My life, my style: Leah Chapman

Leah Chapman opens the door to her teal-painted home in a quiet Notting Hill mews, ushers me out of the rain and welcomes me into her warm, open kitchen and living-room. Her easy elegance is the first thing I notice – dressed in a navy T-shirt, loosely tailored trousers and bright green and blue Adidas trainers, she has curated her outfit much like her furnishings, where chic neutrals are lifted by the occasional pop of colour. “In a smaller space, I like there not to be too much clutter, and I feel the same way about dressing,” says the 27-year-old founder of the clothing brand Issue Twelve, which launched last April with an edit of well-cut essentials.

Chapman’s corgi Patti (named after Smith) lingers loyally by her feet as she shows me around the house, which is replete with texture: mid-century furniture bought at Alfies Antiques Market, colourful Murano glassware picked up on trips to Venice and a kitchen table crafted from reclaimed wood by Piet Hein Eek. The walls are adorned with artworks by Barbara Kruger, a blown-up Louise Lawler photograph and a monochrome print by John Baldessari, each beautiful in its simplicity, but revealing more the longer you look. While these are part of Chapman’s permanent collection, many of the other canvases are on loan from her boyfriend Milo Astaire’s Soho gallery, the Artist Room, so they are in constant rotation. “He has some younger artists mixed in with more established names, which makes it a really interesting view,” she says.

Leah Chapman, wearing trainers, £75, Adidas. Necklaces, from a selection, Maria Black. Bracelets and rings, Leah’s own. All clothing throughout, from a selection, Issue Twelve

On the living-room credenza is a record player, upon which sits a red and black Yayoi Kusama pumpkin; and all around are stacks of books, among them Tracey Emin’s My Photo Album, Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto and Get Back, which documents the Beatles’ recording sessions. So far, so demure – but closer inspection reveals a penchant for the provocative: the kitchen shelves display delicate ceramic mugs, bawdily painted with erotic scenes; and Daido Moriyama’s racy black and white photographs of thighs clad in fishnet tights line the stairwell. “I had one as my phone-screen background for years, and then I found these at the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York,” she says.

Although Chapman typically wears her own designs, she also owns pieces by Celine, The Row and Maison Margiela, which she accessorises with gold rings, bracelets and necklaces. “I never take any of my jewellery off – some of these have been on me since I was 16,” she says. The daughter of the Matchesfashion founders Ruth and Tom Chapman, she says style was a key tenet of her upbringing. “It was often the focus of our dinnertime discussions, even though I’m sure my parents tried to avoid that,” she adds.

While her older brother Luke has a career in finance and her younger sister Esme is a painter, Leah was always drawn to the sartorial, and acquired invaluable expertise working shifts at her parents’ store in Wimbledon during her formative years. “I was supposed to be on the shop floor, but I thought, ‘Who wants to buy a £2,000 coat from a 15-year-old?’,” she says, laughing. “So, I ended up staying in the back-room organising the stock, and that’s really where I started to develop a sense of how important the feel of fabric was.”

Leah Chapman with Patti, wearing earrings, from a selection, Maria Tash. Bracelets, Leah’s own

Patti in the bedroom

Initially, Chapman resisted her love of clothing, determined not to follow the obvious route of joining her parents’ business. “I wanted to forge my own path and feel like I was doing something different,” she says. “When I was 18, I fell in love with the work of an artist called Saul Bass, who made opening-title sequences to films, and decided that I wanted to be a graphic designer.” Eager for a change of scene, she searched for universities on the West Coast of America and enrolled at the California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita. There, she spent her days creating magazines whose monthly publication ultimately inspired the name of her brand, Issue Twelve. “Nearing the end of the course, I started to come to terms with the fact that, deep down, I knew I wanted to be doing fashion,” she reflects. “My way of dressing had always been very much to throw something on, and the ease of life in LA added to that. I wanted to make tailored pieces that also felt relaxed.”

From this vision sprang a capsule collection of button-down shirts in crisp cotton and sumptuous silk, fine wool jumpers, flawlessly fitted trousers in denim and corduroy, and cashmere overcoats – all intended to be worn together. “You can go to the office in them, you can wear them to dinner, but you don’t feel stiff,” she explains. She staged the brand’s first pop-up in Marylebone at the end of last year, where, in contrast with her days spent hiding away in her parents’ store, she relished being front and centre, “speaking to the customers, telling them the story of each piece”.

A transparent manufacturing journey goes hand in hand with Chapman’s unyielding stance on quality. All of her garments use luxurious, natural fibres; buttons are made from nuts that have fallen from trees, and the brand only works with sustainably minded mills. “If you start a business now, you have to think: ‘How can I make this responsible to the planet?’” she says. “That felt like my duty.” And with plans underway to find a permanent space to showcase her range, we can rest assured that the future of fashion is in safe hands.

Chapman, wearing earrings, Completedworks. Rings, Leah’s own

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