With a portfolio dressing the likes of Kylie, The Scissor Sisters and Duran Duran and an anecdotal library brimming with stories from sellotaping a gerbil to a record player to hanging out with Banksy, Fee Doran needed little prompting to reflect upon her colourful life and why she ‘Loves Clothes but hates fashion’

‘Designing is in my blood’ Mrs Jones declares as we decide to begin our conversation at the beginning. We actually began some half an hour before but Fee was engaged with trying to placate her son, having apparently purchased the wrong chocolate bar at the corner shop.

George was only a glimmer in his mother’s eye at the point our narrative begins but with a flourishing interest in film production and music, it is obvious that he is a direct channel of Fee’s creative force.

Somewhat placated with the promise of an imminent trip to Westfields- to scour for fancy dress costumes for his birthday party at the weekend- he concedes to immerse himself in his music for an hour or so.

Fee’s obvious preference for the planning of his outfit and chatter about the state of the wallpaper in her new house which, has not yet succumbed to her interior designer’s creative vision, is testimony to a running theme of her level headedness and refusal to treat anyone differently because of their celebrity.

It is this that has so endeared her to the bands and solo artists that she has taken under her wing devising, not simply outfits but, a whole style of living for those that she agrees to partner. Indeed, she is notorious for only working with clients who she likes and has often championed up and coming acts over bigger names- Victoria Beckham being her most infamous turn down.

In light of this it is unsurprising to learn that her first ‘clients’, aged fourteen, were her friends and that her idiosyncratic ‘no nonsense’ demeanour originated in being picked on at school for her unusual height.

'I realised that you had to laugh at yourself so’s other people couldn’t'

 This self -effacing humour translated into her designs. Frustrated with all the ‘Tall’ section of high street stores being about as exciting as the maternity wear, she would bunk off of school and make her own instead. Likewise it was an apathy to the fashionistas of celebrity culture who looked like wankers, having purchased a line straight off the hanger with no personalisation and, the way in which magazines could ‘kill’ a look, that encouraged her fascination with putting together whole looks for her peers. Strutting out to the Essex clubs, where she grew up, in her latest creations, the group must have looked like strangely exotic birds amidst the uniformity of the Top-Shop-head-to-toe locals.

Having decided that college bored her, it was while working in a Jewish dress shop in Ilford that her first break came. The affluent ladies who frequented the shop would bring in their old clothes for Fee to customise. She would often sit late into the night after work, hunched over her bar heater in the bed sit where she was living, stitching lace and studs onto the outfits- breathing new life with each thread.

It was here in Ilford that she had her first fashion show at the Palais, with a collection called ‘Revamp’. Although she sold every piece, Fee hid under the tables, shunning the spotlight of success:

'I was so embarrassed, most of the clothes were held together with sellotape and were just for show'

It was her mother who smuggled photographs from the show to their local college where, she would later secure a place to study under the critical eye of Ian Hepditch.

Alice exploits Wonderland

Although initially loathing the idea, Fee finished off by taking ‘best in year’ for a final collection themed around ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It was this influence of the fantastical and flights of the imagination on fashion, that would make her so sort after at the peak of her styling career though, from what she remembers of the show:

'It was mad, all the models were drunk and dancing round the stage'

The collection was entitled ‘Alice Exploits Wonderland’ Armed with her new skills, yet still restricted by having to make all her merchandise from her bedroom, Fee decided to test her wares on Portobello market:

'I couldn’t drive so when I couldn’t get a lift I’d have to take the train, loaded up with rails of my clothes- I looked like Jesus in platforms!'

In spite (or because of) this, her designs caught the eyes of trendsetters such as Bjork and Sinead O’Connor although, Fee is quick to dismiss the celebrity credentials:

'I couldn’t be bothered with all that, I was just normal with them'.

It was the same when Stella McCartney brought some posh bird called Madeleine to her stand one weekend who, loved the clothes and proceeded to invite Fee to her home to do a full styling. Terrified by the prospect Fee, having collared one of her friends to accompany her on the appointment, downed a bottle of Baileys before hand and ventured into the first of what would be many ‘posh’ residencies of the rich and famous. Tongue loosened by the liquor, she sat enthusiastically talking to the client’s partner.

'He really seemed to like me so I started telling him stories about how I once sellotaped a hamster to a record player and stuff like that…posh people love cockneys.'

It was only as she tripped back out later that day that her friend inquired whether she’d known that the man was Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran. Fee certainly hadn’t and was therefore somewhat surprised when a call came the next day- Nick wanted her to meet the rest of the band.

'I had to swig some more Baileys again- I got really paranoid that I was only interesting because I was drunk!'

Having been assured that the crowd outside the house, which she had jokingly referred to as Nick’s fan club, were in fact just that, Fee entered into the surreal world that would soon become her day-to-day life for the next six months. Learning on the job, she rapidly realised that you should never style people around what they want (the first video she did with the band they had begged her for pink satin and gold plastic tracksuits) and began to inject some more appropriate individualism into their ‘posh boy’ image. Planning everything from their video shoots to what they ventured out of the house wearing, she became an indispensable asset to their success.

It was her love of music that drove the subsequent years as she moved to East London and began DJing in venues such as the Bricklayers Arms. Although she had little knowledge of mixing, her love of music that people could have a good dance to and the element of performance in her eclectic outfits meant that her nights rapidly became something of a hotspot from which she could also advertise her fashion designs.

'It was this album by Redbone that changed my life- I was rooting around in a mad old charity shop and discovered the record and also a dark purple cape dress with a hood. I went back to my flat and put on the Red Indian funk and danced around in the cape- it was magical. My friend Steph did Tarot cards and one night she was doing my reading and a card fell out of the high priestess in a purple robe. That was it I became ‘The High Priestess of Funk’.

The High Priestess

The High Priestess would go on to DJ at venues around the globe, encountering a mixture of love, bewilderment and even, in some cases, violence in response to her act:'When we were in Dublin, I had to be locked in a pub to escape from a crowd who took offence to me playing Hip Hop! '

Back in England things were a little more carefree- she recalls with fondness nights spent running around Shoreditch in the days before gentrification set in and breaking into empty spaces for parties. One of the most fruitful collaborations of that time was with Giles Deacon, forming the popular night ‘East meets West’ at the 333 club for which she would style all the bands’ outfits. The infamous hooded cape, which had become something of a brand in itself, would of course later re-surface, as the icon of Kylie’s ‘Can’t get you out my head’ video.

Having met her ex-partner Mark Jones (MD Wall of Sound) she moved to West London and began designing as never before with commissions coming in from all of fashion’s it-crowd- including Madonna.

''I made her a leather tracksuit like the one that Giles and I had done for Stuart Price (Les Rythmes Digitales, Zoot Woman and now Madonna's Musical Director). She wanted to keep it afterwards but I asked her for the money for the material- it was expensive leather- and she took that as an insult! So I decided to sell it in the Pineal Eye in Soho with the label ‘Madonna’s tracksuit’.''

Her experience with the retail side of fashion at the Pineal Eye began the seeds of her love-hate relationship with clothes and the fashion world.

'I’d go in there and the staff would be wearing my clothes, borrowing them and then putting them back after a night out. I was pregnant by then too and they looked at me as if I shouldn’t be there. I just wanted to shout ‘Hey, this is my scene’- I hated being pregnant.'

Not one to be put down, Fee turned being a mother and a designer into her calling card: 'That’s how I came up with ‘Mrs Jones’- I wanted it to be cool to be fashionable and be a mum and a wife. I’m starting to become more and more interested in interior design now too with the Mrs Jones Emporium. The idea was to have an ‘At home with the Jones’ kind of vibe. I wanted it to be a lifestyle.'

It was certainly not with her tail between her legs that she returned to the fashion world, trumping the droves of shoulder padded Bright Young Things to catch the eye of Kylie’s stylist William Baker. Kylie clearly wasn’t adverse to career mums, bouncing George up and down on her knee when she visited Fee’s studio and using her clothes for a whole series of videos. Yet again Fee’s down to earth attitude and refusal to compromise was a winning combination. Despite a conspicuous lack of accreditation for these shoots, word spread that Mrs Jones was back in business. She was soon mothering a whole new flock of bands, ranging from the Scissor Sisters to her iconic styling of Alison Goldfrapp for the ‘Black Cherry’ album. For the latter in particular Fee could let her enthrallment with narrative and fairytale run wild and it was from these relationships that her most ambitious designs could be realised.

'I like it when the bands are new and not surrounded by ‘yes men’. That’s what the Scissor Sisters were like to begin with….(trails off) I remember our first introduction when they said: (adopts and American accent) ‘We don’t like labels’ I replied: ‘Well neither do I’ and that was it. Then they started hanging out with Elton John…but for a while I was like Nanny McPhee to them’ '

The stories that drip from Fee’s mouth ooze glamour with each successive project however, the reality of working with rising stars who, became progressively more and more demanding started to take it’s toll:

'Not only that but there’s no money in music anymore, I tend to just do it for a laugh now with smaller bands'

It is her personal approach and firm belief in meeting people to discuss their look before agreeing to work with them, that has translated into her most recent venture ‘Mrs Jones’ Emporium’. This pop up half shop- half styling experience has found its home in both Farringdon and Shoreditch and Fee now has her sights set on Covent Garden for its next resting place.

Although she’s attracted A-list clientele, including Paloma Faith, Fee explains that the concept is geared towards anyone being able to have the star treatment.

The Emporium’s very much like going into Mr Ben’s, you can have an adventure and a cup of tea while you shop!

It is a fitting place to end our conversation as the time looms for George’s fancy dress excursion. Having journeyed through the rollercoaster of her glittering career and ambitious future plans we are back where we started: ‘At home with Mrs Jones’ though, in retrospect, perhaps we never left.

For Fee’s portfolio and online shop, click here.