From Vogue to Sea Road

But Julia Platt had ideas other than being a model '“ she went on to become an acclaimed designer working in the world of interior decoration as well as fashion and vintage clothing.

She is now bringing that creativity to Bexhill and has opened her own shop, Lily Rose, in Sea Road.

The shelves are lined with unusual and quirky items as well as beautiful ones, many salvaged and given new life, placed alongside 30's lingerie and 40's party dresses, antique petticoats and satin pyjamas.

"I have always been described as having a creative eye," said Julia.

"I love putting things together. I see beauty in all sorts of things and very often they are very simple things."

Plans include creating her own collection for the shop which will comprise 40's inspired trousers in linens, silk and cottons, as well as tops and dresses based on old favourites, in vintage fabrics.

She is bringing years of experience and know-how to Lily Rose having run the shop in Hertfordshire, prior to which she had a cottage industry-style business called Sweet Dreams producing a range of bedlinen. She ran Sweet Dreams in conjunction with looking after her two children but managed to achieved such success she was invited to a ceremony celebrating the best of British talent, where she presented Princess Margaret with a cushion so desireable that designer Zandra Rhodes requested one for herself.

Having started off working in a Mayfair hairdressing salon, Julia had a knack of being in the right place at the right time and so came into contact with the leading lights of the fashion, music and television industry. David Bailey requested to work with her, Ossie Clarke admired her dress and she became friends with the likes of Jeff Banks and Michael Parkinson. She worked as a model occasionally and recalls being photographed draped across a huge American car with her hair curled wild and dramatic and her face stripped of all make-up, while another time she lost out on a shampoo job because she was cast for having red hair and by the time the shoot came up she had dyed it bright purple.

It was while she was working at Molton Brown as a men's stylist that she began creating clothes for friends and customers and the creative side began to take over. She went on to develop her own ideas for bedlin and duvet covers in vintage fabric before beginning her family and realising she wanted to devote more time to her children.

"I had this range of bedlinen and had a few people making things for me, but it became too big. I was getting orders with shops asking for 40 of this and 60 of that...and I had small children, so I had to make a decision. I wanted to be looking after my children, not have someone else doing that for me."

She went back into business later when living in Hertfordshire but due to illness gave it up and took a sideways move into study. She did a-levels and a degree in social science at Middlesex University before becoming a child protection social worker from 1997 until last year.

"I feel I have given back. I had a lot of pleasure in that learning curve up to then and I feel I have given something back. Children are always very important to me '“ my own children are very important to me, and my grandchildren are very important.

"It is not so far away from this whole feeling I have about this throwaway society, this don't-care society. The things I have in the shop are saying - let's think before we throw stuff away, it has value...and as people we should be more caring towards other people. I have strong views on eco and fairtrade and I decided that was going to be part of my shop."