etcetera Fashion Electronic Telegraph
Saturday 31 August 1996
'Just call me nouveau riche'

Jade Jagger is the new 'legs' for hosiery giant Pretty Polly, reveals Hilary Alexander. But why is she doing it? 'EXCUSE the mess," says Jade Jagger, stretching over a pile of unwashed dishes to dump coffee grounds in the rubbish bin. "We had a party for the [Notting Hill] carnival the night before last, but it's taking ages to clear up. You wouldn't believe the mess, the food trampled into the floor. I was on my hands and knees all afternoon, scrubbing." Piers Jackson, the father of her two children, nods wearily. "There must have been 200 people here; half of them just heard the music and wandered in." This is all a bit much for the PR girl from Pretty Polly, who has come along to observe Britain's soon-to-be most famous legs. Scrabbling around a kitchen floor with scrubbing brush and bucket? Her gulp is almost audible. This is clearly not the image she had in mind for the latest model to be signed up by the hosiery giant. Jade Jagger is the 24-year-old artist daughter of Mick and Bianca - now grandparents twice over since the birth of Assisi, four, and one-year-old Amba. But she is neither a conventional Pretty Polly model nor a professional "celebrity daughter". She and Piers, who is also an artist, avoid the club scene and their names barely register on the glitzy parties-and-first-nights circuit. They have no plans to formalise their relationship: "I don't go to church and I don't believe in the law [of marriage]. You can say you love somebody, and that's the most important thing." It has to be said that the legs, this morning at least, look as if they would be more at home strolling barefoot on the beaches of Goa If anything, Jade considers herself a bit of a hippie, dividing her time between Notting Hill in London and their home in Dorset, with occasional forays abroad. And it has to be said that the legs, this morning at least, look as if they would be more at home strolling barefoot on the beaches of Goa, decorated with ankle bracelets and toe-rings, than clad in tights and a pair of round-toe clump heels by Patrick Cox. She has blossomed since the birth of her two daughters, but vestiges of the beachcomber remain. Today, her feet are shoved into white rubber Arena slippers, with one silver toe ring visible above chipped purple nail-varnish. "My sister and I were trying desperately to find some nail polish remover, but somehow it didn't happen." The legs are bare, all but hidden under a long blue-green gown from Voyage, the ethnic shop in London's Fulham Road whose multi-coloured patchworks of linen, silk and velvet have become a cult among the well-connected young. Realistic glamour is the new game in product endorsement, and Jade is seen as the epitome of upmarket New Age chic. Which explains why Pretty Polly saw her as the natural successor to models Jennifer Flavin, Yasmin Le Bon and, most famously, Catrina Skepper, who used one of her Pretty Polly stockings to repair a busted fan belt in those ads in the Eighties. "I like the idea of girls doing things for themselves," says Jade. "That's really what attracted me, and I do wear tights. After two children on the trot, my body does have its lesser moments." My father roared with laughter when he read somewhere that I'd been called a young aristo "Let's talk about your legs, then." "Oh! God, do we have to? I don't think they're that special, and I don't think they're like my mother's." So why is she doing it? Can she really need the money? Jade looks slightly nettled. "I'm an artist, and artists suffer huge droughts between exhibitions. I would like to earn enough to be comfortable and have the freedom to be an artist." She sighs. Yes, Mick Jagger is "incredibly supportive, materially and emotionally. But my family believe in independence. We are, I hate to use the term: nouveau riche. It's new money, not like those old families where it's usually the grandfather who leaves the money. My father roared with laughter when he read somewhere that I'd been called a young aristo. "He used to give me money when I was younger, but not any more. He got us the house but there's the upkeep, we have two children, there's school, there's the cats. I pay my own way and I spend my own money." The Pretty Polly campaign - for a fee of around £5,000 a day - marks Jade's return to modelling at a time when the fashion and advertising worlds are hungry for "names". Her agency, Take Two, also handles Dan Macmillan, eldest son of the Earl of Stockton, and Models 1 has just taken on Jasmine Guinness. Meanwhile, the well-bred Scots aristos Stella Tennant and Honor Fraser have become the sine qua non of modern style. "I got pregnant not because I was wild, but because I am maternal" "Going back to modelling did worry me at first, because of the exposure. But I might as well get something out of my name; people will write sensational things anyway," says Jade. "I was never so crazy as they say. I was expelled from school, but it was for something really minor - someone sneaked on me. It's like the things they write about my father. Do they really think he can do all those things and still go on tour and stay so fit? It's all a fantasy. "I got pregnant not because I was wild, but because I am maternal. I always wanted to be a mother. I believe life is for working, not for lounging, but I'm also aware that your children don't stay young for ever. Modelling is fun; it gives me money and space." Jade is preparing for her next solo exhibition at Kapil Jariwala's gallery in New Burlington Street, in November. One source of inspiration is the sexual imagery of the sacred Hindu and Buddhist Tantric teachings. "It's to do with the desire to get into the celebration of the lushness of life, the desire to be sexy and feel soft," she says. "A bit like tights, I suppose you could say." The sound of a crying child echoes from the kitchen. Jade rises immediately. Tantrism and tights seem less significant when a daughter needs her mother.