“I was sketching the heads of the customers – how they were and how they should be.”His first mannequin was an unfortunate teddy bear. “She was a faith healer,” he explains, “who was also giving massage and beauty advice and playing tarot.” Her house was warmer than his parents’ home, and the young Jean Paul used to spend a lot of time there. “My parents loved each other,” he affirms, “and I am very pleased of that, because it balanced me a little.”Gaultier’s key familial influence, though, was his “extraordinary” grandmother. His head was too much in the air to be an excellent one.” For all his father’s unreliability with figures, Gaultier junior had a “very good childhood”. “Because there are a lot of conservative and puritan people, when you want to express yourselves by being bad little boys or little girls you do the worst thing with a lot of pleasure and creativity in it. In Paris I felt always it has to be chic, it has to be elegant: in France the fat girls they try to hide it, in England they were all dressed kind of sexy with black lipstick, very much like ‘here I am’, which I love, you know?”His own background in suburban Paris is generally supposed to have been quite restrictive Was that actually the case? “In some ways not.

My parents were accountants, but my father was a little, I shouldn’t say,” a grinning Jean Paul waves his arms to summon up the correct phrase, “not a very good accounter. He first came here, aged 20, in 1972, and found it very much to his taste. It’s just a shame they have to spoil the programme with all those dreary items about toilet museums and silicon-breasted porn stars .
Given that half the fun of Eurotrash comes from its unshockable Gallic presenters’ endless amusement at the uptightness of their British chums, Gaultier’s attitude to this country is not as one would expect. Jean Paul is in the midst of filming his links for Eurotrash, the cheery Channel 4 sleaze-fest whose Friday-night ratings are the envy of many a more reputable production. Gaultier’s charming presentational double act with suave Rapido vowel-strangler Antoine de Caunes has established the pair not just as the only two Frenchmen upon whom the bulk of the British populace can be relied to look with favour, but also as a perfect model of gay and heterosexual male friendship. His famously improper English actually has its own transparent flow; it’s only his native tongue that muddies the waters. when first addressing a large and extremely genial French fashion designer disguised as a cartoon Mexican, a straightforward approach seems advisable.

So which of Jean Paul Gaultier’s catwalk shows has given him the most satisfaction? “The collection I like is the one with the tattoo people – there was a T-shirt of tulle; it looked like it had a tattoo print, but in reality it was billets de banque.” It takes Gaultier three or four patient repetitions to establish that he has just said the French for banknotes. It was not the best game – it was very boring to be honest – but I thought maybe I would get into the squad for the Switzerland game. He came over to see me and I thought I did OK in the second half, and one of the reasons I went to England on the Tuesday was because the squad was named that day.”I was obviously very disappointed not to be in because even though things are not great here, they are OK and I still believe, in terms of midfield players, I am still one of the best.”. Ince explained: “I went home for two days because I have not been back since I came to Italy five months ago, and my wife Claire wanted to see her family.”I spoke to Mr Venables after we played Sampdoria. We made some errors; the first two goals were bad goals, then we nearly got one back but gave Alan Shearer a free header.”The fourth goal went through the keeper’s hands and when we were 3-0 down with 10 men we were still trying to go and win the game.”We were bombing forward and they kept hitting us on the break with six against three or seven against four and it finished up a real hammering.”. PAUL INCE’S two-day visit to London last week sparked the rumours – now come the denials.

The former Manchester United midfielder said yesterday he had not spoken to any English clubs about coming home from Italy. Since he left Old Trafford for Internazionale in a pounds 7m deal and then publicly fell out with his former manager, Alex Ferguson, there have been a number of stories suggesting that the 28-year-old has not settled at the San Siro. His name has been linked with a host of Premiership clubs ever since United indicated they would not take advantage of a first-refusal clause in the deal.
Consequently, Ince’s two-trip to London increased speculation increased that he was looking for a way back. Speaking on Channel 4’s Gazzetta Football Italia yesterday, Ince said: “I spent two days in London and, contrary to what the papers were saying, I was not talking to other clubs.”All the different papers are insinuating different stories and I believe when you hear so many different stories they do not know what is going on. It’s when they all have the same story that it’s usually right. One paper says Newcastle, another says Chelsea, and Middlesbrough have also been mentioned – it’s utter rubbish to say I went to England to talk terms with anyone.”As far as I am concerned I am an Inter Milan player until something happens – I have not spoken to any other clubs.”Ince’s unhappiness is believed to stem from his failure to break back into Terry Venables’s England squad since he left Manchester, and it was also suggested that he was homesick. “It was that sort of day for us.”I don’t think our keeper made a single save,” he added “It was a bad effort.

Since he has been at our place, he has helped to lift everybody.”For Frank Clark, it was, he admitted, a case of everything that could go wrong going wrong in his heaviest defeat as a manager and not exactly the ideal preparation for Tuesday’s Uefa Cup date with Lyon “I just hope we get home safely tonight,” he said. “On a special day for Jack, the lads put on a special performance,” he said.None more so than Bohinen. “He is a quality, running, attacking midfield player who can also pass the ball,” Harford said “Some of his passes today were terrific. Newell got a well-deserved goal, tapping in when Crossley failed to hold Shearer’s low cross and with everyone, even the notoriously goal-shy Batty and Ripley, threatening to get in on the act, Graham Le Saux put in the seventh from 35 yards via the underside of the crossbar in the last minute.It was as though a dam, painstakingly constructed over 25 matches, had burst and Forest had simply been washed away without trace.As Harford pointed out, it was a fitting celebration to mark the official opening of the rebuilt Ewood Park made possible by Jack Walker.