This autumn, two bastions of British style are joining forces: Sienna Miller and M&S. Emma McCarthy talks tailoring, boho nostalgia, and crisps with the woman whose wardrobe we’ve all coveted
And just like that… we’re in the ‘Siennasance’ era. The godmother of boho chic and perpetual British style icon Sienna Miller has moved back to London after seven years in New York. When we meet over Zoom – right before the news broke she’s expecting her second child, and first with boyfriend Oli Green – she’s just picked up the keys for a new rental she’ll live in while looking for a permanent place to call home. She flips the camera to give me a virtual tour of the pile of packing boxes around her. She declares herself ‘a sweaty mess’, running late from a school uniform fitting for her 11-year-old daughter (naturally, she looks nothing of the sort, her hair perfectly undone, wearing vintage jeans and a brown blazer with a pair of crochet doily earrings bought on a recent holiday in Turkey).
As it transpires, the new school year was the main motivation for the move. “It was always the plan for Marlowe to take her 11 plus exams in London,” she tells me, revealing that the pair celebrated their first night back by sharing a Pizza Express delivery in bed, watching TV. “I think if I’d still loved New York as much as I used to, I would have stayed. But I just missed home.”
What did she miss most? “Crisps,” she declares, succinctly. “The irreverence. The sense of humour. Oh, and a good pub.” As British as it comes. Which is why her new role as an ambassador of high street institution M&S is a perfect fit.
Revealed exclusively in Grazia, the new season collection champions timeless, versatile wardrobe staples – all with Miller’s stamp of approval – from hyper-modern suiting to tactile knits and her favourite piece, a mono tweed blazer. But, like so many, Miller’s memories of M&S date back to before she discovered a love of tailoring.
“It’s where I went to for knickers and socks as a child, and where I bought my first bra,” she recalls. She also cites a fondness for Percy Pigs and a chocolate sausage dog named Walter – just like her own. ‘M&S has been around for over 100 years. It’s a part of our DNA.’
Though, given that Miller’s wardrobe is among the most copied on the planet, it’s remarkable she never truly resonated with the label ‘style icon’. “I resented it for a while because I thought it defined me,” she confesses. “When I was younger, it was quite overwhelming for me, because my clothes were imitated and yet I felt like I didn’t know who I was.”
Now she’s in her forties, she’s taking it in her stride. “I love getting older. The world has been very ageist towards women – especially in acting – but things have evolved. I think I’m 40 at a great time.”
Still, the nostalgia for her past style signatures now reclaimed as ‘vintage’ creates a bizarre time warp. “It’s funny to see all that Y2K stuff coming back. I went to Glastonbury for a day this year and everyone was wearing Moroccan belts and cowboy boots.” Would she ever wear any of it again? “If I put on a full early noughties look it would feel like a Halloween costume to me now.”
She explains that she’s ‘lost so much’ of what must be the boho archive of Gen Z dreams, including the original iconic coin belt – a side effect of the lifestyle and aesthetic she embodies. “Being a bohemian – an actual one, not just a pretend one –you just lose things,” she shrugs, absentmindedly braiding her hair. “I probably drunkenly lent it to people randomly at my house at two in the morning. Sometimes, I get sentimental about the fact that I can’t find a lot of those clothes I used to love so much, but then I think ‘it’s just stuff’ and can philosophise my way out of it.”
Miller is, though, ‘trying to be better’ at preserving a few special items to hand down to her daughter. Currently safely in storage is her 2015 Golden Globes Miu Miu gown and a nude feather-trimmed Gucci dress she wore to the Met Ball, as well as a stash of vintage Galliano and a white Dior dress, given to Miller by Marlowe’s dad Tom Sturridge for her 30th birthday Naturally, her 11-year-old has total disregard for her mother’s uber-trendsetter status. “She doesn’t get it at all,” Miller laughs. “She would love me to be the mom with the perfect New York blowout at the school pick-up.”
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