Christine Fisher-Lathwell – Sourcing items for the windows

I remember getting quite bold and going into the Haberdashery, the window was the French Frank’s window that was a round … and getting more accessories to use in the window, and there was a lady called Mary there who was very nice but very sharp, and she’d say, “What are you doing in my drawers? Get out of my drawers” which is just a passing joke really, but you know I was a bit afraid of her to begin with.

In the end I would just go and get what I wanted because I would have to explain to her that the Millinery window needed handbags and accessories, and they couldn’t just be in the front.

They had to go round, so when people, I think about after a year people were much more comfortable with me choosing the things to go in the window. They would tell me what they wanted as a basis, and then I would go and pick out. And sometimes the things they chose clashed in either style or colour.

They might have been too close a colour but not quite a match, so I would then find something that I thought either contrasted or … you know and so my colour interpretation got better and better, which is something I also learnt at the Portsmouth Art School, and I didn’t realise that I had that in me.