Alexandra Shulman’s Notebook

Single at 29 ...the cruel stigma I had to suffer too

EMMA WATSON has revealed to Vogue that she considers herself not single but ‘self-partnered.’ It sounds daft but Watson is a young woman determined t o set t he agenda. Nobody’s to feel sorry for her not having found true love at the grand old age of 29.

I remember being single at that age. Very single. No established boyfriend at all, let alone a life-long partner in sight. It was horrible. The smug-marrieds were rampant.

Many of my old companions in Saturday night carousing and hangovers, and gossipy spag bol suppers, were suddenly shacked up and producing babies as if it were going out of fashion. All they wanted was for you to do the same. At the mere mention of a male companion, collective friends and family had you outside Tiffany waiting for that ring.

There were the kind souls who suggested that my parlous state was because I was a ‘career girl’ and therefore didn’t care about something so clearly more important like marriage. I still remember the writer Piers Paul Read telling me that I should get a move on, otherwise ‘the bloom’ would have gone.

And as friends’ toddlers fought and their babies crawled around the floor, there would always be someone suggesting ‘ all these children must be so boring for you’ – while, at the same time, clearly regarding your unhitched state as a sickness they could only hope would, at some stage, be overcome. There was also an implication that in some way this undesirable condition was your fault. It never seemed to occur to anyone that you just might not have met the right person.

Of course Emma Watson’s ‘selfpartnering’ is open to mockery and caricature but, I say go for it. Anything that helps deal with the world’s attitude to you being single at 29 is worth giving a whirl.

Emma with no dress gives me nightmares

INCIDENTALLY, this is Emma’s third cover for British Vogue. The first in 2010 was as she completed her last Harry Potter film.

On the front she had an elfin crop and was wearing a short white dress. Inside the magazine most of the pictures were simple headshots which must have puzzled some readers. Now I can reveal why: the five suitcases of clothes that travelled to Paris with the fashion team were all stolen from the Eurostar train that day.

There were only a few hours to get the shoot done, so it was a make do and mend situation, with the team dragging in whatever could be found locally, rather than the elaborate evening gowns Emma was meant to be wearing. The nightmare reruns every time I see a new magazine cover of her.

The Election MUST wait for Jo’s hairdo

JO SWINSON ran a little late for the launch of the Lib Dem campaign ( pictured) because she was having her hair done. As you do. Hair is not something that can be rushed… if you’re a woman. Boris and Jeremy can manage with a dab of smoothing cream for those flyaway ends but more is expected from us. A No 7 Christmas gift I’ve created for Boots was launched last week with a YouTube video followed by a dinner for beauty i nfluencers. In t he numerous Instagram posts I had to appear as somebody who might be able to design a make-up range, and less like the raggle-taggle person who emerged from bed that morning.

That involved two and a half hours at the hairdresser and a make-up artist applying more slap than a pantomime dame, to make me look flawlessly bare-faced. This stuff takes time – a lot of it.

I have a very successful friend who works flat out during the week and stays in town on Saturday mornings when her family decamp to the countryside to, in her husband’s words, ‘ do girl things’. Things such as waxing, eyebrow threading, hair colour, blow drys, mani and pedis and facials. She’d much rather be walking her dog in the Chilterns but she knows that looking immaculate is part of what makes her convincing in her job.

As women we are used to being judged – and more importantly judging ourselves – in terms of our appearance.

Social media, with all its filters and tools, has increased the pressure on how we look 24/7 (and that’s all of us, not just figures in the public eye) – at the very same moment in history we are simultaneously supposed to be embracing greater body diversity and a more realistic portrayal of womanhood.

It’s all very well for us to be urged to ‘love our real selves’ via inspirational slogans on everything from tea towels to biscuit tins, but selfbelief, even among the most confident of us, can so easily be punctured by looking rubbish on someone’s Instagram feed or a cruel Twitter jibe about your hair.

Let alone when you’re leading the Lib Dems into battle.

Does Charles feel like a Prince of fools?

THERE’S an art world joke: Corot painted 300 landscapes and there are 3,000 of them in America. It’s not a joke Prince Charles will find particularly amusing now that the Monet James Stunt loaned for Dumfries House has been found a fake. And apparently a poor fake.

The problem with falling for fake art is it makes you feel such an idiot – particularly someone like Prince Charles who would prefer to think he knows when he’s looking at the real thing.

Going French could save our high streets

LVMH, the French conglomerate that owns many leading fashion brands – Dior, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Celine and others – has enjoyed a massive share price rise this year, making them the second largest company in the Eurozone.

At the same time, our British high street fashion names are falling under a truck. LVMH’s hugely expensive brands still sell a relatively small percentage online but they spend a fortune on creating original and brand-defining digital content to drive their well-heeled shoppers into stores.

Maybe some of our household names should take a leaf out of their books and ditch the tired, identikit website templates. You have to earn your customers and it might help if we could tell our Next from our M&S.

Help! This emoji is stealing Christmas

POOR Christmas. Not only is it threatened by the thoroughly unattractive word Xmas, and secular Holiday, but any day now t he word is in danger of disappearing entirely to be replaced by a dinky green emoji.