From nought to sexy

The natural home for Edinburgh's ladies who lunch and girls that glitter, Harvey Nichols is today playing host to a slightly different customer. Playfair, a 21-year-old Formula 4 racing driver and one of Scotland's most exciting young sportswomen, is here to swap the racing pit for a day of pampering and glamming up.

For a girl more used to spending her days under the bonnet or behind the wheel of her Formula Ford (top speed 140mph), today's primping - as well as the hair, she is having her make-up done at the Laura Mercier counter and then pouring herself into several thousand pounds worth of Gucci clothing - is quite a contrast.

"I've never had my hair like this!" she laughs as she admires her blonde waves in the mirror. "It's so elegant!"

A farmer's daughter from Longniddry, East Lothian, Playfair currently races with Kent-based team Jamun Racing. She's done two part seasons with Formula 4 and hopes to make the move up to Formula 3 after her first full season this year in F4. She first discovered her passion for racing aged 12, at the go-karting racetrack.

"Just by chance my dad and I happened to go along one time and I had a shot. I thought it was brilliant and my dad got me into a club. It was just a fun thing, not hugely competitive, but fairly early on I knew that's what I wanted to do."

On her 17th birthday, her father picked her up after school and made her drive the car home. Having been racing cars around the family farm for years, she soon passed her test and before long was racing at Knockhill.

"I always felt I had to do my education first, so I went to university [Cumbria Institute of the Arts] to study graphic design. I enjoyed it, but not as much as racing. I remember making the decision I was going to go home and tell my mum I wasn't going to finish my degree, I was going to do racing full-time. She was really supportive."

Playfair paid her way by working as an instructor at Knockhill, spending her spare time looking for funding to advance her racing career and complete her two part seasons at F4 level. "It's an expensive business," she says. "Probably the most expensive sport there is." We head down to Laura Mercier, where Lauren the make-up artist perches Playfair on a stool and starts constructing a strong, smokey-eyed look for her.

"I don't wear much make-up normally," she says. "I wear lipgloss if I'm going out, but very rarely. I wear eye make-up and that's it, on a daily basis. I don't even wear foundation."

I wonder how she copes with being a woman in such a male-dominated sport, and whether she thinks things are changing. "I think the only reason there aren't more women drivers is because of the way the culture is and the way you're conditioned when you're younger," she says.

"There are a lot more girls in karting now, which is where I started, so I'm expecting in a few years' time there will be more women rising through the ranks. I certainly don't think it's fair to say that women shouldn't be racing drivers. To be a racing driver you need to be a certain type of person, not male or female. You just need to have the right mindframe."

A former Scottish Young Driver of the Year, she has had immense support from inside the Scottish racing world, and has turned to Sir Jackie Stewart for advice on several occasions.

But it is perhaps a personal tragedy which has spurred Playfair on the most in her professional career. Two years ago, her boyfriend, Stefan Campbell, was killed in a car accident.

"He wasn't in racing but he was really proud of what I did," she says. "He was special, unique, and his family still support me in my racing. It was a hard thing to deal with but I tell myself it was good I was able to have the time with him that I did.

"A lot of the time it still motivates me because he was so proud of me. So I think: 'keep trying, keep trying'."

Playfair is incredibly determined, a steely Scottish grit shining through from under the long, girly lashes emerging from the make-up artist's wand. She had harsh words for British F1 driver Jenson Button when he derided women "with big boobs" as not being designed to sit in a racing car's cockpit, describing his comments as "rubbish" and accusing him of "trying to be macho". She also once made the former F1 driver and one-time Top Gear presenter Tiff Needell sign an article he'd written saying women could never make it in race driving with the words 'yeah, you can make it'.

"I couldn't be happier at this point than doing what I'm doing," she says. "I'm living the dream. It is hard work, but I love it. I like doing different things, I don't like routine and I've got that. And at the end of it all what I'm working towards is getting into the car and driving as fast as I can, to the best of my ability."

Her make-up completed, Playfair disappears into a cubicle to change into her chosen outfit. She emerges clad head to toe in Gucci, sheathed in a sleek wine-coloured leather jacket and looking drop dead gorgeous - a glamorous lady driver on her day off from the races.

"It'd be nice if I could look like this all the time," she says with a smile. "But it would take far too long. In my life I just get out and go."

SARAH WEARS:

CLOTHES:

Gucci leather bomber jacket 1,860

Gucci black embroidered shirt 675

Gucci black cropped trousers 355

Stephen Collins corset belt 40

Miu Miu metal patent peep-toe stiletto 185

MAKE-UP

All make-up by Laura Mercier

Get the look using:

Hydrating foundation primer 27

Silk Creme Foundation in rose ivory 30

Bronzer in golden bronze 25

Cheek colour in orange blossom 18

Eye colours in starfruit and black smoke 16 each

Eye liner in black ebony 16.50

Caviar eye liner in black 18

Waterproof mascara in black 15

Lip colour in brown sugar 16

Lip pencil in rosewood 14