Hilary Alexander

Hilary Alexander OBE
Alexander in February 2008
Born	1946 (age 69–70) [1] New Zealand[2]
Occupation	Journalist

Hilary Alexander, OBE (born 1946) is a New Zealand-born British journalist and former fashion director of the Daily Telegraph.^[3][4] She was twice named Journalist of the Year (1997 and 2003) in the British Fashion Awards.^[5] She is editor-at-large for Hello Fashion Monthly and freelances as a stylist and broadcaster.

Alexander began her career as a journalist at the age of 16 as a trainee reporter for the Manawatu Evening Standard, before becoming a reporter for two national Broadsheets in New Zealand. She continued to work as a journalist in Australia for the Ballarat Courier and the Wollongong Mercury, before becoming the fashion editor of The China Mail and features editor of the Hong Kong Standard based in Hong Kong. She became the fashion editor of the Daily Telegraph in January 1985 before becoming fashion director in 2003.^[6]

In May 2001, she was awarded the title Visiting Professor by the University of the Arts London (the former London Institute) which is responsible for the fashion colleges, Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion and the Chelsea and Camberwell Art colleges. In November 2007, she was honoured with the title Doctor of Design by Nottingham Trent University.^[7]

She has extensive experience in television that includes three years on BBC 2’s Style Challenge, appearances on GMTV, Lorraine Kelly, BBC Breakfast and various documentaries for BBC One, BBC Two and Channel 4. She has also appeared in national channels in Germany, France, Spain, Russia and China; Weakest Link and Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two (BBC); and is often interviewed for some fashion cable channels including Fashion File, Fashion TV and Video Fashion as well as for some radio stations. She is the regular stylist and presenter for the Designer Catwalk shows at the annual Clotheshow Live in Birmingham. She was the featured stylist in the Living TV series Britain’s Next Top Model^[8] in 2005 and 2006 and also appears in the 2016 series.

In June 2011, the British Fashion Council and The Daily Telegraph hosted a party to celebrate Alexander's career in fashion. An amusing video titled Hilary Alexander Tribute^[9] was specially commissioned for the event, complete with quotes from colleagues and friends including Sir Philip Green, Claudia Schiffer, Suzy Menkes, Stephen Jones (milliner) and Harold Tillman who affectionately described her as a "larger-than-life character" and "workaholic".

Also in 2011 Diane von Fürstenberg, serving as president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, paid tribute to Alexander as an "incredible force" when she won the CFDA's special Eugenia Sheppard Media Award.^[10] Designer Michael Kors who presented the award called her "unsinkable".^[11]

In April 2013 Alexander marked the death of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher with an analysis for The Daily Telegraph of her status as "a global style icon", explaining how her image was "beyond the dictates of any designer, let alone the catwalk".^[12] It also detailed the origins of the verb to handbag^[13] somebody, a reference to Thatcher's accessory as a symbol of her style of government.

Alexander was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to fashion journalism.^[14] As of 2016, she has 299,000 followers on Twitter.^[15]

References