HELLOFASHION.COM 99hfm LIFESTYLE
H
ow knitwear designer Alex
Gore Browne came to live at
Tidmington House ten years
ago is the stuff fairytales are
made of. Her and husband
Jo Bamford had been invited
down from Staffordshire to stay with his
parents, Sir Anthony and Lady Carole
Bamford, who own nearby Daylesford
House – a 150-acre Georgian estate.
“It’s quite a sweet story, actually. We were
driving home and Jo said, ‘I really have
to show you this house, it’s so pretty’, he
studied architectural history at university,
so he’s always been interested in buildings.
“We took a different route home, slowing
down and then stopping outside this
beautiful house – admiring it from the road.
Then about two years later it went up for
sale, and we were lucky enough to buy it.”
The couple now share the Grade II-listed
Cotswolds manor house, which she calls
“the most amazing cosy home”, with their
children Tilly, ten, and Teddy, eight – along
with a whippet, labrador, two cockapoo
puppies, two miniature donkeys (“that are
the sweetest things you’ve ever seen in your
life”) and two Shetland ponies. “It’s hilarious,
the Shetlands get excited when they see
the donkeys and start neighing,” she laughs.
Alex graduated from Central Saint
Martins with a first class honours degree
in Textiles in the same year as renowned
designer Ashish and creative director of
Dior menswear Kim Jones. Roksanda
Ilincic and Jonathan Saunders were in
the year above.
“So it was pretty interesting,” she tells us.
“You don’t realise at the time because you’re
in the swing of it and everybody is working as
hard as they possibly can. But when I look
back now, 20 years later, I see how far they’ve
all come, its amazing,” she says modestly.
Of course, Alex has also carved a successful
career, launching her eponymous label in- “I had a tiny studio in the Cockpit
Arts in Bloomsbury, they support young
designers and it was located between Saint
Martins and Alexander McQueen,” she says,
as she often consulted for the designer – as
well as Nina Ricci and Matthew Williams.
“I started designing fabrics for other
companies, bigger brands, so I had a library
of fabrics that were left over. When I
went on a trip to Scotland I was able to
HELLOFASHION.COM 99hfm LIFESTYLE
H
ow knitwear designer Alex
Gore Browne came to live at
Tidmington House ten years
ago is the stuff fairytales are
made of. Her and husband
Jo Bamford had been invited
down from Staffordshire to stay with his
parents, Sir Anthony and Lady Carole
Bamford, who own nearby Daylesford
House – a 150-acre Georgian estate.
“It’s quite a sweet story, actually. We were
driving home and Jo said, ‘I really have
to show you this house, it’s so pretty’, he
studied architectural history at university,
so he’s always been interested in buildings.
“We took a different route home, slowing
down and then stopping outside this
beautiful house – admiring it from the road.
Then about two years later it went up for
sale, and we were lucky enough to buy it.”
The couple now share the Grade II-listed
Cotswolds manor house, which she calls
“the most amazing cosy home”, with their
children Tilly, ten, and Teddy, eight – along
with a whippet, labrador, two cockapoo
puppies, two miniature donkeys (“that are
the sweetest things you’ve ever seen in your
life”) and two Shetland ponies. “It’s hilarious,
the Shetlands get excited when they see
the donkeys and start neighing,” she laughs.
Alex graduated from Central Saint
Martins with a first class honours degree
in Textiles in the same year as renowned
designer Ashish and creative director of
Dior menswear Kim Jones. Roksanda
Ilincic and Jonathan Saunders were in
the year above.
“So it was pretty interesting,” she tells us.
“You don’t realise at the time because you’re
in the swing of it and everybody is working as
hard as they possibly can. But when I look
back now, 20 years later, I see how far they’ve
all come, its amazing,” she says modestly.
Of course, Alex has also carved a successful
career, launching her eponymous label in- “I had a tiny studio in the Cockpit
Arts in Bloomsbury, they support young
designers and it was located between Saint
Martins and Alexander McQueen,” she says,
as she often consulted for the designer – as
well as Nina Ricci and Matthew Williams.
“I started designing fabrics for other
companies, bigger brands, so I had a library
of fabrics that were left over. When I
went on a trip to Scotland I was able to