Design: Where they get their frocks off

Fashion designers are always on show, and their stuff is always on show. We know how they express themselves on a catwalk, but how in the privacy of their bedroom? And, if not exactly express themselves, then at least how they accessorise themselves (which in this trade is often the same thing). Melanie Rickey goes through the buttonhole.

Caroline Charles (right), fashion and interiors designer, has been in business for 33 years. Her shop on Beauchamp Place sells the Caroline Charles clothing, interiors and bedwear collections.

"I am a genuine bedophile. I have breakfast in bed every day of my life. It comes to me with the newspapers. At the weekend I work in my bed for as long as possible, usually until someone tells me to get up and out.

I do a lot of designing, reading and list-making in bed too. I'm constantly surrounded by books and magazines, and there is always a pen and paper on the bedside table.

I'm reading a biography called The Lives and Loves of Violet Gordon- Woodhouse by Jessica Douglas-Home, it's about a women with four male and two female lovers. I also love Patrick Suskind, Kate Atkinson, Nancy Mitford, and Jeanette Winterson. I always read before I go to sleep.

"What surrounds me is very, very important, that's why I began doing my own range of bed linens, and homewear. I sleep on Egyptian cotton sheets, in neutral colours, and I love lots of big, square pillows. I suppose it's egotistical, but it has become quite a passion for me. Everything in the range has to be so that I can live with it.

"When I wake up the first thing I see is a wall covered with photographs of my family. The ceiling has an abstract leaf design by textile designer Natalie Gibson, and the floor has a good thick carpet. The most unusual thing is a green table my son made for me while he was at school, which he will not allow me to throw out, even though he is now 28

Ben de Lisi, 42, womenswear designer, has run his fashion label from London since 1984, though he was born is New York. He has lived in his high rise Chelsea apartment since 1994.

"All my bedrooms, in all the places I have lived, have been dark, womb- like and comforting. I like to escape here, pull the blackout curtains, switch on the lamps and imagine I am in a hotel, with everything exactly where I need it. There's a TV and video in my room, and beside the bed I had a cubby-hole built in to the cupboard for my phone, clock and diary.

"I first saw the bed in a New York hotel, and tracked down the supplier. I guess I'm a bit anal really." (laughs) "Everything has to be visually nice, and pleasant to touch. The blankets are either soft cashmere or mohair, the sheets are linen, and I lie on a feather-filled pad under the sheet.

"The `wall' behind my bed is also made from cashmere to make it extra luxurious. Most of that was bought at the Conran Shop, but the striped blanket by Timney Fowler is from Joseph.

"I guess I see it as a man's room: simple, comfortable, and functional, but in proportion and completely decadent. I do change the art on the wall from time to time. Right now I have Do You Remember When, a painting by James Holdsworth."

Debbie Winstanley, 37, a sales director for Morgan, moved to her new house on the Wapping waterfront last October with her two children.

"My job at Morgan, and my kids, keep me very busy, so when I finish for the day the bedroom is my haven. In fact it's the reason I bought this house. It has its own en-suite bathroom and dressing room and takes up the entire top floor of the house.

"I like neutral colours and either plain or brocade for blankets and sheets, I don't like block colours, but I do love animal prints. It could be an influence from Morgan - we use animal prints a lot - but when I look at my room I guess it's more inspired by Dolce & Gabbana."

"I'm a very impulsive buyer, if I see something I buy it, money no object, like the silver-plated chair from Nice Irma's in my dressing room.

I bought the bed from a shop on the Tottenham Court Road, and the cushions were made at a specialist sofa shop, the bed throw is from Tessuti in St John's Wood High Street. My friends are always buying me animal print things.

Overall, my room is classic; cream walls, thick cream carpet, I don't want it to be too trendy, just warm and comfy, with a bit of a boudoir feel."

David Kappo, 28, and Tristan Webber, 25, both fashion designers, live together in an east London warehouse flat. Kappo's label is called Dave & Joe and Webber launched a collection under his own name at London Fashion Week last October.

David: "We didn't have much when we moved in, not even a bed, it didn't take long to fill up though. I'm always bringing home bin liners full of `finds' from markets."

Tristan: "I'm into space and minimalism so I'm always chucking out or hiding the things he brings home. But because the flat is open-plan, we did need a cosy corner for our sleeping area, which could also be curtained off, and Dave got his way; the stately home look.

"The bed is late 19th Century French with walnut veneer and takes a normal sized double mattress. It was expensive - pounds 1,000 - and we bought it from an antique shop in my home town, Leigh-on-Sea."

David:"Yeah, I love wood panels, chandeliers and Old Master paintings. The stuffed pheasant and crow are fab finds from antique shops on the Tower Bridge Road, but my favourite is the deer's head which I bought in Ireland, we call her Mandy after the Dick Emery character who always said `Ooh you are awful, but I like you'."

Tristan: "I'd like to close this section off completely with the gold brocade curtains, which Dave's grandmother Sally gave to us, but we haven't got round to it yet."