How would you define your style?

That’s a difficult one. I can’t! I’m quite impulsive, and the clothes I choose reflect that part of my nature.

I’m very eclectic. Today my style could be quite funky, maybe it’s a bit wild, it all boils down to my mood on the day. I’ve got many sides to my nature. I also have a bit of magpie in me. If I see something colourful I have to get it. I have a lot of items full of colour, flowers or bright.

I also have a side to me which likes to be ‘daring’ for people to look at me and remark, ‘ What is she wearing?’. I also have a sedate side, I can be quite sedate if I need to be.

As you can see, I like my colours. Blue is my favourite. What we have here is an old Jasper Conran dress, given to me by a friend and which is thirty years old.

A bargain! This was meant to be £500 but I got it for something like £60. I got far too excited!

A bargain, reduced from £104 to £40.

However, you obviously haven’t worn yet it...

I will!

I bought this in Portabanus in Spain a few years ago and I’ve worn and worn it...more patterns...more patterns...things that sparkle now...shiny blue.....I’m a magpie, if I’m at a loss at what to wear, this is the old faithful. I;ve had this fro some ten years now and I wear it everyehwre. If i want to please Dylan, I’ll put this on, the Hurley number, all I need do is breath in a bit!

Australian Aunty Blod’s fur coat. When I’m on my holidays, everything looks as if it suits me, look at these wild trousers.

As a performer, what role do clothes have to play?

I don’t know if I see myself as a perfomer. I see it as everyday to life to be honest. However I do think that clothes make me feel comfortable and allow me to stamp my personality if you like.

Nansi my daughter has her own definite views on what she likes to wear as well, similar to what I was like. She’s only three and a half. They must be long, and they must be pink!

I was born in Montgomeryshire, a farm girl. Three girls: Elen, Blodwen, Anwen – I was the eldest. We were known as the three girls who wore the same things. Everyone thought we were cute and we would always go from Eisteddfod to Eisteddfod dressed the same.

It did look very nice. Mum bought beautiful clothes for us, spending a lot of money on good clothes. If you look at photos of us aged between 5 and 13, the three of us are wearing identical outfits. As a teenager I rebelled, I wanted to be different – very different!

I love tights. To be honest, if I’m feeling a bit cheeky and feel like brightening up a grey or dark outfit, I’ll put on a pair of pink tights! I might on the other hand be feeling a bit flowery, and then I’ll wear a pair of flowery tights or shiny ones!

Other things which brighten up your clothes are these fantastic beads. The colours are great, are they old?

Yes they are. I got those in one of those shops that sells vintage things so they’re old. You can wear something that’s quite plain an dmake it a bit different using things like beads. I like the sound they make, not just th e pleasure of wearing them , but the pleasure of looking at the, feeling them, it’s almost as if they’re something to enjoy as well as wear.

I remember my gran wearing these. I like the green clasp and all the detail and the colours when you look at them in the light.

Do you remember her wearing them?

Yes I do. There’s something sentimental about them too. I think that’s the nice thing about clothes, you can keep them close to your heart so to speak.

But knowing magpies like you, I’ll bet you’ve got more shiny things haven’t you?

You know what, you’re right! And I keep them in a special place too!

These pink shoes are fantastic!

These are important to me. I wore them on my wedding day...

So they’ve seen a lot of dancing then?

Yes. They’re hard to wear – I don’t know how I wore them all day. Once I knewo I was getting married I thought ‘what am I going to wear?’. When I spoke to my friends, they all said I couldn’t wear white because it really wouldn’t be me and they were right. I found a dress that suited me in terms of the style, and then I went to but some fabric from an Indian shop and someone else made this concoction for the wedding dress.

I remember coming out of the house on the day of the wedding. You know how people look at you on the street, especially where we come from, the whole street watches. And you hear someone say something that stays with you. I heard a woman say ‘Oh that’s typical Elen’, and that’s the first thing I heard as I got out of the car. I wasn’t quite sure how to take it, but it was probably true.