In addition to chronicling Boyd’s modelling progress, My Life In Pictures simultaneously charts the evolution of fashion during those revolutionary times, illustrating the shift from stiff, outdated set-ups to the innovative methods of photography’s new breed. “This was the world I wanted to be in,” she explains, “full of wonderful people that knew about fashion, divine clothes, lovely photographers, and the excitement and the buzz that you get in a studio and when everybody’s working and being creative together.” For an 18-year-old Boyd, the invitation into the elusive realm of her beloved Vogues and Vanity Fairs was too good an opportunity to miss. A client, who worked at a fashion magazine, invited Boyd to pose for some test shots, then recommended her to a modelling agency. It was in 1962, while working as an apprentice in the Elizabeth Arden beauty salon in London’s Bond Street, that Boyd first made the move into fashion. “It took time and experiences,” she says, “to work out who I was.” However, despite making a name for herself as a model, and the glamour of the celebrity lifestyle she had enjoyed for so long, it was, as she explains, only after two divorces and their emotional fallouts that Boyd began to finally piece her own identity together. Invited into this evocative archive to discuss her new book My Life In Pictures, a stunning collection of more than 300 images documenting Boyd’s seven decades of work, our conversation naturally spans her emergence into the dazzling world of fashion as a teenager – represented here with shots by legendary photographers including David Bailey, Terence Donovan, Duffy, and Norman Parkinson – through to insightful glimpses into her personal life taken by Boyd herself, revealing unseen private memories from her marriages to The Beatles’ guitarist George Harrison, and then to his best friend, rocker Eric Clapton. Softly spoken and careful with her words, she is nevertheless absolutely honest at all times, while a cheeky streak of naughtiness befitting a countercultural idol and two-time rock wife bubbles just under the charming surface.
Sitting resplendently in the centre of this visual history, Boyd, 78, exudes pure class.
From the exquisite canvases of her iconic Sixties portraits dotted around the lounge, to the intimate framed snapshots of her with family and friends that line the shelves, Boyd’s story, played out for decades both in front of and behind the lens, is proudly and prominently displayed for all to see. To be welcomed into the chic, bright Kensington apartment of Pattie Boyd is to enter a virtual gallery of the former model’s inspirational journey thus far.
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