She has readily acknowledged that she was overjoyed to be awarded the CBE — conferred on her at Buckingham Palace by the late Queen Elizabeth.
But fashion designer Katharine Hamnett, who had previously declared that she was ‘holding out to be a Duchess — with a castle’, has apparently tired of being a mere Commander of the British Empire and consigned her insignia to oblivion — or, worse, one of her dustbins.
Staging the sort of protest that’s been her stock-in-trade since 1984, when she met Margaret Thatcher at a Downing Street reception wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an anti-nuclear slogan, Hamnett has posted her latest revolt on social media.
A video clip shows her descending the steps from her house, wearing a black T-shirt on which are imprinted the words: ‘Disgusted to be British.’
Just in case anyone’s in doubt, Hamnett, an alumna of £45,000-a-year Cheltenham Ladies’ College, says: ‘I’m disgusted to be British for our role in genocide in Gaza.’
Then, lifting the lid of a black bin with her left hand, and holding the light red ribbon of the CBE in her right, she adds: ‘This is my CBE. It belongs in the dustbin, with Sunak and Starmer.’
Katharine Hamnett has apparently tired of being a mere Commander of the British Empire and consigned her insignia to oblivion — or, worse, one of her dustbins
A video clip shows her descending the steps from her house, wearing a black T-shirt on which are imprinted the words: ‘Disgusted to be British.’
In 1984, she met Margaret Thatcher at a Downing Street reception wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with an anti-nuclear slogan
With a deft flourish, the 76-year-old flips the ribbon — and the cross to which it is attached — into the bin. Closing the lid, Hamnett turns to the camera once more. ‘Go to this site,’ she instructs admirers, directing them to a website which helps the uninitiated discover who their MP is.
‘Tell them you’ll never vote for them again unless they support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.’
Finally, in a demonstration of the trading instincts that propelled her to immense commercial success, she says: ‘Go to this website and get the T-shirt.’
Hamnett has been cleverly in line with metropolitan style for decades. ‘I had to tone down my accent a bit,’ she has recalled of her time at art school in London in the 1960s, describing the era as ‘the first time the working class had mixed with the upper class’.
I wonder what her father’s advice to Israel, striving to free its hostages, would have been?
He had been a prisoner of war of the Japanese.
Emma reveals key to romance
How did former BBC newsreader Simon McCoy win the heart of Dynasty pin-up Emma Samms? Behaving like a gentleman, it seems.
‘I don’t think good manners are old-fashioned,’ says Samms, 63.
‘Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ is a matter of respect for others. Some people get very aerated when a door is held open for them. I don’t take it as a judgment on my capability: I like it.
‘And the fact that my husband opens the car door for me and stands up when I leave or return to a formal dining table is only a total delight.’
DJ ‘DIDDY’ David Hamilton is just hitting his stride at 85. But he doesn’t want to be recreated as an AI voice like his new Boom Radio colleague, the late Tommy Vance.
‘I worry about AI because in the hands of the wrong people it could be a very dangerous weapon,’ he tells me.
Hamilton is instead recording a series called Million Sellers about pop’s biggest hits. ‘There’ll be plenty of those left in the can. Boom can run those when I pop my clogs.’
Prue’s poignant tribute to brother
The Great British Bake Off star Dame Prue Leith pays a moving tribute to her late brother Jamie in her new ITV1 series by cooking up one of his recipes for viewers this weekend.
Restaurateur Jamie Leith died last year and Dame Prue, 84, rustles up the vegan dish, Jamie’s Red Dragon Pie, in the opening episode of Prue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchen.
‘I love how the taste and smell of food is a wonderful trigger of memories,’ she says. ‘When I cook this dish, I definitely think of Jamie. I was really close to him. He was my younger brother and would cook this dish for his children when they came home from school.’
Cruz cuts a dash with Mossie’s pals
THE OCCASION: Perfect Magazine and AMI Paris’s LFW party at Dovetale, Mayfair.
DOUBLE-TAKE: Kate Moss’s pal Rosemary Ferguson, 49, doesn’t just party with her daughter, Elfie, 22; they even wear the same dress. Rosemary (left) chose the black JW Anderson twisted mini while model Elfie slipped into the £550 silver version.
BECKS-DRESSED: David and Victoria Beckham’s youngest son, Cruz, who turned 19 yesterday, wore an eye-catching lime-green shirt with a pinstripe suit.
DRIVING AMBITION: Heiress India Rose James, 32, couldn’t have made a quick getaway if she tried. ‘I can’t drive,’ she tells me. ‘I’m having lessons, but I’m worried how I’ll do in the test.
David and Victoria Beckham’s youngest son, Cruz, who turned 19 yesterday, wore an eye-catching lime-green shirt with a pinstripe suit
Elfie Reigate and Rosemary Ferguson attend the Perfect Magazine and AMI Paris LFW Party
As the Prince and Princess of Wales consider whether to send Prince George to Oundle, the £45,435-per-year boarding school in Northamptonshire, they could consult the unlikely figure of Bruce Dickinson, frontman of heavy metal rockers Iron Maiden.
‘If you can put up with Oundle, you can cope with life in Iron Maiden,’ Dickinson says. ‘But I’m not sure being in boarding school enables you to get on with people. People in boarding schools are not — how can I put this? — normal people.’
