ALICE'S WONDERLAND

Fashion designer Alice Temperley invites us into the creative haven she has developed in her Somerset Regency manor

- ROBYN LEA/LIVING INSIDE

Inside the magical world of Alice Temperley, normal rules don't apply. In her magnificent Somerset home, dresses hang like paintings, disco balls decorate the formal dining room and a stunning satin coat is the perfect garb for going out to feed her alpacas.

Meanwhile, the rooms are decorated like the dresses she designs: with floral flourishes, wild prints and historical references.

Alice found this property in 2010 while she was living in Notting Hill with her former husband and their son, Fox.

Yearning for more time in the countryside where she was raised, she rented the eight-bedroom Regency manor, dating from the 18th century, to use as a country escape, before buying it and moving there permanently.

"I have a massive connection to nature and the countryside, hence my desire to be here in Somerset, immersing myself in the forest or the sea whenever I can. It is my tonic," she says.

The relocation of her firm's headquarters and design studio to the market town of Ilminster followed in 2020, heralding a new chapter in the firm's 25-year history.

By returning to the countryside, Alice has refilled her creative cup; it has also enabled her to introduce Fox to the simple pleasures of her childhood, experienced on her family's nearby property, Burrow Hill Cider Farm.

The farm is owned by her parents, Julian and Diana Temperley, and its orchards are home to more than 40 varieties of vintage apples, which thrive in a pesticide-free oasis. It's also where the couple's four children flourished and where Alice fed her early artistic leanings.