Camilla Lowther has become known for launching and managing the careers of some of the most celebrated photographers and imagemakers of the last three decades, including Tim Walker, Juergen Teller and Corinne Day. While her name has become synonymous with British fashion, Lowther grew up in the countryside with her parents, having no ties to the creative industries at all. 

“I basically looked at magazines with my mother every month. I remember it really well, sitting on the sofa and looking at Vogue magazine,” she tells CR. “That was one of those things I did with her. I also always loved watching films, the old black-and-white movies and seeing all the fashion in those, that’s what sparked my interest.” 

One of Lowther’s first roles in fashion was as a model for Gap and other popular brands in the 1980s, though she’s adamant she was not a model by today’s standards. “I was very much a look,” she says. At the same time Lowther was also working for Jane and Nick Ashley, children of Laura Ashley, as their assistant. Jane was the in-house photographer for her mother’s brand and Nick was the creative director. 

From here, she worked with an array of significant figures in the industry, including Annette Worsley-Taylor, who ran the London Designer Collections (now the British Fashion Council), fashion publicist Lindy Woodhead, PR behemoth Lynne Franks, and later the photographer Perry Ogden, for whom she acted as “in-house agent, PA, studio manager, everything basically”. 

In 1985, Lowther decided to go at it alone and she established the talent agency, Camilla Lowther Management (CLM). It went on to become one of the most influential management agencies in the creative industries, and Lowther was one of the first agents who specialised in representing creatives in the fashion world.