Whatever happened to the It girl?

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18
Wednesday 30 March 2016 The Daily Telegraph
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FASHION
From Tatler to I’m A Celebrity, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson
has done it all, except perhaps take the Tube. Now she
has her own fashion range. Lisa Armstrong meets her
T
he generally agreed
etiquette when
interviewing
celebrities with
some – how
shall we say –
history is that you go in
gently. Start, perhaps, with a
little fluffy question about
whatever new product,
religion or diet they are
currently plugging, in the
hope that if you show
sufficient good will, they
will relax and open up
about themselves.
No one, however,
seems to have sent this
particular memo to Tara
Palmer-Tomkinson, who veers so far
off-plug during our interview that, at
various points, I feel honour-bound
to wrest the conversation round to
Desiderata – the label of Oxford
shirt-cum-bodies (or Kubbis) which
she recently launched.
But she is not ready to talk about
cuffs and snap-fastenings yet.
Three minutes into our meeting,
she is demonstrating etiquette of
another nature. I think it’s how to get
out of a Lamborghini without
flashing your knickers (clamp knees
together at every swivel). But since
she is simultaneously telling me
about the oral sex lessons she
received from a celebrated Madame,
it’s not unambiguously clear. Nor is it
certain whether she learnt these
valuable life skills while at one of her
finishing schools or later.
The discreet staff at Blakes Hotel
in Kensington, central London, take
all this in their stride. The restaurant
is practically empty, although it is
mid-lunch time. They will not be
Oxford Blue Kubbi,
£195, and Oxford
Pink Kubbi, £195
from Desiderata
London
(desideratalondon.
com)
making much from TPT either, who
has one banana milk throughout,
while her good natured make-up
artist, who has worked with Tara “for
ever”, and I have tea and water.
I don’t get the chance to ask
whether this is her normal sustenance.
Suffice to know that, tightly held in by
one of her Kubbis and an old
Alexander McQueen tweed
skirt, she is as strikingly
slender and nut-brown as the
“notorious” It girl who
dominated all those column
inches in the 1990s.
Back then, it seemed that
Tara was omnipresent.
Daughter of Patti (an AngloArgentine-Brazilian beauty)
and Charles PalmerTomkinson (former
Olympic skier) and sister to
the virtuous Santa, who
under her married name
of
Sebag Montefiore went on
to become a successful novelist, Tara
starred in Walkers Crisps ads, on
Tatler covers, attended openings great
and small, and was runner-up on
television’s I’m A Celebrity). Yah! the
title of her weekly column in The
Sunday Times (ghost-written by
Wendy Holden, who cited TPT as a
major inspiration for a subsequent
string of best-selling social satires) was
a literary landmark of sorts, preempting an era clogged with celebrity
endeavours.
Her partying days are far behind
her. Her appearance at the royal
wedding in 2010 (the PalmerTomkinsons are close friends of Prince
Charles) was the first most of us had
seen of her for years. She says: “I
designed that dress you know. It looks
quite simple, but underneath it was
‘I know you think,
Why go to The Ivy?
But they’d be there if
I went to McDonald’s’
15 years ago is when the reclusiveness
set in, although the morning we meet,
photos of her having lunch at The Ivy
with her old friend Duncan James, the
dimpled singer from former boy-band
Blue, were all over the internet. She
believes someone from The Ivy tipped
them off.
“I know you’re thinking, ‘Well why
go to The Ivy then?’ but it wouldn’t
make any difference. They’d still be
there if I went to McDonald’s. They
camp outside my flat. One time, when
I went out to my car in a bikini” – hang
on, Tara, you knew there were
paparazzi outside but you still went
out in a bikini? – “it was a bikini top
and I’d left some flowers in there.”
There is an upside to Ivy-gate. “At
least I’m not wearing a tracksuit. I look
quite smart in those photos, don’t I?’’
She does. Although not as smart as
today. “The skirt’s good isn’t it, I must
have had it 12 years.”
And the Kubbi, Tara, the Kubbi?
“I’m the biggest consumer there is.
Alaia, I’ve got all of Alaia. But look at
this.”
She raises an arm to reveal a huge
hole in her purple Alaia cardigan. “I
only bought it yesterday,” she sighs. “I
love clothes and to make an effort, so
why does everyone say my nose is
awful. Is it so awful?” It’s not awful, I
GETTY/REX
Whatever
happened to
the It girl?
like Piccadilly Circus.” The style police
were generally approving of the
theatrically lady-like royal blue
structure, which pleased her.
Not that she cares about the press,
you understand, “but you want to
make everyone proud”.
She resides not far away from
Blakes, hermit-like, as she puts it, in a
penthouse flat that, until recently, she
shared with a squirrel she called
Simon. By strange coincidence, I once,
briefly shared a room with a squirrel
that wandered in mistakenly from a
nearby meadow, and I can confirm
they are not soothing companions.
They are feral flying rats with mass
murder on their minds.
TPT seems to have been fond of
Simon, however, commissioning her
friend David Linley to design a house
for him. “I’m not absolutely
confirming or denying that Simon is
not still sometimes on the scene,” she
says enigmatically.
Except that she’s not enigmatic, is
she? One of her most endearing,
troublesome qualities is that she is a
compulsive sharer, which may be a
symptom of her need to people please.
It’s all out there – the drink, the drugs
but also the vulnerability, the
intelligence.
She has, she says, been clean for the
past 12 or 15 years. Coincidentally, 12 or
T H E B R OW S E R
P L E AT E D
SKIRTS
A midi skirt
is the perfect
transitional
piece to help
ease you
into spring.
by Olivia
Buxton
Smith
STRIPE HEM PLEAT
POLYESTER SKIRT
£55
(topshop.com)
AMLAPURA LILY-PRINT GABARDINE
COTTON-BLEND MIDI SKIRT
£980, Marni
(matchesfashion.com)
NAZOINE DENIM
COTTON-LINEN SKIRT
£145, Max Mara
(houseoffraser.co.uk)
METALLIC GOLD PLEATED
POLYESTER-MIX SKIRT
£29.99
(hm.com)
COTTON POPLIN
HILDE SKIRT
£295
( joseph-fashion.com)
LONGFORD
PLEATED
COTTON-MIX
SKIRT
£45
( finerylondon.
com)
AUTOGRAPH PLEATED
A-LINE COTTON-MIX SKIRT
£55
(marksandspencer.com)
PINK ACCORDION PLEAT
MIDI POLYESTER SKIRT
£535, Cédric Charlier
(avenue32.com)
***
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The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 30 March 2016
***
19
B E AU T Y M A N T R A
PUTTING CLICHÉS
UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
though not to ski with them, which
would have made sense given her
ability, but to play her music. “I love
composing,” she says. TPT wrote a
song when her friend Isabella Blow
died. “I’ll sing it if you like,” she says.
“They wouldn’t let me go to her
memorial because they said I’d
deliberately stolen the limelight at her
funeral. As if…”
Anyway, the Kubbis.
Oh, yes. At 2pm, she meets with her
team. It doesn’t sound too onerous.
“Oh, my God. You have no idea. I’m
working to a three-year plan. I really
want this to be a success. I didn’t want
to use my trust fund, so it’s all money
I’ve earned. I was determined to take
the Tube, so to speak.” So to speak? “I
can’t remember whether or not I’ve
ever actually taken the Tube.”
By team, she means her PRs. She
doesn’t like the snobbishness of the
fashion industry. “When I was a socalled It girl – and by the way, I didn’t
know what that meant at the time – I
would be told that this label or that
one didn’t want me wearing their
clothes, because I wasn’t the right
image. But who knows? Maybe my
assistant wasn’t telling me the truth.”
She doesn’t want Desiderata to be
one of those snooty labels. “It’s Latin
you know. I had a great uncle who
used to talk to me in Latin. Amo, amas,
‘Do I need
to use all
of the same
brand’s
products to
feel the full
benefits?’
Be careful what
you mix
“It’s totally OK to use
different products from
different brands,” says Dr
David Colbert MD, founder
and head physician of New
York Dermatology Group.
“It’s important to
understand what’s in the
products and the strength
of each, however, so you
can ensure you are not
overlapping molecules. You
wouldn’t want to be using
three different products
using glycolic acid or a high
dose of retinol, because
that will make you red and
irritated and you’ll get what
we call status cosmeticus
[cosmetic intolerance].
“You should switch your
routine every six months.
People in their 20s and 30s
are buying products all the
time. After 30, they can
start to see how their face
will age, and after 40 they
become more brand aware
and allegiant.”
‘I really want this to
be a success. I didn’t
want to use my trust,
it’s money I’ve earned’
say carefully. But it does show signs of
a life recklessly lived. Given what she’s
ingested, she looks remarkable. Line
free, taut.
So did she have £6,000 worth of
surgery, as widely reported, to rebuild
her collapsed septum?
“Nothing,” she replies. “If people
said I looked nice every day, I might
have been tempted. But my face is
really crooked and that’s that. It’s not
all from drugs, or maybe I’ve got facial
dysmorphia. I’ve been destroyed by
the things people have said.”
A part of her always wanted fame.
After school, she was scouted by the
choreographer Terry Gilbert. “The
selection panel had paper bags over
their heads and they asked me to be a
piece of pasta.” She got in, but it was
not a success. “Nearly everyone was
Russian so I couldn’t talk to them and I
spent most of my time sitting on my
own, eating crisps. I was the worst
dancer in that school, but I was too
afraid to tell my parents I wasn’t good
enough.” The Palmer-Tomkinsons
sound a jolly bunch, but they are
Because no outfit is complete without
a snorkel. Left, in 1998. Right, in 2014.
Below, at the royal wedding in 2011
rather high achieving.
Having a daughter famous
for being famous may not
have sat easily. So fame? “If
you really want to know, I
was quite pleased to be on
the mailonline,” she says. But
she doesn’t like the long
lenses, “not when there’s a
man looking at you at the
other end of a long, fat thing
and you can’t see him.”
So like a millennial Lady of
Shalott, she keeps herself
more or less occupied within
her penthouse. Rising around
10am for a conference call
with her “team” and another
at 12pm.
In between, she plays the
piano, a bit, and composes
music, a bit. She recently went
on one of Prince Harry’s skiing
trips with injured soldiers,
amammmm… You know that song,
I’m Every Woman. That’s what I want
the Kubbi to be – something for
someone doing everything, fat,
thin, sober, drunk.”
You can tell she has put a lot into
Desiderata. Not just the money and
the putative Tube taking. She
knew what she wanted from
years of “borrowing” her
father’s Jermyn Street shirts
and who knew, because she
studied fashion briefly
on a City & Guilds
course. The cuffs have
to be long, to the knuckles,
the arms have to be narrow.
“You want 70 per cent stretch,
and I wanted them all made in
Britain. And with every shirt,
you don’t just get spare
buttons in a nasty little plastic
packet but with a needle
already threaded.”
She is warming to her
Kubbi theme now. She even
tries to sell me one, several
times, for a knock-down sum.
No one in an interview has ever
attempted this quite so directly.
You have to admire her honesty.
Desideratalondon.com
Pick up a pompom or two
Why not cheer yourself up
with this latest must-have
accessory, says Victoria Moss
DAVID FISHER
I
t’s the first official week of
spring, and we are feeling
optimistic. In that spirit, we
bring you news of fashion’s
sweetest accompaniment –
the humble pompom or
pomme-pomme, if one likes to be
French about these things. I know,
last week it was all minimalist stark
white trainers and navy T-shirts and
now we are advocating small
multi-coloured Mexican
fluff-balls.
It must be the promise of
vitamin D. Disclaimer: we never
said we weren’t capricious. Then
again, even Pheobe Philo, the
mistress of minimalism, adorned
her Céline trouser hems with
pompoms last year. So arguably
(like most trends), she started it.
Reassuringly, for those of us
who like a little historical weight
to our affectations no matter
how flighty, the humble
pompom has been a de rigueur
touch to national costumes for
centuries. In South America,
small vibrant-hued ones line the
edges of dresses, while larger
fluffier sorts bounce cheerfully
from the neck.
The Hungarian cavalry popped
them atop their helmets, as did
Norwegians and Scotsmen (those
jolly red poms are known as a Toorie).
Pompoms effectively are the point at
which ceremonial and silly meet,
bringing with their little flouncy
selves a jolt of light heartedness.
No one could be in a bad mood in
the presence of a pompom, which is
why we are all for their
encouragement.
The ever-jolly Edgardo Osorio,
designer of the fast-rising shoe label
Aquazzura, which this month hosts a
pop-up store at Harrods, has covered
his spring-summer collection in
sweet raffia confections.
“I was inspired by Barbara Berger.
She is one of the world’s biggest
jewellery collectors, and her house in
Mexico is full of pompoms,” says
Osorio. “She has a lady in her house
who makes pompoms all year long.
I’m obsessed with them right now.
We’ve made disco ball paillette
pompoms and raffia straw ones.
“Each pompom is made by
hand out of natural raffia then
Art director
Sofia Sanchez
Barrenechea wears
Dolce & Gabbana
pompom boots
dyed, it takes 25 minutes to make
each individual one. They look quite
simple but there’s a lot of work in
them. I call them happy shoes that
make you want to go on holiday.”
He’s not alone in his pompom-ery.
Rae Feather’s traditional straw
baskets are be-pommed, and offer
the chance for your own stamp on
them – literally, they will personalise
with your initials. Pomme Pomme
London have fun hooped pompom
earrings as well as hair accessories,
Zara has raided its Spanish roots and
come up with this artisanal necklace,
which is just the thing to jazz up tired
or plain T-shirts. For those who
would chafe against too much
colour, try Uterqüe for these
grown-up espadrilles, or
& Other Stories’s subtly
enlivened grey knit (we’ve
really not forgotten our
minimalist leanings).
If you are frowning at
the thought of splashing
out on what could be
seen as a child’s rainy
day activity, try V V
Rouleaux (pompom
fringe, £12.50/metre
vvrouleaux.com) or
take yourself back to
Sunday School with
Christine Leech’s
wonderful book
Pompomania in which
she offers updated
techniques (plastic
pompom makers now
exist for all those not in
the crafty know) and
patterns (stripey, spotty,
or emoji-based) to create
your own adornments.
Here are her tips for
pompom-ing a straw bag:
Using a pompom maker
(follow instructions from
maker) make nine medium-sized
pompoms in different colours.
Remove from the maker and
trim to a neat sphere. Leave the
two, long tails of wool used to
secure the pom in step one.
With a large needle and one
of the wool tails sew the
pompom into position on the
bag then repeat with the second
tail and knot together on the
inside of the bag (alternatively
you can use a glue gun).
Repeat the process with
more pompoms.
1
2
3
4
‘Pompomania’, by Christine Leech,
Quadrille, £3.99 (amazon.co.uk)
Pompom flats,
£470, Aquazzura,
Harrods (020 7730
1234)
Colourful pompom
and bead necklace,
£17.99 (zara.com)
Merino wool
sweater, £69
(stories.com)
Embroidered clutch,
£75, Monya (asos.
com)
Pompom
espadrilles, £80
(uterque.com)
Pompom small
basket, £75
(raefeather.com)
I
t’s a beauty jungle
out there. With new
studies, new science
and new launches
hitting the market
every month, it can
be hard enough trying to
understand which products
are best suited to our skin’s
needs, without brands
telling us their cleanser
needs to be followed with
their toner and moisturiser.
Three experts help us
decide whether this is just a
blindingly obvious
marketing ploy or a fact.
SIAN’S BEAUTY REGIME BASICS
Pixi Glow Tonic,
£18 (marksand
spencer.com)
5% glycolic acid
simultaneously
tones and
brightens.
Multi Active Day Cream,
£42, Clarins (clarins.co.uk)
All-day hydration in a
satisfyingly refreshing
cream.
CE Ferulic,
£79.89,
Skinceuticals
(skinoracle.com)
Protection
against
environmental
stress, while
improving fine
lines.
INTRAL
Cleansing Milk,
£27, Darphin
(darphin.co.uk)
A rednessreducing
cleanser suitable
for the most
sensitive of
skin.
Daily Light
Guard Defence
Fluid Broad
Spectrum SPF
30, £34, Aveda
(aveda.co.uk)
All of the
protection,
without the
usual additional
grease factor.
Ilumino Face
Oil, £100,
Colbert MD
(spacenk.com)
Borage seed,
marula and
passion fruit
oils for a glowgiving, toneimproving treat
of an oil.
Don’t believe the hype
better used alone –
products containing
retinol, peptides and acids
for example.
“In my patients, I
recommend cleansing the
face in the morning,
applying an anti-oxidant
serum, then a broad
spectrum SPF or
moisturiser with SPF. At
night time, cleanse using
a retinol, peptide or acidbased product.”
Do your research
‘I prefer to
put together
a tailored
skincare
regime,
selecting
the best
products
from
different
ranges’
“There is no need to use all
products from the same
range – in fact it often has
advantages to not do that,”
says Dr Stefanie Williams,
specialist dermatologist at
Eudelo.
“I much prefer to put
together a tailored skincare
regime for each patient,
hand-selecting the best
products from different
ranges. The reason is that
each brand has their ‘star
products’, which are
exceptionally good, while
other products might be
quite average.
“By identifying these
products from ranges and
assembling them together
into a routine, you get each
company’s very best.”
“There is a lot of
misinformation that makes
a person believe they need
to use all the products in a
brand to see results,” says
Dr Maryam Zamani,
ophthalmologist and
aesthetic doctor.
“While this is not true for
basic cleansers and
moisturisers, there can be
products with specific
actives that counteract
each other and diminish
effectiveness, therefore are
Siân Ranscombe