Fenella Fielding: A Wardrobe Kept
On inheritance, care, and what remains
Fenella Fielding, actor and OBE, was one of the most recognisable faces in Britain during the 1960s and 70s. When she died in 2018 she left her belongings to her close friend and collaborator, Simon McKay. It was a considered bequest and a demanding one.
Many people, faced with a wardrobe of clothes they would never wear, might have disposed of them quickly. Some might even have auctioned them for charity; Fenella was, after all, a well known name.
“Fenella was a keeper, she kept everything,” Simon says. And largely, so has he.
“I did have to weed out some of the clothes, there was a lot. I decided to let go of some of the mass produced items. Really though - it was just the not very interesting stuff.”
What remained required care, space and order. Simon called in an expert from Christie’s Auction House and began the task of cataloguing and storing the collection. Now clothes are arranged by rank: the most precious hang in protective garment bags in his music room upstairs. The lesser items are folded and stored in the cellar. Fenella had a great eye for a good designer. Labels in her collection include Zandra Rhodes, Biba, Bill Gibb, Mary Quant, Sheilagh Brown, Vivienne Westwood , Gina Franti, Nicole Farhi , Neil Cunningham and Sara Percevale . This list goes on ….
“I have a cellar full of Fenella’s things. Everything is catalogued. I did much of it during the lockdowns. I don’t know what I’d do without this space,” he says.
Simon quickly recognised the significance of what he had inherited, not only personally, but publicly.
In 2024 he staged Fenella Fielding: On Stage, Offstage at Gallery 286.London, the second exhibition drawn from her archive. Alongside clothes, it included posters, costumes, designs, false eyelashes, make-up, her dressing table, even her last packet of cigarettes.
The exhibition posed a question: was Fenella’s life offstage really so different from the one she performed?
She looked good both on and offstage. Growing up during the Second World War, in a time of rationing, she understood the value of clothes and treated them carefully. Her wardrobe reflects that respect.
What strikes me most is the vibrancy of colour. Did she love colour, I ask Simon?
“Fenella loved colour. She wore a lot of red, but her favourite colour was actually orange.”
A former Central Saint Martins art student, Fenella understood colour instinctively and knew how it read on film. She spoke of having “a strong line”, and her wardrobe bears this out.
Fenella was exceptional with accessories and had a particular love of brooches, many of them red.
“She wore brooches constantly,” Simon says. “There was a ladybird she often wore, and a big red disc with a cat on it that fell off. She never got round to mending it, but she still wore it. Her favourite jewellery shop was Christopher St James in Cecil Court.”
Her style was remarkably consistent across decades. She created an image instantly recognisable as her own: dense lashes, heavy fringe, glossy black hair. It is hard not to see echoes today. Claudia Winkleman comes to mind, knowingly or not. Dusty Springfield openly acknowledged the influence; in the 1960s, when asked about her eye make-up, she said, “Fenella Fielding’s been a very big influence….”
More recently, a familiar silhouette appeared when Lily Allen attended the Valentino show in a tobacco-brown satin blouse with a neck bow, piled hair and dramatic eyes, a very Fenella moment. Both Lily and Fenella have played the role of Hedda in Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler , Lily in 2025 - Fenella in 1969.
Fenella: Things She Returned To
Vivienne Westwood. “I’m very keen on Vivienne Westwood.”
Big hair - regular visits to Vidal Sassoon in the 1960s, and a lifelong commitment to coiffure. According to Simon, she would never have considered going grey.
Dramatic necklines, framing the face, often finished with a brooch or bow.
A pinch or a pull - shaping clothes to emphasise line and figure.
Gloves, particularly French silk-lined leather. “Oh I love them! Bring them on! I could happily wear them and nothing else”.
Berets, hats, and more hats.
Lashes and a bold lip.
Colours chosen for the camera: red, yellow, bright pink, orange, brown.
Polka dots, she loved a dotty scarf, blouse or jacket to add interest.
And posture- after all Simon met Fenella at a Pilates class. She was in her eighties.
In 2020, Simon McKay established the Fenella Fielding Foundation Ltd as a way to continue the projects they had intended to do in her lifetime, to celebrate her life, provide access to her archive and raise funds for charitable causes.
This inheritance is no longer simply a wardrobe, but a responsibility, carefully held, thoughtfully shared.
Some wardrobes are not meant to be worn again. Only understood.
Fenella Fielding Foundation to find out more about Fenella Fielding Archive.