“My great uncle Oliver Messel wore this costume himself, and it fits me perfectly. He was tiny. He was a renowned set designer. I never met him – he died before I was born – but he introduced my father, Tony Snowdon, to people like Marlene Dietrich and Noel Coward, and he photographed them. It’s how he started off. One of the things I love and find interesting about Oliver’s work was that there were no extravagant materials. He would make all sorts of things out of pipe cleaners and tin…
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