The supermodel who bagged a new role

In fashion circles, ‘authenticity’ is the word of the moment – but it tends to function more as a marketing tool than as a concept of any great depth. Mega-brands know that pleading authenticity is a smart way of connecting with their customer. ‘Look! We hand-stitch things! We use artisans! We’re not a multimillion-pound luxury goods house churning out hundreds of thousands of products at all!’ Uh-huh.

US accessories brand Shinola has more claim to authenticity than most. Based in Detroit, it manufactures in the Midwest city and is staffed by Detroit locals. A relatively recent arrival to the label is Carolyn Murphy, the all-American supermodel with the glacial Grace Kelly looks, who has been women’s design director since 2013. Her relationship with the brand began after she was cast by photographer Bruce Weber in Shinola’s first advertising campaign; now she designs their bags, too.

You’d think Carolyn would already have been quite busy enough as Estée Lauder’s longest-serving face (14 years and counting), lingerie designer (CheekFrills), spokesperson (for Ugg’s Classic Luxe line) and mother to 15-year-old daughter Dylan Blue. But so impressed was she by Shinola, she longed to work for them. ‘I’d been in fashion for 22 years. I’d done a few collaborations before, but theirs was one of the first relationships that seemed authentic, in terms of what we believed in.’

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It takes grit to be in fashion for 22 years – a mix of stamina and beauty, two qualities Carolyn has in spades. Like Shinola, she feels authentic – far warmer and unguarded than her pristine blonde persona might suggest, the opposite of a token model spokesperson.

• Shinola has had to climb mountains – there have been naysayers, because they’re challenging a lot of American companies to rethink their business model. You have other American companies who don’t give a s—. It’s no surprise our economy took a crash in 2008. Importing so many things from overseas... why aren’t we creating jobs in America? Why aren’t we building things?

'This is important to me because I consider myself an American. Granted, my family came over from Europe – from Wales, in the 1800s – but since then, they’ve had a farm in Virginia. I come from a good old American family. Why did they come here? They came for a better life; to have their own life. That’s something that was ingrained in my DNA.’

While many of Shinola’s pieces are produced in the US, Carolyn admits that ‘we have to be careful, because realistically there are going to be times when not all the parts are made there. But the intention is that you’re providing jobs for people in our backyard. It’s assembled in Detroit, it’s handmade and there’s some meaning here.’

It can be hard to feel as though you are living a meaningful life when the tenets of your profession are so wildly superficial. And while she might not be the first 40-something model to have embraced clean eating and meditation, she is possibly the least annoying. Ask her to confirm that her own approach to ageing is well-balanced, and she exclaims: ‘No, it’s not! I find it so peeving when you see these models who are like, "Oh, my green juices and my workouts" and everything is so perfect.

'It’s not reality. If I were really to post pics or have a dialogue about the struggles with ageing, it would be, "Oh FFS, am I supposed to stop laughing all the time because the lines keep growing?" I like the road maps of my life; I like being able to move my face around. I’m not against [having] any help – there are ways to go about it, and it’s a personal choice. But I have the most minimalist approach to it. I don’t like killing myself at the gym or having a cabinet full of products.’

She agrees that acceptance of the ageing process is as tricky as it is important. ‘That’s the hardest part for most of us. It’s really difficult from my perspective. Say I’m in a fashion show and walking behind a 15-year-old from Denmark who has porcelain skin… it’s very humbling, but at same time, what are the assets of being older?

'I like the fact that I’m wiser, and have earned the lines I have. I spend time with Christy Turlington: she is unbelievable! She’s got great skin, she exercises, but she loves her coffee and she loves a glass of wine. It’s all about balance, and enjoying your life.’

It’s clear why Estée Lauder has held on to Carolyn. As well as being eloquent, she’s relatable – the most valuable commodity of all. ‘I still have "pinch-me" moments where I can’t believe I represent the brand. I grew up with it,’ she says.

• I don’t think some of the newcomers within the brand have that connection, so maybe that’s why I’m still there. We are all ageing together, and ageing is a wonderful thing, in some ways, and not so wonderful in others. I’ve had moments where I think to myself, "I’m almost 42 and still working." I don’t know what the formula is, other than to give 110 per cent to whatever I do.’

She says she was ‘really reticent’ about modelling. ‘I started later than most – at about 19 or 20 – and even then it was to earn money to go to college and be a writer. I loved creative writing. I hadn’t grown up thinking, "Oh, I want to be a supermodel, I want to be famous." That wasn’t my intention at all.’

Her laid-back attitude was typical of the decade in which she was discovered – a time before models were the ultimate ‘Brand Me’s. ‘That was the beauty of the early ’90s, and of grunge: the attraction of seeing these pics of Kate Moss and [Australian model] Emma Balfour that David Sims had shot. They were riveting but relatable. I could relate to thatgirl, that music, that art. It was a wonderful time. You’d be hanging out with Marc Jacobs until 2am, listening to the soundtrack he might play in the show the next day.

• It was almost like we were all artists – the joy of being in a studio and listening to Massive Attack and Portishead, and buying slip dresses from Portobello Market.

I’d pluck most of my eyebrows off, or experiment with hair colour, but that’s what we did – there wasn’t this uniform, bombshell Victoria’s Secret hair where we all looked the same. We were celebrated for our differences. We were unique individuals, whether it was the way we dressed, wore our hair, what we listened to, how we behaved – which was super-unpredictable – and we weren’t plugged in all the time. It wasn’t corporate. Now everything is very corporate, very well-planned and thought-out.’

This seems a good time to mention social media, which most models agree is A Good Thing because it gives them a voice. ‘I think it’s a disaster waiting to happen,’ she says flatly. ‘There is such an inauthentic element to it. Anybody, myself included, can curate what the world should be seeing.

'It saddens me, not only that we believe in it but that we also think that it’s important. To place importance on gathering numbers is ridiculous. I don’t want to post pictures of myself and there are two reasons for that: one, I consider myself a private person, and two, I think it’s silly. It comes across as supercilious, just constantly self-promoting. I’d rather share things that are of some importance to me, but even then there’s a voyeurism I find super-uncomfortable.

• I also find it takes away from connecting to people. A lot of the time, I’ll sit in a chair with a hair and make-up artist and they’ll say, "God, we’re so glad we have you," because they’re so used to having a model whose nose is stuck in her phone that she doesn’t know how to communicate.’ Does she think people have lost the art of conversation? ‘They have. It’s sad. Not me. Not Motormouth Murphy. I can talk forever!’

Ironically, our interview is taking place via the medium we’re flaming: the screen. Clearly, it’s useful when you’ve had to cancel your trip to London, allowing you to conduct an interview via Skype and then, when Skype doesn’t work, via FaceTime. Why the change of plan? ‘I ended up having to work here [in New York] but also

I was battling a parasite.’

It’s no mean feat to appear relatable even when you live the sort of life that lets you cancel work plans because you are battling a parasite, but that’s her – as authentic as any multi-millionairess model can be, with the parasite to prove it.

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