Nineties fashion star Kristen McMenamy has always challenged traditional beauty standards, appearing as a good witch, an ethereal divine goddess or the consummate, goth fashion vampire to her adoring fans.

In 1993 Kristen McMenamy told Harper’s Bazaar "All I ever wanted was for people to not pick on me."

Thirty years later, the similar refrain of young fashion models on Instagram is rebroadcast in Gavanndra Hodge’s new interview with the 58-year-old, Pennsylvania-original in today’s October 15, 2023 Sunday Times Style [IG].

McMenamy is styled by Verity Parker in ‘American Gothic’ elegance from Alberta Ferretti, Bottega Veneta, Dolce & Gabbana, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, Maison Margiela, Nensi Dojaka. Photographers Melanie + Ramon [IG] are in the studio. / Hair by Olivier Schwalder; makeup by Georgina Graham

In 2015, Kristen McMenamy was interviewed by Nick Knight of SHOWstudio about the 1993 ‘Diaghilev’ Harper’s Bazaar shoot with Peter Lindbergh that really put her on the map. The consistency between her reflections with Knight in 2015 and today with Hodge is very solid.

Kristen McMenamy explains today to readers of Sunday Times Style:

“I was a dork, 5 foot 10 and bony. I hated what I looked like. If I could have looked like one of those girls, a popular cheerleader, I would have robbed banks to get that.” Instead she attempted to transform herself with make-up, layering thick tan foundation onto her pale face. “Somebody took a picture of me with all this make-up on and I looked kind of good. That must have been the start of it. I longed to be Janice Dickinson, Christie Brinkley, Gia Carangi. I had that one goal, not to make money, I just wanted to be them.”

There’s a most interesting discussion on weight and model sizes in the Nick Knight video sitdown. That topic is not touched today with Sunday Times Style.

McMenamy is candid about her having a drinking relapse with her second husband, British art dealer Ivor Braka.

The couple lived in Braka’s grand, art and antique-filled Chelsea home, with weekends in Norfolk, where he owns a pub near Cromer, the Gunton Arms. For most of their relationship McMenamy was not drinking, but it was alcohol, she says, that was the cause of the demise of her marriage.

Alcohol and not working is the full answer surrounding her second divorce, according to McMenamy. She didn’t work much, when married to Miles Aldridge either. Kristen McMenamy wants an expression of her own talents and creativity in a marriage.

“I was sober but I slipped when I met Ivor, after Miles, and then I stopped, went to rehab. But Ivor gave so many parties, he had pubs. I was surrounded by alcohol and people drinking constantly, and I would sit at dinners and think, ‘I am wasting my life.’ Then I slipped again. I don’t function well drinking, I made mistakes.”

In an interesting twist on the popular conversation, McMenamy credits Instagram with being a positive support system in helping her understand that her differences should be celebrated and not “overcome”. These thoughts are a wonderful way to close out her interview.

“Life is so f***ing cool. It’s, like, crumble and rebuild,” she says. And she is finally understanding that it is her difference that makes her special, that it is something to be celebrated, not overcome. “I only really realised that when I started doing my Instagram. I read the comments, the positivity. I know I have this creative side, it’s like I can play with the way I look.” For the first time she is the creator, not the muse. And her feed is genuinely fabulous, her shots playful and striking, utilising her vast wardrobe, which takes up a whole room in her house, a testimony to a life in fashion. “My closet, it’s like my art,” she says. “I love it, it makes me feel so good.”