The ‘match a celebrity with professional dancer’ show is an annual cringe-fest which really tells you nothing about the wonders of Strictly Come Dancing to come. The one highlight came when dancer Alijaz Skorjanec was matched with gorgeous model Daisy Lowe.
Talk about excited. The poor man looked likely to spontaneously combust leaving nothing but a pool of fake tan and a sequin.
It’s small wonder the decorous Daisy (27), is so lush. Her mum is no slacker in the looks department being the former wild-child and indie-band member Pearl Lowe; you know – one of that Primrose Hill set which included Kate Moss, Sadie Frost, Meg Matthews and…well you get the sometime booze ‘n’ drug-hazed picture.
These days the Primrose Hill mob are more Wisteria Lane ladies; none more so than the chintz and vintage loving Pearl who is so terribly stylish and on-trend she has been commissioned to design clothes and homes accessories. She also has her own range of children’s clothing, lifestyle ephemera and light-as-a-feather lace items like the window panel below (£150). Unsurprisingly, she is often employed by friends etc as an interior designer.
My interior designer friend Ruth Eley calls Pearl Lowe’s vintage style ‘classic country’ ….the look you will find in once-grand country houses which are, thanks to inheritance tax, slightly dishevelled at the stucco seams.
But, speaking as a person who likes to call a spade a shabby chic vintage home accessory, I call this trend Granny Chic.
And if you want to get a handle on how to create granny chic in your home – look no further than the ‘Pearl Lowe‘ website. Is not just the place buy vintage accessories and children’s clothes – it also allows a glimpse into her boho lifestyle. Fans can follow Pearl’s adventures (like the Famous Five but with more Chintz) including the Alice in Wonderland themed fashion show at Babington House which featured jugglers, violinists on the croquet lawn and daughter Daisy as guest model.
In celebration of the Pearly Queen of vintage style – here’s some things you may not know about her life….
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| Pearl, pictured by Gareth Iwan Jones of the Sunday Times at her old, old vintage home |
1. She lives in a very nice house in the country….
When Pearl, the former lead-signer of 1990s bands Powder/Lodger, turned her back on the excesses of London life…she headed for sanctuary in the country. A Victorian house in the Somerset countryside proved to be a romantic retreat for Pearl, musician husband Danny Goffey (Supergrass) and their three children Alfie, Frankie and Betty (super-model daughter Daisy has flown the coop for London/New York).
Not content with living the quiet life – Pearl set to work decorating her home with her signature style- shabby chic with a touch of celebrity jus – including Zoffany wall-papers, huge chandeliers, French market antiques finds. It must have been a winning combination as the place went up for sale with a cool £1.3m price tag…
Pearl & family have since moved to a Grade II rectory near Frome, also in Somerset (photograph by Simon Brown). According to a report by The Telegraph, it’s a wisteria-clad, six bed roomed mansion set in six acres which Pearl renovated and re-decorated from scratch…scouring flea markets, reclamation yards, vintage shops and favourite websites including The French House; Pearl loves their soft furnishing like the Deauville wool blanket below £139.
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Once the doyenne of the London life…she now features in magazines like Country Homes & Interiors |
2. She believes in salvation…
This gorgeous lady must rue the London days spent doing naughty substances with the bohemian crowd up on Primrose Hill. There’s no denying (not least from candidly honest Pearl) that there were some wild and ‘wasted’ days spent with the likes of Kate Moss, Jude Law, Sadie Frost but, four years on, no self-respecting journalist can write about Pearl Lowe without dragging up her wild-child days. But it’s clear from every clipping that Pearl’s move to the country was her salvation…offering her renewal, growth and sanctuary.
Pearl says (of the country): “It’s somewhere to rest.”
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Pearl, the queen of vintage style Photo Daily Mail |
3. She dresses in vintage dresses….
As a young singer with big style and a small budget, Pearl started buying vintage dresses from London markets in the 1990s as a way of standing out. She describes her vintage collection of dresses – she collects Jean Muir – as wearable art. Clearly, Pearl rues the day that vintage became de-rigour…it bumped up the prices considerably.
Pearl Lowe says: “I used to take £300 to a sale (of vintage items) and come away with bagfuls. Now that barely buys two dresses.”
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Pearl’s autobiography, a must-read for would-be stars |
4. She does not miss her old London life…
Pearl’s candid biography about her drug-fuelled life among the fashionable set of Primrose Hill should be essential reading for every starry-eyed contestant on ‘Pop Idol’ etc. In an insightful article by Hadley Freeman, published in the Guardian, 2007, she miserably recounts nights spent ‘lying rigidly awake and crying in bed’.
Pearl says: “”You meet fake people on drugs…when you’re high you think they’re wonderful, but turn your back and they’re bitching about you and flirting with your partner. It’s funny living out here [in the country] – it’s really opened my eyes because I’ve met so many kind people. They don’t want anything from you or just want to have a line with you and talk bollocks.”
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Pearl’s country kitchen as seen on her blog – traditional but for the black lace table-cloth |
5. She has written a seminal book on vintage living…
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Pearl Lowe’s favourite shoe designers, Agnes and Norman, never put a foot wrong |
Pearl Lowe’s Vintage Craft: 50 Craft Projects and Home Styling Advice a gorgeously illustrated tome peppered with advice on how to pretty-up a home for a few pence ie: cut flowers in vintage milk bottles. It is also a repository for Pearl’s impressive address book. She shares the contact details of her favourite shop owners, vintage traders, 
authors etc…including shoe designer Rachel Simpson of Agnes and Norman (see above).
Pearl says; “”By the time we’ve bought a house, there’s usually no budget left so I’ve had to work out how to get the look I want by doing it myself.”
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A joyful Pearl shown at one of her Christmas vintage craft workshops |
6. She is a little kooky….
Pearl is a great believer in the Law of Attraction; a theory that you can attract luck, wealth, a holiday in the Caribbean etc just by focusing on the objects of your desire. Sadly, Pearl’s positive thinking is often thwarted by husband Danny who, she says, blocks her ‘fantasy’ thoughts by bringing them down to earth with a bump.
Danny: “So, what is it you want for us?”
Pearl: “A large country house with lots of land. One that had a swimming pool or maybe a tennis court even. And space for the children to have a pony…”
Danny: “But we have a perfectly nice house here in the country as it is. I love it, the kids love it and even if we had the money for a bigger house, I’d never want to move. As for pool when would we use it? It’s always raining!”
They moved shortly afterwards….
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Pearl’s home style as featured in the Sunday Times |
7. She is a serial renovator with zero funds…
Pearl has moved house more than the average family but she’s addicted to ‘fresh starts’. Her current home – with land for a horse and a barn for a party – sounds suspiciously like the dream house mentioned in Pearl’s article above.
Pearl says: “”I don’t think it will be exactly the same style as the last house. It is really, really old and there are beams and stuff so I don’t think there will be wallpaper. I’m trying to get lots of inspiration at the moment. I get inspired by all kinds of different things. Sometimes it can be something as small as a lamp, and I will create a whole room around it.”
8. Did I mention the famous daughter…with an equally famous pa’?
As a 14-year-old, Daisy’s world was rocked when she discovered musician Gavin Rossdale was her real dad and not Pearl’s first husband, Bronner Handwerger.
Naturally, the now super-model Daisy had a few difficult months after the revelation alternating from wanting to scream and cry to wanting a cuddle her mum…sounds like the typical mother-teenage daughter thing to me. Now happily healed, the two could not be closer and often get mistaken for sisters.
Pearl says: “All this was very hard on Daisy. She spent most days in tears but it is a testimony to her maturity and strength of character that after she overcame her initial hurt she got on with her life.”
9. She designs dressing-up clothes for kids….
Pearl says she’s been creating distinctive clothes for as long as she can recall; she had her own range in her mother’s boutique aged just TEN. Her hand-made luxury clothes for children – think whimsical – are all made with the help of local seamstresses and are sure to become family heirlooms…visit the site and drool over the photographs by Bella Howard & Marguerite Smits Van Oyen and wish you were under-12 again.
10. She used to design clothes for – PEACOCKS
All very tea-dressy and vintage of course and, if you are very lucky, you can still pick up the occasional piece on Ebay. At the time of writing, Pearl’s dresses were selling for anything from £2.99 to £45. That’s nothing; when it first went on sale in 2011, there was a waiting list and the collection sold out withing 48 hours. Sadly, the collection is now just a precious memory but, if you ask her nicely, some pieces are hanging at the back of Holly Willoughby’s wardrobe.
