Nicole Farhi walked away from fashion to discover sculpture – and she didn't look back

‘It’s like falling in love. You don’t know why. Something happens and your life is going to change.’ William Cook meets the artisan at her Hampstead home

The French creative tried to fit her art around business for nearly 30 years (Julian Jans)

In Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury, where Britain’s greatest portrait artist was born and raised, there’s a bust of that great artist which captures his personality as well any painting. His expression is quizzical. There’s a hint of mischief in his eyes. Seeing it for the first time you might suppose it was made 250 years ago – the result of numerous painstaking sittings. In fact, it was made just a few years ago, by the sculptor Nicole Farhi.

Nicole Farhi, sculptor? Wait a minute – I thought she was a fashion designer? Well, yes and no. It’s true that she made her reputation with her chic yet comfy clothes, but although her name remains a byword for casual elegance she’s not involved in fashion anymore. Instead she’s making sculpture now, full-time, and in February she has a new show at Gainsborough’s House, in Suffolk, where her Gainsborough bust has pride of place.

I know nothing about fashion, but I liked that Gainsborough bust a lot. It was conscientious and unpretentious. The focus was on the subject not the sculptor, the way such sculptures ought to be. So when my friend Tracy wangled me an invite to Farhi’s Hampstead home, I jumped at the chance to meet her. I wanted to find out if her new career as a sculptor was for real. I wanted to know if that Gainsborough bust was just a one-off.