Lessons from the stylish: Emily Dyson Emily Dyson, daughter of inventor Sir James, prefers to wear her wealth stealthily with a muted vintage feel. Emily Dyson's first serious style mentor was her father James, inventor of that revolutionary vacuum cleaner. According to Dyson junior, despite its enchanting architecture, idyllic blend of urban and rural scapes and multiple vintage shops, Bath, where she was raised, didn't offer many alternatives. Still, growing up in a fashion vacuum can be good for the soul and imagination. Between her father's Katherine Hamnett purchases, which she regularly borrowed, and her artistic mother's English Eccentrics dresses (ditto), a theme emerged. "Colour, eclecticism, thoughtful consumerism... and standing out from the crowd," she says. Home was full of interesting furniture and my mum's paintings. My parents were always telling us to be different, which was nice, but pressurising. It worked, though. Her brother Sam set up Distiller Records, having been in indie band The Chemists, while Jake is a lighting designer. Lessons from the stylish: Bec Clarke Attempts to customise her school uniform and early forays into interior decoration when she painted her bedroom (pink) and made her own duvet (also pink) provided reasonable clues to her future career. Yet Emily says at first she was terrified by the prospect of setting anything up on her own. "I watched my dad struggle for years," she says. At home he was always surrounded by strange looking objects, components - and legal writs. By 19, she was studying fashion in Nottingham, too frightened of London's mean streets to apply to St Martin's. A job with Paul Smith followed, initially as a general slave, but eventually as a designer. Sir Paul was another key influence, so it's unsurprising that her taste now veers towards the meticulously masculine: "He taught me about colour, about mixing unexpected things, and about finding inspiration in everything." He also sent her off on arcane missions to find props. Busbys were probably her greatest triumph. She developed a lasting love for flea markets. It was her wedding list that finally put her next career step into focus. "There were plenty of people who were cleverer at designing clothes than I was," she says, "but when it came to bed linen, back in the late Nineties, there was hardly any choice. You could go John Lewis and dead plain or really gaudy. That gap was the genesis of Couverture, her first shop on the King's Road. Timing was on her side. Cheaper flights to New York introduced hordes of Britons to the concept of thread counts and the great American boutique hotel bed, that multi-pillowed, throw-adorned set piece of the minimalist bedroom. Despite not wanting her own business, that's exactly what she ended up with. Perhaps the £45m she and her brothers are widely reported to have received from her father provided the necessary security. She wears the money exceedingly lightly. There is nothing ostentatious about her: her modus dressandi is wealth of the stealthiest kind. In the more-than-a-decade since it opened, Couverture's evolution reflects her life. After she married Ian Paley, a menswear designer she met at Paul Smith, she began stocking his label. The store moved to Notting Hill. So did they, buying a house that's taken them four years to renovate and move into - presumably that's where some of the money's gone. Meanwhile, Couverture has morphed into Couverture and The Garbstore, the name of Ian's label, and introduced first women's wear, then children's. The first of their two children was born 11 years ago. Dress, £319, Stine Goya; couvetureandthegarbstore.com . Shoes £322.07, Maison Martin Margiela; shopbop.com The embroidered linen sheets Emily imported from Delhi are no more. When she had to replace all hers recently it was back to Peter Reed's plain white ones from John Lewis. But there's clearly a love affair between her and what the shop has become. The clothes, blankets, jewellery and homeware there all faithfully reflect her own taste for the understated. That sounds so boring but really it's about seeking out the unusual - the antithesis of the megabrand. Lessons from the stylish: Inès de la Fressange When we meet she's wearing an "ancient" cashmere V-neck jumper from Margaret Howell that's the colour of Nice biscuits, a holey pale pink James Perse T-shirt, patterned trousers from A Detacher and the most elegant flat Mary Janes I've seen. They're from Martin Margiela and she's obsessed with them. I'm expecting her to confess she has dozens of pairs, but like the considered consumer she was brought up to be, she reckons she has a maximum of five. Although muted colours, discreetly luxurious textures and some pretty fancy jeans are her uniform, she's not averse to dressing up at night. She swears by Rachel Comey heels, which she says are both glamorous and comfortable, a rare combination, and when I tell her that I haven't heard of most of the designers that she's mentioned she looks delighted. Sometimes I feel I really shouldn't buy any more, but I keep falling in love with things. If you buy from designers with integrity, you're supporting something good. In any case, having lovely stuff - that's one of life's great pleasures, isn't it? Best flea markets: Kempton - twice a month. And Isle-sur-la-Sorgue near Aix on Provence, twice a year. What makes a room work? Start with the one thing you love. I had this big colourful canvas in one room which led to having big storage shelves in a kelly green built. Everything else came from that. How do you avoid clutter? I actually like contained clutter. You have to group things in odd numbers and unevenly spaced so it doesn't look contrived. Hot date? Stine Goya silk devoré dress with gold embroidery with Rachel Comey shoes. Understated yet gorgeous. Skinny jeans or flares? Jeans are my uniform. But much as I love the skinny, it's time to move on. I'm still wearing a slim leg but it's looser round the hips. Mina Perhonen's are £415 but very special and you can wear them anywhere. Jewels or abstinence? Jewels, but discreet. I love my gold hoops with tiny diamonds. My husband gave me a yellow diamond ring by Malcolm Betts for my 40th, but also a Snoopy watch. That's a perfect combination.