Critic's Choice

Financial Times fashion editor Jo Ellison talks labels she loves, what not to wear during fashion week and her reluctant side-hustle.

- Divya Bala

"I was doing my preview interview backstage and they just asked me to do it — I thought they were taking the piss,” Jo Ellison recalls with a laugh, warming up a perfectly clipped British accent. “They” is Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, and “it” is walking in their A/W 2017 catwalk show. “I was like, ‘Ah, no,’ and they just didn’t take me seriously. Before I knew what I was doing, I was sitting in a makeup chair.”

Understandably reluctant — Ellison normally spends her time at the shows reporting from the side of the runway, as opposed to on it — the Financial Times fashion editor was chosen as part of a line-up that included English aristocrats and celebrity progeny considered ‘friends’ of the brand. Don’t be fooled, however; these friends are of the genetically blessed kind — Ellison herself has the sharp cheekbones and waif like silhouette of her professional catwalk counterparts. “Domenico rang up a shirt and some trousers and dressed me behind one of the mood boards where the models were queuing up,” she recounts. “The whole thing, from them talking to me to getting on the catwalk, was probably 20 minutes. It was the maddest thing in the world!”