Hilary Alexander to leave the Telegraph this summer!

This June the fashion industry is due to lose a true institution when one of its longest serving, most easily identified individuals retires. No, it’s not Karl Lagerfeld, silly! It’s Hilary Alexander of the Telegraph. You can scarcely be a fan of fashion without having seen her about, even if you didn’t know who she was. There she is, in the Valentino documentary, asking the walnut-coloured designer if he ever wanted to be a fireman when he was a little boy, there she is on numerous FROWs, even at shows where there was no front row, like Alexander McQueen’s posthumous Angels and Demons collection where you can see her face reflected in the mirrors behind the models. She has been working at the Telegraph for 25 years; she started working there as Fashion Editor in January 1985, then became Fashion Director in January 2005 - and rarely does Grazia Daily attend an event from high end to East end (of London) that Ms Alexander does not make an appearance at. (She clearly has a good driver – or a clone!) Here we salute Hilary in our pictorial tribute, where you can see her with a variety of her friends in high places, not to mention marvel at her extraordinary taste in headgear. Her replacement – the very talented Lisa Armstrong (currently at the Times) will start in July.