The Confession Box: Karen Inderbitzenwaller

Photographer, stylist, costume designer and fashion-follower Karen Inderbitzen-waller confesses to three of the deadly sins

GREED

What do you have too much of?

I’m a bit of a greedy pig when it comes to clothes. I am totally aware that I own far too much but I like to console myself that it’s part of my job in fashion to love clothes. Everything I buy ends up in a shoot. I have been working in fashion for 24 years and travelling to Paris for 13 years and I have got a pretty big collection.

Where is the line for you — that purchase is greedy but this purchase is professional?

Pretty much when my partner Delphine tells me I will be living in a cardboard box soon if I keep it up. I am meant to be paying off my house, so priorities. She is an ex-model from Paris and has a pretty big wardrobe as well, so we are both in it together but she is the police in the relationship. I’m trying to buy the clothes and pay off the house — have it all, live the dream.

What do you wear on a day-to-day basis?

On location I am quite practical. I wear bleu de travail French workers’ jackets, which have lots of pockets, with gumboots. And I have a collection of vintage Levis. I am currently working with Karen Walker and I have always been a fan, I just adore her collections. I am constantly ordering things. She also has Playpark, which stocks the Breton tops that I collect. Being a photographer can be a bit of a dirty job, I fall down banks sometimes. I love it when I get invited to a wedding or a fashion event and I can wear some more experimental clothing. I can always find room for more clothes. I am a very tidy and organised person and I think you have to be like that when you are a collector. There is a lot of dusting; there is a lot of work to do.

LUST

What else do you collect?

Paintings, Crown Lynn, all sorts. I have been obsessed with shoes my whole life. I have got wardrobe after wardrobe filled with shoes. In my downtime I will just stare at shoes online. I love them, I have a massive collection and never really get tired of looking at them or buying more. I don’t spend thousands on shoes but I would definitely like to.

What is it about shoes that you find so irresistible?

It’s the design, the sex appeal, that I love. I find heels so incredible, the way they make people’s legs look and the way they elevate an outfit. My whole life I have dressed from the shoe up. There’s something about legs for me. I love hosiery, I love shoes. I persevere with pain for good shoes. I have broken the same toe about five times, I am very clumsy. My whole foot went black the last time. I broke it in France and it set me back a bit. My whole French family know what I am like. All the best looking shoes are the most uncomfortable, unfortunately.

You worked with Nigella Lawson on a Whittakers ad?

We dressed her from the Victorian era to modern day. When I first met her, I went up to her hotel room to measure her up. I had a tape measure around her and I thought, “Wow, how many people would pay to do this?” She loved the corset, although it was a stifling thing to wear in the hot sun for six or seven hours. When we actually undid it, it left an imprint on her back, which looked so beautiful. I would have loved to have photographed it but it was one of those moments — sometimes when you are a photographer, you have to admit that some things just stay in the mind and you can’t have them. It is still in my mind; it was the most beautiful image ever.

WRATH

What do you hate?

I don’t think hatred is a healthy emotion to have and I try not to have any of it at all but I am really against animal cruelty. Whether it is dogmeat farms or the slaughtering of animals for Chinese medicine, dog fights, people dumping puppies and kittens to die, it just kills me. I had a cat and a rabbit who both passed at the end of long, happy lives and now I have a fox terrier pinscher called Serge. I was a vegetarian for 20 years when I was growing up and then I started eating meat but have recently given up eating it again. The hardest thing was when the French grandma opened the Le Creuset pot one day and you could see a ribcage in there that was [from] a rabbit, when I actually owned a rabbit. She couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t eat any; she was like, “You don’t know this rabbit.” Luckily Delphine’s mum took one for the team and ate some.