Twice as nice

It's a home of two halves his flat is for parties and hers is for cosy chats around the kitchen table. Tamsin Blanchard meets fashion designers Paul Bernstock and Thelma Speirs

There are quite a few Christmas decorations still hanging around at the house Paul Bernstock and Thelma Speirs share in London's Shoreditch. It's not that the fashion designers have forgotten to take them down. Or that they are left over from the Christmas just gone. The green and blue tinsel curtains on Paul 's living-room windows have been there for four years. They have been there so long they have become something of a local landmark - outlasting most of the bars and shops that have sprung up in the area.

'I put the curtains up for a Christmas party and thought they would last the evening,' says Paul. He bought them from a local fancy-dress shop. 'There 's something nice about them - they make a noise when the windows are open. And they look good at night.' They make the first floor of the building they moved into in 1988 look like it 's a nightclub. And that is quite appropriate, as much of their life has been spent night clubbing.

The pair met at art school, at Middlesex Polytechnic. 'Paul got thrown out for going out to too many clubs,' says Thelma. He ran a few himself. The first was White Trash in Piccadilly. Thelma worked in the cloakroom. 'Everyone used to go,' she remembers. Leigh Bowery was a regular. Then came Tra-la-la, (named after the character in Last Exit to Brooklyn ), which Paul did with Iain R Webb (now fashion director at Elle ). At the same time, Paul and Thelma launched their hat collection. They found some old hats in Brick Lane and sprayed them, then decorated them with rags.' Jeff Banks came and saw them and took them to use for the Warehouse catalogue.' And then he put in an order 'for hundreds '. The two didn't have a clue how to make them from scratch, but they soon found out - and they were in business. For a few years in the Eighties, it was big business. Bernstock and Speirs were name checked regularly in The Face, Blitz and i-D. Thelma even sold to a major American store from the cloakroom of Tra-la-la. 'I got them a bit drunk,' she laughs.

Times were different then. The fashion business was a much easier, more chaotic and less corporate world. In the Nineties, Bernstock Speirs branched out into womenswear and for the past 10 years or so the focus has moved away from hats. But in September, they are relaunching their hat collection. David Beckham already wears one - remember the jaunty trilby with a bandanna sewn inside it? 'It feels like the time is right again,' says Thelma. 'People are dressing up again - men are, too.' They are very excited about the relaunch, as are Selfridges and Liberty, who have both bought the collection. 'It still feels like there is the same gap in the market as there was 20 years ago for hats that are younger, fashionable and funkier,' says Paul. These are hats for wearing every day, rather than just for a special occasion. There 's not an ostrich feather in sight.

While fashion has come full circle, the house the designers share has remained the same. They are about to let the shop (their own shop is now on Brick Lane) and they each have separate flats within their house. Thelma has a lodger, Rosie, from Tatty Devine, the jewellery shop next door to their own. But their homes have a timeless, shabby chic quality about them. Thelma has just made a pot of tea and there 's a plate of chocolate croissants on the kitchen table. In the kitchen, she has a lovely collection of cups and saucers, an industrial-sized colander hung as a lampshade, and an old tablecloth, picked up from a Sue Ryder shop. 'I never go to places like the Conran Shop,' she says. 'I like accumulating things over the years, either by people giving me things, or picking things up on holiday. Most of my stuff is second-hand.'

Downstairs, Paul's flat is more pared down and minimal. 'I suppose we use my area more for parties,' he says..Thelma 's kitchen appears to be the hub of both flats. 'I had a cork floor put down so I didn 't have to worry about what went on the floor. I'm not precious about anything in there. It 's a place for relaxing. I suppose it's a bit of a directed mayhem. Everything has some sort of attachment to it, even though it looks a bit random.' The walls are the result of chipping away the magnolia woodchip that ran through the entire house when they first bought it. 'Underneath, it was lovely tones of greens and muted, coloured plaster walls.'

Like Thelma, Paul enjoys a flea market. A real East Ender, he grew up a thimble's throw away in Whitechapel and has been a regular at Brick Lane market since he was 12, in the early Seventies. 'I've always been into things that are distressed but that have something special about them. I've always got a thrill out of getting a bargain,' he says.

Although still party animals (their local pub is now the terminally hip George and Dragon), Thelma and Paul enjoy nothing more than a game of cards. Thelma has a small collection of playing cards, including some from Prada, Hermès and Tiffany. They have a league with a select group of friends that includes American Vogue's Hamish Bowles. 'It 's a really great way of seeing people easily if you're busy and haven 't got time to cook dinner,' says Paul. 'We stop half time for cake or ice cream,' adds Thelma. Currently, the celebrity interior decorator David Collins is top of the league. He is also helping the twosome redesign their shop into something a little slicker and a little more glamorous as a backdrop to the new hat collection which will arrive in September. 'David is really good at lighting,' says Paul. 'We tend to point a spotlight and hope for the best.'

· Bernstock Speirs, 234 Brick Lane, London E2 (020 7739 7385)