EDITOR’S LETTER

Editor-In-Chief Farrah Storr on reclaiming the title of ‘misfit’, and why true power lies in standing out

When you look back over your school years, who are the ones you remember? The teacher’s pet? The all-round athlete? The girl every boy would give his Umbro bag for? Or perhaps it’s someone far more unlikely. Someone for whom the world of school and its rigid conformity did not best serve. For me, that person was a boy I’m going to call Josh. Josh had hair the colour of a bonfire and an explosive arsenal of ‘terrible’ words he used at his leisure. He wore scuffed shoes and trousers with little bell bottoms, like a character from a 1970s sitcom. The teachers despised him. The younger children cowered when he walked. As for his peers? We didn’t quite know what to make of him. Apart from the fact he was different. Wrong haircut. Wrong shoes. Wrong everything. Every part of his being, from the cut of his trousers to the small scar above his lip, conducted towards one single message: that here was a misfit. To be avoided at all costs.

I thought back to Josh recently when I walked into London’s Soho to meet our cover star, Michaela Coel. Just a week earlier she had swept the board at the BAFTAs with her devastating series, I May Destroy You. When she took to the stage that evening, she look shocked but also slightly ill at ease. Like she wasn’t sure she quite belonged there. The BAFTAs are, after all, establishment stuff. A sign of true clubdom. But Michaela Coel was never part of any club. She was and is, by her own admission, a misfit. A word she has not only reclaimed (it is the title of her first book, out this month, no less) but gilded into something rather wonderful. We sat down over lunch in her tiny writing room to talk about the importance of celebrating those who stand outside the lines.

Elsewhere in the issue, we delve deeper into those who live life on the fringes. On page 100, we explore the new vogue for extreme wilding – less a lifestyle choice and more a way of being that feels completely in sync with the natural world. All done very stylishly, of course. While on page 51, writer Qian Julie Wang explores how fashion ended up defining her.

Meanwhile, one of the most exciting and original trends we’re gearing up for this season is what we’re calling 'granny chic' (page 86). A sort of Grey Gardens by way of Hilda Ogden, if you will.

All that's required is a kilt, a head scarf and a rather massive pair of sunglasses, and you’re ready to go.

This is the October/November issue of ELLE, for those who were made to stand out.

“She has not only reclaimed the title of ‘MISFIT’, but gilded it into something WONDERFUL”