Kate Moss and Sienna Miller’s favourite party dress designer: ‘Fashion should be about having fun’
No one appreciates the magical power of a great party dress better than fashion designer and vintage connoisseur, Annie Doble. “Life is so short, it should be about having fun,” she muses. “I meet so many people who want to stop and talk to me because of a dress I’m wearing. Fashion should be the gateway to you having the funnest night ever.”
Women who have had fun in one of Doble’s dresses recently include Kate Moss, Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, Margot Robbie and Sienna Miller. Yet it’s not just the A-list who love Doble’s style: she’s had teenagers and their mums, and even their grandmas, all come into her Aladdin’s Cave of vintage treasures on Carnaby Street or in Ibiza Old Town. “We have girls that are so happy to be here that they burst out crying,” she shares. “They’re shaking. It’s really nice because they’re all just so happy.”
As Doble buys pieces she’d want to wear herself, one of the dangers of the job is that she sells something she actually wants to keep. “About nine years ago there was an opera coat I’d found in Amsterdam that didn’t even fit me, it was so small for me, but I really didn’t want to sell it,” she says. “A woman came into the store and wanted it. I put a really ridiculous price on it so she would be put off, but she ended up taking it. I think about it to this day.” Then there was the time that Kate Moss tried to buy a white-embroidered marabou-feather cape from her. “I had to tell her no, it’s just for display!” she laughs.
Moss is a kindred spirit and a long-time supporter of the brand, as well as being someone whose style Doble looks up to. “She’s amazing,” she shares. “We bond so much when we’re talking about vintage pieces, she spends hours in the shop, she just loves it there. And she will never let me give her any kind of discount.” In quintessential Annie’s style, Moss’s 22-year-old daughter, Lila, is also now a fan of the brand.
The majority of Doble’s celebrity fan base have found her organically, after she eschewed publicity for the first seven years after opening her store. “[Celebrities] really just found us by themselves,” she says. “We never reached out. I wanted to keep Annie’s a secret and word of mouth for as long as possible. I wanted it to grow organically so that when you found it, you’d be like, ‘Oh my god, what is this place?’” One of Doble’s earliest champions was Paris Hilton, the American socialite and party girl. “She would always call me and voice note me, saying, ‘I’m so proud of you,’” she shares. “And she would buy so many pieces from me.”
Today, Hollywood stylists have Doble on speed-dial (“I had to pull from the archive for a last minute fitting for Angelina Jolie in Venice just other week,” she shares). Taylor Swift recently wore a gold minidress from Annie’s. Lauren Sanchez, the fiancee of the Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, is another high profile fan in the States, while in the UK, Doble made headlines earlier this year when she became the brand of choice for almost all of the guests at the 25th birthday party of socialite Lola Bute (Sienna Miller, Poppy Delevingne and Princess Olympia of Greece danced in Doble’s decadent sparkly creations).
It’s Doble’s eye for detail and appreciation of craftsmanship that makes her aesthetic so appealing. She began collecting vintage opera coats in her teens, and has always been drawn to the corsetry and boning of Victorian fashion, with the designers John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood among her favourites. “In the basement, there are archives and archives of Victorian fashion,” she shares. “I wear so many Victorian-style pieces, corsets and capes.”
Throughout her 15-year career, Doble has built relationships with some of the best vintage collectors and archivists in the world, sourcing pieces that she knows that her clients will love. “For me, vintage clothing is made so well,” she explains. “The techniques that they used, the craftsmanship, the hand-beading, the shapes, the boldness… we don’t make things like that any more.”
After designing a series of collections with some of London’s hottest brands, including Clio Peppiatt, Doble branched out on her own in 2022 to design her very first Annie’s Collection, which she launched with a fashion show at St Paul’s Cathedral. “I’ve learnt so much from collaborations,” she says. “I love incorporating their techniques into my designs.”
When we speak, Doble is in Mumbai, in the midst of doing 12-hour days for her fourth collection, launching early next year. Her pieces speak to her love of vintage, as well as clothes that make you feel happy. “I want to make timeless pieces that you can re-wear in 10 years time,” she says. “For me, trends are an unsustainable way of shopping. They shouldn’t even exist.”
Now, Doble has brought her party girl aesthetic to the London department store Liberty, with her first ever pop-up shop, just in time for Christmas. “Going to Annie’s is an experience in and of itself, so I wanted to keep that magic,” she explains. “We’d been approached to do pop-ups before, but this was the first time that I thought it made sense.” The Liberty Christmas capsule collection features reworked versions of some of her classic vintage-inspired designs, including the Stella dress in midnight black, the bestselling Phoenix dress in a silver mosaic and the Moonshine dress in a deep ruby with gold beadwork.
Doble’s brand is now a fashion industry favourite, but she is also particularly proud of her work with Greenpeace and as an ambassador for Project Zero, an organisation that promotes ocean conservation. “I’ve always wanted to have a voice and change the world,” she says. “That’s very much the reason why we make very small runs of clothes. Everything’s handmade. I want to make dresses that you will literally never throw away, that you pass down to your grandchildren.”
