MY LIFE, MY STYLE
Hayley Bloomingdale fills her wardrobe and west-London home with chic, colourful pieces
‘One of my most vivid childhood memories is going through the dresses in my grandmother’s wardrobe,’ says Hayley Bloomingdale, when we meet at her home in Notting Hill. Bloomingdale, the director of special projects at the online fashion platform Moda Operandi, has style running through her veins – she is the granddaughter of the department-store heir Alfred Bloomingdale and his wife Betsy, a renowned hostess who reportedly taught Nancy Reagan everything she knew about entertaining. ‘Betsy pinned labels on each dress saying which event she had worn it to – “so-and-so’s inauguration” or “somebody’s dinner party” – and which handbag or shoes had completed the outfit,’ marvels Bloomingdale. Consequently, she always made an effort to dress up when spending time at her grandmother’s house during the holidays. ‘While most of America wears jeans and a sweatshirt at Thanksgiving, we wore fancy patterned leather shoes and tights.’
Bloomingdale grew up in the Pacific Palisades, on the west side of Los Angeles.
‘It sounds glamorous, but it was actually a very beachy life,’ she says. ‘My dad and my brothers are surfers and I didn’t set foot in Hollywood until I was in my late teens.’ After college, she moved to New York and studied for a master’s degree in fashion marketing at Parsons School of Design. ‘We had such cool professors who were working in the industry,’ she says. ‘One was the head of marketing at Loro Piana and was also our teacher twice a week.’ As part of the course, she completed internships at Tory Burch and Diane von Furstenberg. ‘Working for Tory and Diane was amazing – they were
both so intelligent in every aspect of their business. Diane knew everybody’s name, from her senior team right down to the interns and the guy who cleaned up at night.’ She also freelanced for Carolina Herrera: ‘I just loved the way all these women knew exactly who they were and what their brand was.’
Following a short stint at Ralph Lauren, Bloomingdale was hired in 2011 as the third employee at a fledgling start-up, Moda Operandi, which her friend Lauren Santo Domingo had co-founded. ‘There was so much to do,’ Bloomingdale says. ‘We were offering preorder straight from the runway, so we went in after shows and shot the collections through the night until 3am.’ After a relationship break-up, she jumped at the chance to move to London with the company, which now has around 300 employees; Bloomingdale works on everything from communications to events, branding and business development. ‘All my friends in New York were about to get married and I felt like I was stuck,’ she says. ‘I came to London and I was like, “Yes! Nerdy British boys!” They’re very much up my street.’ She met her husband, the lighting designer Alexander Stileman (better known by his childhood nickname Dada) through mutual friends, and they got engaged in the Lake District.
‘Alex and I went hiking one weekend, and I was wearing Lululemon and a beanie hat,’ she says. ‘It was really steep, so at one point I sat down, picked up a rock and said, “Let’s just take this and we’ll say that we got to the top of the mountain and here’s our rock to prove it.” Little did I know I had just given him the perfect line.’ The ‘rock’ Stileman had in his pocket turned out to be a beautiful bespoke Jessica McCormack ring.
The wedding was held at the Biltmore in Santa Barbara, and Wes Gordon, one of Bloomingdale’s oldest friends, designed her graceful, organza Carolina Herrera dress, embroidered with California poppies. ‘Honestly, I’m not the kind of girl who had dreamt about her wedding her entire life,’ she says, ‘but my grandmother was friends with Mrs Herrera and I’ve always loved her dresses.’ She changed into a second outfit – a tiered flapper-style dress with playful light-blue bows and pearl details, perfect for dancing the night away, before grilled cheese sandwiches were served at midnight. (No wonder her friends dubbed her Bride-chilla.)
Bloomingdale’s relaxed style is also evident in her apartment, which is filled with chic furnishings from the Conran shop and lighting by Achille Castiglioni and Lambert & Fils. Upstairs, clothes rails take pride of place, bursting with floral dresses, jeans and blazers. While her grandmother championed the elegant, modern and minimalist look of Marc Bohan at Dior from the 1960s onwards, Bloomingdale cites a long list of brands she loves, including Johanna Ortiz, Giambattista Valli, Proenza Schouler, Celine, Emilia Wickstead, Saloni, Rixo, Altuzarra, Luisa Beccaria and Rebecca de Ravenel. ‘I’m good with colour, which is actually a problem,’ she says. ‘Whenever we go on holiday, I have an outfit for every single night, but during my regular life, it’s just jeans.’ Bloomingdale’s aesthetic may be more low-key than her grandmother’s, yet it’s clear her passion for fashion is just as strong.