Next Questions — Lili Sumner

NEW YORK — “I don’t really have any female style inspirations,” admits Lili Sumner in the latest installment of the weekly video interview series Next Questions. “I kind of prefer how men dress when they dress in a feminine way.” Glance over Lili’s modeling CV with her numerous runway appearances for Saint Laurent, many of which were exclusive, and no great leap of the imagination is required to work out her affection for period styles of the likes of David Bowie and Mick Jagger. Wearing a ruffled silk shirt in white paired with a plaid capri pant and finished off with a vintage leather belt, hat, and Chanel flap bag, Lili’s styling nous does not go unnoticed. On the contrary, the New-Zealand-by-way-of-London beauty’s inimitable style is something that is as carefully cultivated as it is so effortlessly executed. “Always vintage...always,” Lili says when asked to choose between it and something new. “Because new stuff, anyone can get it, but if it’s vintage, then it’s yours...usually.” What is exclusively Lili’s is her own way in high fashion, which has gone from strength to strength translating her successes on the runway to her presence on the page. Where Lili goes from here is anyone’s guess, so long as it is to even more dizzying heights. Credits include: Title, “Next Question — Lili Sumner”; Interview and video, Damien Neva; Model, Lili Sumner.