Phoebe Philo

Phoebe Philo was the former fashion designer of the fashion house Chloé. Philo began working for Chloé in 1997 as Stella McCartney's assistant while McCartney was chief designer. Philo succeeded McCartney as creative director of the iconic luxury label after McCartney was offered the chance to start her own label with the Gucci Group in 2001. Philo resigned from the head role at Chloé on January 5, 2007. Her reasons for leaving included a desire to spend more time with her family.

Philo graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 1996, a year after Stella McCartney. When McCartney landed the job at Chloé, she decided to bring Philo along as an assistant. Philo claims that she learned a lot about design from McCartney and many say that Philo added a “street sensibility” to McCartney’s designs. Like McCartney, Philo is a vegetarian and will not work with fur, but whereas McCartney (a strict vegetarian) will not work with leather either, Philo will.

Philo has, at times, been credited with making Chloé "cool" again, as it had been in the 1960's and 1970's under the rule of fashion-zeitgeist, Karl Lagerfeld. Some of the "It" items produced by Chloé include high-waisted jeans, shift dresses, babydolldresses, wooden wedge shoes (something of a phenomenon at the time) and stack heeled buckled boots, horn, bat and fossil butterfly necklaces and of course, the Bracelet, Camera, Silverado, Paddington ( arguably the most popular It Bag of all time), Betty and Edith handbags, which adorned the arm of every celebrity and celebrity-wannabe in 2005.