The smart set’s talking about... Mountbatten’s stylish scion

DAISY KNATCHBULL made a grand statement at Royal Ascot last year when she defied convention by arriving at the race meeting in a gentleman’s morning suit, complete with a top hat, left.

now, the 25-year- old great-granddaughter of the 1st Earl Mountbatten of burma hopes to make a lasting mark in the fashion world by creating her own brand. ‘I’m setting up my own bespoke women’s tailoring company, called the Deck, which will specialise is tailoring for women,’ she tells me. ‘I’m opening a shop in chelsea in March.’

Daisy — whose father, Philip Knatchbull, is boss of art-house cinema chain curzon — was educated at £37,950-peryear benenden in Kent, alma mater of Princess Anne. She has already conquered male-dominated Savile Row by rising to a senior role at huntsman & Sons, a tailor featured in the Kingsman action films starring colin Firth.

Daisy, whose uncle nicholas was murdered by the IRA in the 1979 atrocity that also killed lord Mountbatten, will be supported by her new boyfriend in her venture, even though he’s no fashionisto. She tells me: ‘I’m seeing a guy, but I can’t tell you anything about him except to say he is not part of this world.’