At 21, Esther McGregor is quietly becoming one of fashion’s ones to watch. Just six months into her modelling career, she’s already walked for Dolce & Gabbana, No 21 and Miu Miu (having been hand-picked by Mrs Prada to open the spring/summer 2023 show). Despite her impressive entry into the fashion world, this ingénue is most serious about acting, having already starred in a handful of indie shorts, as well as the Star Wars spin-off series Obi-Wan-Kenobi, opposite her dad Ewan McGregor. So acting runs in her blood, although Esther would sooner credit her mother’s passion for books (she was religious about reading to her daughter as she was growing up), with inspiring her personal interest in storytelling.
“My mother is a big reason why I love films and books – anything where there’s a story involved, and a different world involved,” she says over Zoom. “I have a lot of anxiety and as a child, stories were a really big way for me to deal with it, as a sort of escape.” A self-confessed book worm, she grew up on Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events and Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries, before graduating to the likes of Baudelaire and Murakami, the authors whose works she devours today. As for films, she cites David Lynch, François Truffaut and French New Wave cinema among her biggest influences.
Though Esther is London-born, the family moved to Los Angeles when she was just 11. “I had a really lovely childhood in London. I went to North Bridge House [school] and curated a good group of friends and spent a lot of time outside.” LA, however, was a bit of a culture shock. “It was a very drastic change; going to a new school and being alienated just because of the way that I spoke. I did everything I could to fit in, which is something I never really had to do in the past.”
It was when she stopped trying to be like everyone else – around the age of 15 or 16 – that she was able to establish an authentic identity, and express it through fashion, Esther says. “I’m not sure if that was my school, or the people I was surrounding myself with, but I did come to a point where I felt quite confident in myself. And that was through clothes, and exploring my fashion sense and gaining confidence because of what I was wearing.”
Still very much marching to the beat of her own drum sartorially, today a large part of her time is devoted to trawling thrift shops and flea markets, where Esther is just as likely to walk away with some ’90s streetwear as she is a Victorian tea dress. “It depends on my mood and how I’m feeling,” she says. “I do tend to feel more confident in less feminine clothes. Like I don’t find myself feeling sexy when I’m in a tight dress, I’m much more confident in androgynous clothes.”
Beauty is yet another creative avenue for Esther. Though her day-to-day look is pretty pared back – comprising mainly some concealer, mascara, lip balm and a bit of eyebrow pencil – when she goes out she tends to lean into all things experimental. “I love doing clown make-up,” she says. “Which I know sounds really weird, but I love a little triangle under my eye.” Other beauty signatures include her androgynous pixie cut and the constellation of delicate tattoos that covers her arms, and which she designed herself. “Tattooing is almost like a form of therapy to me,” she says.
Aside from acting and modelling, music is a large part of her life. “Ever since I was little, I’ve been writing music, it was just something I did because it felt good.” The model still makes music today with her band French Thyme, but it’s not something she wants to pursue professionally. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities… but I didn’t want to do it. I just want it to be for me and for fun. I just want to do it when my heart feels like it needs to let go of something, or it needs to say something.”
For now, Esther is concentrating on acting. She says she has some still-under-wraps projects in the pipeline, and dreams of one day working with her hero, David Lynch. “If I ever met David Lynch or worked on something with him, that would be insane – a full circle moment.” Watch this space.
