Photography Alec Maxwell
Styling Justine Mills
Inside Kristen McMenamy’s enchanting London home
KRISTEN WEARS SILK DRESSING GOWN R13, SKIRT REFORMATION, T-SHIRT HEAVEN BY MARC JACOBS, SOCKS WICKED SISTA.
When she isn’t shooting campaigns or covers, Kristen McMenamy retreats to her Highgate home, a maximalist sanctuary overlooking ancient woodland. Full of auction finds, beloved pets and Catholic iconography, we take a peep into a world entirely her own.
A light-filled Arts and Crafts villa, built in 1908, the model Kristen McMenamy’s Highgate home overlooks a parcel of ancient forest, a leftover from a different England, from which the noise of owls hooting carries into her bedroom at night. This witchy detail is apt for McMenamy, who, with her paper-pale limbs, bare eyebrows, long white hair and striking, blue-eyed beauty, resembles a Pre-Raphaelite sorceress. To be in the presence of her extraordinary appearance, her knuckles stacked with glittering rings, her eyes wide and staring, the thin silver loop decorating her right nostril, is to be reminded of Elizabeth Bowen’s description of the poet, Edith Sitwell, as ‘a high altar on the move’. No wonder fashion designers and photographers, from Valentino to Versace, Richard Avedon to Tim Walker, have been inspired by McMenamy’s otherworldly effect over the course of her decades-long modelling career.
Her home of three years makes a similar impact. At the door, I’m met by Warren Ellis, Kristen’s musician boyfriend and a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. A gentle, softly-spoken rocker with a wizard beard and a sequined baseball cap, Warren introduces me to a pair of white, wolf-like dogs, one of whom, a puppy, was purchased after McMenamy’s beloved German Shepherd, Lenny, died. “Lenny was a king,” he says, showing me inside the house she shares with Ellis and her 19-year-old son, Edward.
KRISTEN WEARS JACKET AND SKIRT GUCCI. T-SHIRT, MIU MIU. ALL JEWELRY, WORN THROUGHOUT, KRISTEN’S OWN.
The entrance hall sets the tone for the home’s aesthetic of cheerful abundance and more-is-more maximalism. There’s blousy floral wallpaper, a piano, house plants, antique armchairs, dressers, a painted Chinese chest, a pair of marble sphinxes, a statue of Christopher Columbus, a framed embroidery of St Theresa and — because why not? — a model of a stegosaurus, with an auction serial number still stuck to its glass box.
click play to join Kristen in her kitchen
I can’t tell you exactly where anything is because it all falls into chaotic place… I’ve got two dogs and four cats. It’s a mess, but I guess it’s my mess!
Kristen McMenamy
Click play to join Kristen in her dressing room
Kristen is upstairs, being photographed on her brass bed, dressed in a slip and cat socks. At 60 years old and a mother of four, but looking many years younger, the impression of McMenamy’s gaze, her air of wonder, her rangy, slightly goofy physicality — all knees and elbows — conjures a child-like quality. One wall of the room is wrapped in Gucci’s crane-print wallpaper. “I love wallpaper,” she says in her slightly rasping voice, her American accent unchanged by years of living in London.“People say you get sick of it but it’s like a piece of art to me.” She looks around, assessing her room. There are balled-up socks on the floor, crewelwork samplers waiting to be hung, a pair of pink cork wedges balanced on a stool. Several chests of drawers spill clothing. “I can’t tell you exactly why anything is anywhere because it just falls into chaotic place, you know?” she says. “I have a musician boyfriend and all his equipment is everywhere. I’ve got two dogs and four cats. It’s a mess but I guess it’s my mess.”
Yet there’s clearly a guiding instinct here, in bringing, by accident perhaps as much as intent, seemingly opposite components into relation in interesting or amusing ways. The cat litter box plonked next to an 18th-century chest of drawers. A fancy Murano chandelier offset by a pink flamingo watering can. The sheer everything of everything is made cohesive by dominant tones — blues, pinks and greens — and repetition: nude busts, figurines, overlapping rugs, Catholic art. “They’re cheap because nobody wants them,” she says of the latter, while eating Ryvita crackers and a Babybel during a break from shooting. “I was raised Roman Catholic. I’m not Catholic now but I love the look.”
KRISTEN WEARS TOP AND SHOES, BOTH VALENTINO. SKIRT AND SOCKS, BOTH GUCCI.
It’s all done by intuition. My problem is I love beautiful things and beautiful things are expensive, so I buy lots from eBay and auctions, and some things arrive really small and others really big. But it all works.
Kristen McMenamy
KRISTEN WEARS TRACK JACKET, SHOES AND SUNGLASSES (HELD) GUCCI. PANTS, VINTAGE.
Each arrangement is governed by McMenamy’s eye for detail and interest. “I’m pleased how it all came together,” she says. “It’s all by intuition. My problem is I love beautiful things and beautiful things are expensive,’ she says. “So I buy lots from eBay and auctions.” Nothing is planned. “I never measured a thing before I bought it,” she says as if horrified by the mere suggestion. “I just liked the way it looked. Some things arrived really small; others were big.” She picks up a palm-sized model of a reclining nude. “This was supposed to be huge!” She shrugs. “But it all works.”
Click play to join Kristen in her bathroom
Read the full story in Issue 2 of 72 magazine
KRISTEN WEARS DRESS (CUSTOMIZED WITH BOW), ASHISH. SHOES, SIMONE ROCHA X CROCS. SUNGLASSES, GUCCI
PHOTOGRAPHY ALEC MAXWELL
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PRODUCTION TOM HARDERN
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