Celia Birtwell is one of the UK’s most talented textile designers. Her gorgeous prints were tailored and cut into romantic dresses in the 60s and 70s by Ossie Clark, her late ex-husband, and worn by the likes of Marianne Faithfull, Bianca Jagger and Pattie Boyd. Not only that, she also became the long-term muse of David Hockney, whose Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy portrait is one of the Tate’s ...keep reading
Like most people, I’ve done loads of my shopping online this Christmas. Instead of flogging round the shops in the freezing cold I’ve sat in the warmth of my office sipping coffee and choosing presents from Amazon, Topshop and other shopping emporiums. It’s so quick and easy that I wasn’t surprised in the least to read that online sales have doubled to ten per cent since 2000 and are predicted ...keep reading
Arctic blizzards are set to battle the UK this week, the north is blanketed in snow and even here in the soft south there’s a wintery chill in the air. Bearing all that in mind, it seemed perfectly reasonable to ask my son whether he planned to wear a coat to school this morning. “No,” he growled, hardly glancing up from his bowlful of Frosties. (At least he eats breakfast ...keep reading
My teenage daughter arrives home for her university reading week laden with history books, files, an enormous bundle of washing and these sky-high Topshop shoes. “Try them – they’re really comfy,” she says. So I do, and amazingly they are. Well, until you wobble and fall off, when you’re liable to be carted off to hospital with a broken ankle. And as for hobbling round London on the tube or ...keep reading