Style icon: Felicity Green

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As part of the day job, we met Felicity Green, the inspiring fashion editor who gave Biba her first break and was influential in exploding 60s fashion onto the world via The Mirror Group, where for twenty one years she was first associate editor of the Sunday Mirror and then associate editor of the Daily Mirror ( when it’s circulation was 5 million copies a day). She was also the first female director on the main board of a national newspaper.

As an icon for women (and now older women) she is outstanding, firstly as a successful working female in a testosterone drenched daily news room in the 60s and 70s but also by refusing to disappear, as older women are generally apt to do (just as well she didn’t pick the BBC to work for).

She is held in high esteem by newspaper editors such as Eve Pollard, who claim she was a brilliant mentor. Since she has no desire to quit working in fashion journalism she suggested to Central Saint Martins that she would like to continue this mentoring idea with students. Wisely, Central Saint Martins leapt at the chance and the Felicity Green Mentoring Programme starts in January 2010. The course is for post grad MA fashion journalism students, who will be able to book time with her so she can pass on some of her wisdom.

Isn’t this a great idea? We’re pretty experienced writers but we would still love Felicity to come mentor us. Might this be a commercial opportunity for older, wiser working women to pass on their talent to the next generation? Perhaps we’ll start The Women’s Room mentoring programme.

Felicity had a few wise words to say on fashion too. “I followed fashion all my professional life obviously, but on a personal level I’ve followed it at a respectful distance. My style has always been classic, but I would always try to do something with the fabrics or colours to make sure it wasn’t boring. Just because the shape is classic doesn’t mean the fabric or colour has to be. I also always use accessories to change and update outfits”.

Today she is wearing a Barbara Hulanicki for Topshop scarf in vanilla chiffon over her neat black fitted sweater and (super trendy) chinos. She has acrylic earrings made by her friend Lesley Strickland (she owns 33 pairs). “As you get older it’s important to be stylish rather than fashionable, fashions date, but style does not”. Words from the wise

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One of Felicity's Mirror spreads, with Mary Quant

1 Comment

  • Gordana Dainow says:

    Inspiring article indeed! I like the idea of Women's Room mentoring programme very much. Just look what Louise Bourgeois did until her death in her, I think, nineties.

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