MIRANDA MEETS MARIE.
30.09.11
Life & Style
Miranda meets Marie Helvin, Glamazon par excellence and reformed conspicuous consumer.
After racing through a surprisingly sweltering London, I finally arrive by the river, dripping wet and slightly flagging in the heat. But I’m English and whatever sun I feel on my skin I shall embrace to the point of purple embarrassment. Sitting down to meet Marie Helvin, cover girl of 70s and 80, not to mention David Bailey’s former wife and muse, the stark difference is palpable; she is serene – I am sweating.
I have come to talk to the world famous glamazon about her change in consuming behaviour after the financial crash in 2001, which left the Hawaiian beauty nowhere and with nothing. Famed for her front covers rather than her frugalness, she was homeless in London for a year, and now after returning to work things are very different for her.
“The last new piece of clothing I bought was 10 years ago”, she tells me. Although I have no doubt of the fiercely glamorous address book that she can leaf through in case of a sartorial emergency in order to borrow an outfit, this is still impressive: “I realised that there was so much in my life that had cluttered me over the years it didn’t make sense anymore.” Looking at her in the bare wine bar, this statement appears to stand up. Dressed very simply in a top and loose trousers, she’s wearing a pretty ring, but that’s about it when it comes to extra embellishment. “After everything went, the decision came to choose between the essential and the unnecessary, and that’s how I live now”, she says. Though back on her feet financially, Helvin has sold off practically all the trinkets and jewellery she amassed over the years as well as the really big stuff such as property. These days she lives light and in a rented flat.
Much as the ambassador for the two charities Just a Drop and the Brian Tumour Foundation, deserves recognition for her change over the last 10 years, I really, really want to hear about her decades of decadence. After all, you don't sustain a career as a supermodel without accumulating some serious stories. What was the most expensive or extravagant thing she spent her money on back in the day? Without missing a beat she replies “Oh my god the drugs, definitely all those drugs!”.
She has obviously done a lot of thinking on that tricky subject of want versus need. She's a fluent talker on consumption in general, she talks on the necessity and to an extent, the romance of buying something you understand, the route where it comes from, the ingredients that make it. Then she chastises herself for forgetting the watch she wanted to show off that she found in Honolulu made of coconut shells. It’s clear that the last 10 years have been shaping for Marie, money that was once for entertaining and entertainment now goes to the charities she works with.
One of the originals, this supermodel still exudes all the glamour that snared the hearts of David Bailey and Jack Nicholson but has turned her back on the trappings of her old life.
