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Nicole Farhi

Kirsty Young interviews sculptor and designer Nicole Farhi.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the designer and sculptor Nicole Farhi.

Born into a Turkish family in France, Nicole's interest in fashion was present from an early age. As a child, she used to design clothes for her paper dolls; as a teenager, she was taken to couture shows in Paris by her stylish aunts.

Aged eighteen, she enrolled in fashion school in Paris and began selling her design sketches to earn a little pocket money, thus setting out on a career as a freelance designer. In the early 1970s, she met the British entrepreneur Stephen Marks who was just starting the retail chain French Connection where she became chief designer, and it was he who encouraged her to set up her eponymous label in 1982. Her fashion empire would eventually extend to New York, London and Tokyo before being sold in 2010, and Nicole herself left the business in 2012.

Since retiring from fashion, Nicole Farhi has dedicated herself to her other passion - sculpture. She sculpts predominantly in clay and then casts her works in different materials including glass, bronze and concrete.

She has been married to the playwright Sir David Hare since 1992.

Producer: Christine Pawlowsky.

Available now

37 minutes

Last on

Fri 15 Jul 2016 09:00
BBC Radio 4

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Clips

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Music Played

  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Trio for Piano, Violin and Violoncello in A minor, op. 50

    Performer: Martha Argerich. Performer: Gidon Kremer. Performer: Mischa Maisky.
    • Tchaikovsky – Shostakovich – Piano Trios.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • Jacques Brel

    Ne me quitte pas

    • 24 Great Successes.
    • Polydor.

  • Muddy Waters

    I Feel Like Going Home

    • The Chess Box.
    • MCA.

  • Alfredo Catalani

    “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana” from La Wally

    Performer: Maria Callas. Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Tullio Serafin.
    • Operatic Arias: Maria Callas.
    • EMI.

  • Miles Davis

    Generique

    • “Lift to the Scaffold” (L'ascenseur pour l'échafaud).
    • Phoenix Records.

  • Serge Reggiani

    Le Déserteur

    • 12 succès originaux.
    • Jacques Canetti Productions / Because Music.

  • Sarah Vaughan

    The Man I Love

    • The Very Best of Sarah Vaughan.
    • EMI.

  • CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE

    • Richard Strauss

      Spring, from Four Last Songs

      Performer: Gundula Janowitz. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan.
      • Four Last Songs.
      • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • BOOK CHOICE

    À la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust

  • LUXURY ITEM

    None

Credits

Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Nicole Farhi
Producer Christine Pawlowsky

Broadcasts

  • Sun 10 Jul 2016 11:15
    BBC Radio 4
  • Fri 15 Jul 2016 09:00
    BBC Radio 4

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