The last time Jan de Villeneuve modelled was in 2017, when she walked in Simone Rocha’s London show. When you’ve had as illustrious a career as de Villeneuve, you can afford to pick and choose your jobs. Modelling since 1966, she counts Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy as contemporaries, Yves Saint Laurent and Biba as clients, and Helmut Newton and David Bailey as but two of the greats who have photographed her over the years, the latter for a 1969 Vogue cover.
“I’m 80 now, which seems like a really old lady, so I’m not doing too much in the modelling department,” she smiles, speaking over Zoom from her home in the Kent countryside, where she lives with her partner of 35 years, the drummer Andy Newman. “My health has been a bit dodgy, but it was worth trying to make an effort for this.”
“This” is her role as the new face of Marfa Stance, purveyors of those quilted jackets that the high street has so slavishly tried and failed to replicate, whose fans include Naomi Watts, Lauren Laverne and Sam Taylor-Johnson. Founded in 2019 by Georgia Dant, Marfa Stance’s jackets and parkas are the Lego of outerwear, in that you can “build” and modify them at whim. Raining? Add a hood. Freezing? Add a fleece liner. Bored? Reverse them. Every element jigsaws together, with versatility and longevity at their core.
Two bywords that could equally apply to Jan herself. “We told her it was cool,” smiles Daisy, 49, the elder of her two daughters, both of whom star alongside her in the campaign. “It’s a nice opportunity for us to be able to do something together,” adds her sibling, Poppy, 45.
Brought up in West London, theirs was a bohemian household crammed full of eclectic art and exciting clothes. “We did style on a budget,” says Jan. “We didn’t have lots of cash for clothes, but we like nice things, so we’d go to sample sales. We were all sample type sizes, which helped. I’ve been the same dress size since I was 12, and I’ve been collecting clothes since then, too. I’ve got way too many.”
“Daisy and I are now in the process of cataloging and curating her clothes, with the aim to create an exhibition,” adds Poppy. “We want to honour her wardrobe, because her clothes tell such a strong story of fashion over the years.” Highlights of Jan’s treasure trove include rare pieces from Ralph Lauren, Issey Miyake, Bill Gibb, Ossie Clark, Biba and Jean Muir. “Jan would often be paid in clothes,” says Poppy. “There are bags and bags of them she’s collected through the ages.”
Jan’s lifelong love of vintage was sparked by her friend, the model Jean Shrimpton. “Growing up [in Ohio], I hadn’t thought about it. But I came to love vintage stores, and loved the idea of passing down these clothes from various eras to the girls.” Was there anything she wouldn’t let her daughters borrow? “I don’t think so.”
“I wasn’t always tall enough to borrow,” says Poppy, regretfully. “My mother’s quite tall. I think she let us borrow things at the appropriate ages, so that we wouldn’t ruin them. We weren’t precious about clothes. They were for going out and having a good time. And she didn’t ever try to dictate what we should or shouldn’t wear. We were very fortunate to have a lot of freedom in our house, and all sorts of artistic people and influences. It meant we could kind of work out our style for ourselves.”
Brought up amidst such a surfeit of their mother’s enchanting clothes, unsurprisingly, Daisy and Poppy buy new things very sparingly. “I haven’t bought any clothes in a while because I have so many, so I tend to shop in my own closet,” says Daisy. “I lived in Paris for three years during the height of Isabel Marant, so I have a lot of clothes from sample sales at that time - French labels like Marant, Sonia Rykiel and APC.”
“I’m really into Margaret Howell,” says Poppy. “Most of my clothes I buy via resale, for the sake of the planet. That’s why we love Marfa Stance so much: they’re genuinely into sustainability.”
Jan describes her own style as eclectic. “I’ve never really gone for any particular style, or followed any name. It’s more about whether things suit me. When the girls were babies, they wore Biba baby clothes, and nappies that were different colours. People don’t use cloth nappies now, but theirs were purple, pink, green and blue instead of white. I’ve always loved things that are different and interesting.”
“Sometimes, she would turn up to school wearing big Timberland boots and a mini skirt,” Poppy recalls. “That was a slight embarrassment, but we’d just go ‘oh, it’s the eccentric American’, and laugh. She has always dressed to please herself, not anyone else. That’s been really inspiring for us. It’s a helpful message to receive as a child, as it makes you realise that you don’t need to follow a trend. It was also really helpful groundwork for us as people.
With a fashion legend as a mother and a photographer as a father (Twiggy’s former manager Justin de Villeneuve, whom Jan married in 1975) it’s no surprise that Daisy and Poppy ended up working in the arts, Daisy as an illustrator and Poppy as a director (she directed the 2022 documentary, Lionesses, about the England women’s football team). “I’m so proud of my two artistic girls,” beams Jan.
They’re equally proud of her - not least in her attitude to ageing. “I don’t see the point in people having Botox or plastic surgery,” says Jan. “We all get older as we go along, so it’s nice if you can be yourself and age as gradually and naturally as you can. It’s great that Martha Stance approves of that, and is proactive about their use of women of all ages.”
She herself started modelling at a geriatric 22, working solidly until 1975, when she got pregnant with Daisy. Poppy followed in 1979, and Jan happily embraced motherhood for the following 12 years. “It would probably have been tempting to carry on working if there was more money in it, and they were using older models [at the time],” she admits. “But I’m glad that I didn’t have to worry about not working. It was a natural progression from modelling to motherhood. Then suddenly, when I was 44, I started up again. I can’t remember why or how, but it was fun.”
She’s delighted that there’s more age diversity in fashion now. “It’s excellent. It’s important to have all different ages - real people, not just 16 year olds. It always puzzled me that very young models were used to model in campaigns, as they’re not really the demographic that can afford the clothes.”
For Marfa Stance’s founder, Georgia Dant, casting the de Villeneuve trio was a no-brainer. “Jan’s an original. She interpreted our clothes in her own way to reflect her own sense of style, but also made them relevant for her lifestyle in the countryside, which for me is the whole point of the brand. There’s something so special about mother/daughter relationships. I love the idea of multi-generational style, and also of shareable style.” Especially when said style is as compelling as Jan’s.
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