Meet the 90-year-old who’s still teaching us how to dress
From discovering John Galliano to founding Browns, London’s first boutique for women, Joan Burstein has dressed generations of women. Bethan Holt discovers her secret to enduring style
London Fashion Week might have thrown up some trends that are tricky to wear for anyone who considers themselves a grown-up – think baby-doll dresses and seethrough lace. But one we absolutely can rally around is the celebration of the 90-year-old Mrs Joan Burstein – the woman who is, in part, responsible for the way we all shop today and remains one of the hardest-working, most stylish women in fashion.
On Sunday evening, London’s fashion industry paused their hectic fashion week activities to toast the 90th birthday of the legendary and fondly monikered “Mrs B” with elderflower champagne cocktails and dancing at Claridges (where else?). Among the guests were a dedicated gang of fashionable friends, including Anna Wintour, Sir Paul Smith, Nicole Farhi and Manolo Blahnik, among others.
Joan Burstein – decked out in vintage Chloé from the Karl Lagerfeld days, with jewellery made by her granddaughter Natasha Collis and silver hair tended to by grandson Joseph Koniak – is the founder of Browns, the designer boutique tucked away just off Oxford Street. The store, established by Burstein and her late husband Sidney in 1970, can lay claim to launching the careers of many of the past halfcentury’s most acclaimed designers, from John Galliano (who famously designed decadent collections for Christian Dior in the Nineties and Noughties) to Alexander McQueen and Christopher Kane.
A pioneering boutique dedicated to women’s clothing, Browns is renowned for its impeccable edits of designer collections, making it the go-to shop for the style cognoscenti. As its figurehead, Mrs B has received honours including a CBE and the Médaille de la Ville de Paris for her contributions to fashion. She is now the boutique’s honorary chairman, after selling the company to online retailer Farfetch last year.
A week before her birthday soirée, Burstein is already in celebratory mode at her flat overlooking Hampstead Heath. As we begin our interview, interruption comes in the form of roses delivered on behalf of Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. It’s a fitting symbol of the deep affection which even the world’s starriest designers hold for Mrs B.
Burstein – serene and ineffably charming – was born in Camden on February 21 1926, growing up at a time when “nothing was sophisticated”. When she met and married businessman Sidney Burstein in 1946, Mrs B began to help with the buying for his fashion and underwear shops. “We didn’t look for designers, then; just lovely clothes,” she remembers.
Besides, there were barely any luxury fashion names available to buy at that time; when Browns eventually opened, Yves Saint Laurent was the only label to have its own shop in the capital. “Fashion was a very minimal part to a women’s life, really,” Burstein recalls.
“There were no career women then, which is quite different to today.”
Now Browns and its website, brownsfashion.com, compete not only with the bricks-and-mortar behemoths of nearby Selfridges and the stand-alone boutiques in Mayfair, but also with online giants such as Net-A-Porter. Burstein is bemused by the online shopping phenomenon – “Isn’t it such a bore when you have to send things back?” – but is still all for embracing new designers when they arrive on the scene.
You might expect her to be sceptical about celebrities such as Victoria Beckham turning fashion designers, but she is unfazed. “Victoria is very hard-working. Good for them if they have the confidence in themselves to go on to achieve something.”
Thanks to Mrs B’s passion and natural instinct for scooping up new talent, Browns has an unrivalled reputation as a destination for unusual discoveries. After seeing a young John Galliano’s graduation show, she snapped up everything immediately for her store, where it quickly sold out. And she was working with Tunisian-born designer Azzedine Alaïa, whose tailored dresses are adored by Gwyneth Paltrow and Naomi Campbell, when “he was still sleeping in his studio”.
Both professionally and in her own style, Mrs B dared to lead where others inevitably followed. In the early Eighties, she “went Japanese” after discovering Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto. In fact, measuring life stages by the designers she favoured at the time is par for the course in Mrs B’s world. She still adores Sonia Rykiel pieces from the Seventies, wishes she’d kept more Missoni, and loves the work of young London designer Alice Archer. Salvatore Ferragamo’s low-heeled Audrey shoes are her go-to footwear, but she remembers a time when she’d be on her feet in the boutique all day, in Maud Frizon heels. She never feels “done” until she’s wearing jewellery – but is at pains to point out that it doesn’t have to be expensive. “I have never liked diamonds, only gems,” she confides. Nowadays, great coats and chic separates are her wardrobe mainstays, and she still insists on investing in a few new purchases each season.
Her style has never been in question, but what is the secret to her enduring health? She puts it down to the influence of Sidney, who was a gymnast and raw food proponent. She still practises Pilates twice a week, goes walking as often as she can, and credits her youthful attitude to being surrounded by young people.
With a new Browns shop opening in east London, ambitions to visit China (Cuba was last year) and an enthusiasm that still means she’ll approach a stranger to ask where something they’re wearing is from, it seems that the small matter of a 90th birthday won’t be slowing Mrs B down any time soon. But at least it’s a great excuse to dance. To Frank Sinatra, naturally.
‘Fashion was a very minimal part to a women’s life really when Browns began’