Where does your interest in clothes come from?

I'm interested in all kinds of clothes but I'd say I'm passionate about traditional Welsh folk dancing clothes. In fact aspects of folk dancing clothes have influenced my general wardrobe as well, hats, skirts, all kinds of things. I just love clothes.

From where does this interest stem?

Recently I've been tracing my family tree and I've discovered that my great, great, great grandfather was one of Llangynddelyn's hatters and moved to Amlwch to open his own business there, and that my great grandfather was also a hatter in Amlwch, Rhuthin, Rhyl and Caernarfon. People called him Davies cutters. He's family always looked very smart even though they were relatively poor. As I understand, it was traditional back then for a tailor to keep a little bit of material to make clothes for his family. In fact I think that the interest in clothes has prevailed over the generations.

Are old clothes your delight?

My main delight is folk dancing clothes and the whole history behind them. The Welsh costume, or the British costume in fact, was daily clothes in the eighteenth and nineteenth century but the Welsh carried on with its tradition. When the Methodist revival came about all traditions, music, harps and melodies were all sins according to religious people. For years I longed to own a Welsh hat, and about a month ago I stumbled across a hat that my great grandfather, the hatter from Amlwch, David Edwards, had made. There's also a little bonnet that goes with her as well. This is a replica bonnet, but the original was worn by an old lady who used to work on Paris hill in Amlwch, she was known as the copper lady. The bonnet went under the hat like this. It's a coincident that the bonnet and hat come from the same area, of course there were no ribbons on the original bonnet, but I think that it fits wonderfully under this hat.

What's the story behind this costume?

Well, this is the first costume that I had; it's the Cardiff Folk Dancing Company costume. The back of it is very interesting because of this long bed gown or long jacket and it's the Lady of Llanofer pattern. It has two buttons and a twist here on the pleat, the box pleat, which makes it look very graceful. To go with her there's also a cotton apron and a little skirt to be worn as a petticoat.

Look at these indecent bloomers! Do you wear them?

I can assure you that I certainly do not! But I do like to collect clothes that denotes that era. One item that I haven't worn for years, about thirty years in fact, but it looks like new is this cloak. I wore it at the Welsh Folk Dancing Society's Jubilee, and the first thing my friend said to me was; "You look like the Scottish Widow". And so, it went straight back into the wardrobe and didn't come out for years! But then I thought, I like the colour red, and so I had it lined with red fabric, I thought that it suited me better, a little more colourful. And do you know what? The Scottish Widow has copied me - she now also has red lining in her cloak. So the Scottish Widow and I now look like twins!

If the house went up in smoke what would you save?

My Welsh hat I think, and I'd welcome the fact that everything else had gone so that I could shop for some new clothes!