London and New York!
The Colechester Mercury Theatre on the left and right, our wardrobe department was in the extension to a large Victorian house.
It’s summer 1988 and there I was, quite happy being the costume supervisor at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester. I had a happy band of sewers all busy beavering away for fabulous shows housed in what was the old vicarage next to the theatre, a director that was wonderful to work with and who respected our professionalism, parties every weekend (or so it seemed), wonderful holidays in Skopelos each summer and a penthouse apartment. (OK, the top floor extension of a huge Victorian house that was accessed by a gazillion pig iron staired fire escape up the outside of the house. It had beautiful views but not so beautiful the night of the hurricane storm in October 1987 when all the windows blew out.) But anyway I digress….
At one of our many Colechester Parties dressed as a Carrot!
I was happily living my life wondering what would happen next when I got a call from a company called 20th Century Costumes. I was known to them as its where we would go to rent any costumes that we didn't make ourselves for the shows. It was an amazing place with so many original pieces of clothing and lots made for film and TV. They offered me the job as their Production Manager. The role was a bit like being a Costume Supervisor, as I was at the Mercury Theatre, but I was to work on many productions at the same time alongside designers in theatre, TV and film. If those designers needed something sourced or made or bought for their project then I was your man.
This was an offer I couldn’t resist so I moved from sunny Colchester (and my penthouse suite) to that there London Town. The offices were a swanky warehouse in very trendy EC1 postcode of London and I may have seemed very self-assured but for the weeks leading to my start date I experienced panic attacks like I had never known before. Would I be good enough? Would I know what to do?
Me and Dulcie Scott at a London Party
Eventually, it was time to put my doubts behind me and my first project was working with the fabulous Emma Porteous, a costume designer of great repute who worked on may amazing films including Aliens and Octopussy, on a project for HBO. The project was a six part drama series of Around the World in 80 Days starring Pierce Brosnan and a cast of thousands. In my first days there I found myself in a fitting room with Emma, Pierce, tailors and a plethora of costumes and I remember standing back one day and thinking “Oh this is it, I've arrived! (This was a feeling that I was lucky enough to feel over and over again in later times.)
So there was in London, fabric sourcing, booking tailors and shirt makers, sending bikes and couriers here there and everywhere it was a total learning curve but thank goodness I was a master of multi-tasking as no sooner would I finish a ordering some dupion silk for a Victorian gown than I would be in a fitting with Michael Ball for his video shoot for Love Changes Everything!
The trendy EC1 offices of 20th Century Costume in 1988.
I had already met Michael years before as my flat mate Milling and very good friend Aileen were friends with him from their days on Les Miserables. The year before I had made Aileen a dress for her 30th birthday. It was an homage to the best of Shirley Bassey, a tight-fitting sheath dress in bright purple silk with the biggest fishtail kicking out from the knee down with sparkling net holding it all out. Aileen was later to become the voice of the speaking clock and had many cameo roles on Sunday night dramas including my favourite Monarch of the Glen. And you know what? Aileen turned 60 a year or so ago and she can still get into the dress!!!!!
Rachel in her wedding dress. Still one of the pieces I love the most.
Over my time there I must have fitted nearly every star of the moment including Bette Davis, Roger Daltry and oh so many names from the TV honing my skills for what was to come. But it wasn’t all about the stars. I need to tell you about the lovely Pam, she ran the returns department. Born and bred in the Old Kent Road some evenings she would be doing overtime and I would go and help her. We would squeal with laughter when she would shout out ONE BLAHZE (thats blouse to you and me) and she would spell it the way too – BLAHZE!
When I moved to London I shared a flat with two actor friends. (One of whom is really quite famous now and the other has a high powered political position – I made his sister, Rachel’s, wedding dress and you know what? I still love that frock to this day.) but it was time to get my own place so in November 1988 I bought a tiny one bed on Hackney Downs, it was a first floor Victorian conversion and I shudder at how much it cost me! I furnished it with some of my Nan's furniture including a 1930's sofa, a tub chair and her dining table which I still have to this day. My friend Jennifer donated her Mum’s old cooker and double bed – and I was on the first rung of the property ladder!
We’d made it! No prizes for guessing where Donna and I had the photo taken!
I had just moved into my flat and I get called into a meeting at work. it seems I am being transferred to our other office. What other office? I ask. Oh, the one we are opening in New York! My new work address would be 588 BROADWAY no less on the Soho district in Manhattan. I was working with a girl called Donna from South London. We had met in London on a couple of occasions and suddenly there we were living the life in USA.
Building shoe racks in the NYC offices (on Broadway) of 20th Century Costume. You can see the racks of vintage clothes in the background.
I have to tell you I think I found my spiritual home in NYC. I loved it. To start with I lived in a friend’s apartment, (W16th and 7th) he was away working on... now I can't remember if it was Miami Vice or one of Tom Cruises first movies… but when he came back I moved in with Donna, (Battery Park City ) until I got my very own apartment in Horatio Street in Greenwich Village. I loved the fact that it was alive 24 hours a day, in the summer it would get so hot at night that I would get up at 4am, go to the deli and buy ice cream to cool down. Life felt like I was in a Village People pop video – yes, people really did dress like that in the village in the 80's!
I was late for work every morning as I would insist on two things. The first was watching I Love Lucy on TV and then walking in. My route took me through some of the most fascinating neighbourhoods ever. In fact everyone thought I was crazy walking the streets at all times of day. Hell's Kitchen was renowned for being a bit dodgy but I would happily walk the neighbourhood loving the sights and the sounds and the smells, outside our office a man would roast chestnuts and I cannot to this day smell them without being transported back to Broadway.
Both Donna and I worked hard but also played hard. Every weekend she would go off and discover another American city but I loved Manhattan so much I wouldn't go anywhere else and when I did I would spend the weekend pining for the village. We discovered all kinds of food, we went to Burlesque bars, we went to diners, we even went dancing in underground Puerto Rican transvestite dens. We were living the life!
Robyn Bird in the centre with me right and Donna at the back.
One day I was walking along Broadway and a limo pulled up next to me and a lady got out. It was Robyn Bird. You may not know her but in the 1980's in NYC she was a huge celebrity. Host of The Robyn Bird Show late night show she would sit in a gold crochet bikini and interview and audition strippers. It was cult destination TV so when I saw it was her getting out of the car and I pounced. She came and visited our offices many times and it turns out her family were from Romford and she was proud to call herself an Essex girl!
Whilst I was in NYC I costumed many a Broadway shows and fitted some major film stars but my time in NYC was over too quickly. They had missed me so much in the London office they wanted me to go back. The day I left Donna ordered me a stretch limo to take me to the airport. It was night and the lights were bright and I sobbed all the way to the airport. My little grey cells had no idea what was next for me back in the UK.