Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Fashion designer who won British Designer of the Year in 1985 and launched a successful label that appealed to a wide range of wearers.
On the island
Eight records
It's about... The privilege of actually doing what I've always wanted to do and I suppose as I get older I'm now geriatric in the fashion world it becomes clearer and clearer that that I have been so lucky to still do it.
to do with uh me being independent from my elder sister and choosing my music instead of uh Helen Shapiro and Cliff Richard. And also because it's John Lennon and I was he just was the most wonderful, um, sexiest man and I think I was in love with him from the age of about twelve and a half.
You Don't Have to Say You Love MeFavourite
She's just it was her time then and I absolutely love her voice and it'll make my hair stand on end at this beginning.
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
Well this was actually about being in Birmingham, Dancers in the Student Union and about Motown being the most fantastic sound. And um it's probably one of the saddest records, but he has the most beautiful voice as well, Smokey Robinson.
I fell in love with a Frenchman who lived in France and um we always seem to be saying goodbye really rather than hello, which of course when you're in love you seem to be. And so this is about meeting David, and also because Ella Fitzgerald has the most beautiful voice in the history of the universe, I think.
sort of about um children and um running round the sitting room and dancing and uh having a good time really when they were little.
I work with a fantastic young team and we listen to m music in the studio the whole time. And of course, you know, the music director for the fashion show is introducing new music. And I just love the sounds that Maybe produces.
Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt
This is to do with friends and how important friends... are in my life and about me hating uh country music and a great friend of mine trying to make me believe in country music and another friend of mine trying to also make me believe.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:01Is it still a thrill, Betty, seeing people famous or not dressed in your clothes?
I think it's the biggest thrill, and I think it's the thrill that sort of goes on and on, really. Just the fact that somebody's gone out and chosen what you have actually created and bought it with them hard-earned cash and stuff like that. It's a great compliment.
Presenter asks
5:48Why haven't we [developed fashion businesses like Armani or Calvin Klein]?
I think it's something to do with the structure of the business and certainly American companies. employing your marketing manager and your sales manager first and the British Are great at creativity but hopeless at selling themselves.
Presenter asks
13:23How did your [car] accident happen?
Well, I drove a car into a tree early one morning and the steering went on the car they found later.
Presenter asks
14:38The keepsakes
The book
Fifty Years of British Creativity
The British Council
I will miss going to art galleries, I will miss seeing exhibitions, because we do that a lot. So just to have the pictures there would be an absolute joy and a thrill.
The luxury
Firstly because it looks great with the tan, which I'll obviously have on a desert island, and um good moisturizer too. And uh I want to be glamorous when I'm picked up. So uh it's an essential part. It has been an essential part of my life for the last Thirty years, so and Patsy would approve.
How long did it take physically [to recover] and psychologically?
I suppose to learn to stand up and move around, which I don't do terribly well even now, um, was about eighteen months, two years, I think. ... Well, I think you just need help with that. I think I had So much support. And I also think I'm sort of horribly optimistic as a person.
Presenter asks
21:16How was it in those early days [of starting your own label]?
Absolutely not. I mean, it was there was no organisation it wasn't a London Fashion Week or which it is now. ... literally went to a trade fair and hung it on a rail. And it was such an achievement to actually get the thing done. that I remember we we sort of sat in a collapsed heap at five past nine when the exhibition opened and we had all these garments hanging on the rail.
Presenter asks
28:01How do you sit and design for that kind of range of age and look?
When we start a collection, so it's not just me doing it, we're a we're a little team. We choose our favourite women and it's not necessarily to do with whether they're beautiful or not, it's sort of to do with their personality and what they do in life. And so we have different sorts of women, different age groups, different and when we go through the collection we say, Okay, is this one for Charlotte Gainsborough or is it one for Charlotte Rampling or is it one and actually it really focuses you on end usage of the clothes.
“I never understood that ball gown thing. I sort of think that you should be able to just change your shoes and your earrings and go off anywhere.”
“I do believe that you come into life on your own and you leave life on your own and there's certain things that you have to deal with on your own. But it also taught me about the importance of other people around you.”
“I don't think I want to lose control as we did in the early eighties because it was silly and you know we had no idea of where the merchandise was going and how it was selling”