I come from a long line of fashion pioneers – my Great Aunt Cyril was the first woman ever to wax her legs using boiled sugar and the leftover cloth from cheese-making, while my Uncle Vivienne invented tweed from the dog hairs found under the aga. I was reminded of our great sartorial history while flicking through the family album just last week, which I rescued from a dark and musty corner of the family estate in Provence.

Above are my great aunts, Hilda and Annabelle. The two were a great comfort to each other throughout their lives. Here we see the two chaste and maiden aunts enjoying one of their regular holidays to Brighton. They loved Brighton for its seaside air and famous cat sanctuary. You’ll notice Annabelle’s splendid blazer – she was always a huge fan of masculine cuts and tailoring. Indeed, the family legend goes that she once swapped clothes with a French sailor known as Jean Paul Gautier in the gent’s toilets at a Micklemas Ball in 1932. Great days.

Here are the staff from Crudgington Hall – the family pile down in Kent. Mavis, the cook just to the left of the Reggie (the jolly man with the pipe in the middle), made all of the staff outfits from the soiled family table-cloths. A very economical woman, Mavis, and marvelous with embarrassing stains.

On the left you will see my great aunt Agnes wearing a revolutionary dress of her own making. She called it ‘The Chuff Chafer”, thanks to its extraordinary shortness. Agnes tended to wear it without knickers while riding or, as in this photo, while touting for business on the beach.

This photo shows Ethel ‘Wizard’ Henry on the left and Janice ‘Groucho’ Henry on the right. In 1938 the two were the star turn in the Bridlington end-of-the-pier show, with an act that saw Janice tie Ethel to the underside of a pony with her signature bow tie (often red, but in this photo navy I believe), while she performed the Gay Gordon, in the very same tap shoes seen in this picture, upon the spine of a eleven year old girl-scout dressed as Queen Victoria.

My Uncle Stanley was the first man ever to give himself appendicitis from a pair of trousers. The slacks in question, seen in this photo, ruptured his colon and spread the infection to his appendix, after Stanley tried to tie the belt loops around his neck on Christmas Eve.

As well as fashion, our family has a proud history of involvement in the Commonwealth. In this picture you can see my brothers, James and Fergus, standing beside Bobo, our house slave, who is dressed as a sugar cube. It was all part of this jolly play Fergus wrote about Father’s trip to the Caribbean, where he met Bobo’s family. My mother Alice is just visible above Bobo’s costume, wearing her hair in a characteristic middle parting.