Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Directress of a celebrated Paris fashion house, known for many radio and television appearances.
On the island
Eight records
Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence
Oh, it was the glamour of my youth. The absolutely unattainable as far as I was concerned. I come from a bourgeois family. I was very strictly brought up. And it was the theatre, which I love more than anything, which I still do. And Noel Coward was my dream.
You're SensationalFavourite
It is the sort of theme song of a very, very happy time in my life. And I who am, as I told you, a record addict. I always go back to Sinatra. When I'm in doubt of what to choose, he gives me great pleasure.
First of all, because I love Lena. I think she's beautiful. And as you know, I love beautiful people, men and women. And I never get used to that. And I love her as a person. And then it's a song against racial discrimination, whatever the people discriminated against are. I was one, so I know what it feels like.
The Death of King George VI (spoken piece)
It stands for me for everything I really love best in the world, which is England. I'm sorry to sound rather corny and high saluting, but it's what I would have liked to fight for during the war and what I think of every day.
Well, because um though I'm devoted to Marlena as a friend. It there that isn't the reason for that. It's because she represents the glamour of the theatre that was revealed to me the first time after standing in a pit queue when I was at school and seeing Matheson Lang in the purple mask. ... Beauty was open to me. And when I go and hear her? I'm not disappointed. There's still the answer to that one the wonder. And I've chosen this record because I think she sings it beautifully. I love Bert Bacharach's arrangement and the bra. does a great deal for me and will Give me. Something to think about on my island.
Piano Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052
Sviatoslav Richter (piano) with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
I think it's really time that I had some classical music and got away from the sickly nostalgia of my other records. And Bach in the way of classical music is my favorite, and at least I'll be able to get my brain clear. And I've always wanted to know perfectly. A classical record. Every path, every instrument, every note.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046
Yehudi Menuhin with the Bach Festival Chamber Orchestra
Well, I'm going to have another classical record because of my fuzzy brain must get hardened.
London is a Little Bit of All Right
This is London again, the London I miss, the London I love, and when you hear it, you'll understand why. It represents everything I miss.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:27Are you English or French?
Oh, I'm British. I was born in Paris. Spent my very early childhood in Paris, but was brought up in England and am extremely British.
Presenter asks
3:45What was your first job?
Well, after a very spoilt childhood and youth, I had to earn my living because of financial necessity and I got a job in a store in Piccadilly as a shop girl. That's really when my enjoyment of life started properly. You enjoyed selling things. I loved selling it that first day and 35 years later. I still love selling. I hate buying. I'm a rotten shopper, but I still love selling.
Presenter asks
4:27You went to live in Paris because you married a Frenchman. What was the war like?
Yes, I married a Frenchman in 1939, which is a rotten year to have chosen, except I was very much in love with this Frenchman, and we didn't want to be parted during the war. And you stayed in France right during the war? Yes, we moved 16 times. My husband is Jewish. I'm Jewish. I'm being niche as well. So it was the whole mixture was what the Germans disliked the most. We moved, as I say, 16 times, pursued by the Germans for four and a half years. I fainted from hunger in the street, became almost blind from malnutrition. And that was nothing compared to not being able to say what one felt and not being with the people one loved.
The keepsakes
The book
A black loose-leaf notebook of favourite quotations
Ginette Spanier
I have a black loose leaf notebook. In it, I've always written down my favorite quotations from books that I've read, from letters I've received, messages I have received, and this I would love to have with me. ... I would like to use the [other] half of the book to write my experiences on the island.
The luxury
A little silver box given by Nancy Spain
A lovely little silver box that was given to me by Nancy Spain and which I always have by me.
Presenter asks
6:46How did you get the job with Pierre Balmain?
The daughter of a friend of mine from London came to stay with us. My husband and I were absolutely penniless. This was just after the liberation. And our mind wasn't a bit on expensive clothes. But as a treat, this child was allowed to choose two dresses from the new man, Pierre Balmer, whom frankly I had never heard of. So we dressed ourselves up most beautifully, I thought. and went in there looking very chic. Apparently I looked quite terrible. Who says this, Monsieur Belma? Monsieur Barnard and almost every member of the staff that I come across quite regularly over the last 18 years. But still, I thought I looked great. That's what clothes are for. They make people look great. And saw the collection, went into a fitting room to get the clothes for the little girl. I was a little bit strict with the vendors. A lady came over to me and I thought she was going to offer me the mink or the sable coat. And she said, it's a woman like you we need in this firm. It was Pierre Balmain's mother. I started work for her son next day. And that's just about to the day, 18 years ago.
Presenter asks
9:35What is your definition of chic?
Oh, the thing I love, like star quality, that little bit of gold dust. That people have been sent down from heaven with. Not necessarily expensive clothes. Definitely nothing to do with it. Now a girl in a cotton frock can have chic and a lady in a mink coat can make it look like rabbits. That means she hasn't got chic.
Presenter asks
13:06Is Paris still the undisputed fashion centre?
But of course it is the undisputed center for the birth of fashion. Else, why would all these people from New York and Rome come and see and buy our models twice a year? Obviously there's competition, but in what business isn't there competition?
“I loved selling it that first day and 35 years later. I still love selling.”
“I fainted from hunger in the street, became almost blind from malnutrition.”
“And that was nothing compared to not being able to say what one felt and not being with the people one loved.”
“I was one, so I know what it feels like.”
“Now a girl in a cotton frock can have chic and a lady in a mink coat can make it look like rabbits. That means she hasn't got chic.”