Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Fashion designer who invented power dressing and is known for crumpled look and baggy T-shirts with political slogans.
On the island
Eight records
Rise to the Occasion (Hip Hop Remix)
I'm a pop music addict, naturally, and I'm also a potato peeler dancer, like I like to dance when I'm cooking in the kitchen. And I love this record.
Why Does Everybody Call Me Bighead?Favourite
This is the first record that my mother ever gave me.
This is for somebody who I think is a very clever Englishman and who's still really got got to make it big.
It's just loony. I really like loony things. There's a sort of French genre of music that you never hear in this country.
BBC Welsh Chorus and BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra
I think, a nice finale.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:00Catherine, they've called you before now the loony lefty of the fashion world. Do you object to that term?
And rubbish. Well, I'm apolitical, really. I mean, I don't have much faith in any politicians. I suppose if I belong to any party, it would be the party of common sense. … I think when you have kids you do care. I mean you can't help it because you see them to be so under threat from everything. I mean I hardly dare open the newspapers these days.
Presenter asks
2:54All this talk of radicalism, but you're the product of really quite an upmarket family and education, aren't you?
Um my father was in the Air Force and when I was five he was posted to Paris and then when I was eight he was posted to uh Bucharest. He was the defence attache for Romania and Bulgaria. And then he came back to London, he worked in the Cabinet Office … He went to Scandinavia as the Defence Settle for Scandinavia. … When we lived in Romania, if we ever wanted to have a conversation, we used to be followed by two cars of secret police wherever we went … We used to have a guy up from the Home Office every six months to dig the microphones out of the walls. … if ever you wanted to have a conversation, like if you're worried about something or, you know, you've seen a servant listening at a door, you used to have to go into the bathroom, run the bath and pull the flash in the toilet.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
It's a fascinating book because it's a book of philosophy. You can also use it for fortune telling. I mean, it's a bit of a sort of you can ask it questions whenever you're in a jam and it'll give you the most amazing advice. It's like a good father almost.
The luxury
an aircraft carrier (with engines removed and interior decorated)
I'd like an aircraft carrier, but you could take the engines away. And then I'd decorate it on the inside, like sort of each hangar would be sort of a different theme. I could have the Arctic hangar and I could have the mangrove swamp hangar. I think it should be moored about half a mile offshore because I think that a mile a day swim is quite good for the bod and it just keeps you going longer. It's very important to be physically active. If you're physically active, you live longer. And I want to live a very long time.
How did you then come to choose fashion?
Well, I mean, the story I tell, which is ninety percent true, is that I've put a pin in the careers book and it it came up fashion but in actual fact we've been opening the pages and … You know, that book had been opened quite a few times.
Presenter asks
11:33Do you think Mrs Thatcher had a large influence on fashion?
Uh no, not at all. I do think, though, for a women politician, she's actually quite well dressed now at last. … Well, I think that formality in clothing is power.
Presenter asks
13:06You met Mrs Thatcher once, didn't you? You went to Downing Street, which was quite an occasion.
Well, I didn't actually want to go. … I didn't approve of the Falklands War at all. I thought it was a completely unnecessary piece of obscenity … and I just thought all those lives lost, but there was a perfect media opportunity. And so I did the T-shirt and slid it under about five other layers. Went this T-shirt with 58% don't want Pershing written on it … And so anyway I went along. And she's very charming. … I actually liked her as I was shaking her hand, and I was feeling almost sorry for her about what was about to happen, that she was going to be photographed with me wearing this T shirt, which made her look an idiot. … I shook her hand and she smiled and said, Oh, at last, a true original And I thought, If only you knew and then I flushed the jacket at all the press photographers and they went crazy … It was the most used photograph of UPI that year, apparently.
Presenter asks
22:48Are you bringing your boys up in that very orthodox fashion in which you were brought up?
Well, no, not in the orthodox fashion, but I'm afraid they are having a private education. I sent Sam to State school when he was seven and a half. He couldn't read. I was absolutely horrified. … I'd had him tested by an educational psychologist … he came up very high in everything except concentration. … I hooked him out of school, had private tutors for him per term, which didn't work … and then started hunting around to find a school that could get him to catch up … Now he's fine, but I mean it's been the most incredible slog. … I do think that children are born with the possibility of being good at everything. You just have to stimulate them and excite them. You know, you just have to turn them on.
“I think when you have kids you do care. I mean you can't help it because you see them to be so under threat from everything.”
“You are what you wear, really. You are what you have.”
“I think that formality in clothing is power.”
“I didn't approve of the Falklands War at all. I thought it was a completely unnecessary piece of obscenity.”
“I always think of a collection that goes down well. I think, oh, thank God we can eat.”