Little prompts as much head turning and lip smacking at pretentious London parties as when the kids of Nineties A-listers rock through the revolving doors. Double that when said offspring come hand-in-hand with a sparkling new plus one.
Imagine the hysteria, then, when Lennon Gallagher — who might as well be his father’s stunt double (Dad being Oasis’ Liam) — started stepping out with his new glass-skinned girlfriend Isobel Richmond.
First came murmurs. They were spotted at a film screening in April and Michael Kors party in May, before Isobel (known to friends as Izzy) joined the ruggedly handsome Lennon and his half-siblings Gene Gallagher and Molly Moorish at the Hugo Boss shop opening on 11 October, which was hosted by Naomi Campbell and Anthony Joshua.
Three days later at Prada’s Soho rave, Richmond arrived in a full-length matrix leather trench, white shirt and skinny black tie (“they were pieces from my friend’s wardrobe, perks of living with five girls,” she told me this week), arm-in-arm with Lennon in a baggy mohair sweater and black slacks. Anyone there could see it: they were making their entrance as the It couple du jour.
“We met at a gig at a small bar called The George Tavern [in Stepney] around nine months ago,” says Richmond, 20, who is in her second year studying Fashion Communication and Business at the University of Brighton while modelling for the likes of Vogue Czechoslovakia and Gucci on the side. “Brighton’s a fun place, but you can’t keep me away from London for more than a couple of days. I’m just having the best time seeing what London has to offer.”
Gallagher, 23, joins her in juggling his interests. He is part of a four-man band, Automotion, who dropped their second EP in September. Their sound? A ‘cacophony,’ he has said. His mother, actress and singer Patsy Kensit, hooked him up with modelling contacts too, and now he regularly stomps down the catwalks of Saint Laurent, Kenzo and Hermes.
It figures they are fast becoming known as the best dressed couple of the next-gen, alongside their clan of well-clad friends counting Peaky Blinders’ Conrad Khan and girlfriend Sunray Connor-Hopper, as well as model Stevie Sims, daughter of fashion photographer David Sims and fashion designer Luella Bartley.
Neither make a fuss about their style royalty status. Richmond finds inspiration all over the place. “It could be a club, on the underground or in the queue for the bathrooms at a bar. Cool is cool, the worst thing you can do is try to mimic other people.” Off the cards is couple dressing (newsflash: we are not actually the noughties). “That sounds like a disaster,” she says. “We talk about [what we will wear] sometimes, but just so happens we have similar tastes.”
The real priority is getting all-absorbed in the capital. “The thing I love about London is its variety. With the right company a party can break out at almost any moment.” And no, that doesn’t just mean flutes of Moët at any given members-only club. “I am a regular at Someday bar in Finsbury Park,” Richmond says. “Good pizza and margaritas.” Who can blame ‘em?
