ZANDRA: I’M TOO BUSY TO THINK ABOUT DEATH

ZANDRA RHODES, 79, is a British fashion designer whose eponymous brand turns 50 this year. She is also founded London’s Fashion and Textile Museum in 2003. Zandra says: I AM very lucky that I have always been pretty thick-skinned.

At school, I once got a letter from a girl who apologised for always laughing at me on the school bus. I hadn’t even noticed! I seem to be immune to all that.

If you care too much about other people’s opinions, it can stop you from experimenting or trying new things.

I was in my late 40s when I met my boyfriend; I was lucky to find a fellow workaholic by chance at a dinner party.

He was very conservative, he couldn’t believe my hair, but we were a good match regardless.

He’s 97 now, and we’ve been together for 30 years. The 18-year age difference sounds like a lot, but it’s not that significant when you’re past 40.

Having good friends is enormously important and I like cooking, so often I will have ten or 15 people over for dinner at my flat.

I have another home on the beach in Del Mar, California, where all the surfers are. I exercise more when I’m over there.

I’ll do a stretch class one morning and Pilates on another, and I do a lot of walking. I ought to do more in London, but there’s never enough time.

I don’t think about death, I’m too busy. If you keep working at the rate I do, you don’t even notice yourself getting old. It’s funny, you just get there. And I am certainly not going to try to turn back the clock.

I see lots of women who looked fabulous at 40 suddenly deciding that they need fish lips and fillers. They don’t look younger, they turn into something else.

I wouldn’t touch plastic surgery. I don’t even wash my make-up off at night.

One of the most important life lessons I’ve learned is that there’s no point having regrets. If you have regrets, you live in the past and don’t move forward in other ways.

My life motto? Never give up. Live to the best of your ability.