Lorna Brittain launched her modelling career at 60. But she's still happiest creating a home decorated with a natural look, she tells Eoin Lyons
With her intelligent, softly made-up face, white hair dipping over one eye and wearing one of her plain grey cashmere jumpers, Dubliner Lorna Brittain is on e of the most beautiful women you could meet, but also one of the most modest. Her demeanour doesn't shout look-at-me, although she is, after all, someone who has ventured into modelling at the age of 60.
Women over 40 are famously under-represented in fashion, but over the past year Lorna has worked catwalk shows and photo shoots with a combination of elegance and old-fashioned niceness that has endeared her to designers such as Joanne Hynes, who was one of the first to cast her. She has three sons, one of whom is David Brittain, an actor, model and stylist, but her entry into his world was unexpected.
"I really never sought or pushed it," Lorna says of modelling, "but it was a challenge - and to be asked at this time of life was wonderful." The truth, she explains, is that modelling is not a priority but rather something she does when an interesting job crops up. "I lead a quiet life. It's enjoyable but I'm just as happy in my garden."
You know what she means when on a rainy afternoon in Malahide, freshly made soup is served on arrival at her house: it's obvious that home is important. A former Aer Lingus flight attendant, Lorna married her husband Derek, a pilot, in 1972 and early on they lived in Nigeria and Algeria, where two of their sons, Graham and Mark, were born.
In the affluent suburban world of Malahide, with mothers who drive SUVs but never go to the countryside and fathers who grill competitively, her home is a something of a throwback to the idea of a home being homely, not a show-off place.
"If I had a lot of money I would have a second home in a modern style," admits Lorna, "but so many houses now have no soul - they look like you shouldn't put your feet up. This is a family home and I've tried to decorate it with natural looking things. It's comfortable and cosy - if that comes across, then I'm happy. There are always things I'm meaning to do or fix up so it's not perfect. As Dennis Drum, the local sales room auctioneer says, 'It has a bit of age to it'. I always think that's a wonderful phrase!"
Lorna likes to read on the couch in the second livingroom that opens onto the garden at the back of the house. It is decorated in lighter colours than elsewhere in the house and is used more during summer than winter. On the wall is an old frame into which Lorna has placed a piece of lichen: this is the kind of thing she does often, using what she has to make vignettes.
There's an art to how Lorna has created her home and it may be thanks to their mother that her sons also have artistic capabilities: in several rooms are framed drawings or paintings by each of them.
On the dining table, Lorna has created an autumnal display using pieces of wood, twisted bark, gourds and a candleholder from the local florist, Jungle Flowers in Malahide. "I'm a fiddler, could do this all day," she says, as she fixes the last leaf in place.
In the entrance hall, painted a deep and welcoming shade of green, is a tin pot bought at the India Jane shop in London. It holds umbrellas, walking sticks and a collection of hats. Also in the hall is a small folding table.
In the kitchen, a little wall-mounted dresser holds a variety of objects. "I saw someone walk into a sales room with this and thought - I'd like that! It's my favourite thing to go to auctions or junk shops, but not antique shops very often because my house is not the kind that can take good antiques. On holidays, I look for markets - the tin pots were bought in France and the ceramic bowls in Spain."
Gardening is a great love and the basket below holds gloves and a few implements. On top of the dresser is a wreath on which Lorna has pinned two little wooden birds, bought at Pia Bang Interiors. "I must have a thing about birds. It's not conscious but when I look around the house there are a lot of images of birds or cages - something about them is very appealing".
Above the hob is a tiny pot, holding a tiny sign: "It was a present to one of the children - I put it in their stocking one Christmas!"
Also in the kitchen, Lorna has used a Victorian sink bracket to hold her microwave. "I found it on Francis Street and the great thing about it is that I can use the counter space where the microwave would have been. I love to find an alternative use for something. If I see a piece that fires my imagination then I think of some way to use it but if someone asks me what I'm looking for, I couldn't tell them. I just know what when I find it."
The same practicality comes through in one corner of dining room where there is a collection of baskets that are used at dinner parties for serving food. "There are no two ways about it - I collect baskets," laughs Lorna.
"One is a Chinese cabbage basket and at the back is a platter that David carried back from Africa. I drive my husband mad with all these things - he's hoping I'll go through a Feng Shui phase."
• Lorna Brittain can be contacted through Sonia Reynolds Management
