I went to live in Miami for six months and ended up there for 28 years. I met Chris Blackwell from Island Records, who said: ‘I’ve just bought 10 hotels, would you like to design them?’ We used to come here in Biba days in 1968 and there were fabulous vintage shops. Every year there’s new things being built, people coming in. I love the art deco buildings. There’s something really interesting happening all the time with work. I’m living by the sea and people say: ‘Don’t you go to the beach?’ and I say, ‘No, I’ve forgotten there is a beach!’

I hate time on my own, but there’s always people coming through. If you want to play, you can play; if you want to be quiet, you can be quiet. I do miss English humour though.

As I’ve got older, I have an empty fridge with not too much food in it. No cheese. I’m not hooked on cars as most Americans are, so I walk, walk, walk everywhere. That keeps you agile. I go through phases of doing certain exercise, but then I get bored. The worst age milestone was 40. You feel that that’s the end. I locked myself in a bedroom and howled. My husband, Fitz, didn’t know what to do with me. But it gets better. People are terribly nice to you when you’re an old lady. Ageing is lovely. After you’ve got used to your wrinkles and you wear dark glasses so you can’t see them, you know it’s all right.

The world never stops changing. If you have lots of young friends, nothing changes. It’s the same old things coming round and you think: ‘Oh gosh, I’ve been there. Let them get over that one.’

It just keeps going around in a circle, especially in the fashion world. The Biba look is in every three years. What’s very useful as you get older, is you know what’s not going to work, so you don’t bother with things, which is terrific. And you say, ‘Oh God, not again!’

Barbara Hulanicki is releasing a new line of art prints on Amazon this month, called Pinboard Prints

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