LONDON

Charlotte Olympia

uch as i love the idea of waking up slowly, I have three children who are all quite young— one of them is only oneand-a-half—so when the boys are up, we’re up. It’s a very fast-paced start to each day. When you have one child, you can be organised. With two, you have to start doing what they want, and by the time you have three, well, you have to make both things work. You do what they want and get them to do the things that you need to do.

I live and work at the top of Ladbroke Grove, so I’m close to Portobello and Golborne roads, giving me wonderful access to vintage shops and the market on weekends. Alfies Antique Market on Church Street has everything from vintage and antique furniture and homeware to clothing, jewellery and accessories. The Honeyjam toy store on Blenheim Crescent off Portobello Road has great retro toys for boys and girls. There’s also Circus Antiques on Chamberlayne Road, which has a great selection of antique furniture; I always find something whenever I visit.

When it comes to culture, one is completely spoiled in London. The Michael Hoppen Gallery on Jubilee Place off the Kings Road shows beautiful works, from Guy Bourdin to Alex Prager. I’m a big fan of Prager’s. The store sells great photography.

I also like walking around, just discovering beautiful places on your doorstep and those that you forget about. For example, someone recommended the Royal Institute of British Architects to me, which, well I’ve lived here my whole life, so I’ve passed it a thousand times and I’ve never noticed it. It’s a lovely art deco building in central London with a library and beautiful rooms for lunch meetings. It’s also a really unexpected place to go for coffee. And I love the Natural History Museum almost as much as my boys. The Tate and Tate Modern make for a good Saturday morning. And the Chelsea Physic Garden is beautiful to discover in spring.

For food, there’s a place I love near me called Dock Kitchen. It’s on the canal. It used to be a hidden gem, but more people know about it now. It used to be where lighting designer Tom Dixon had a place. It’s an open-plan kitchen, serves delicious food from all over the globe, and every week the menu changes. I’m a foodie. I go there for Sunday lunch or take people there for dinner.

I’m a bit old-fashioned, too, so I love Scotts, a beautiful restaurant with wonderful food. The Gallery at Sketch is a fabulously feminine dining room designed in pink. It’s like a pink Hollywood dream. It makes me want to go dressed up in shades of the same colour and sip pink cocktails or pink champagne.

When I want glamour and grandeur, The Wolseley is an especially apt setting, great for an old-fashioned brunch. I love to dress up for dinner and it’s also the spot to do that—a place where you have a cocktail beforehand, or a whisky sour at the bar, and then eat. Oh, there’s a restaurant called Santo, a fun Mexican, also on Portobello Road.

There’s not enough time in the day for me, because now I’m travelling more. By June we will have opened our 10th store globally. We just opened in Bangkok and Thailand, and today one in California. I don’t mind long-haul flying. I’m off to a store opening in LA for about 10 days with one of my sons. Working for myself I can do that. I love the Hollywood Hills. I dream of LA a lot. My whole brand is geared towards the place. We may go to Universal Studios, maybe to the beach, Malibu or Santa Barbara, I don’t know. It will be just me, my boy and Spiderman!

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