ALLEGRA HICKS

57, interior designer

Brussels where I learnt to do frescoes and trompe-l’oeil; painting on a really big scale. Then I came to England to study history of art at Sotheby’s.

When I arrived here, my English wasn’t so good. I remember being in this huge city, staying at a friend of my mum’s in Cornwall Gardens. One of the first places I saw on the map was Pimlico, so I walked to Pimlico. From there I went around, learning different neighbourhoods. What I learnt was that the aesthetics here were so free. We didn’t have that in Italy, because there’s a great saying, “buon gusto” – good taste – which is such an “urgh” phrase.

When you’re trying to learn, it’s so nice to experiment. When I first came to England it was the time of the new romantics and you could be who you wanted to be. It was an incredible moment in my creative development.

I was 24 years old when I met Ashley [Hicks, the architect] and we married in 1990. Then we went to New York and Angelica arrived two years later, followed by Ambrosia. Now I’m a mother I can’t imagine my life without kids. Ambrosia has just finished at Oxford. She’s very good at drawing and painting, but she’s more of an intellectual type; she will hate me saying that and find it really embarrassing. Angelica is an artist, completely; the way she thinks and reacts to things. They both learnt to draw because they always made presents. There was always something they could munch on creatively at home.

Divorce is very unfortunate. One beautiful thing is that Ashley and I stayed friends after we separated. Having these amazing girls is an incredible blessing.

I never thought I would remarry [she married entrepreneur Roberto Mottola di Amato in 2014] but it happened. And my kids are happy for me.

I was incredibly busy in the Nineties but less effective and structured than I am now. I’ve stopped doing fashion, and I’ve just launched a collection of fabric and a collection of wallpaper. I do a lot by commission. My style now is eclectic. I like being decorative, which is at odds with how I grew up with always modern design. My patterns are a conversation with the past.

When I’m in Italy I feel very British (even though I’ve never had a British passport; it never seemed necessary). I like the rules to be applied!

But here everyone thinks I’m fantastically Italian. I have this horrible trait of inviting people on Monday for Wednesday, when all my English friends are busy. But it’s nice to do things at the last minute. There’s a great sense of spontaneity in Italian social life.

On a deeper level though, we are each of us a collection of the things we’ve learned, and I have learned a lot in England. I don’t think I would be who I am without having lived here.

Interview by Boudicca Fox-Leonard

Allegra Hicks’s new fabric the “Gems Collection” is available at Turnell & Gigon; turnellandgigon.com

Allegra Hicks as a girl, left; now, main; and with her daughter Angelica in 2012, below