PITCHERWITS TM
PIT your wits against Pitcherwits — the exciting puzzle where some of the answers are in pictures! The solutions to the visual clues fit into the shaded spaces on the grid.
SOLUTION TOMORROW
ACROSS
1 Picture Clue 7 Undulates, with last out being unwarranted (5) 8 Stir once again for new recording (5) 9 Picture Clue 11 Picture Clue
14 Water rat’s poor copy at centre-court (5) 15 In a stew about useless material (5) 16 Picture Clue
DOWN 1 Picture Clue
2 The side view of Green donations (3-2) 3 Pudding that makes for a bit of a centrepiece (3) 4 Picture Clue 5 Speeds that can make me go back into the pit (5) 6 Picture Clue
10 Picture Clue 12 Early recipe for chicken (5) 13 Leans and sits over to the left (5) 15 Which person is from the World Health Organisation? (3)
I’ll wear jumpers eight times between washes – unless they’re covered in dog hairs! And I live in jodhpurs
When I go to charity shops, lots of whispering and elbow-nudging goes on. People are so surprised they don’t actually believe it’s me!
He hates waste. We’ve had a onein, one-out policy with clothes for about ten years. It was Paul who suggested it.
‘He pointed out that it forces you to think hard about whether you really want to buy a new item if you have to give another away to make room for it.
‘You quickly learn which items you’ll wear and wear, and which will end up at t he charity shop.’ Her wardrobe contains an eclectic mix of High Street, designer and even some charity shop finds.
Last January, our article about her clothes embargo caught the eye of Oxfam, which runs a sustainable fashion campaign.
It asked Deborah to become a supporter and she readily agreed. But long before this, despite her wealth, she was a thrift store devotee.
‘Good heavens, yes!’ she cries when I express surprise. ‘The last things I bought in an Oxfam shop — not this year of course — were some really nice chunky vintage jewellery and a long, vintage coat dress for evening wear.’
She’d l i ke to eradicate any stigma attached to buying second hand. ‘I think we should stop thinking that buying in charity shops is all about: “I can’t afford.”
‘It’s about being quirky, different; creative. It’s also about cutting down on waste. Why wouldn’t you be proud of that?
‘When I go into charity shops, lots of whispering and elbow-nudging goes on. People say: “You look so like that woman from Dragons’ Den.” But they don’t believe it’s me because they’re surprised to see me there.
‘I used to think it was a bit big headed to say, “Yes, I’m Deborah Meaden”, but now I think it sets people’s minds at rest, so I say: “Yep, you’re absolutely right.” ’
Back in 2006, Deborah — who confesses she didn’t have a clue about fashion then — took on a stylist called Minty to help overhaul her wardrobe and ‘polish up my appearance, so I would pass the scrutiny of the TV cameras’.
Minty gave Deborah confidence ‘ t o know what worked and what didn’t work’, and encouraged her £10,000 investment in a wardrobe that would fit her entrepreneurial TV image. Deborah bought, f or t he first t i me, sharp Max Mara suits and killer Louboutin heels.
She still has these pieces, and alongside items by Armani and Danish designer Malene Birger, there are also High Street staples from Mint Velvet and L.K.Bennett. Some of her best-loved garments are more than two decades old.
‘I’ve got Paul Smith suits I’ve had for 20 years and a beautiful Azagury evening dress I bought for the awards ceremony when Dragons’ Den was nominated for a Bafta in 2007.
‘It was a panic buy and I wouldn’t have spent the money on it — I’m not going to tell you how much! — if I hadn’t been buying it in such a hurry. But it’s gorgeous and I’ve probably worn it 30 times.
‘I’ve also got a 16-year-old Donna Karan evening dress, and every time I put it on someone says: “Oooh, that’s lovely!” ’ She shows me some of her favourite pieces: a Peter Pilotto evening dress patterned with bright, geometric shapes which she bought seven years ago for £700.
‘It’s been worn and worn,’ she says. There’s that Zoom ensemble — the purple top and scarf — as well as a £60 kimono from One Hundred Stars, decorated with huge bird motifs.
‘I wear it for lounging in,’ she says. ‘The cats know I’m ready to sit down when I put it on, and they come and jump on my lap.’
While most have applauded Deborah’s shopping embargo, a few have objected that it is a privilege of the wealthy to ‘choose’ not to buy clothes while many have this constraint forced upon them by lack of money.
‘I do understand it when people say: “It’s easy for her. She already has a wardrobe full of clothes.” I can’t help that, but it doesn’t make my decision any less valid. I’m still doing something to help.
‘One of my Twitter followers agreed. “That’s the point,” she said. “She can afford to buy new clothes and she’s made the decision not to.” ’
Others have blamed her for contributing to the demise of the High Street. Her response is crisp.
‘We need to make changes, to switch from fast fashion to sustainable clothes,’ she says. ‘Retailers and entrepreneurs are good at adapting, and it’s a matter of thinking differently, of re-purposing, hiring instead of buying.
‘Shops could offer their customers a chance to re-sell their preworn items so others could buy and enjoy them. With such business models, they could thrive.
‘And consumers need to change their habits, too — buying one
I understand it when people say: ‘It’s easy for her.’ I can’t help that, but it doesn’t make my decision less valid
good outfit that lasts for years and years rather than five cheap, disposable ones.
‘Even those fleeting moments where you want something new and different pass. Don’t succumb to them! Think: “What do I actually need?” ’
In her own family, Deborah’s mother, Sonia, now in her 80s and still ‘properly glamorous’, has set a precedent for keeping stylish garments for decades.
‘She has classic pieces from the Sixties, including a Mary Quant dress that she’s given to my sister, AND, Cass. It’s still gorgeous.’
of course, the Royal Family has a history of thrift. ‘Prince Charles is a huge supporter of the campaign for wool, and I’ve noticed he’s worn the same beautiful suits for years,’ says Deborah.
‘He’s been talking about climate change and the need for sustainability for decades, too. At the beginning we thought he was a bit mad, but he bravely carried on. He’s always been a marvellous recycler. It’s not a bandwagon he’s jumped on — and here we are, 30 years later, thinking the same.’
Deborah co- owns the West Country textile mill Fox Brothers, established in 1772 and based in Wellington, Somerset, where it produces woollen cloth that will last a lifetime.
‘The cloth is beautiful and expensive, but you wear it for ever. If it goes into holes, you get it repaired,’ she says.
Mending, darning, re-purposing; recycling: they are old-fashioned virtues that have become mainstream. ‘ I couldn’t be more delighted to be in the vanguard of a movement to buy from charity and second-hand shops; to re-use and repair; to select items of clothing with care and discernment and to spurn throwaway fashion,’ says Deborah.
It is a thought to take into the new Year. Perhaps we should all resist the urge to spend, spend, spend, and make do and mend, instead.