Bella Freud (Jan,2004)

FASHION & STYLE: MY GREATEST MISTAKE BELLA FREUD

I usually wear clothes that I have designed myself, so I don't end up dressed like a fashion mistake. But when I was 12, my first clothing conflict arose with my mother - I wanted platform shoes. I wasn't allowed them, so I bought some hideous black lace-up ones in a jumble sale. I used to carry them around in a plastic bag, and hide them under my flares.

As far as work is concerned, some of my worst moments happened at one of my fashion shows in the tent outside the Natural History Museum, in the summer of 1995, when the Seventies legend Ossie Clark helped me. I knew Ossie was a brilliant machinist who could do stuff at top speed if he had the inclination, but this depended entirely on his mood. For this show, he spent hours worrying about details that didn't matter, even at a very late stage. The show was in the evening and we were still cutting patterns in the morning.

It was completely mad, like a horror film in slow motion. I knew that if I lost the plot, there would be no show. Everyone was so tired and Ossie had been terrorising the machinists, so everything came to a standstill. There was a bikini to be worn by Luciana Morad (well before her affair with Mick Jagger). But the bikini wasn't there. So we sent a girl to get it from the studio, but she returned with just the bikini top. Luciana was planning to go down the runway with a bag attached to her waist instead of the bikini bottoms. I freaked out and we sent the poor girl back to the studio. She rushed back with these tiny bikini bottoms and Luciana was shoved on to the catwalk.

It was all such a rush in those days, but I haven't worked like that for a long time. These days, I'm calmer. Since I went to work in Italy and then with Jaeger, I have become more organised.

(Credit:Independent Newspapers UK Limited)
(Photo credit: fashionencyclopedia.com)