Nicole Farhi

John Wilson talks to fashion designer and sculptor Nicole Farhi. Born in the south of France, she designed for various labels before teaming up with Stephen Marks in the early 1970s to establish French Connection as a worldwide clothing brand. She launched her own label Nicole Farhi in 1982 and was one of the biggest names in UK fashion for three decades. Nicole started studying sculpture whilst still in the fashion world, and staged her first solo exhibition in 2014. She has been married to the playwright David Hare since 1992.Nicole recalls the influence of her glamourous and well-dressed aunt Visa who sparked Nicole's early interest in fashion by taking her to the Parisian couture shows. Meeting her partner Stephen Marks proved to be a major turning point and they went on to found two successful fashion labels together. But alongside her life as a designer, Nicole also had a passion for sculpture which had been ignited seeing the work of Giacometti at the Fondation Maeght in the south of France. Her own work in clay was encouraged by the Pop Art pioneer, sculptor and printmaker Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, who became her friend and mentor. Producer: Edwina Pitman