Genuine article

Victoria Clive hates fakes. When it comes to people and fashion, only the real deal will do. This straight-talking, unshakeably honest working class Irish woman crash-landed in North Yorkshire ten years ago, searching for the father who disappeared from her life when she was a baby. Not only did she find him, she also found herself a distinctly upper-class husband, two lively children and a fledgling business venture selling nearly-new designer fashions and eclectic country interiors. To say it has been an eventful decade does not do it justice.

Victoria was 21 when she found her father, Christopher Rose, in York running the city's oldest shop. The country outfitters Ellerker's in Walmgate, which started out making nooses for hangings in the early 19th century, closed in 1997 after 202 years of business.

"My parents divorced when I was a baby," explained Victoria, while indulging in two of her many passions, smoking a cigarette and drinking treacle-thick coffee. "I had to come looking for him. He was the last piece of the puzzle for me."

She admits she was disappointed to discover her father was "an incredibly pompous public school boy", but after a tricky start they got along well, especially after he introduced her to his good friend, Charlie.

Charles Clive was brought up at Nunnington Hall, a stunning 17th century manor house nestled in the deep dip of a mountainous hill beside the River Rye. His grandmother, Margaret Fife, gave the hall to the National Trust in 1952 on the proviso that her daughter and son-in-law could continue to live there. The family reluctantly gave up the tenancy in 1978.

"Charlie and I are very different people," said 30-year-old Victoria of her 52-year-old husband. "I'm very motivated. I don't want to just sit on my arse eating ready meals for the rest of my life. I want to make a difference.

"Charlie has a very different attitude because of his upbringing. He was not expected to achieve."

The couple live at Nunnington Studios with their children Roisin, aged four, and Finn, 18 months. As the name suggests, their home is also their workplace.

With the help of a grant from Yorkshire Forward, Victoria set up a dress agency, offering mint-condition second-hand designer fashions, and an image consultancy - just three days after the birth of her son.

"Foot and mouth hit us hard," she said. "Charlie's garden furniture business plummeted by 40 per cent because no one would come anywhere near us. We needed to diversify and we needed to do it quickly."

She was already a trained image consultant, but the dress agency business was completely untested water. With her customary joie de vivre, she dived straight in.

"This was April and the grant stipulated that I had to have the shop up and running by June," she said. "So I moved a double bed and a Moses basket into the office and me and the baby basically lived there for six weeks. I took myself out of the family and concentrated on Finn and the business."

She was amazed at the response she received. The phone rang off the hook with women - "incredibly posh women" - offering designer clothes for sale on a 50/50 basis.

"People have a lot of money round here," said Victoria. "They will buy a Gucci dress for £1,200, wear it once and then shove it to the back of the wardrobe. Some of the clothes I sell haven't been worn at all. I know that because they still have the labels on.

"Cutting edge fashion can be incredibly wasteful, but this is a great way of recycling style. It makes designer labels affordable for everyone (prices are generally a third of the original). I want women to get a bargain and look fabulous at the same time." And it is not just designer fashions you can pick up at Nunnington Studios.

The Clives also supply eclectic country interiors, top-of-the-range garden furniture and ornaments and, in the New Year, imported Italian tiles and traditional roll-top baths.

"We want people to enjoy a complete shopping experience," said Victoria. "Charlie is going to develop the tearoom next year so visitors can sit out in the sunshine listening to the tinkling of a fountain while eating something fabulous such as Moroccan chicken.

"I can't stand fakery. I want this to be a real experience for people. If they just want to come and have a rummage through the clothes, I'll happily leave them in peace to get on with it. They can come up to the house and give me a shout when they've finished."

Victoria has come a long way from her working class roots in Cork, but her take-me-as-you-find-me attitude remains completely intact. She can talk for Ireland and her language is colourful to say the least, but the North Yorkshire country set appears to have welcomed her without prejudice.

"Billy Connolly is my favourite man on earth," she said. "If I could meet one person, forget Nelson Mandela, I would want to meet Billy Connolly. He said the higher up you go and the lower down you go, the less problems you have. It's the middle classes that f*** you up.

"The upper classes don't give a sh**. They have all completely accepted me. I think it's because I've never lied or pretended to be anyone I'm not. As the only child of a single mother in Ireland, I was always different. Being different here hasn't fazed me at all. I believe in embracing difference."

Her mother-in-law, now dead, was one of the first in the queue to welcome her to Yorkshire. She was 80 at the time and, according to Victoria, she was striking, driven and a tiny bit scary - like the Queen.

"She was such a fighter too," she went on. "She had battled polio and had been in an iron lung for year. She was told she would never walk and would never have children. She did both. What a woman!"

The same could now be said for her striking, driven and just a tiny bit scary daughter-in-law.

Nunnington Studios are open 11am to 4pm Wednesday to Sunday during the winter months. To make an appointment for an image consultation or to drop off some designer gear, call Victoria Clive on 01439 748377.

Updated: 09:38 Tuesday, October 28, 2003