Getting Dressed
Queen of camouflage
Dafyyd Jones
Mimi Adamson’s skin clinic is a godsend for burns victims brigid keenan Mimi Adamson had lived more than half of her life when she discovered what she really wanted to do with it. When she was growing up in New York, her very first ambition was to become a doctor. But that, in the fifties, proved impossible – girls rarely got into medical school. Adamson decided instead on occupational therapy and studied at Columbia University School of Medicine, before moving to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago. There she met and married her husband and settled down to raise a family of four. When her boys were at university, the tedium of suburban life in America, combined with a long-felt itch to travel – especially to Britain, which had always fascinated her – persuaded her to up sticks and live in London for a while. Her husband took her, their younger son and daughter to the airport. Later they divorced but have remained friends. Adamson did various office jobs in London and, ten years later, she met and married the late Sir Campbell Adamson (1922-2000), former Director-General of the CBI and by then Chairman of Abbey National. ‘He was a wonderful man – he was intellectual and funny and played the piano well, he loved everyone and didn’t give a damn where they came from, and he was interested in everything.’ Lady Adamson doesn’t talk about age – ‘an unnecessary label’. Her eldest son, a neurosurgeon, lives in London, and she makes regular visits to Boston to see her daughter and other sons in America. That is where she stocks up on clothes – she is fond of the velvet jacket in our picture: ‘It’s like a really useful cardigan – you can put it over anything.’ For shoes she chooses Emma Hope: ‘They are comfortable, which is the most important thing.’ She broke her ankle not long ago and that has made walking difficult. After working with camouflage make-up all day, Adamson herself uses a base she loves: Hyaluronic HydraFoundation, a range produced by Terry de Gunzburg, a former make-up artist and creative director of YSL. Her hair is cut and coloured by a hairdresser friend. On a visit to Jersey with her husband, 84 The Oldie March 2022
Left: Lady Adamson in December 2021. Jacket and scarf old favourites, trousers by Prada, shoes by Emma Hope. Above: With her daughter Hilary in the sixties
Adamson finally discovered her calling. They went to a lecture by a plastic surgeon on camouflage make-up. He explained how it was an essential tool for concealing disfigurements that plastic surgery could not deal with. ‘Something in me clicked,’ relates Adamson, ‘I suddenly knew that this was I wanted to do. After the talk, I went and talked to the surgeon, and he told me about the British Association of Skin Camouflage.’ The Association was set up by Joyce Allsworth, a WAAF officer during the war. Allsworth had been so shocked by the facial burns on a fellow airman that she became expert in camouflage make-up. She then worked with the Red Cross on training others and founded the British Association of Skin Camouflage. After a course with the association, Adamson joined the Red Cross-trained team at King’s College Hospital, south London, and then moved to the Chelsea
and Westminster Hospital, where she has held a clinic for years. Her patients have had burns, dog bites, birthmarks, vitiligo and other pigmentation problems. She says, ‘People are so vulnerable and so concerned when they have a disfigurement – 80 per cent of the treatment is the understanding and kindness you give. But they also need constructive advice. It is no use just saying, “You poor thing.” You have to give them real solutions.’ The first camouflage make-up was arguably invented by Max Factor, a Polish refugee, in the US in the 1920s. He actually coined the word ‘make-up’ and produced the Pan-Cake and Pan-Stik concealers, so beloved by Hollywood stars. Things are far more sophisticated now. Adamson uses camouflage creams made by Dermablend and Covermark. She works with a palette of more than 150 shades. And the colour is waterproof – so it remains stable in the rain or when anyone wearing the cream is swimming. She proudly shows me extraordinary before-and-after pictures of her patients. ‘I get very emotional,’ she says. ‘This work is so rewarding. It changes people’s lives – it has changed my life.’
