Londoner's Diary: Shulman wants academics to strut their stuff

In Today's Diary: Alexandra Shulman on jobs for the girls  / Damian Green's Oxford past / John Humphry's microphone blunder and Sarah Montague's on the move
Here come the girls: Alexandra Shulman (Photo Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Dave Benett/Getty Images for Est
1 November 2017

TIME for a trowel or a mortar board on the catwalk? Maybe — if Alexandra Shulman has her way. Shulman, unleashed from the restraints of editing Vogue after 25 years, has said she would like to see “women academics, biologists and gardeners” show off the latest fashions.

Shulman was speaking at a Rakuten Fits Me event last night. “At Vogue we were restricted in who we could shoot by whether they could actually fit into the clothes,” she said at the talk in Tate Modern’s Blavatnik building, calling for the fashion industry to stop offering clothes samples in one size.

Shulman, pictured, said: “It would be so great if we were able to see women academics, biologists, gardeners, kitted out in the latest trends.” She also suggested they could wear their own clothes: “A trenchcoat is very useful — it can hide a multitude of bumps.”

Shulman has first-hand experience of the issue. Last year she put model Ashley Graham on the cover, and used her editor’s letter to criticise the brands who refused to send outfits to fit her.

And now the problem follows her to the high street: she said a recent visit to H&M left her disappointed when its size guide classified a small as 10-12. “I thought it would be probably the first time in my life that I fitted into a small,” she said. But it wasn’t to be.

She left with a Halloween costume instead, but unless trick-or-treaters to her house last night were ardent fashionistas, Shulman’s “very large orange jumper” is unlikely to have given anyone a fright.

---

Quick thinking from staff at Newsnight. Yesterday the programme’s editor, Ian Katz, sent an email to say that he is leaving the show, and indeed the BBC, to replace Jay Hunt as Channel 4’s director of programmes. Last night’s episode was tweaked accordingly: when Katz’s name appeared in the closing credits, a giant crook appeared and pulled it away aggressively. No hard feelings, surely.

Sex drives and high jinks rule at Oxford

COULD the clue to overfriendly Tory MPs lie in the past? As the sleaze spreadsheet does the rounds, The Londoner consulted the archives — in particular, Cherwell, Oxford University’s student newspaper, in the mid-Seventies when Damian Green was studying PPE at Balliol — on one occasion he was thrown off Magdalen Bridge as part of university high jinks.

A contemporary, Alicia Collinson, is quoted talking about Green. “He’s got a very strong sex drive,” she said at the time. “He’s just not all that discriminating.”

Green, who denies any wrongdoing, is now First Secretary of State and Collinson is his wife.

Quote of the day

(Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images) 
Getty Images

"My past meets my present" Madonna pays tribute to the late Jean-Michel Basquiat, as she takes her children to see his exhibition at the Barbican yesterday. The pair dated in the Eighties.

Ghouls make it a fright night to remember

The Londoner chose treat over trick last night as the city got into the Halloween spirit. In Mayfair, Fran Cutler hosted a scary bash at Tramp, while in Shoreditch guests sipped cocktails from blood bags and queued for free tattoos at the launch of Browns East. But presenter Maya Jama was the queen of the night, and the Nile, dressing as Cleopatra to welcome friends to Albert’s in South Kensington. Her boyfriend, Stormzy, was a werewolf, model Munroe Bergdorf was a witch and presenter AJ Odudu dressed as Edward Scissorhands. Must have been a nightmare to go to the toilet.

---

REGARDING propositions that come back to haunt you, there’s always Moira Stuart. Back in the Nineties, at the end of the Six O’Clock News one evening, John Humphrys, then a presenter on the show, said to his colleague Moira: “You’re the most sensationally sexy lady I know. The best thing we can do for the next few hours is make mad passionate love in the basement.” The subtitlers for the hard of hearing were still transcribing from their lips.

Tweet of the day

Travel journalist Byzantine Ambassador sees shades of the Russian revolution in recent allegations

Montague on the move

Moving up in the World: Sarah Montague (Photo BBC)
BBC News & Current Affairs via G

THE pay disparities on BBC’s Today programme are such that even Justin Webb reportedly raised an eyebrow at how little his fellow presenters get paid. While John Humphrys was earning a robust £600,000, his colleague Sarah Montague didn’t make the £150,000 threshold for her salary to be made public.

Speaking for the first time on the subject yesterday, Montague, pictured, said: “We sit in that studio and challenge people over being unfair, so the BBC, of all places, should be fair.”

Now it seems she is voting with her alarm clock. Montague is said to be jumping from Radio 4’s flagship programme to go to World at One. It’s a job swap with current presenter Martha Kearney, whose £200,000 pay packet is perhaps more in keeping with the Today programme.

The Londoner asked the BBC if Montague’s move will give it a chance to redress the pay balance — the corporation declined to comment.

---

Proposal of the day: Keir Starmer suggests a “humble address”, a request to the Queen to order David Davis to release studies on the Brexit impact. The “humble address” was all the rage in the 18th century. How old school.

A new cohort to keep Jools in tune

An all-star billing on Later with Jools Holland: Noel Gallagher and actress Rita Wilson appeared on the BBC show last night and posed for a selfie. Wilson, wife of actor Tom Hanks, took to the stage to perform the song she co-wrote with Holland called You’re So Cold. Who knew she could sing?

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in