Renowned for her paired down love of classic tailoring and a masculine inspired aesthetic built around key, quality staples, Phelan is an inspiration to many stylists – and fashion readers – around the world. But what’s her approach to fashion, exactly?

“If you start with a very classic approach to your clothes, you can add anything flamboyant to that. If you start the other way ‘round, it’s much harder to tone it down afterwards.”

But at the end of the day, Phelan believes that fashion is always about those little things that you discover. Like when she tried Margaret Howell’s spectacular job of the blue scarf for the Barbara Hepworth exhibition. As she tried it on she thought “Oh, it feels really different, really grown up, to put a scarf on.” And it is those little moments one finds their true style that makes them different to another – when there’s a willingness to try new things.

Ever since she was a child, Phelan was captivated by British Vogue and moved to London in 1984 to study fashion communications at the prestigious school of Central St Martins. In her third year, Phelan managed to snag an internship at Vogue where she made the decision to continue on to become a Fashion Assistant before she joined Marie Claire for 3 years as Junior Fashion Editor. In 1993, she made the return to Vogue as she takes lead the creative helm of British high street behemoth Topshop in 2011! Phelan knew it was the time for her to make the leap – whilst she’s still young enough for the energy needed to bring new and incredible things.