In a coral Thierry Mugler “superhero” suit, uber-classic Prada pumps and a Marimekko maxi dress, Lauren likes the fashion of the ’70s for its bold, striking colors and outrageous prints. On the contrary, “people in boots made of sheep,” she feels, lack the presence needed to be extraordinary, let alone cosmopolitan. “Margaret Thatcher turned up to work every day in a pencil skirt and heels and ruled this country with an iron rod,” Lauren says. “I guess when people talk about feminism or going back to being a woman, or going back to being happier, I sometimes feel they overlook the obvious things. Just try putting on lipstick in the morning. Put on some nice perfume, see how that changes how you feel and how people relate to you. Put on actual shoes, people!” Sarah Jessica Parker said that when playing Carrie Bradshaw, Lauren points out, even if her feet were under the table, she had to have shoes on or she didn’t feel like Carrie.

If Lauren could choose any period to live in, it would be Palm Springs in the 1970s, with their pool parties, big heels, huge jewelry and full make-up, where she would fit right in with her pink Chanel wedges and Theory shorts. However, Lauren is quintessentially English, growing up in what she describes as her “smart” and “hideous” gray flannel grade school uniform with an appetite for milk curd, truffle toast, and everything pork (belly, jaw, and cheek). It is endemic to her culture to have a holistic outlook on how much better the planet would be for the entire living kingdom if we did not waste food and if we knew its source, as is going to classes with refugees from foreign countries who have lost everything – their homes and families – and sought a new home in England through the Commonwealth of Nations.

However, it is gemstones and the art of cutting them that sends Lauren out of this world and into another plane. “There’s always this little bit of wonder that they took millions of years to form, that they came out of the earth and that no two are completely identical. It’s incomprehensible that they were down there long before we were ever on this planet,” she says. As her elegant ensemble of Paul Smith pieces – a power-blue pleated blouse tucked into high-waisted trousers – would suggest, Lauren loves color and is particularly obsessed with how light plays on her jewelry designs. Sapphires, lilacs, aquamarines, greens, browns, and the champagne and cognac hues of diamonds give her chills. “Shoes don’t do it,” she says– Carrie aside.

If you love Lauren, you may also like Irina Lazareanu, Sorcha O’Raghallaigh and Lesa Amoore.