The ‘army brat’ who rose to the front line of British fashion

Charles Jeffrey was putting his models through rehearsals in the cobbled courtyard of Somerset House, London, when he glimpsed Mrs Corbett. It was the start of this month and Jeffrey, one of Britain’s most exciting designers, was preparing The Lore of Loverboy, an exhibition to mark the tenth anniversary of his fashion brand.

“I saw her out the corner of my eye,” Jeffrey, 33, said. “It had been over ten years since I last saw her. She was crying and I was crying.”

Mrs Corbett is a teacher. As such she has no first name. As the art teacher at Greenfaulds High School in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, she had recognised the talent that nestled in Jeffrey, a lanky lad with long hair who typically