He adores Miami, has a penchant for Paris and, such is his Alpine addiction, ensures he goes skiing every year, preferably staying in the Swiss resort of Gstaad at the Palace Hotel, where prices for a suite with a mountain view start at about £3,000 a night.
But might Julien Macdonald’s next holiday be a rather more modest affair – a week in Porthcawl, perhaps, in his native south Wales?
The question is prompted not by any dramatic change in the tastes of the man known as ‘the Welsh Wizard’ – who lured Queen Camilla to her first fashion show – but by developments at the remains of his eponymous fashion company.
Three years ago, Julien Macdonald Ltd went into liquidation, leaving creditors – many of them self-employed – £524,000 out of pocket, while Macdonald’s own employees were owed £162,000.
Now, I can disclose, the liquidators report that Macdonald, 55, has agreed to repay £150,000 – albeit only after a struggle.
Noting that he disputed that he owed at least £400,000 – a result, claimed the liquidators, of receiving ‘excessive remuneration in the lead-up to the liquidation’ – and had ‘engaged solicitors to defend his position’, they decided to call in some legal muscle of their own. It did the trick. ‘A settlement was agreed,’ adds the liquidators’ report, explaining that the agreement allows Macdonald to pay the money in instalments, with the first one due at the end of last month and the second and final one at the end of next March.
Fashion designer Julien Macdonald lured Queen Camilla to her first fashion show in 2018
It is, though, only a minor consolation to the self-employed creditors. The terms of the agreement, one of them explains, means that the £150,000 will be gobbled up in legal fees – and, of course, payment to the liquidators.
‘They’ve taken the lot. We’ll get nothing, not one penny,’ adds the creditor, who was one of a team of highly skilled men and women recruited by Macdonald to help him get ready for a triumphant London Fashion Week show in 2023.
Macdonald declines to comment. He has designed a ‘luxe’ burger box for McDonald’s. Let’s hope that, unlike his old business, it doesn’t crumple...
Photoshoot looks a real hoot, Alice
Alice Naylor-Leyland dodges a rogue owl during her photoshoot with her autumn collection
Never work with children or animals, the old showbiz adage goes – advice that was clearly lost on Princess Beatrice’s friend Alice Naylor-Leyland.
Her business, Mrs Alice, which creates themed dining sets, staged a video shoot involving various creatures to promote its autumn collection at Deene Park in Northamptonshire.
But one owl forgot its table manners and gave her a fright as it took flight while perched on her hand. In the clip, which she posted online, Alice – wearing a £3,706 Gemy Maalouf strapless embroidered dress with a cage skirt – was captured screaming: ‘Quite clearly, I can’t talk about a plate!’
Monty Python star Eric Idle loves hanging out with rock stars, explaining: ‘They have women, drugs and money – and they’re very generous at all three.’ Outspoken Idle, 83, who lives in Los Angeles with second wife Tania Kosevich, does not fear being deported by Donald Trump. ‘I’d be proud,’ he said. ‘I’d be in select company. The last English comedian thrown out for political reasons was Charlie Chaplin.’
Holland Snr: I need me time
Tom Holland and Zendaya may be Hollywood’s hottest newlyweds, but the Spider-Man star’s father is on hand to keep their expectations of married life grounded.
Comedian Dominic Holland, who has been married to Tom’s mother, Nikki, a photographer, for 32 years, admits he relishes time apart from his other half.
‘I don’t want to come across as an uncaring man or, even worse, a remiss husband, but my wife is going away next week, and this means I am in bliss,’ he writes online.
‘The prospect of a few days to myself... being able to do what I want, eat what I want, play what I want and watch what I want is intoxicating.’
Dominic, who has four sons with Nikki, says the feeling is mutual, adding: ‘I’m self-aware enough to know Nikki will be thrilled to have some time and space away from her quirky and often infuriating husband.’
Catwalk earns Cara £35m
Model and actress Cara Delevingne walks the runway at the L'Oréal Paris show during Paris Fashion Week this year
Her great aunt, Viscountess Castlerosse, kept herself in luxuries by taking rich lovers – only to lament that this obliged her ‘to make love to dirty old men’.
Cara Delevingne has dispensed with men altogether, but she can indulge herself with any trinket she fancies.
She now has a staggering £34.9million tucked away in Cara & Co, the firm into which she places her modelling and acting earnings, according to accounts just filed at Companies House.
Perhaps she’ll celebrate by installing a second stripper pole in the LA house she shares with older sister Poppy?
Sad Boy George in memorial ban
Karma Chameleon singer Boy George is now having to deal with petty snubs from beyond the grave.
He faced a backlash in July for his pro-Israel song We Will Dance Again, and quit his role as King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar in the West End.
Yesterday, he revealed he had been banned from the memorial service for his friend Pam Hogg, the fashion designer and supporter of the Palestinian cause who died at 74 last year.
‘Remembering my friend Pam Hogg who is being celebrated today by friends,’ he wrote online.
‘I was uninvited but I am there in spirit. God Bless you Pam.’