Paul Costelloe, fashion designer

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Paul Costelloe is a fashion designer who recently celebrated his 36th year showing at London Fashion Week, making him the event’s longest-standing designer. Paul was born in Dublin where his father ran a successful company making raincoats. He studied at the Grafton Academy of Fashion Design and then moved to Paris where he started a fashion course at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture but felt out of his depth and soon dropped out. He talked his way into a job with the eccentric French designer and performer Jacques Esterel, who designed Brigitte Bardot’s wedding dress, and then spent time in Milan and New York before returning to Ireland where he set up his own label. In 1983 Paul started designing clothes for Diana, Princess of Wales – a collaboration that lasted until her death in 1997. He created a range of memorable outfits for the Princess of Wales including the tuxedo suit she wore to the Pavarotti in the Park concert at Hyde Park in 1991 where the Italian tenor serenaded her in front of 125,000 people during a torrential downpour. DISC ONE: Don't Be Cruel by Elvis Presley DISC TWO: Raglan Road by Luke Kelly And The Dubliners DISC THREE: Save the Last Dance For Me by The Drifters DISC FOUR: Les Champs-Elysees by Joe Dassin DISC FIVE: Ol Man River by Paul Robeson DISC SIX: Did You Not Hear My Lady by Aled Jones DISC SEVEN: Di Capua, Capurro: O Sole Mio! performed by Luciano Pavarotti (tenor) and National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Giancarlo Chiaramello DISC EIGHT: Grace by Rod Stewart BOOK CHOICE: Reynard the Fox by Anne Louise Avery LUXURY ITEM: A painting kit CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Grace by Rod Stewart Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.8	Every week I ask my guests to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take
0:13.3	with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.7	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:20.9	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:45.4	My cast away this week is the fashion designer Paul Costello, a mainstay of British and Irish
0:50.6	fashion since the 1980s.
0:52.6	He recently celebrated his 36th year showing at London Fashion Week, making him the events
0:58.2	longest standing designer.
1:00.7	He learned his trade in 1960s Paris, but says he inherited his magic hands which can tell
1:05.9	the make-up of cloth by touch alone from his father, who ran a successful company making
1:11.1	raincoats in Dublin.
1:13.3	Paul set up his own label there in 1979, showcasing the quality tailoring everyday elegance
1:18.9	and love of natural fabrics particularly Irish linen that would become central to his
1:23.9	success.
1:24.9	He's been a favourite of British royalty for decades, dressing Diana Princess of Wales
1:29.1	for 15 years, but lately he has diversified, putting his style within reach of shoppers
1:34.3	who don't have a royal budget.
1:36.7	As a child, his treasured outfit was a Roy Rogers cowboy suit and he did have dreams of
1:41.4	becoming a ranch hand in the American West, but in the end the cattle lost out to the
1:46.2	allure of the cutting room.
	...

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