One sharp object

Based in Shropshire and moving between her country home, London and Paris, Lady Amanda Harlech, muse, friend and co-conspirator to fashion's reigning don, Karl Lagerfeld, leads a charmed life. The creative consultant and writer has been privy to the inner sanctum of some of fashion's biggest stars, including John Galliano during his years as an independent couturier. Her title comes from a marriage to Francis Ormsby-Gore, 6th Baron Harlech, from whom she is now divorced.

In person though, despite her large couture-filled wardrobe, Harlech is more down to earth than you'd imagine. "It's not about being pinioned into something that you can't breathe in - like a passive muse on a pedestal," she says in a husky, plummy English accent. "Just being the object and not the subject - I'm really against that."

Catching her on a crisp morning in Tokyo, her eyes are gleaming and her banter witty. She exudes a cool confidence and it's easy to see why she might inspire the likes of Lagerfeld and Galliano. She read English at Oxford University, specialized in the work of Henry James and literature informs her fashion outlook.

"I've always approached things in a narrative way," Harlech elaborates, "in fashion it's telling a tale through cloth, a narrative with a beginning, middle and an end."

Even before she started university, the power of the image had a major effect on Harlech. She pored over fashion magazines and wanted to be one of those girls modelling on location. When she met Sophie Hicks - an architect-turned-fashion editor and the mother of model Edie Campbell - Harlech was instantly intrigued.

"I felt that it [fashion] was a more direct way of touching or moving somebody than writing a novel or a poem," she says. "I remember being an unpaid assistant, making tea for Sophie, and thinking, 'This is what I want to do more than anything'."

Harlech started working at Harper's Bazaar from the bottom up in pursuit of her dreams. She adjusted to her duties as "the skivvy in the fashion cupboard job" and quickly learnt the basics of her discipline, "along with other skills like ironing".

She met Lagerfeld, at one of his legendary parties during Paris Fashion Week, years ago, when she was still working with Galliano.

"When Karl was living at 51 Rue de L'Université, he would throw a party for anybody who caught his eye - an incredible mix of people, an open house - a highlight of fashion week."

Harlech calls the meeting a blessing, indeed when she had trouble sealing a Dior contract after Galliano joined the French house, it was Lagerfeld who came to the rescue, in 1996, for a contract with Chanel.

It might be easy to count the years of her influence but it's harder to pinpoint her role at Chanel - even for Harlech. "Muse" she decides is a rather contentious phrase; "maybe court jester" she jokes. "It's very difficult to describe, it's not being a stylist, it's not being an editor, it's not being anything really except somebody who sees. It means having a sense of proportion." "There is no title, not really," adds Harlech after a few minutes of trying to define the role.