1 FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN 1951 MEMORABILIA

“It was so important, the Festival of Britain,” says Stella. Millions flocked to the South Bank to be wowed by promises of fantastical domestic luxury – fridges! television! – even as London remained pockmarked by bombsites. “Imagine what it looked like to ordinary people. They still had Victorian furniture, lived in unheated houses, tin bath in the front room, then they go to the festival and... look at this!”

2 THE LOST DOLL

Stella’s father used to read her a poem, ‘The Lost Doll’ by Charles Kingsley, about a favourite companion mislaid in a field. Weather- and cowbeaten, it’s later rediscovered by the distraught owner and proclaimed “the prettiest doll in the world”. “It makes me cry!” says Stella. “This doll looked exactly how I imagined, all beat-up. Other museums would just chuck her in the bin, but I like her. The museum is warts and all.”

3 ‘BIG BOOT’ SHOES

“Can you imagine how much I paid for those last winter?” asks Stella. “£700. We had to raid all the bank accounts. I like the rarity, the construction, they’re amazing. Properly made, probably Edwardian.” They look similar to the shoes worn by Little Tich, the 4’6 music hall star who wowed audiences with his acrobatic Big Boot Dance. “I’d love to think they were his, and they might be.”

4 BIBA COLLECTION

Nothing chimes with Stella quite like the 60s/70s work of Biba founder, Barbara Hulanicki. “Design had always been: ‘Let’s look to the future’,” she says, whereas Hulanicki found inspiration in the past. “My mother would ask, ‘Why would you want to look like that?’ because it was too recent for her, but to me it was exotic. I’m still doing my face exactly the same way now. I look like Biba’s mother.”