All About Alison

Alison Jane’s love of dressing up, not down, at school and a passion for creative writing led to an honours degree in English Literature followed by a four-year traineeship on The Photographer magazine where she interviewed Terence Donovan, Patrick Litchfield and Martin Parr in between writing about Captains of Industry and photographic innovation.

Imbued with her passion for fashion, Alison Jane was offered an exciting job at Mirror Group Newspapers where she quickly became a leading feature writer and Fashion Editor for People magazine where she let her imagination run wild. For four years, was encouraged to indulge in extraordinary fashion stories and creative shoots that were completely wrong for a tabloid newspaper, but given centre stage as they were always accompanied by a brilliant, topical interview.

Having perfected her trademark of The Big Interview illustrated by startling, escapist fashion photography she left for her first stint at The Times and a blossoming parallel career as a freelance writer, broadcaster and fashion editor. The following ten years became a whirlwind of creativity; interviewing, styling and art directing some of the most exciting people on the planet, including Naomi Campbell, Kim Cattrall, Helena Christiansen, Glenn Close, Kristin Davies, Anna Friel, Daryl Hannah, Iman, Kiera Knightley, Sienna Miller, Kate Moss, Clive Owen, Vanessa Redgrave, Joley Richardson, and Naomi Watts. A dozen cover stories for The Times’ Saturday Magazine culminated in a two-year commission to interview and style sixteen international icons to celebrate the history of that enduring fashion superstar, The Little Black Dress.

Alison Jane was one of the first journalists to champion ethical fashion, beauty and style in her features. She styled Sienna Miller, then on the cusp of stardom, in the little-known fair-trade label PeopleTree, which created huge interest and led to TopShop stocking the brand.

She has contributed to The Independent, The Sunday Times, The Mail On Sunday, You Magazine, The Sunday Express, Newsweek, Tatler, Marie Claire, Russian Vogue, Red, Orient Express Magazine, Organic Life, Healthy & Organic Living, Spirit & Destiny, Taste, Good Housekeeping and, in an effort to spread the green gospel to a wider audience, has even taken the Hello! shilling, where over 200 of her celebrity interviews and fashion stories have been published, including a dramatic interview and shoot with Daryl Hannah in Belize to highlight the dangerous impact of clearing the rainforest.

Broadcast media work includes being a fashion pundit for Sky news and fashion expert for ITV.

Alison Jane’s current projects are almost exclusively ethical in tone, inspired by her own longstanding green lifestyle, and include ethical muses, fashion, beauty, homeopathy, organic food and farming. She has been commissioned to write and research a series of leading green features and interviews for the relaunch of The Times Saturday edition to be published during 2009-2010.