Kate Reardon

Anya Hindmarch is indeed a handbag designer; she has the requisite fabulous life, tasteful home, and loving husband. She is also beautiful and self-deprecating, and has five children aged 5 to 20 and a philanthropic bent which spans causes from cancer care to Britain's Conservative Party.

The Mark Birley fan club, of which epic American socialite Nan Kempner says she's the oldest living member, follows him doggedly.

Posh is a way of living that can often be quite miserly and not about money.

I think, to me, the sheer joy of fancy dress is that it allows you to take a break from our very carefully considered and constructed identities.

No matter how irrelevant social class now is, even the most eager egalitarian must be quietly proud that the posh English rose is still an industry standard for peerlessly sophisticated beauty.

A good education gives you confidence to stick up your hand for anything - whether it is the job you want, or the bloke. And the more you stick up your hand, the better your chances are that you will get what you want.

Every time I put on high heels, I think: 'Well, I'll fall over today.' Almost always, I don't. Almost. But all high-heel-wearing women live in constant peril.

Each dress symbolizes the age that it's appropriate for.

The modern world is a meritocracy where you earn your own luck, old school ties count for nothing, and inherited privilege can even lose a guy a clear parliamentary majority.

I have a beautiful Hellenistic gold and garnet ring - it's more than 2,200 years old, but it looks very modern.

As someone who works from home, my top style tip is to make sure you get dressed in the morning.

I have a career I love more than I can tell you, and I have it because I work incredibly hard pretty much every single day.