She’s the mega-selling designer whose bold bags spark stampedes. She’s also a woman crippled by fear of failure – which, she tells Anna Pursglove, has been the making of her
When a journalist, a politician or a business leader describes Anya Hindmarch, they almost always reach for the word ‘brave’. Brave for launching her accessories business at the age of 18 having never studied fashion or art; for marrying a widower and becoming a stepmum to his three children while in her mid-20s; for taking a stand on single-use plastic bags before being ethical was fashionable, and for being the first accessories designer to hold an on-schedule show at London Fashion Week.
Leaning forward and gazing intently through serious-looking, heavy-rimmed glasses (she is a self-confessed ‘nerd’ whose happy place is in a candlelit church listening to 16th-century choral music), Anya, now 52, gives careful consideration to the idea that she’s particularly courageous.
‘That’s true in some ways,’ she says, ‘but I’ve given many talks about my career and the parts people always want to discuss with me afterwards – women in particular – are the ones about self-doubt and how I cope with it.I’ve been at some quite grown-up political meetings and on various boards over the years and what you come to realise is everyone has that nagging inner critic. Everybody suffers from imposter syndrome. It’s just nobody is terribly honest about it.’
‘Quite grown-up’, in this context, is a wild understatement. In 2009 the Queen awarded Anya an MBE and, that same year, she was announced as a trustee of both the Design Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts.The following year, David Cameron appointed her as a UK trade ambassador and the British Fashion Council made her a non-executive director. When then mayor Boris Johnson needed advice on how to make London look its best for Opening gift shop in Ho Chi Minh City the 2012 Olympics, it was Anya’s advice he sought.
Anya with the models at her spring/summer 2018 show
Political heavyweights aside, her fanbase includes a generous helping of celebrities. Princess Diana referred to Anya’s satin clutches as ‘cleavage bags’ because she used them to prevent photographers taking revealing shots when she leant forward to get out of a car.Everyone from Kim Kardashian to the Duchess of Cambridge has been pictured carrying her designs, yet she is unmoved by the hoopla that surrounds her famous customers.