For our November issue, WAG sat down with British actress and model Elizabeth Hurley to talk about her work with The Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.
What we discovered is that Hurley is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.
Speaking at a brunch for select shoppers at Bloomingdale’s in White Plains, the gracious of “The Royals” reminded us that in the fight against breast cancer, no step is too small.
Contributing can be as simple as carrying a breast cancer patient’s groceries or lending a hand to a friend who’s undergoing treatment. But the most important thing is to take action, which includes improving your own health through a nutritious diet and adequate exercise.
WAG couldn’t resist asking her a few other questions related to her 22 years of parading in pink for this cause:
What is your favorite pink ensemble?
“I have had so many beautiful pink dresses over the years, some of which we’ve kept, some of which we’ve archived and some of which people very kindly lent to us and they’ve gone back. I wouldn’t even know where to start. I wore a very beautiful one a while ago. I got married in India – I’m actually divorced now – but it is still a very happy memory for me. And John Galliano, when he was at Dior, made a beautiful, slightly Indian-inspired couture dress for me. I wore that to the breast cancer fundraising gala a month after my wedding. That was a fantastic dress for me, because I had great feelings behind it.”
What does fashion mean to you?
“I like fashion. It’s not something that is a really vital part of my life. I like it in that I like people looking great. I like people looking chic. I like people looking smart, when it’s appropriate. I think it’s great to have a look at what the designers are doing. I wouldn’t let it run my life. I wouldn’t follow fashion blindly – it doesn’t suit me – but when new trends come in and they’re fabulous, I’m excited, like everybody else.”
Your Versace safety-pin dress was such an iconic moment in fashion. What other fashion statements have had that kind of effect?
“I think Princess Diana’s wedding dress is a dress that perhaps most people can picture, because it was fairy-tale, and it was big, and it was fabulous. For fashion, there were always iconic moments, like after World War II, there was the new look that Dior brought in. There had been such rationing during the war that there had been very little fabric, so clothes got tighter and tighter, and clothes got shorter. And suddenly, this new look came in during the ’50s, where skirts were suddenly big and it was saying that ‘Affluence is back.’ It was the fabulous ’50s, and you never had it better. So when those skirts came in, that was a very big moment in fashion. There was also a Jennifer Lopez dress – that was also Versace – after I had worn the safety-pin dress. It was green and it was slashed down at the waist, and that’s a moment that I think people will remember.”
What’s your greatest inspiration in your everyday life?
“My son is 14. I think as you see the world again through innocent baby eyes, toddlerhood, when you go through all of those stages, it really makes you much more aware of what’s going on in every aspect of life – big aspects, big society aspects and very small aspects at home, and how you can personally help someone to be more sensitive, a more understanding person and be in touch more with their emotions…I think it makes history more interesting, because you can see how we got to where we are. We can see how things have changed, how language has changed with time, how the way we deal with things and how we talk about things have changed. It makes you do it all again when you’ve got a youngster over whom you have a great deal of influence.”
When you have time to yourself away from the spotlight, what’s your go-to hobby or activity?
“I go to my house in the country, which is about two hours west of London, where I have a very nice house in the middle of its own land. I have my dogs there, and my son loves it there, and my family will come and stay there…and I do really, really homemaker-y things there. I garden. I pick fruit. I make jam and preserves. I lie on the sofa and read a book. I go for long walks with my dog. And that, for me, is a vital part of my life, because I feel it’s where I recharge.”
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– Danielle Renda
