STYLE NOTES ON: JO ELLISON

how one podcast interview cured me from the shame of enjoying fashion

If I had a content strategy for this newsletter, today’s Style Notes would be about someone whose personal style makes for great summer style inspo. But I don’t.

Plus, my main intention with this section of my newsletter is to find true roots and concepts of personal style which apply beyond seasons. It’s about the foundations, the key rules and the throughlines of the personal style of people I admire.

So while I was still trying to cure my writer’s block (which I didn’t know truly existed until I suffered from one myself), this podcast episode appeared on my Spotify home feed (praise the algorithm!) and made my commute last week. I have listened to this three times since then and I am going to listen to it again and again and take actual notes.

Jo Ellison was on my list of women I wanted to feature on Style Notes for the longest time but I never sat down and dissected her style fully. Until now.

Jo Ellison, editor of How To Spend It, a weekly magazine of the Financial times, was raised in London and Dubai and has a degree in history. She became a features editor at British Vogue in 2008, and became editor of How To Spend It in 2019 after joining the magazine in August 2014, if Wikipedia is correct.

She’s one of the most photographed people each fashion week and has a sense of style that feels both natural and refined. Here’s what I think makes her personal style so excellent:

1. STYLE FUNCTIONALITY

One of the first observations about Jo’s style is that her looks always seem realistic and intentional - even at events like fashion week. She seems to live in her clothes, and there’s never anything inconveniently forced about it. For instance, she carries the essentials she needs throughout fashion week as part of the outfit - parcels, hats to fight the cold, additional jackets. Her looks seem well thought out with regard to practical aspects and in line with her agenda. I think this is one of the main reasons her style always feels so undoubtedly authentic.

Left: Is it a styling element or is her blazer tied around her waist for practical reasons? Right: Jo’s bag holds everything she needs as an addition to this layered look.

Left: Can you spot the hat in her pocket? The rest of the look is simple but full of texture (coat) and structure (leather pants). Right: She looks like she’s going on a casual walk but it’s fashion walk. The parcel is sitting in her bag when other people might have stored it somewhere so the aesthetic of the outfit wouldn’t get ‘ruined’.

In this interview for the Studio Nicolson blog, she explains how her clothes have to serve multiple purposes within a day: ‘So a typical working day starts at 8am at the gym, then over to the FT offices to work through the day (with numerous meetings) and then it ends with a formal dinner. I'm always lugging a ‘ludicrously capacious’ bag around that's overflowing with shower kit, extra shoes and various other bits – as well as a laptop, so wearing clothes that are easily portable and not too complicated have become my go-to.’

2. STYLE PERSEVERANCE IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY

As every person with great style, Jo seems to live by certain guidelines about her wardrobe which make sense to her. In her podcast interview with ‘An Excellent Fit’, she talks about how Emanuelle Alt once told her that she no longer wears skirts, and Jo found the idea of being able to eliminate something from one’s wardrobe very fascinating. Besides that, there are some other noticable ground rules when it comes to Jo’s personal style:

• She has a signature style. Jo’s hair is always styled in the same way. She wears jeans and knit sweaters on repeat. Her key pieces are a blazer and an ugly shoe. She is constantly repeating patterns and never seems to worry about anything being too ‘simple’.

  

• She is unapologetic about the way she dresses, spends her money (on clothes) or who she is. I love how openly Jo talks about fashion, spending money and that she doesn’t deny who she is. She definitely is a fashion person but more than that, I think, she’s a person who loves clothes, and the act of getting dressed - which are totally different things.

• She is not afraid to be overdressed - reversely, she loves playing with the labels of ‘overdressed’ and ‘underdressed’. As Jo gives away on the latest podcast episode of ‘An Excellent Fit’, she loves to play with the contrasts of being overdressed and underdressed in the exact opposite occasion. While she wore a Dior dress to a Scottish pub on her last family trip, she dressed in jeans and a grey v-neck sweater at the HTSI christmas party.

both pictures from Jo Ellison’s Instagram

3. A SHAMELESS JOY OF FASHION VS. BEING OBSESSED

One of my favorite lines from this interview is when Jo notes that there is ‘a weird shame around enjoying fashion’ which is something I have recently noticed on myself. The busier my work schedule and the life around me has gotten, the less I gave myself permission to enjoy getting dressed and enjoy shopping because it felt unnecessary in comparison to the ‘very important’ tasks on the list. Which is funny because clothes would inherently help me to get through my busier days.

screenshots from ‘An Excellent fit’.

Jo also ‘confesses’ that she spends a lot of time thinking about what to wear. For the longest time, I thought it was weird to spend a great amount of your time and effort on clothes (and admit it!) but I love it when people - especially those with a seemingly effortless cool style - reveal that they are kind if obsessed with getting dressed.

I also loved the way she explained that she would never wear a full look from a fashion show and that she’s always been way more interest in studying costume designs in movies and a way of character dressing.

4. ADDING SOMETHING UNEXPECTED

I’ve talked about contrast and unexpected additions to outfits in previous Style Notes so I’ll keep it short here but excellent personal style needs tension, contrast and irony:

• Ugly shoes! From fisherman sandals to snakeskin pattern, to Teva sandals, Jo loves an ugly shoe to add irony to an outfit.

• Statement jewelry! Jo’s style is very tomboy in parts, so it makes sense to break up the masculine looks with feminine earrings or bracelets.

• A color or material you wouldn’t expect in the look: There are hints of red, leather mixed with jeans, or corduroy paired with soft knit wear.

Adding statement jewelry (left), shoes with pattern (center) or pairing leather and denim in dark colors and a camel tone (right).

A suit and masculine sandals (left) and cargo pants and ballet flats (right) make for great friction.

WHAT AM I TAKING AWAY FOR MY OWN PERSONAL STYLE?

• Stop feeling shame for loving and enjoying fashion and clothes. There are worse things to be interested in. Also, life is short and clothes are the best way to express yourself.

• Movies over Pinterest inspo! I spoke about this in my summer style upgrade here - I am also often turning towards movies and character dressing for summer. Style mantras do help, too.

• It’s okay to be obsessed with thinking about what to wear.