Fashion Victim: Lily’s a role model - not just a supermodel

Feb 21 2008 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

SO IT looks like Marks and Spencer have gone and done it again. After Twiggy, Erin, Laura and Lizzy, they are about to hit the jackpot once more with their latest recruit Lily Cole.

The chain announced the flame-haired supermodel would be joining the other top clothes horses as the exclusive face of their spring/summer Limited Collection at the end of last year, and the pick of the pieces are splashed over page after page of next month’s issue of Vogue.

Proof, if it were needed, that M&S is well and truly back on top.

So successful was Marks and Spencer’s original supermodel campaign featuring the 60s fashion icon, that it spawned a whole new marketing term – the "Twiggy effect", after the ads helped a then flagging M&S to a 20% rise in profits in 2006.

Having checked out this latest collection, I think the "Lily effect", left, might just do for the Topshop generation what Twiggy did for their mums.

Their mums will definitely be happier about them having Lily as a role model than her more infamous colleague, Kate Moss.

Like Kate, Lily was discovered by a model scout as a teenager going on to become the youngest-ever model to grace the cover of Vogue, aged just 16, but where Kate reportedly never got past GCSEs, Lily – who at just 19- years-old is rumoured to be worth around £11m – last year won a place at Cambridge to read English.

And that is not all. She also scores high on the green front, a must in fashion these days. She is a patron of the charity Trees for Cities and wrote the forward to ethical shopping guide Green is the New Black and when she isn’t posing for the camera finds time to work as an ambassador for Global Angels Children’s Charity.

But enough about Ms Cole and back to the clothes. While some might say with her gazelle-like limbs, perfect alabaster skin and pre-Raphaelite visage, Lily could look good in an eco-friendly paper bag – it really is hard to believe this range is from good old M&S.

The designs are more high fashion than high street. I have already made up my own wish- list of what I want, but have to say I am not holding out much hope of getting the gorgeous leather bomber jacket she wears on the billboard posters.

Should I miss out on that, there are certainly plenty of other covetable pieces in stores. Taking up the brights trend, there is colour-a-plenty as seen in the canary yellow pleat front dress, the pink all-in-one and the lilac tunic – which is fair trade, of course.

Then there is the pretty as a picture 20s floral dress and the pussy bow blouses. Personally, I am ready to put up a fight for one of the high-waisted skirts and the YSL-inspired tote. And other than the leather jacket it all comes in under £100.

Yes, Lily Cole may well be the making of M&S in 2008, but what else would you expect from the first girl to make red hair a model must-have.