Tell us about your Mexican influences?
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Back in the late 70s I went to Mexico a couple of times because my godson was born there and I had people to stay with. Mexico gets inside your head and never ever leaves. The food and the art and the colour really got to me and my time there was very intense. The painted houses, bright clothing, the markets were extraordinary and it was extremely exciting, it was damn exciting!

It’s become a bit of cliché but I adore Frida Kahlo and I visited her house in Coyoacán. Now when you go I understand it’s a very big deal but when I went there in the early 80s there was just one guard sleeping in a garden chair outside. We had to wake him up and he got his keys and let us in, then went back to his chair and back to sleep. There was no gift shop, nobody there. My friend and I wandered through the house and it was unbelievably moving – her corset was on the bed and her kitchen was yellow. Frida Kahlo has had a big influence on me, her art and the way she lived, she took indigenous folk art seriously and I love her for that.

How do you decide what to wear each morning?
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That is the great pleasure in life, and all my friends that will be with me on the colour walk, we all dress different but we all dress uniquely. Sometimes I start with a neck piece I want to wear and sometimes a particular colour and sometimes I just stand there and think, oh my goodness I don’t know what to pick I love it all! I don’t have a formula, it’s just about fun and what speaks to me. Everyday is fantastic and dressing this way is good for the mental health, it keeps me young.

Tell us about the talk you are doing at the Silk Series market?
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I want to talk about the east end and the market itself. Back in the 80’s when it stopped being a fruit and vegetable market, Old Spitalfields Market was an old rubbly hole in the ground, and all sorts of interesting artists had informal and rough stalls to sell their art and hang out. I used to go all the time and bought a lot of stuff from people that have gone on to great things. I continue coming to the market to this day because of the antiques market, I’m a flea market fanatic – from the very first day it opened I have been going, it’s a real honest-to-god flea market and a lot of the traders have become friends of mine. They know what I am looking for and are very kind to me, I support that market with all my heart.

I met Mei-Hui Liu, the curator of Silk Series, way back in the day when she was selling her designs at the market and that’s when we became friends. I’m so happy to see Mei-Hui is curating art and artisans back to the market. It’s the best thing that could happen because it’s right in the middle of the east end, an area bursting with artists, and it was the artists that moved here because they could afford it and they made it fascinating.

All tagged with “East London”

The New Weekends Are Here

Guest Market: P.S. Shop-Up

Guest Market: Mother Maker & Wimbledon Art Studios

Guest Market: Urban Makers

The Hoxton Hotel’s Old Spitalfields Market Food Safari

Sheffield School of Architecture’s Summer Showcase

Royal Wedding Market Celebrations

Guest Market: P.S. Shop-Up

Guest Market: Urban Makers

Sheffield School of Architecture’s Summer Showcase

Guest Market: Mother Maker & Wimbledon Art Studios

The Hoxton Hotel’s Old Spitalfields Market Food Safari

Royal Wedding Market Celebrations

Floral Masterclass with Jo Malone London

Wedding Style with Jo Malone London

Hot Blossoms launch with Jo Malone London

The Last Stop For The Curious

We Love Meat Festival

Collective Art Exhibition