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Harold Tillman: The man who reinvigorated the British fashion scene

When you've met everyone from Sam Cam to James Corden and Princess Beatrice you can't help but drop names - and this fashion boss has plenty of celebrity power

April 8, 2019 08:47
Harold Tillman with Theresa May in happier times (Photo: Getty Images/PA and below)

BySonia Zhuravlyova, Sonia Zhuravlyova Interviews HArold TILLMAN

6 min read

On a blustery morning, veteran fashion entrepreneur Harold Tillman pulls up at Summerhouse restaurant in Little Venice. Before we get properly settled and take a sip of our drinks (green tea for him), he’s already whipped out his smartphone to show pictures of him with celebrities such as Rita Ora and Freddie Flintoff. “Here’s a photograph of me with Harry Styles. Oh, he’s fabulous!” Swoosh. “Here’s me with George Best.”

Best and Tillman were friends and Tillman, in a shrewd move, worked with the famous footballer to promote a clothing line; in this picture, from 1968 or 1969, the two are young, trim and carefree. “We did a fashion show to raise money for Variety. I couldn’t sleep and I had to go into the loft and find old scrapbooks,” says Tillman. “You wouldn’t even know who this is,” another flick of the thumb. “It’s Cathy McGowan —she was the It girl of the time, a DJ. She’s actually married to Michael Ball.”

Today we’re here to talk about his new year-long role as chairman and ‘chief barker’ for Variety, a children’s charity that is celebrating its 70th anniversary. “Do you know why it’s called a chief barker?” he grins. “Because Variety was started by people involved in the circus.” Traditionally, a chief barker would drum up customers at a circus or fairground. And that is exactly what he has been parachuted in to do: to tap into some five decades in the fashion industry to drum up support and funding. “We hope to bring in as much benefit and enjoyment and fundraising as we possibly can in this 70th year. There’s an annual roster of events, we’ve just put in for an evening with Cliff Richard which will be in July. We’re working on many different things. And, of course, we’re talking to the palace.”

Tillman is full of nuggets from his years spent rubbing shoulder pads with London’s best-dressed crowd, something that has surely come in useful in his work as founder and co-chairman of Patrons of Variety, which raises funds and awareness for the charity. “Variety has done such incredible things: more than a million children have been helped, be it through the Sunshine Coach, school outings, thousands of wheelchairs, hospital wings.” It’s set the standard for other celebrity -led charities, he believes, “because entertainers would give their time to an event for Variety.”