Exclusive: Made in Chelsea's Sophie Hermann shows off stunning London home as she talks finding love
Sunshine pours through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows as Sophie Hermann invites HELLO! into her stylish west London flat.
The influencer, fashion designer and reality TV star is looking as glamorous as ever as she shows us around her new home on a tree-lined street. With its high ceilings, stripped wood floors and open fireplaces, the Georgian conversion is proving to be the perfect base.
"Apparently it used to be an asylum, so I have been walking around the flat with sage and clapping in every corner to ward off the ghosts," she tells us with a laugh as she sits down for this exclusive interview and photoshoot.
Sophie's house move marks an exciting new chapter for the Made In Chelsea star and this week she will open her home to film crews as she returns to the E4 show that made her famous, following a three-year break.
Meanwhile, she has resurrected her career as a fashion designer and released a capsule collection with Lebanese brand Glamoda. Named Highland Fever, it is a colourful mix of tartan, glen check and houndstooth, some of which she is modelling for us today.
"It's all based on my obsession/fetish for Scotland," she explains. "I started watching Outlander during lockdown, and that was it. I love the history and versatility of tartan and the mystical, witchy stuff and pagan rituals. I want to be in a haunted castle and drink whisky by the fire, then get into a four-poster bed.
"And Scotland probably has some of the last real men around, and all of that tree tossing and hilly dancing really gets me."
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Sophie, 37, whose dating life was played out on camera when she was on Made In Chelsea, is single at the moment but says she is still hopeful of finding love.
"I'm a hopeless romantic and I believe the more positive you stay, the more positive things happen to you," she says. "I hate dating apps but I'm back on the apps. But I'm an old school person. I like it when you're introduced by common friends, because then they know both parts.
"It's not like there aren't any offers. It's more like what is left on the market is just such a disgrace. Dating has changed so much over the last 10 years; it's so hard. All my girlfriends are very successful, independent, and stunning. Yet they are alone. Why? What is going on with men these days? Something changed, and it's definitely something to do with social media.
"But I cry a lot less by myself than when I am with a boy. And I think in my thirties, I really grew up a lot, because you learn how to be on your own, how to not rely on a man, which is very important."
Last year, she told HELLO! how she had frozen her eggs in the hope of becoming a mother when she meets the right partner. At the time, she explained how the procedure had taken the pressure off and given her a "new sense of self-empowerment".
Today, she says: "I'm so happy I've done that. It's not an easy procedure, but I can only recommend it to anyone who is in their thirties. I wish I had done it in my early twenties, because you get much better results. If I have a daughter, I'm going to give that to her for 18th birthday."
Two men Sophie an rely on are her friends and Made in Chelsea co-stars Ollie and Gareth Locke. Sophie is godmother to their 17-month-old daughter Cosima and it was they who persuaded her to return to the show.
"They basically forced me," she laughs. "I'm excited because the gang will be back together."
Meanwhile, Sophie and Gareth are planning to launch a new skincare range together this year.
"We've been working on it for two years and we're really excited," says Sophie, who has been open about her various cosmetic procedures, including two nose surgeries, lip fillers and stem cell treatment.
Raised in Munich, Sophie inherited her love and flair for fashion from her great-grandmother Luise Hermann, who founded iconic German jeans brand Mustang in 1932.
"Sadly, I never got to meet my great-grandmother, but I always admired her for being such a strong woman leading a male-dominated field. She was a trailblazer," says Sophie, whose art historian mother Stephanie instilled a passion for drawing.
"My mum speaks seven languages, and she sketches beautifully, and that's what she passed down to me," she says. "When my sister Charlie and I were young, she let us sketch and design dresses for our Barbie dolls, and we had it made with the seamstress at the factory.
"My grandfather and my father Dieter inherited the company, but they sold it in the early 1990s. I always regretted that."
Now, however, Sophie has a chance to blaze her own trail with her new collection. Having studied fashion design at the prestigious Marangoni institute in Milan, she briefly launched her own clothing brand in London before stepping away from the industry.
"It didn't go well because I was 23 and we were all babies, and then I joined Made in Chelsea," she says. "I have been working with Glamoda on a very organic basis for the past five years, and then they gave me this opportunity.
"I love it. It makes me so happy to see something from the from sketch to finished product. It's not fast fashion; we use beautiful fabrics and every button was responsibly sourced. I wish I could have been there more in person, but since everything was produced in Beirut, that wasn't possible. But it was a hands-on creation process, and we were sending sketches back and forth for a good nine months."
Now, Sophie is looking ahead to her 38th birthday on 30 January – something she admits makes her a little apprehensive.
"I'm getting scared," she admits. "I will probably celebrate in London, but I'd love to get away to Scotland too. I can see myself running in a long gown across a Highlands field. I feel like that's very on brand for me.
To read the full exclusive interview, pick up the latest issue of HELLO! on sale in the UK on Monday. You can subscribe to HELLO! to get the magazine delivered free to your door every week or purchase the digital edition online via our Apple or Google apps.
