Bayley lays bare his sock preferences

Treading the fine line between severely hip and dangerously tasteless is tricky even for our stylish design industry brethren.

When asked for their design dos and don’ts by the Evening Standard’s Style section last week, Rosemary Hamilton and Sasha Waddell agreed that pebbledash houses and shag-pile carpets are the epitome of bad taste, but domestic stone-cladding tops fellow designer Emily Todhunter’s cool list.

Former Dome creative director Stephen Bayley reveals his disdain for ‘anything made in the 20th century with decoration: for example, toasters adorned with ears of corn’ and unwittingly reveals a few personal branding no-nos: socks with boat shoes and suntans in winter.