Maxine had given me complete freedom and trusted me to express myself. That is the best way to work with creatives and these are the best of days and the best of times, thanks Maxine.

The shoot was at Holborn Studios and I took pictures of him and Ann and then Ann left to go shopping. As she was leaving she called me over to the door and whispered, “Don’t let him go the pub”. The pub unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective was just across the road.

We went up to his hotel room to look at the clothes. Where Michael had arranged them all over the place and set up an ironing board. As we talked he continued to iron clothes. I said “Michael don’t you want to get someone else to do that?” He smiled at me and said, “No Clive, I find it very therapeutic actually.” and ironed on.

Willy also asked me to come up with a concept. I had been reading a lot about Egyptian mythology and was particularly fascinated by the falcon headed Egyptian God Horus . This fascination had begun after reading the Egyptian Book Of The Dead and taking acid with my assistant (affectionately known as The Wasp) at a friend’s manor house in the country, where I saw a vision of Horus.

I first met the Spaghetti people the divine Nadia and Suomi La Valle in 1979, at that moment I was … More

Ritz Newspaper asked me to photograph a selection of stunning 1920s jewelled dresses. Somehow the stylist (forgive me I have … More

After Art School in 1966  I worked stoking boilers at a local telephone exchange from 6am until 2pm – just so I could paint in the afternoons. I then  got a job at Rediffusion’s Graphics studios as someone there had seen my drawings and paintings in a graphic arts magazine, and they found me and hired me.

The scene reminded me of an Andrew Wythe painting that I had always adored and had influenced me so much in my own painting and into photography. I felt the extraordinary poetic beauty of the synchronicity of being in the same landscape he had viewed and which had inspired him and now inspired me.

Jean, without any sense of irony said, “Mmmmmm, Mmmmm, Enjoy” as if she had presented an eight-course gourmet meal, arms triumphantly gesticulating towards the feast. The maid had very kindly cut the pizza into eight pieces that were no bigger than a minuscule Ortolan.

Kansai Yamamoto is that rare thing, a complete artist. His work covers design and so much more, it’s about fashion, … More