Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A hat designer whose trailblazing, architectural creations revolutionised millinery, turning hats into individual acts of rebellion.
On the island
Eight records
The keepsakes
The book
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:59What sort of working hours have you been keeping over the last couple of weeks?
I would start maybe at about seven in the morning and finish at whatever time in the evening I could get home, sometimes midnight, sometimes not at all.
Presenter asks
3:08In the royal enclosure, you must wear a hat with a base of no less than four inches – what's that all about?
People have to wear a hat. They can't wear an excuse for a hat. So that dreaded word fascinator that we all hate. … It just sounds like a dodgy sex toy to me. … a fascinator really is sort of a hairband with a floppy flower on it. And any child can make a fascinator. So a hat is a different thing.
Presenter asks
9:24You say you were completely different to the others – in what respect?
Well, I was interested in different things and so at six years of age in school one day I noticed that the boys did something and the girls did sewing and one day I said to the teacher, Can I do that? There was a long pause and she said Okay. And then she told all the boys to sew. So all the boys sewed, crocheted, knit. I could never knit, but I could crochet.
I would particularly like an encyclopedia of shells if I was on a desert island. Then I would really like to know what I'm looking at.
The luxury
my luxury would be a thimble. … a tailor's thimble. … it's this piece of metal on the end of your finger and you use it for sticking pins of the blocks into the wood. It takes such a long time to get used to this piece of metal on the end of your finger when you start out first. When you get used to it, you can't do without it.
Presenter asks
12:33What did [your mother] make of her little sewing boy?
My mother was probably worried for me, really. But she had to cope with it because basically I was fascinated by her sewing machine. And so when she would go and feed the chickens … I could take the machine out'cause it made a lot of noise. So it was like a military operation to get the machine out, put it up, take the lid off and then pedal like crazy for like two minutes before she came back.
Presenter asks
17:44Isabella Blow spotted you. How did she promote you?
By looking after us, really. … I mean we went to a Vogue party one time with Isabella and Isabella just bypassed everybody at the party and just grabbed my hand and took me over to Carl Augerfeld [Karl Lagerfeld] and introduced me to him. And the best way I can explain Isabella's approach was Isabella thought she was doing Carl Augerfeld a favour. … one month later I was designing for him at Chanel Couture, but she thought she was doing collager [Lagerfeld] the favour.
Presenter asks
20:19How do you remember [Alexander McQueen and Isabella Blow] as people?
People associate them with tragedy and sadness and darkness, and uh the people I knew were completely different people. They were full on exciting people to be with. I mean, Isabella was … she was full of life, not full of death. I mean, she was just one of the most life-enhancing people I've ever come across. I mean, a visit to Tesco with Isabella in her outfit was as exciting as a visit to the opera because something would happen, or she'd meet somebody. She was an amazing people person, and she was very giving of herself to people around her.
“Royal Ascot? But Royal Ascot makes our year go round, really. So last week was Christmas for us.”
“People have to wear a hat. They can't wear an excuse for a hat. So that dreaded word fascinator that we all hate.”
“I remember distinctly hearing my father say whatever makes him happy and you know … Moves me still to think of him like that because I think it's a good idea.”
“And what she was doing … Was she wasn't just throwing her hat on, she was placing the hat so that the hat enhanced the face. So the positioning of the hat was actually more important than the hat, which I agree with. You know, a hat really is what it's doing is changing the proportions of the face. So it's plastic surgery for the face without the pain.”
“And sh her answer was brilliant. And she said, you know, when I go out on stage, I do it for them. So when I make something or when I work for somebody, I'm still doing it for them.”