MY COUNTRYSIDE

The fashion designer talks about unique architecture and wild swimming in Suffolk

Margaret Howell

When not working in the capital, Margaret relaxes in Suffolk, spending time on the coast in Shingle Street (left) and tending her garden, which she fills with wild flowers such as fennel (below) The heavy sea mists in East Anglia are quite magical

When my children were young, I liked taking holidays in Britain.

We kept going back to a village on the Deben Peninsula in Suffolk, and rented an old cottage, which was lovely but quite restrictive – the low ceilings meant I hit the lampshade every time I changed the bed.

Some years ago I bought my own 1960s house in Suffolk and I’ve furnished it with finds from charity shops and jumble sales.

I am very interested in modernist design. I have a shop on Wigmore Street in London where I display and sell furniture and homeware. I want to use it to promote unsung British designers and draw people’s attention to all the lovely things that often get thrown out – Poole Pottery, for example, Anglepoise lamps or David Mellor cutlery.

My house was designed by the Swiss architect Rudy Mock.

It’s in a terrace of six properties, which were originally built as holiday homes. The villagers used to refer to them as rabbit hutches because they have flat roofs and are clad in wood. It’s open-plan downstairs and there’s a wall of glass looking out onto the garden, which is wide and flat.

In my garden I love to grow grasses and cow parsley, and wild flowers such as cowslips and snowdrops.

There’s lots of fennel, too. It’s quite fun taming what seeds there naturally.

I love the outdoors – there’s always something fresh and beautiful to see.

There are vast open skies in East Anglia and a wonderful light that is constantly changing. In autumn we have heavy sea mists, which can be quite magical. The ideas for my designs come from many sources, but I think the time I spend at home refreshes me and opens my mind.

My clothes suit the environment and the climate.

I never really need to dress up for work in London, so I might wear a T-shirt and jeans, but Suffolk is where I keep my slightly older clothes. When I’m there, my cashmere sweaters will sometimes have a hole in them, and I’ll wear a few more layers. It’s important to me that the clothes I design are meant to be worn in the real world.

I like the change of lifestyle when I return to East Anglia – collecting wood, lighting open fires, going for walks.

There’s the smell of the freshly ploughed earth, and I enjoy cycling down the lanes to the sea. I swim all year round – in a heated pool in winter – but I love going in the sea when I can.

Along the beach near my home, there is a lovely house in a hamlet called Shingle Street built by the little-known British architect John Penn.

He only built nine properties, all in this area in the 1960s. They are flat, modern and minimal, quite extraordinary for this part of the world, which is so cottagey and conventional. But they seem really suited to the landscape and have extraordinary outlooks. I thought how wonderful it would be to live in a house like that, so one day I knocked on the door. The couple have been my friends ever since.

There is an emptiness about the Suffolk coast, and it can be very harsh, particularly in winter.

The war defences on the shore and the worn groynes have a brutalist, sculptural quality. It’s not conventionally pretty, but to me it’s beautiful.

John Penn’s Beach House is open to view on 9 September; visitors can see Nine Villas in Suffolk, an exhibition compiled by Margaret Howell. For details, email annelouisepage@gmail.com. Margaret Howell supports Open House, the charity that promotes access to notable buildings in the UK.