Cath Kidston | |
---|---|
Born | Catherine Isabel Audrey Kidston 6 November 1958 Marylebone, London, England |
Occupations |
|
Organisation | Cath Kidston Limited |
Known for | Floral prints and patterns |
Partner | Hugh Padgham |
Parent | Archibald Martin Kidston |
Relatives | Glen Kidston (grandfather) Kirstie Allsopp (cousin) |
Catherine Isabel Audrey Kidston MBE (born 6 November 1958) [1] is an English fashion designer, businesswoman and author whose company, Cath Kidston Limited sold home furnishings and related goods online, through franchises and by mail order. [2] She is particularly known for her nostalgic floral patterns. [2]
Kidston's paternal grandparents were Glen Kidston, a successful racing driver for Bentley in the 1920s, [3] and Nancy Soames. Nancy is also Samantha Cameron's paternal grandmother, making them half first cousins. [4]
Television presenters Kirstie Allsopp [5] [6] and Sofie Allsopp are her maternal second cousins, daughters of Charles Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip, the former chairman of Christie's.
Kidston opened her first shop in London's Holland Park in 1993, [2] selling hand-embroidered tea-towels. [7] By the end of 2013, she had 136 outlets, including a flagship store on Piccadilly next to Fortnum & Mason and four stores in China. [8] Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs programme, Kidston described her shops as provoking a 'Marmite reaction': "People either love it and want a little bit of it very much, or want to stab us." [3] In 2010, she sold a majority stake of the company to private equity investors TA Associates, [9] retaining a minority stake and remaining the company's Creative Director. [9]
Prince George wore one of her outfits, which quickly sold out. [10]
Kidston has worked with Millets to design tents (2005–6), [2] Nokia/ Carphone Warehouse mobile phones (2006), [2] and Roberts radios (2005 onwards). [2] In 2008, she collaborated with Tesco to produce shopping bags made from plastic bottles, [2] which were sold to raise almost £500,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care [2] and saved about six million plastic bottles from landfill. [2]
Kidston's partner is record producer Hugh Padgham. [11] Kidston has two pets, a Sealyham terrier named Billie and a Lakeland terrier named Stanley, who feature in her designs. [12] [13]
Marmite ( MAR-myte) is a British savoury food spread based on yeast extract, invented by the German scientist Justus von Liebig. It is made from by-products of beer brewing (lees) and is produced by the British company Unilever. Marmite is a vegan source of B vitamins, including supplemental vitamin B12. A traditional method of use is to spread it very thinly on buttered toast.
Diana, Lady Mosley, known as Diana Guinness between 1929 and 1936, was a British aristocrat, writer, editor and fascist sympathiser. She was one of the Mitford sisters and the wife of Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists.
Bobbie Gentry is an American retired singer-songwriter. She was one of the first female artists in America to compose and produce her own material.
Delia Ann Smith is an English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills in a direct style. One of the best-known celebrity chefs in British popular culture, Smith has influenced viewers to become more culinarily adventurous. She is also notable for her role as Honorary Life President of Norwich City, where she was previously the Joint Majority Shareholder alongside Wynn-Jones from 1998 to 2024.
Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur is a retired English sailor, from Whatstandwell near Matlock in Derbyshire, now based in Cowes, Isle of Wight.
Babycham is a light, sparkling perry invented by Francis Showering, a brewer in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England. The name was owned by Accolade Wines until 2021, when it was bought back into the Showering family business Brothers Drinks Limited. The brand was particularly popular during the 1960s and 1970s. The new owners are planning a major rebrand and relaunch of the drink.
Next plc, trading as Next (styled as NEXT) is a British multinational clothing, footwear and home products retailer, which has its headquarters in Enderby, England. It has around 700 stores, of which circa 500 are in the United Kingdom, and circa 200 across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Next is the largest clothing retailer by sales in the United Kingdom, having overtaken Marks & Spencer in early 2012 and 2014. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Stella Nina McCartney is an English fashion designer. She is a daughter of British singer-songwriter Paul McCartney and the American photographer and animals rights activist Linda McCartney. Like her parents, McCartney is a supporter of animal rights and environmentalism, and uses vegetarian and animal-free alternatives in her work. Since 2005, she has designed an activewear collection for Adidas.
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is a component of the DJIA and the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indexes.
Hugh Charles Padgham is an English record producer and audio engineer. He has won four Grammy Awards, for Producer of the Year and Album of the Year for 1985, Record of the Year for 1990, and Engineer of the Year for 1993. Padgham's co-productions include hits by Phil Collins, XTC, Genesis, the Human League, Sting, and the Police. He pioneered the "gated reverb" drum sound used most famously in Collins' song "In the Air Tonight".
Kirstie Mary Allsopp is a British television presenter, best known as co-presenter of Channel 4 property shows including Location, Location, Location, Love It or List It UK, Relocation, Relocation and Location Revisited.
Rita Tushingham is a British actress. She is known for her starring roles in films including A Taste of Honey (1961), The Leather Boys (1964), The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Smashing Time (1967). For A Taste of Honey, she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, and Most Promising Newcomer at both the BAFTA Awards and Golden Globe Awards. Her other film appearances include An Awfully Big Adventure (1995), Under the Skin (1997), Being Julia (2004), and Last Night in Soho (2021).
Clare Victoria Balding is an English broadcast journalist and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport and Channel 4, and previously BT Sport, and formerly presented the programme Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2. Balding was appointed as the 30th president of the Rugby Football League, serving a two-year term until December 2022.
Veja is a French footwear and accessories brand founded in 2004. Veja's products are made with organic cotton, natural rubber, leather and recycled plastic bottles.
George Toogood Smith was the maternal uncle, through marriage, of John Lennon. Smith operated his family's two dairy farms and a retail outlet with his brother, Frank Smith, in the village of Woolton, Liverpool. The farms had been in the Smith family for four generations, but after the start of the Second World War, they were taken over by the British Government for war work.
Sophia Atherley "Sofie" Allsopp is a British television presenter.
Cath Kidston Limited was a British international home furnishing retail company with headquarters in London, with a focus on handicraft and vintage themed items that embody a quintessentially British lifestyle. In March 2023 it ceased to exist as a trading entity with the intellectual property acquired by retailer Next Plc.
Judith Trim was an English studio potter. From 1969 to 1975, she was married to Roger Waters of the rock band Pink Floyd, her childhood sweetheart.
Joanne Lesley Malone CBE is a British perfumer and founder of the companies Jo Malone London and Jo Loves. Malone founded Jo Malone London in 1990 and later sold the company in 1999 to its current parent company Estee Lauder Companies. In 2011, Malone founded Jo Loves.
Gloucester Quays is an outlet shopping centre on St Ann Way, Gloucester, in the area of the city formerly known as High Orchard. The outlet is situated close to Gloucester Docks, a historic area of the city.