Nicole Farhi

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.

Presenter0:34

My castaway this week is Nicole Farrie. For the first forty years of her working life she was of course a fashion designer, preoccupied with how to make us look good from the neck down, in timelessly fluid styles underpinned by a classically continental sensibility. In a notoriously fickle industry she stayed the course, ending up with eponymous stores in New York, London and Tokyo. But that was then. Now her creativity is more concerned with matters from the neck up.

Presenter1:03

At the stage when many of us decide to take it easy, she has reinvented herself, becoming a critically acclaimed sculptor, producing works in bronze, glass, and concrete. Born and raised by her Turkish Jewish family and niece, as a child she made clothes for her dolls. Each August, as a teenager, her style conscious aunts would whisk her along to couture shows by the lights of Balenciaga and Yves Saint

Presenter1:27

Her first tentative foray into fashion was as a hard up student in Paris, selling her little sketches to magazines.

Presenter1:34

She says I don't look down on what I've done for forty years. I was a fashion designer, and every day I enjoyed what I was doing. But I don't want to spend time thinking about fashion now. I don't find it that important. I haven't shopped since I left. I haven't bought one T-shirt. This is another life, a new life, starting.

Nicole Farhi1:54

Thank you.

Presenter1:55

Tell me then a little bit about being a sculptor, because fashion is inevitably, I I imagine, a very collaborative process, whereas being a sculptor is being alone in your studio with a piece of material to work. What do you need around you when you're working?

Presenter2:11

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi2:11

I actually only need the clay.

Nicole Farhi2:14

And I work a lot from photograph. If I do portraiture, I will have sitters, but very, very briefly. And that's the big difference, obviously, in my new life, is that I am alone and I love it.

Presenter2:29

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi2:29

Uh

Presenter2:29

From the Neck Up was the title of your first exhibition in 2014. It was David Hare, your husband, that thought of that. And you referred to yourself at the time as the oldest debutante in London history. Yes, that's it's a nerve-wracking thing to be a certain age and to say this is what I'm doing now, this is serious, this is my work. How did you find that process?

Nicole Farhi2:32

It was David here.

Nicole Farhi2:34

What sort of that?

Nicole Farhi2:38

That's the

Nicole Farhi2:46

No, I was not nervous because I've been uh sculpting for over thirty years quietly on the side. And I always knew one day I will show my work. But I didn't want to do it while I was a designer. I wanted to stop one thing and be out with the next thing.

Presenter3:05

In that first exhibition in twenty fourteen, the range of busts that you presented were really of I mean people who happened to be your close friends, but they happened to be household names too, people like Dame Judy Dench, Bill Nye, Helena Bonham Carter, and so on. Your next exhibition is of hands and arms this time. Why is that interesting?

Nicole Farhi3:23

The next one. Well, after the portraits, I thought uh

Nicole Farhi3:26

What is there that is as expressive of a person but the hands? Your hands are always present and they move without you actually consciously moving them. And the hands that I decided to sculpt were the hands of people doing things with their hands. There is a glazier, there is a baker, there is an embroiderer.

Presenter3:50

Nicole Farray, forty years, as we know, in fashion. You've come in here today wearing what might be the most perfect denim shirt I've ever clapped eyes on. What's your only makes it even more annoying? What's your relationship with fashion now? Do you care at all?

Nicole Farhi4:07

I don't actually no, I don't uh I don't read magazines, I don't go shopping, but uh I always care about my old clothes. I love my old clothes and I have kept, luckily, over the years, my favorite inish collection. So everything I've got is old but can be worn forever.

Presenter4:24

Let's go to the first disc. Tell me what this is briefly and why you've chosen it.

Nicole Farhi4:29

Well last year I went to the Peace Marsh Festival and I heard Antoni Marwood playing the violin and playing that piece. I was totally transported by that piece of music. And I will always remember, and I think he will as well, is when he finished at the interval, I saw him in the garden. I rushed to him, embraced him and thanked him for my discovery of this incredible piece of music.

Presenter5:43

Uh

Presenter5:49

Tchaikovsky's trio for piano, violin and cello in A minor with Marta Argerich on piano, Guidon Kramer on violin and Michel Maiski on cello. So, Nicole Farr, you grew up in Nice, in the south of France. Both your parents were Sephardic Jews from Turkey. Your father had been brought up in Turkey by Jesuits, I think, and he spoke French.

Presenter6:10

Tell me a bit more about him particularly.

Nicole Farhi6:12

I doubt my father.

Nicole Farhi6:14

He was the nicest man I've ever met.

Nicole Farhi6:17

He was happily living in Turkey until his dad died.

Nicole Farhi6:24

He was, I think, fifteen, sixteen. And when he died, my grandmother found it very difficult to carry on bringing her kids up. So my father said, Well, I speak French, why don't I go and travel and see if I can make a living elsewhere? And then I will ask the family to come and live with me. And a friend of his was already selling rugs in France, so he went to Marseille, met his friend. His friend said, Well, here are some rugs. Why don't you go and sell these rugs?

Presenter6:54

So adventurous, entrepreneurial, spirited. He must have had lots of energy and determination to do that. But you say the nicest man you think you've ever met. What were his qualities as a father that make you say that?

Nicole Farhi7:06

He was radiating love. Physically he was a beautiful man and um he never found any fault in any one.

Nicole Farhi7:14

He was just goodness just goodness. Was he a successful salesman? No. He was enough to be able to get his mother back, but no, he was not a very successful man um in his business, but he enjoyed everything he had. He didn't want to

Presenter7:20

Well,

Nicole Farhi7:33

More, you know, where my mother was m different, she uh

Nicole Farhi7:38

She was more pushy and uh authoritarian.

Presenter7:42

Definitely.

Nicole Farhi7:42

Yeah.

Presenter7:42

The mother is still alive. She's she's alive.

Nicole Farhi7:43

My mother lives with

Presenter7:44

Me, she's over a hundred. And you say, you know, a strong personality. Tell me, do do you think that was because she felt she had to be, because your father maybe had a softer heart?

Nicole Farhi7:54

Well, I don't maybe she didn't have to be, but she still is strong.

Presenter7:58

She still has it over a hundred.

Nicole Farhi7:59

Over 100.

Nicole Farhi8:01

telling me off. For example, she always thought I didn't know how to dress and how she hate my hair, too much hair. She always would like me to uh have it very short and uh so uh she never accepted my way of life.

Nicole Farhi8:17

But I have to say, when uh I was seventeen and I wanted to leave Nice because I thought this town was far too little for me. My father didn't want me to. He was very traditionalist and he thought a girl has to stay at home until she gets married. My mother said, Let her go and she was fighting with him for me to go. So I owe her to have been able to go to Paris when I was eighteen to to do what I wanted. Let's have your next choice. It's it's your second, Nicole Froi.

Nicole Farhi8:48

Uh the next one is uh Ne Me Kit Pas by uh Jacques Breill. And um, you know, when you are seventeen, eighteen, you're romantic and you feel you're gonna meet that big love and you will never want him to leave you. Whatever you do in life, you want him to stay with you.

Speaker 39:06

Numer.

Speaker 39:09

I inventory, design, quote comprendras.

Speaker 39:16

Je parlorais, de c'est amont la quien vu, de foir cur sombre.

Speaker 39:24

I turn history of Soro de Navoir par to my queen, the pas, the mystery.

Presenter9:40

That was Jacques Brel and Maquit Pas. Nicole Faria, I said in the introduction that as a little girl I had read that you designed little clothes to hang on to your dolls. Tell me more about those.

Nicole Farhi9:49

Yeah, tell me more.

Nicole Farhi9:50

They were paper dolls that uh I drew and I drew the clothes summer, winter, skiing, uh, swim suit for the beach with little pegs, you know, and then I would dress my little dolls and uh sadly my mother threw everything away when I left her niece, but it's a shame because they were really, really nice.

Presenter10:11

And the Turkish aunts then, the ones that that took a lot of care of their fashion and that took you remarkably to these couture shows. I mean, that's a very exclusive environment. That was wonderful. Tell me first of all about your aunts. How did they look? How did they dress?

Nicole Farhi10:13

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi10:19

Vegas

Nicole Farhi10:20

And that's

Nicole Farhi10:25

One was my father's uh sister and she had a coutureriere who was making her clothes. But at the time you could buy, I don't think it still exists, paper patterns after the couture collection, which were kind of copies of uh the couture. And she would go to the shows with her couture and say, Oh, I like this, I like that and she had all her dress made for her. So uh when I was fourteen, fifteen, I would spend the month of August in Paris with her and she will take me.

Presenter10:55

Just c conjure the scene for me, if you would, because b you know, people we all think, well, we sort of have seen the snapshots and we might read the Odd Fashion magazine where we get a flavour of what goes on at a couture show, but but then, during the sixties, tell me what it was like.

Nicole Farhi11:09

Well, obviously at uh Yves Saint Laurent, for example, it was uh a very small room where everybody was sitting on gilded uh chairs and it was much more intimate. It was not a big uh show like uh fashion shows became uh in my time and even more probably today, I don't know.

Presenter11:30

And at fifteen, what sort of young girl were you? How were you dressing? What were you thinking? What were you interested in?

Nicole Farhi11:37

Well, because my mother had a say I had very short hair and curly but very short and and then I was always dressed in trousers and T shirt, and that was my uniform for many, many years to come.

Presenter11:52

It's extraordinary to hear that you had this close crop, this sort of short hair. It's sort of your signature.

Nicole Farhi11:57

Signature you

Presenter11:59

Your hair for so many years is your signature. I think when we think of Nicole Farre, we think of this magnificent mane of tumbling curls. When did you start to grow it? Was that as. As soon as I left.

Nicole Farhi12:02

Bye.

Nicole Farhi12:04

Magnificent Main.

Nicole Farhi12:08

As soon as I left.

Presenter12:11

And I sort of denote a kind of undercurrent of spikiness between you and your mother. Was that always present? Is that true? Yes.

Nicole Farhi12:17

That was precious. Is that true? Yes. Yeah. Still today. I mean, I hate her and I love her. And I think she does the same. I mean, when she came to live with me, she was ninety-five. She was losing her eyesight. So I thought she was living in Nice and she couldn't carry on living on her own. So I I said to her, Come and stay with me and she thought she'll stay a few months and go back, but eventually uh she stayed for good. And she kept telling me, But I never got on with you. What am I doing with you?

Presenter12:45

With you.

Presenter12:46

And how do you answer that?

Nicole Farhi12:47

You huh?

Nicole Farhi12:48

Well, I said, uh well, you're stuck.

Presenter12:48

Bye.

Nicole Farhi12:51

But oh, it you go in a home, and I never wanted her to go in a home, so we are stuck together.

Presenter12:58

Tell me about your next piece of music, Nicolavari. What's this? It's your third.

Nicole Farhi13:00

Ah, well then um when I went to Paris I was uh eighteen and I spent my time listening to jazz and I discovered uh the king of soul, Muddy Waters.

Speaker 413:16

Well, now getting late over in the evening, I feel like...

Speaker 413:21

Like blowing a hole.

Speaker 413:24

When I woke up this morning, all lie

Speaker 413:27

I have a gun I'll get in

Speaker 413:30

Late over in the evening, man, now I feel like blowing my hole.

Speaker 413:41

Well now, woke up this morning. All I have was gone.

Speaker 413:53

Well

Speaker 413:55

Books running to the ocean, the ocean running.

Speaker 413:58

Into the sea

Speaker 414:01

But don't find my baby, somebody gone.

Speaker 414:04

Shore bury me Hooks running to the ocean made that oh Ocean Running to the sea

Presenter14:14

That was muddy waters and I feel like going home. Indeed, I'm about to come to the part, Nicole, where you do absolutely the opposite. Home was Nice, but you decided that it wasn't quite big enough for you and the life you wanted to live. You went to Paris at you were around about eighteen and you went there to study art and fashion at uh the Studio Braceaux.

Speaker 314:21

Exactly.

Nicole Farhi14:22

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi14:29

Yeah.

Presenter14:29

Uh

Nicole Farhi14:30

How would you spend your days?

Presenter14:31

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi14:31

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi14:32

The first year I stayed with some cousins of my parents, and I did not enjoy having people overlooking at my life, because for me going to Paris was to g go towards freedom. And luckily the second year I had a tiny little bedroom on the top floor of a building.

Nicole Farhi14:52

They called them Chambre de Bonne. You could hardly see the sky actually from my room. But it was I was free. So I didn't have a kitchen. So every morning I would go to a cafe to have my breakfast. Then I will go to uh my fashion course. I didn't really enjoy the technical side of fashion, so I skipped that to go to a cinema.

Presenter15:13

I mean, can you pattern cut? Would you be no.

Nicole Farhi15:14

No no. No, because I never learned. I thought uh I will find, I'm sure, some people much more gifted than me for that kind of thing in life, which I did. And I do other things that I love.

Presenter15:26

And so to earn money as a student, you started sort of freelance selling these sketches that you had done. These would be fancy sketches then.

Nicole Farhi15:32

You've done these would be fancy sketches then? Yes. Every morning in my cafe I would go through the companies and call them and say, Can I come and show you my sketches? And I was still at school, but I was already selling uh my work.

Nicole Farhi15:46

Some of my first clothes, which gave me my first contract, I had uh drawn little bags in the same fabric matching the skirt or the jacket attached by a belt. And uh I went into a company called Pierre d'Alby to show my sketches and they thought, Oh, that's amusing, you know, and anything you could do which was out of the n normal would be accepted because people were hungry for novelty. So it was the beginning of pretaporte.

Presenter16:19

And in any successful life, of course, timing plays a very important part. It was the early seventies when you met a man called Stephen Marks, who would go on to become one of our most successful fashion entrepreneurs. He started French Connection, the label is itself in nineteen seventy two. You were chief designer there. What was your vision? What were you

Nicole Farhi16:33

The two.

Nicole Farhi16:37

Trying to do that. Oh, it was wonderful. Stephen had gone to India and came back with some clothes which he sold and created the label French Connection. And he said to me, Next time you must go because there is so much you can do in that country. The fabrics were fantastic, cheesecloths, things you couldn't find here. The embroidery was magnificent. It was the opening of a new world for me. And did you have?

Presenter17:05

Of a woman in mind. Was there somebody in your creative head that you were designing for?

Nicole Farhi17:08

I always designed for myself, really, to please myself, to to do things that I knew I would wear. I never wore dresses ever. So it was more difficult when Stephen said to me, Nicole, you know, young girls, they do like wearing dresses, you must wear dresses. So I invented that young girl who could be me if I were to wear dresses.

Presenter17:29

Let's have some more music, Nicole Farrie. Tell me about this. It's your fourth. What are we going to hear?

Nicole Farhi17:33

It's La Calas singing La Wally. When I started sculpting in my early thirties,

Nicole Farhi17:41

I listened to a lot to opera and the voice was something that made me want to sculpt, and La Calas in particular, because the tragic life of that woman, the beauty of that woman, that sensual voice, all that.

Nicole Farhi17:59

moved my guts and made me sculpt.

Presenter19:05

Well then, I'll go far away from Catalani's Law Ali, sung by Maria Carlos, with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Tullio Serafine. So, Nicole Farre, you and Stephen Marks had you had a professional and also a personal relationship. I can't help thinking there must have been an intensity about that at the time. You know, you're in the fashion business together, you're also in the relationship business together. What do you remember of those times?

Nicole Farhi19:28

We worked well together.

Nicole Farhi19:31

But uh it was it was quite tumultuous. I remember days where I will throw the sketches to his face and take the train back to Paris with my daughter as a baby. But uh we had uh a wonderful time. So um I owe him a lot and uh I love him dearly and we are best friends.

Presenter19:51

And, you know, working at that time, as you say, French Connection, it was a thriving business, it was a high street brand, and there you were as its chief designer, with then a little baby to look after. How did you manage all of that? What were the logistics like?

Nicole Farhi20:05

I just had a great nanny and I I had a great daughter who understood. I remember saying to her, Oh, I'm so sorry, darling, I'm gonna have to go to India again and I'm gonna leave you. Do you mind do you and she said, Mommy, I love you. I will always remember. She never minded because she loved me and she knew I loved her. Our bond, her and I, is extremely strong.

Presenter20:29

You took that big step in 1982 then of launching the Nicolfari label.

Presenter20:34

I say a big step. Did it feel like a big step to put your name, to put your person to a label?

Nicole Farhi20:39

No. I th you know, d Stephen had a company called Stephen Marks, which I was designing the the clothes for, and little by little his name disappeared and my name appeared. The thing that changed was that I think I improved as a designer and I became much more affirmative of my own style.

Presenter21:00

The question of style, of course, is an entirely subjective thing, and people like what they like, and lots of different people like lots of different things. But as you've described it, you were designing for really yourself, for the sort of clothes that you wanted to wear. And you said at one point that they were sensual clothes, but not overtly sexual, because you didn't want women to be frightened of wearing them, to feel like they were a prisoner in their own clothes.

Nicole Farhi21:18

And of wearing

Nicole Farhi21:21

I always uh felt that uh sensuality is something very, very refined. You don't even have to uh wear clothes with a big decortage to be uh attractive. You know, it's it comes from the eyes, it comes from the way you speak. So for me, being corsetted in clothes is just ridiculous. What for? I don't think you add anything to yourself. I never wanted uh to put my bosom in the face of people.

Presenter21:52

Nicole Foy, it's time for your fifth. Tell me about this.

Nicole Farhi21:56

Well, this is my love for not only uh jazz, but also cinema. Big treat is to see at least one movie a day.

Nicole Farhi22:06

which I carry on doing, and I saw this movie Ass Anseur Pour Les Chaffau, and Miles Davies recorded the soundtrack over one night session, and it's an incredible piece of music.

Presenter23:14

Uh

Presenter23:16

That was Miles Davis playing Generique from the soundtrack to Assensur pour Les Chaffour.

Presenter23:22

I want to rewind for a moment, Nicole Fari, to a little um it was a dinner party, I think, back in the nineteen eighties, and a friend was sculpting a little wine cork at the table.

Nicole Farhi23:24

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi23:32

Yeah.

Presenter23:33

Uh

Nicole Farhi23:33

It's like a revelation. I suddenly realized, because I was not really satisfied with my life as a designer. I felt always something was missing. And when I saw her, I said to her, What are you doing with this cork? And she said, I'm a sculptor. I said, but this is it. This is what I want to be. And I said, How can I get there? And she said, Well, I know somebody who gives evening classes. Why don't you go and see her? And her name was Jean Gibson.

Nicole Farhi24:04

She gave me a lump of clay. She said, I will only take you if you can do something with this. She said, Make a torso. I was so emotional. I went to my car. She said, I'll take you on when she saw what I had done. And I went and cried.

Presenter24:19

Interesting.

Presenter24:21

But for somebody who had and I understand it was a it was a business and the fashion business is a demanding mistress and you have to get the collections out it was, however, also for you a creative process. Yes, it was this other thing that somehow emotionally you connected with. What is it as you are working with clay that is so powerful?

Nicole Farhi24:38

It comes from the Guths.

Nicole Farhi24:41

The first moment I touch the clay is totally, totally emotional. And still now, you know, after all those years, I just go into I've got a dustpin where I keep my clay. I just put my hand in the clay and I feel it. It's like touching the earth. I tried different medium over the years and Eduardo Parlozzi, who became my friend, said to me, why don't you try plaster? I tried stone. I tried wax. Nothing does it for me like touching the clay.

Presenter25:16

And the artist and sculptor, as you just said, uh the late Sir Eduardo Palozzi, he was somebody really who became would it be fair to say he became your mentor, really artist?

Nicole Farhi25:23

It did. When I met David, who became my husband, I was so happy I stopped sculpting. And Eduardo, who I knew already, was really upset. And he said, happiness is not suited to an artist. Go back to to sculpt. And he started coming. Every Wednesday I would not go to work. So he did become my mentor, my teacher.

Presenter25:46

And he enabled you to see, you've once said, endless beauty that was all around you. Well, that isn't that a skill. How did he manage to do that?

Nicole Farhi25:54

He took me out uh to uh shows, to museums. We walked in the street and he used to say, Look up there, look at this. He would pick up stuff in the street. Uh he saw something creative in everything, and he opened my eyes.

Presenter26:11

We're going to hear your next piece of music, Nicolavari. Tell me what we're going to hear next. This is your sixth.

Nicole Farhi26:16

This is a very important piece of music for me. It's a song which is not only anti war, but also about people standing for what they believe and who they are. So I've decided to dedicate it to Mohammed Ali.

Speaker 426:35

Monsieur le President,

Speaker 426:38

Je vous fais i natre.

Speaker 426:42

Query raised petatre.

Speaker 426:44

Sivos averton.

Speaker 426:48

Jevienne de Rosevoire

Speaker 426:51

Mait papier, militaire, pour partir à la guerre.

Speaker 426:58

Avant, mercor de soir.

Speaker 427:01

Monsieur le President.

Presenter27:04

Je neuve par la faire.

Presenter27:07

That was Serge Réganie and Les Desarteur. So you you met the man who's now your husband, the playwright, Sir David Hare, in nineteen ninety one, I think it was. You had been asked to design something for a play of his.

Nicole Farhi27:19

I was uh helping my friend Bob Crowley uh to design the couple of dresses of the leading lady for a play of David, Murmuring Judges. Uh Richard Eyre, who was directing the play, invited me for dinner. There were a party after the play. I had seen David the night before on television and

Nicole Farhi27:40

When he talked I thought, Oh, my God, this man is talking to me. I can understand what he's saying. The next day I was not going to go and see the play, but after I'd seen him I decided I will go and see the play, without knowing that I will meet him.

Nicole Farhi27:55

But when he came in to the restaurant, I saw him and he looked at me and it was a coup de food for him. It was a coup de food.

Presenter28:00

It was a coup de fout, wasn't it?

Presenter28:03

Top.

Nicole Farhi28:04

Tell me then about the design of

Presenter28:04

B

Nicole Farhi28:05

Your wedding rings

Presenter28:05

Yeah.

Presenter28:06

Uh

Nicole Farhi28:06

His name obviously is David Hare. So I thought I want a ring that is only for him and me, that nobody else will ever have. I'm looking at it now. You just passed it to me.

Presenter28:15

Looking at night

Nicole Farhi28:18

I sculpted two hares running after each other for ever.

Presenter28:21

Forever.

Presenter28:24

You describe yourself as a very faithful person. You hold on to things, you keep friendships going for for a long time. I mean, what does that what does that mean in practice? Do you have treasures that are your touchstones through life?

Nicole Farhi28:36

too much part inanimate objects.

Nicole Farhi28:39

But I'm attached to people, yeah. And my friends I I want them for the rest of my life and uh

Nicole Farhi28:46

As Rilke said, they are the guarant of your memory. And you know, if you forget something, you always have a friend to remind you how you were or what happened and and it's so important.

Presenter28:59

What about your attachment to your home land? I mean, you know, y a childhood in Nice and then living in Paris for so many years, you've kept your exquisite accent. Do you do you sometimes pine for home? Do you sometimes do you feel like a foreigner in a foreign land still?

Nicole Farhi29:11

Do you feel like

Nicole Farhi29:14

I don't feel British at all.

Nicole Farhi29:16

But uh I do feel French, although the fact that my family came from elsewhere

Nicole Farhi29:22

I'm more attached to France probably than I am to England, but I can't say I'm desperate to go back or I'm happy where I am.

Presenter29:31

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi29:31

Tell me about it.

Presenter29:31

To your next piece of music. This is your seven.

Nicole Farhi29:33

So this is for David, is The Man I Love, sung by Sarah Vone, which I kept listening to because after a few weeks of going out with him, he went off on holiday at Christmas for a week, but I was desperate because he had left me behind, and so I kept listening to Sarah Vone, The Man I Love.

Presenter29:55

Yeah.

Speaker 329:56

Uh

Presenter29:57

Uh

Presenter29:57

Some day

Presenter30:03

The man I love

Presenter30:06

And he'll be big and strong, all the man I love.

Speaker 430:15

And when he comes my way I'll do my best.

Speaker 430:22

To make him stay

Presenter30:32

You look at me and smile I'll understand and in a little while

Presenter30:45

He'll take my hand.

Presenter30:50

That was Sarah Vaughan and The Man I Love, music and lyrics there by George and Ira Gershwin. So, uh, Nicol Fari, in 2010, after a few years, it would be fair to say of struggling a bit financially, the Nicol Fari brand was sold, and it's a tough business, the fashion business. And so, the remaining shops and concessions don't have anything to do with you now, yet there's your name.

Nicole Farhi31:08

No not at all.

Nicole Farhi31:10

I actually try to avoid passing by my stores. I have absolutely nothing to do with it. I stayed in the business when it was sold at the beginning for a couple of years, but it changed hands so quickly. After one year, it changed hands, and I was very happy the day I left, and I don't want to look back.

Presenter31:29

What would you like your uh creative legacy to be? When I've been talking to you today, it's it's very clear to me the most engaged you are is when you're talking about the thing that you are in the middle of doing right now, which is creating sc uh pieces of sculpture. But does it feel to you as though that's what you'd really like to be known for?

Nicole Farhi31:46

Well, you know, I did uh the head of Thomas Gensborough for the Gensborough House. And when I went, I never had that with my clothes, and I saw my clothes on thousands of people, and I know clothes get destroyed little by little. There will be nothing left of me in fashion. But that head of Gensborough will remain in that museum. And then I felt I'm gonna leave a little mark of my passage here on earth.

Presenter32:15

So It felt really good.

Presenter32:18

You're going to be cast away to this desert island, and I'm imagining, you know, there are endless possibilities for your creative juices to flow here. What do you think will inspire you?

Nicole Farhi32:24

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi32:26

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi32:28

Well, I don't know what will inspire me, but I will have the the s the sand. I hope it's a sandy island, but if it's not, if it's stone, I will make something out of the stone.

Presenter32:38

Let's go to your final piece of music, Nicole Farre. Tell me about this. What's what's your rates?

Nicole Farhi32:42

So the last uh piece uh I chose are uh the four last songs by Richard Strauss. I absolutely adore the the piece you're gonna hear the spring. It's something that stirs my inside.

Presenter33:57

That was Richard Strauss's spring from his four last songs sung there by Gundelo Janowitz with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan. So, Nicoll, it's time for me to cast you away. I'm going to give you some books to keep you company, along with the discs. You get the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible.

Nicole Farhi34:10

With a dick.

Presenter34:15

Thanks.

Presenter34:16

Do you mean it? You don't look like you mean thanks there.

Nicole Farhi34:19

Oh, I find uh Shakespeare quite difficult, and uh I've read the Bible when I was young, and I don't wish to read it again.

Presenter34:26

Okay. So what's your choice of books?

Nicole Farhi34:28

So my choice is Marcel Proust la recherche du temperdu.

Nicole Farhi34:33

I've got a beautiful edition which my mother gave me when I was fifteen and I actually never read it completely. And uh what about your luxury then? What's that good?

Presenter34:42

Gonna be.

Nicole Farhi34:43

Yeah.

Nicole Farhi34:43

Well, I don't want a luxury, but because I thought I could take my l my husband with me.

Nicole Farhi34:49

And I heard I can't. So I I've been thinking, thinking, and actually I just thought what else and I all just don't care for anything else.

Presenter34:58

Oh, you've gone all French on me now, Nicole.

Presenter35:02

You may be the first castaway we've ever had not to take the luxury, but there you are. Um, which of these eight tracks would you like to save from the waves?

Nicole Farhi35:10

I'd like the four less songs.

Presenter35:12

Nicole Fry, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thank you, Kirsty.

Presenter35:58

You've been listening to a download from the BBC.

Presenter36:00

You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website bbc.co.uk slash Radio4