Mary Portas, creative trailblazer and retail revolutionary, invites Patrick O’Donnell into her London home to talk about the colours that have guided her through her life. ‘The world is colourful’ she says, ‘I always see my life in colour’. Together they delve into the way colours open a door onto chapters of our lives. ‘Orange has always been a great friend to me - through my hair, my fashion, my business - it’s a very powerful sensual colour.’ Mary also shares her penchant for matching the colour of her specs to different coloured rooms in her home. ‘I wear pink in my living room and neutral in my bedroom’, she says. And Patrick gets a peek into Mary’s glorious bright orange powder room.
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The Chromologist: Mary Portas

If you had to choose four key colours that have shaped your life, what would they be? Host Patrick O’Donnell understands how colour works in our homes but also how it works in our heads, our hearts, our identities. As a colour expert for Farrow &amp; Ball he gets to roll his sleeves up and turn people’s colour dreams into realities. So join him for The Chromologist, as he immerses himself in the lives of creatives, designers and performers who share their stories through colour, guided by the Farrow &amp; Ball colour chart. And uncover your own colour story. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Home & Garden

Leisure

 Lucinda Chambers is one of fashion’s most influential figures. She’s former director for Vogue and the founder of boutique online retail outlets Collagerie and Colville. In this episode, she invites Patrick into her West London home to share her life in colour – from the coral of her mother’s creativity and her childhood homes to the traditional deep blue of French workwear, which for her symbolises summer, freedom and play. ‘I think a lot of people are terrified of colour. But I always say start with creeping colour. A pop of lipstick, or green eye shadow, or some amazing lilac earrings.’
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The Chromologist: Lucinda Chambers

Former Royal Ballet dancer and model, Eric Underwood, welcomes Patrick into the rambling Chiltern farmhouse he’s recently moved to. In the cosiness of Eric’s library snug they talk about his deep bond with his mother which he likens to the expansive blue of the colour Borrowed Light, about his childhood growing up in Washington D.C as a gifted dancer and about his experiences as one of the few professional black ballet dancers. Eric also tells the story of how he came to create ballet shoes for people of colour. ‘The colour of "ballet white" I’ve always seen as quite challenging if you aren’t white. I wanted to change that.’
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The Chromologist: Eric Underwood

Australian, Michelin-starred chef and former food editor for Vogue, Skye Gyngell, invites Patrick into her beautiful restaurant, Spring, at Somerset House in London. Together they savour the story of Skye’s upbringing through her choice of deep, dark greens and bright, bold yellows. She says: ‘If you’ve grown up in a country like Australia, the majesty of nature is so huge, the skies are so vast, the seas are so strong, the earth is so red, it gets into your DNA.’ Skye also describes her passion for soft pink, which is the colour of Spring restaurant and of where she feels her life is now. ‘A lot of my life has been about trying to define who I am. I really wanted Spring to feel female, delicate and soft and to celebrate that it’s a restaurant headed up by a woman.’
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The Chromologist: Skye Gyngell

American fashion designer and luminary Christopher John Rogers talks to Patrick about the colours of his life, from his studio in Manhattan. Christopher recently collaborated with Farrow & Ball on the Carte Blanche collection - a capsule collection of paint and paper inspired by childhood memories of food and family. In this conversation he shares four colours from that collection. From the rich shallot pink of his early childhood in Louisiana, which makes him think of his mother’s wedding day, to the colour of his life right now which he sees as the rich brown of Cardamom. ‘For me this earth colour is enveloping and sexy and sophisticated and I feel it’s about me being more centred and more grounded in my life.’
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The Chromologist: Christopher John Rogers

Singer, author and broadcaster Cerys Matthews brings Patrick into her River home in this special episode of The Chromologist. It’s a joyous first meeting and the two discover they share a great love of mud colours, conch shells and the rich greens of the Welsh countryside. Cerys also shares the deep red colour of her Catatonia years. ‘It was a wide old word. A fiery red is always what I think about when I think of my youth,’ she says, ‘And dark saturated red was also the colour of the St Fagan museum in Cardiff where I used to go for comfort in those years.’ Cerys also shares her passion for the writing of Dylan Thomas and she gives Patrick a special narration of Under Milk Wood.
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The Chromologist: Mary Portas

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