Lulu Guinness "never" wanted to be an accessories designer.
Lulu Guinness
The 56-year-old fashion mogul - who launched her luxury handbag and accessories line in 1989 - has admitted she didn't intend to boast a career spanning almost three decades at the helm of the fashion industry, because she had always dreamed of being an actress instead.
Speaking to The Mail Online, the brunette beauty said: "I never thought I'd end up working in fashion. I did all sorts of jobs in my 20s. I wanted to be an actress and when I got married I was working for a company that made corporate films."
However the British entrepreneur has revealed her success stemmed from her vision to create an item similar to the filofax - a briefcase.
The mother of two - who has daughters Tara, 24, and Madeleine, 19, - explained: "I didn't want to be out of the house for such long hours so I decided I needed to invent something like the Filofax - which was the thing everyone had at the time - which would make me a fortune.
"It was the late Eighties and all about showing off your Ray-Ban sunglasses or Sony Walkmans. So I came up with a briefcase that had clear pockets that allowed you to display your belongings. I managed to get it into Browns, Liberty and Joseph.
"But then people started asking me if I could design other bags.
"I hadn't studied at Central Saint Martins or Cordwainers colleges, where all the fashion people went. All I was doing was coming up with concepts that I liked. I actually felt a bit of a fake."
"That all changed in 1997 when the V&A museum asked if they could put my Florist's Basket bag - a black silk bucket bag in the shape of a vase with red velvet roses on top - into their '50 Years Of Fashion' exhibition.
"I suppose when you're in fashion you really have to have a lightbulb moment a couple of times a week. But it was that one back in 1997 that made me believe all the others were worth taking seriously."
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