Posh and Stella didn’t graft for their success, blasts Oldfield
CREDITED with giving Princess Diana her glamour and the Duchess of Cornwall her glow of confidence, Bruce Oldfield is this country’s most famous couturier.
He is, however, furious that footballer’s wife Victoria Beckham and pop legend’s daughter Stella McCartney are so often held up as examples of the pinnacle of Britain’s fashion business.
‘Just think about those two women — think about their background, think about the hardship they encountered building up their companies from nothing,’ Oldfield tells me, sarcastically.
‘It’s a shame those are two names that people go to when they’re talking about celebrating British designers,’ he continues.
‘There’s Paul Smith, Alexander McQueen — a taxi driver’s son rather than a pop star’s daughter or a footballer’s wife. Success means so much more when you’ve worked hard for it.’
Victoria is, of course, a former member of the Spice Girls who married the ex-England captain David Beckham, while Stella used her friends Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell to model her designs at her college fashion show.
Speaking at Harry’s Dolce Vita restaurant, near his boutique in London’s Knightsbridge, Oldfield reveals that, in fact, he gave the daughter of Sir Paul and Linda McCartney her first step on the career ladder because of his friendship with the former Beatle’s late wife.
‘Stella did a work placement with me in 1987,’ he says.
‘I made clothes for her mother — she [Linda] was a sweetheart. To be perfectly honest, when you have people for work placements you’re doing them — or their parents — a favour. We’re not there to nanny them, so I haven’t the faintest idea whether she was any good. She was a nice girl, though, that’s for sure.’
There is no doubt that the success of Oldfield, who could be in the running to design Meghan Markle’s wedding dress, is entirely down to his talent and hard work. The mixed-race son of an Irish mother and her Jamaican boyfriend, he was brought up in the care of the children’s charity Barnardo’s.