Covent Garden Journal

Dispensers containing CGJ can now be found in Covent Garden Market, the Thomas Neal Centre and Neal’s Yard. Issue 7 is due to hit the dispensers in the second week of March

In issue 6 of the CGJ, top hair stylist Adee Phelan tells JP Aubin-Parvu why he loves Liza Minelli, hates D-list “celebs” and no longer sleeps with his clients.

Adee on fashions: “Just because something is in fashion doesn’t mean it will suit you. I went through a period of doing David Beckham’s hair, and everyone was coming to me for mohicans. I’m like: ‘Are you crazy? You look like Peter Sutcliffe and you want to look like David Beckham. It’s not going to work. It’s not going to happen.’”

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Laura Lee on inspiration:
“My mum had this fantastic bracelet and she used to put it on for special occasions. She travelled quite a lot when she was young - she met my dad in Australia and she’d been to America. She had fantastic things on this charm bracelet, like an orange from Florida, and Eiffel Tower from Paris and a koala from Australia. All these things to me, born in north London, were really exotic and exciting. I think it was bracelet that planted the whole jewellery thing in my head.”

Laura Lee on having her studio under the shop:
“It’s an old fashioned concept, but it’s all tied in with my whole approach. It’s just nice to say that we make the jewellery downstairs. If I was shopping, that’s exactly what I would want to hear.”

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Stephen Jones – probably the world’s most celebrated milliner – talks to Jackie Modlinger about Covent Garden, John Galliano and the enduring qualities of the top hat.

When did you first decide that you wanted to be a milliner?
Basically, it was when I was at college having arrived from boarding school – I did an Art Foundation course at High Wycombe School, but I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do. I really wanted to go to St Martin’s; it was the centre of London, but I wasn’t good enough to enrol on any of the courses like printing, sculpture or graphics. I really loved the idea of doing fashion, and to my complete surprise they accepted me. I was something of a token male – there were only two other men on the course. I was really enthusiastic, but knew nothing whatsoever about designing clothes. After the first month, they realised that my sewing was really bad. I went to Lachasse, a London-based couturier, for a couple of months’ work experience during the holidays. Back at college, I asked for a transfer from tailoring to the hat department and that was that – from the first day I knew that that’s what I wanted to do. The hat is a certain British thing that people do love wearing.

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