The world of Caroline Charles The fashion designer Caroline Charles talks to Ellie Pithers about how the fashion world needs to lighten up. Photographs by Tina Hillier. Caroline Charles, 70, is a fashion designer who this month celebrates her 50th anniversary in the business. She launched her eponymous label in 1963, when she was 21 and one of a new crop of young London designers coming up behind Mary Quant. She has dressed Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Ringo Starr and Diana, Princess of Wales. She lives in Knightsbridge, London, with her husband, Malcolm. Routine It depends how much is on my mind, but in principle I like to wake up at 7am, and have rather a gentle start with a newspaper and a notebook. For breakfast I always have the same thing - cereal, fruit, orange juice and coffee - but lunch is more tricky. Something has to be eaten, but not bread. I usually have soup. In the morning, if I'm not travelling, I work in the studio. The light is very important; you want to see things clearly otherwise the colours will all look brown. In the afternoon I check in at the office, and get home at about 6pm. I've just fallen in love with the British Film Institute, so now my husband, Malcolm, and I often have supper there and see a film. Fashion My family were always very keen on fashion when I was growing up, and had some very couture-y clothes and some 'buy this cheap and change the buttons' type clothes. From about the age of 11 I was mad on making things. I had a loom and knitting needles and I would make things to wear that night, or for someone coming to tea. I always liked to look at the illustrations on the fashion pages of the Telegraph , which my mother took. I studied the reports of couture collections in Paris or Rome or Florence - the drawings were incredibly precious. READ: The world of Joan Burstein Training I left school at 16, and was mad to go to Paris, because Paris was fashion. I ended up at the local art school in Swindon, which was not particularly good at fashion but had really marvellous life drawing classes. In 1960 I came to London aged 18 and learnt dressmaking, tailoring and millinery as an apprentice with the couturier Michael Sherard in Curzon Street. I was also the runner, going around Soho finding threads and zips, which was fantastically useful when I set up my own business. READ: Mary Quant: "You have to work at staying slim, but it's worth it." Mary Quant After my couture apprenticeship I went to work for Mary Quant as a salesperson. She was very witty and marvellous-looking. The world came shopping at her boutique, Bazaar, in Knightsbridge. I then went to work for a fashion photographer, Tony Rawlinson, before going back to Mary briefly to do wholesale. By that time, in 1963, I had built up a few clients for whom I was sewing in the evenings. I would do a whole day at work, a night of sewing, and then I'd go out. I'm mad on nightclubs - I loved Ad Lib in Leicester Square and Hélène Cordet's Saddle Room in Park Lane - and dancing was a big thing. I just did dressmaking to start with, and gradually built up enough samples to make a little collection. Embroidered dresses by Caroline Charles. Photo: Tina Hillier. Embroidered dresses I wore this colourful dress [pictured above] when we were invited to be the top show at Delhi Fashion Week in 2008. I know what Madonna feels like now, because when I came off the stage after the show there was a bank of maybe 50 photographers. You do feel completely, wonderfully removed. We have manufactured in India since the mid-80s; all the beading is hand-worked there because it's the best in the world. I wore the black dress for a New Year's Eve party in France. My husband is Scottish, and he brought lots of Scottish music and it was frightfully jolly trying to teach the French how to dance. They will not stand in line, the French, and they didn't understand that you had to wait to do your turn. Catwalk My first trip to America was in 1964 when we were taken up by American store buyers who were very hot for 'Swinging London.' We toured the States and did catwalk shows - they were much more like a party than they are now. Nobody stomped down a catwalk looking sullen or cross. We always had live music - that was very important, everyone was into small groups of musicians - and the girls would show the clothes, walking and waving at the audience, and then dance. The audience, particularly in America, would always get up on the stage afterwards and dance too. There's a very lively buzz around London at the moment, but Fashion Week is a bit heavy now. I know everybody's got to pay the rent, but I don't think it's as fun as it was. Necklace This charm necklace is 80s Erickson Beamon [pictured below]. I bought it for my daughter who wore it to parties, and then it got on the catwalk quite a lot, because it's very bold and marvellous. The Erickson Beamon people have always been incredibly good to us and given us things for shows, and I like their whole mood of exuberance. You do sound like a cavalry charge when you wear this necklace though; it's got coins and shells and teddy bears and Chinese lanterns. Portraits Christopher Sykes took these portraits of my children, Kate and Alex [pictured]. I have known Christopher for ever. John Mitchell made these frames for me out of lacquered tortoiseshell - he's a rather good architect and decorator. I think my children are about seven and four in these pictures. I made that dress for Kate; they both longed to go to the equivalent of Topshop and come back wearing orange with big gold buttons, but I used to insist on putting them in my own clothes. Christopher Skyes portraits, Erickson Beamon necklace, Nefertiti. Photos: Tina Hillier. Egyptian Nefertiti [pictured] is tiny but she is rather good. I got her from a junk shop in Camden. I love junk shops; I pop into them a lot as I'm often looking for a bit of pattern for an embroidery. That's my excuse for going in the door. I try to do something every day that is a bit inspirational, between visiting the studio and the office. I like going to art galleries - I'm a member of the Royal Academy and love how it's always full of women from the country. Modigliani poster I was in a taxi years ago and caught a glimpse of Sotheby's through the back window, which was displaying a pair of posters [pictured] promoting a Modigliani sale they were about to hold. I rang up my friend who works at Sotheby's and he got hold of them for me. They've got no value, they're sketches for a bronze which were blown up and stuck on a board, but they are just gorgeous. There's a sort of beauty in the longness; everything about the faces is so minimal and yet perfect. One of a pair of Modigliani posters owned by Caroline Charles. Getting dressed We all have uniforms at Caroline Charles; everyone gets a new black suit every season. I have several, as you can imagine, but I only allow five in one cupboard: five jackets, five trousers, five polo necks. I don't want to have to think about it, and I don't want to feel distracted by what I'm wearing when I'm designing. Bags I hate handbags. I like a nice paper bag to carry things in. I like pockets and no bag. And I like flat shoes of any sort. I learnt the Alexander technique once because I had a bad back, and in the process of learning how to stand and sit properly, I thought, 'Who would tip their body forward on heels?'