I have two grandmothers. One grandmother is in my memory and the other has lost her memory. Both grandmothers are beautiful, funny, and sharp when they’re angry, but the difference between them is that only one grandmother remembers who I am. The memory is a strange thing. My grandmother remembers that she likes her tea with a lot of sugar and that only a China cup will do, but she doesn’t remember that she’s my grandmother, and my mother’s mother. She would only wear Marks and Sparks clothes, have her hair done every week and would never leave the house without a little lipstick and powder. Not long before the grandmother in my memory turned into the grandmother I now know, she sat me down, stroked my hair and told me that she was growing old and starting to forget things, but whatever was to come she would always love me.

What has influenced your style?

I think my grandmother is the biggest influence in my life and everything I do. The dementia started when I was about 10 years old, but I remember how she was before it started. She was a very smart lady, always dressed nicely. When the dementia started she lost pride in the way she dressed. What has affected me most is losing her stories – for me, stories are everything in life. I think that’s why I like second hand clothes so much, because I love the stories that come with them – who owned them before I did? There’s also a certain look with some clothes which I like. I’m also quiet superstitious about some things.

What kind of clothes do you have in your wardrobe?

Most are old or clothes that I’ve been given as gifts, but a lot of them have come from charity shops. When I go into a shop I notice patterns, colours and fabrics straight away. I usually walk past anything that’s black or white. Patterns stand out for me and my instinct attracts me to them. I get excited when I go into a second hand or a charity shop and feel the fabrics, and if there’s something special about them then I get butterflies in my stomach!

Do you hang your bags and clothes on the wall all year round?

I find it’s the best way to see what I’ve got. I hang some dresses up but it’s mainly for my bags. I like it, it’s like a work of art, and I swap the dresses around now and again for a change.

This is a fantastic dress.

This is one of my favourite dresses. This was the first vintage-style dress I bought years ago in Amsterdam. That’s when I discovered that vintage clothes suit my shape. I still wear it now and I love it.

The orange in this dress is such a rich colour.

I love this dress. I got it as a gift from my best friend who lives in Norway. I wore it to a party once; I’d been there for about five minutes and went to the bar to get a glass of red wine. As I was returning to my friends, a man who was dancing knocked the glass in my hand and spilt red wine all over the dress. You would think that it was a disaster, but after about half an hour it had disappeared – red wine! It’s like a magical dress!

Where did you get this top with the little pearls on it?

I got this from a clothes swap. Every now and again we have a clothes swap, where a group of friends come together with the clothes they no longer want, then one of us, I did it the last time, auctions the clothes to the rest of the group to raise money for charity. And I got this, I love it. Because I was the one doing the auction, I didn’t like to bid against anyone. But you must have been able to see in my eyes how much I wanted this top because one of my friends bought it but came over to me at the end of the night, gave it to me and said, “ I know you want it.” And I did, I love it!

This is an unusual dress.

Ebay……ebay-tastic!! I paid £1.50 for this dress. I’ll never bid over £10 – that’s my limit. I’m quite restrained when it comes to clothes because I could go nuts, so I have to have some kind of limit!

Why do you have thousands of buttons?

I collect buttons and by now I have a few. I don’t go out and buy new buttons. I go into charity shops and buy shirts or something because they have interesting buttons. I love going through loads of buttons and finding a special one and wondering “what was this on?”

What do you clothes mean to you?

I collect clothes because they all have a new story to tell me, so I’ve collected stories through objects over the years. I would be upset if something was to happen to them. I’m sure I’d start a new collection and that everything would be alright, but it would really break my heart if I lost everything - they’re like a storyboard of my life.