Nymphaea
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The Edit by Net-A-Porter
May 28, 2015
Classic Beauty
Model Carolyn Murphy
Photographer Emma Tempest
Styling Morgan Pilcher
May 28, 2015
Classic Beauty
Model Carolyn Murphy
Photographer Emma Tempest
Styling Morgan Pilcher
net-a-porterMuch like the timeless denim pieces she wears on these pages, model CAROLYN MURPHY’s effortless appeal is enduring. She tells EVE CLAXTON why she feels happier than ever.
Carolyn Murphy is sitting on the edge of a deep couch in the lobby of Manhattan’s Bowery Hotel, and she is talking. Not just talking; enthusing, animatedly, about her life right now. About being a 40-year-old mother with a teenage daughter, about her upcoming 15th anniversary as the face of Estée Lauder, and about her new job as Women’s Design Director for Shinola, the Detroit brand making heirloom-quality watches, bicycles and leather goods.
“I feel like, honestly, at 40, I’m only just getting comfortable with speaking like this,” says Murphy, her famous features unmade up, her hair in a knot. “I’ve always had ideas brewing, things that I wanted to do, but I was a bit shy about them. I felt I had to keep some things sacred from the world.”
It’s true: of the early ’90s generation of models, Murphy was the most reserved. She has never been scandalized in the tabloids or dated a movie star, so this newfound volubility constitutes something of an event. “It’s about finally finding a voice,” she says. “Feeling comfortable with who I am and how far I’ve come, and knowing I can have that expression and feel confident in it.”
Last month, Murphy visited the White House, meeting with the President to talk about Shinola’s work in Detroit, creating jobs in a city that filed for bankruptcy in 2013. In the next few months, she will begin promoting her line of underwear for London brand Cheek Frills, a collaboration that arose from her friendship with the company’s founder, Katie Canvin.
“What has been wonderful is that it has all happened organically,” says Murphy of her new ventures. “Models are often told we should be [promoting] this or that; it’s much more authentic when it has meaning to you.”
Despite her unmistakable beauty, Murphy was, in many ways, always an unlikely candidate for modeling. Bookish and shy as a child, she was raised between the beaches of Florida’s Gulf Coast and her family farm in Virginia. She describes her upbringing as “wholesome, barefoot, climbing trees, talking to animals, gardening”. Although she was scouted as a model when she was 16, her strict parents insisted she finish high school and attend college for at least a year before working. “Initially, I was reluctant,” she says of the start of her career. “I was such a Southern country bumpkin; so insecure and shy. The fashion lifestyle scared me a bit.”
But by age 19, Murphy found herself caught up in a giddy, hedonistic era. “Back then, it was late nights drinking and partying with Kate [Moss], Amber [Valletta] and Shalom [Harlow], but having to show up the next day and hopefully [still] have a career,” she laughs. “It was super-fun but we were really naughty… The girls today are so professional!”
Since then, she has worked solidly and extensively, regularly appearing on Forbes’ Highest Paid Models list as a result of her campaign work. But in 2013 came the job that would change Murphy's focus, when photographer Bruce Weber handpicked her for Shinola’s first advertising campaign. “It was clear something more visceral was going on,” Murphy remembers of the day’s shoot. “Bruce pulled me aside and said, ‘I really think you should do something with this company.’” Her friend, Ashley Olsen, who is also on the board, provided the extra nudge. And as it turned out, Shinola’s values meshed perfectly with Murphy’s, a lover of hand-crafted US-made products.
“The next thing I knew, they were asking me if I wanted a job, and I said yes, please!” she grins. “Creatively, it’s so much fun. We’re constantly bantering ideas. It really makes me happy and gives me a sense of purpose to help create jobs in our country. I just really want to be a part of this collective shift that’s happening.”
Then there is her collaboration with Cheek Frills, which came about after she mentioned to the brand’s founder that she was struggling to find training bras for her then 13-year-old daughter, Dylan. “Katie sent over these beautiful bras for Dylan, which were so perfect that I said, ‘Can we make them for grown ups?’”
As a model and a mother with a teenage daughter, Murphy is particularly conscious of how women are portrayed in the media. “Dylan’s aware that a photo of me in a magazine and me as ‘mom’ are two very different entities,” she says. “I’ll say to her, look at me now: I’ve got bags under my eyes and a zit, and you know [what] my body [looks like]. Now look at this photo of me: they’re not the same.”
She is equally upfront about her struggles with the current era of social-media overload. “It’s not even voyeurism anymore,” she says emphatically. “It’s beyond that. The girls are told that they have to have a certain amount of followers, [so they] exploit themselves as a result. I had to stop following some of them; I just can’t see their rear end any more or airbrushed selfies with the pout. I just can’t.”
She does post to Instagram, she admits, but judiciously. “I feel like once you’re 40, you have seniority rules,” she laughs. “You’re gonna get what you get! And I like to err on the side of mystery. There’s something to be said for that.”
Although she has always been itinerant – in the past six years, Murphy has moved from LA to a farm in Ojai, then to a cottage in the Hamptons – she is currently based in the Chelsea area of Manhattan with Dylan, now 14, and her two dogs. She has come to appreciate the pros and cons of city life. “I can drop Dylan at school, go to a shoot, go home, then go out for dinner, all within a few blocks,” she says. “I could never do that in LA.”
Nevertheless, Murphy finds herself hankering for the country idyll of her childhood. “I like solitude. I can be in the city, but after two weeks, I’m ready to escape again,” she says. She’s looking for a new rural base, possibly upstate, “because you can get so much more land. I’m bringing my horse, Doc, here from California, which is wonderful.”
Her outdoorsy, ‘back to basics’ attitude extends to health and nutrition – she only buys organic food, and even gave birth to her daughter in her living room. But she is wary of being perceived as preachy. “I don’t like to stand on a soap box about anything,” she says. “People say, I never knew you had a home birth! And I say, well, why would you know that? I’m not one of those models who thinks I’m the first person to do.
When it comes to style, she maintains a minimalist approach. “I’m not a huge shopper,” she admits. “I know it goes against the grain of what I do!” Instead, she falls back on old favorites like the white Isabel Marant cotton dress she’s wearing today. “I was just in Costa Rica, and if you look at my Instagram feed, it’s like I’m an Isabel advertisement! Everything she does is so cool and easy.”
She loves to write and paint, and thinks about going back to college, possibly for a Masters in non-fiction writing or journalism. “I have to have that outlet,” she says. “If I’m sitting in a little boat fishing, I might have a moment that’s just so overwhelmingly beautiful and meaningful that it’s nice to hang onto it by translating it through writing or painting.”
So when she thinks of the future, where does she see herself? “In nature – smiling in a garden patch with my daughter barefoot,” she replies. “I don’t stress about the future, I look forward to it.”
