was moving to London. And I always give that advice to young people who, or even those who are not so young, are in a bit of a rut and don’t really know where they’re going. I think changing cities and moving somewhere new can really unlock a new version of yourself because you have to step out of your comfort zone. When I moved to London, I didn’t know anyone, just my boyfriend, and he was English, and I didn’t know his friends. That’s what I’ve always been doing. I’ve always been going somewhere where I really didn’t know anyone or have a support system and having to figure everything out on my own. It was so good for me; that’s where it all started. I do think London gave me wings. So if I could do it all over again, I would.

Fashion has become a huge industry, much bigger than when it started and certainly bigger than it was in the 90s. To ignore it would be to ignore one of the big foundations of our economy, so I don’t think people can belittle it as much as they did. That said, it’s still an industry that’s dominated by women, and I think anything that women find fun and interesting can be seen as less than other industries. Influencers in particular are treated like second-class citizens sometimes, when they’re girls who have built whole businesses, working for themselves. I don’t like how they get talked down to; it’s not fair, and it’s not right. That’s not to say there are not loads of things wrong with the influencer economy, but if we started by treating them with respect, you could then be more able to criticise them because it’s something that’s not going away any time soon. The fashion industry still has that bad rep. Among other things, it’s an industry that’s incredibly damaging to the planet. For that reason, it’s an industry that’s got a lot to account for and that needs a lot of growing up to do. I hope that I see some bigger change in my lifetime because, for the time being, it feels a little too late. Nothing is really moving forward. After Covid, we were all hoping that things would be very different, and they’re just not. I would say it’s gone back to the way it was before ten more times. 

It’s a really sad fact of the fashion industry, and it pains me to see how it’s actually put down on paper how little women are in top jobs. I’m not just talking about the creative director job but also the CEO roles, etc. It’s upsetting. I’m sure the way that the industry doesn’t carve out any proper support for women who want to have families is largely to blame as well, because the industry is particularly harsh with this. Rarely do you see women taking time off for their maternity leave in our industry, which is bonkers when you think about it. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t get that support as well. These things all tie in; if there were more women in positions of power, the system would adapt and evolve to become more supportive of women in general. For example, the fashion calendar is crazy. The amount of shows and travel, and how fast-paced it is, just doesn’t really leave any breathing time to have another form of life, and it’s almost like if you choose to be in fashion, you have to choose to live and breathe fashion forever, and you’re not allowed to have another side to yourself, which is not a good thing, and I don’t think it’s fair.

Sadly, I’ve been going through a really difficult fertility process with IVF. One of the first things that my doctor said was, “You cannot work at this volume and pace.” And it was really hard to wake up because I always felt that I was in control of my career because I’m freelance and I’ve been working for myself all these years. And once I realised that when you start saying no to things, people drop you off the list and stop wanting to work with you because you’re not readily available, it was hard. It’s something that made me realise the way we try to keep up with the industry, in fashion, they’re making the rules; you’re not; you just have to follow, or you’ll get left behind. It took me getting a little bit older to realise it, and now that I’ve seen it, I can’t unsee it. We love fashion all we want, but I don’t know how much fashion loves us back.

I think it’s worth it – any form of writing and digging deeper. I truly believe that words have transcending power anyway. So it’s such an amazing exercise to write about fashion because it is so visual. Cathy Horyn’s writing is incredible, and Vanessa Friedman always has interesting insights that I wouldn’t have thought of myself. I think there’s a real joy in writing. There’s a real joy in reading the work of people who have a much deeper understanding and who are putting things together that you wouldn’t have necessarily seen. Fashion, after all, does play a part in the bigger picture. I hope that there are going to be more people coming into that side of the industry. I think journalism is so important. And even just writing for yourself. When I was writing my blog, not loads of people were reading it, but it’s just having to think about what the collection inspired in you and what it meant for you. I think that is a really nice way of perceiving the world.

That’s a great question. I was commissioned to write that piece, and I was really happy to do so because I thought it was such an interesting point that I didn’t realise that when I wore that dress, it was going to cause so much online hate and friction. I don’t know if it was therapeutic. I do always love putting my thoughts into words on the page because it helps me make more sense of what I am feeling inside. Sometimes when I’m writing, I realise that I’m thinking about things that I didn’t even really know, which is why I think writing is so amazing. There’s a really big difference between empowerment and wearing something to make yourself feel empowered and then simply not going out into the world or the Internet and insulting other women. There’s no point in my wedding where I thought that I was wearing a dress that was empowering. I would never have thought that. My point is that nobody should be policing what other women wear on their special day. 

You’re allowed to think that it’s a disgraceful choice and that you wouldn’t have done the same, but to go on someone’s personal page and insult them, call them a whore, and say that they’re a disgrace to their family? There’s such a leap between those two things. There are plenty of times where I see what people are wearing and I don’t like it, and I’m never going up to them and saying, I don’t like it. You look disgusting. There’s been a really dangerous and sad development online where people feel like they can say and do whatever they want just because that’s going to get their attention online, and we’ve become more and more critical instead of less critical of women’s choices. I do know that things are... yeah, anyway.

It’s a thorny topic because too often women wear very sexy clothes and pretend that that’s feminism. I’m not saying that it’s feminist to wear a naked dress; that’s not what feminism is, but I do think it’s important to let women do whatever they want and wear whatever they want without policing their choices or telling them what to do or wear. Same with their bodily rights. In my opinion, you shouldn’t tell a woman whether she can or can’t have an abortion; that’s a personal decision that you have with yourself, your family, and your partner, and it’s not something that our governments or our neighbours should be giving us input on. Celebrities have often been the brunt of criticism, and they’ve always been the ones receiving the vitriol of hate. Now, because of social media, everybody can get insulted on a daily basis. We’ve just reached a really tragic stage in our culture where it’s just completely normalised to rip someone apart for no reason. It’s a really sad culture of individualism and wanting to sound more funny and interesting by laughing at others, which is what we would have called bullies back in the day. I hope this is going to change, because I don’t see it getting any better unless we reconsider how we’ve let ourselves just become mean.

Exactly. It’s always someone who has “meditated, love is the earth” whatever on their bio. I agree. It’s always the person that you least expect it from who’s hurling the worst insults your way. The first thing that you can do is change your own behavior. I had to get myself in check because I thought people couldn’t see what I was saying when I was younger. Now I try to think about whether something is constructive criticism or whether that’s the person who really deserves it. For example, I think it’s really important to criticise someone like Kim Kardashian, who’s a billionaire and who spends her time ripping off young designers and who has created a brand that will end up in landfills –someone you’re not punching down when you’re criticising her. But I wouldn’t criticise a young designer who’s been working nonstop; I don’t see the point. At the end of the day, if we criticise Kim, it’s because she needs to be held accountable, and you can do it in a way that’s not insulting, misogynistic, or rude. You can critique someone without bringing out the bully inside you. 

No, definitely not. I thought I was done, and then I got into the game of trying to have a baby. And then suddenly, your world opens up into this whole new set of worries about trying to be a woman in the right way. I don’t think we ever finish discovering who we are. I think what I was told is that in your 20s, things are harder because you’re still searching for who you are. From what I’ve discovered, your 30s are the same, except perhaps you have a better support system around you. As I’ve got older, I’ve become better at only allowing around me the people that I truly love and that truly love me. Meaning that there’s a less toxic environment around me, and that includes the fashion industry. I’m much better at having boundaries with my work, and that has been a blessing that I’ve only learned with age. But to say that I have things figured out would be an absolute lie. I’m still very much in the process of discovering what it is to be a woman, especially a woman who wants children but isn’t able to. It’s not easy. When you’re younger, you get told that you can be whatever you want, and I don’t think that’s true. I just wish we could talk about that more, because that’s a fact of biology. We have a clock, and it’s ticking every day. 

It depends. I’ve described IVF like a busy road. You feel stuck in your own life, where everybody seems to be moving forward and you aren’t. You feel like life just stops, and it’s a very weird feeling, especially for someone like me who’s always been so active. I’ve compared it to grief. I feel like every stage of this process brings its own sense of loss that you have to process, and it is very similar to normal grief, where you lose someone and change because you don’t see the world the way that you did before, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just an evolution of yourself. What do all these experiences do? They add value, and they add knowledge to ourselves. 

Congratulations!

I have a would have much more amazing life than I ever could imagine. I can’t even believe where I’ve got to. It’s never even been in my wildest dreams. I am fairly ambitious and always feel like I can do more. Now that I’m a bit older, I’m thinking a lot more about my legacy and what I’m leaving behind me. When I was younger, it was all about being a go-getter, doing tiny things, and exploring the world. Now it’s a lot more about being grounded and thinking about what I can contribute to making my industry and the world a better place, without sounding conceited or a preacher, because I’m definitely not perfect. It is something in which I take a lot of pride and care because I do think that to live a life well lived is just to find those small joys that actually make you and your work feel more fulfilled. So hopefully, I can just keep going in that direction. 

I would love to have a podcast again. We were the first fashion podcast and I loved it so much. My joy, my great passion in life is people and connecting with people and working for them on a deeper level. And that’s something that I hope I can kind of go back into. I think that’s a really good question, I am more spiritual. I kind of go where my gut tells me I’m needed, if that makes sense. I’m not super professional, I don’t care about doing something that’s going to make me the most money. For me, it’s more about the quality of the work and that sounds a bit snobby, but that’s how I’ve always been. I think I can say this, I'm writing a book at the moment. And that’s been like my lifelong goal since I’ve been very, very little. So to be finally able to take a step back from fashion and really focus on what I love, focus on something that takes an enormous amount of work and feel secure enough to do that, because I have now the financial means to kind of do that without worrying about whether I’m going to be making enough money, has been the biggest blessing ever. And I just can’t wait to have something out in the world that shows a little bit more about myself, that feels a little bit less controlled by anybody else but me.

I think it’s April 2025. I have an editor, and yeah, it’s just a question of knuckling down and writing, you know? 

It’s just the big C word, capitalism. It’s a system of growth – constant growth, squeezing out small players, disrespecting workers’ rights, and focusing on making a very small number of people very, very, very rich. And it’s very frustrating for the rest of us, who I think would like to see good and creativity as something that is a force of change, optimism, and dreaming, not like what it has become. So let’s see.

In fashion? 

In general, you know what? I believe in the younger generation, watching them stand up for what they believe in and watching the student movement protests, people taking risks, even knowing that if they stand up for what they think is right, they might not get a job in the future and doing it anyway. I think it’s so inspiring. People have been very quick to criticise this generation, saying that they don’t do or don’t think for themselves, and I don’t think it’s true. I think they’re an incredible generation. They’re really open-minded, they care about the state of the world, and I think that’s incredibly, incredibly optimistic to know that.