Daphne Selfe talks to Lucia van der Post

Britain’s oldest supermodel Daphne Selfe talks to journalist Lucia van der Post about her extraordinary life from being a young model in post-war Britain to still being in demand today in her late eighties.

Selfe’s memoir, The Way We Wore, is the story of a lifelong affair with clothes and fashion that stretches from the party frocks of her 1930s childhood to the pages of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair. She has been photographed by Mario Testino, Nick Knight and David Bailey and has modelled for high fashion and for the high street. What is so remarkable is that she is still in high demand today. Her recent fashion campaigns have included ones for footwear maker Vans and the store & Other Stories and for the Trafford Centre in Manchester.

Selfe grew up in the Home Counties before being sent to boarding school during the Second World War. She won a local magazine cover girl competition at the age of 21 before training to be a model at the Gaby Young Agency in London.

Van der Post is associate editor and founding editor of the FT’s luxury lifestyle How to Spend It glossy magazine.

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