She is a fashion icon of our time – a legend of her own making. She is one serious operator, a master networker, and the only person who, when tasked with pulling together a VIP photoshoot, will orchestrate the entire production on her own. At 75 years of age she remains as hardworking and ambitious as she was at 15, when she began work at a clothing factory after dropping out of school.
We have come to visit Celia Holman Lee at the elegant 5-star hotel, The Savoy in Limerick. We find her in a suite with her coterie of friends-turned-glam-crew, her hair in rollers, her beautiful face made up, wearing a soft camel coat with little on underneath. She has her outfits for the day all lined up, all from local boutiques, which she has been personally selecting over the last number of days. She shows us the spots where she thinks we should shoot and in record time we’re shooting and she in record time is changing and posing like no one else we know. This is serious business, and Celia is seriously good at it.
Afterwards, with the shots complete we sit and chat about looking back because Celia has been looking a lot back lately. Her recently published book, Glamour & Grit, took her on one massive trip down memory lane. Her mum, Kathleen, was a huge hoarder, Celia tells us, and saved every photo and every newspaper clipping of her only daughter, many of which have wound up in her charming picture book. After it’s release, Celia couldn’t bring herself to open it for weeks out of pure mortification. But when pressed today she admits, as she dabs at her eyes, that she’s proud of what she’s achieved and how she did it her way.
She tells us all about leaving school at 15, about her parents separation, how she minds herself, what she worries about, why she can’t wear flats, and how being a grandmother is the greatest blessing of all.
Celia, how are you?
I’m good, darling, good. Everything is good at the moment. I did not think at 75 years of age that I’d still be out there working. I mean, yesterday I was in RTÉ working all day, got home at 7.30pm and here I am today doing a fabulous shoot – I hope – for VIP at the Savoy Limerick!
You have, in fact, been working straight through since last Thursday! You told us that earlier. You’ve such energy, where do you get it from?
I’ve been working since I was 15, I just always had to get up, go out and work. It was as simple as that. It’s a question I’m asked constantly, how do you keep going? But I don’t know anything else. I never had down time. Even when I did have my babies we had our own businesses. And when you have your own business, of course, that means it’s non-stop work.
But now, are you afraid to stop or do you just not want to?
I have stepped back a bit from the agency and let my fabulous daughter-in-law Asta step in. At the beginning I did actually not want to let go, but I had to accept that things were changing. I didn’t make the decision, social media made the decision for me. Would I have stepped back if social media hadn’t come into everybody’s lives? I don’t know. I do try to embrace it, but I find it difficult. I don’t mind doing my posing and my modelling, but all the apps and things are confusing.
When you go home, what are you doing to mind yourself? Are you not drinking the wine, are you drinking the wine? We know you hate the gym and love walking, but it’s so miserable at the moment, are you getting out for the walk?
I haven’t walked in a while – too miserable. I’m doing nothing really. Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! What I do do is go to bed early! That’s the best answer of all! I do like the bed to be honest with you, I like lying down looking out the window at my garden, yes I get great solace from that. I watch a lot of news shows too, love the news. And yes, I eat, I eat because I go at a pace, but I don’t overeat, and I think as you get older your appetite reduces – for me it seems to have anyway.
Are you a worrier? Do you worry about your health for example?
I wake up some mornings and I’ve a pain in my back, or my fingers won’t close properly, but I choose to not let the old lady in! I close the front door on the old lady!
Do you worry about your husband, Ger, more? You’re married 53 years, aren’t you?
I do worry about him more than myself, he’s such a great guy, he has trouble with his knees you know and he’s trouble with his shoulder, but he’s okay. I’d be lost without him!
What’s the secret to a lasting marriage like yours?
He puts up with me! I can say no more! He lets me at it! He takes no notice of my ranting and raving and goings on!
We love Ger for that! Does he have the patience of a saint waiting for you to get ready? Or are you quick? If you’re going out for lunch, say, in town, in Limerick city, how long does it take you to get ready?
Being honest with you, I’d plan my outfit beforehand, have a little think the night before. Now I am lucky…
Let us guess – because you have a nice wardrobe?!
Because I have a nice wardrobe! How long does it take me to get ready? Half an hour. Getting dressed is fairly quick but the makeup is
a bit slower. I’m finding as I get older, that you have to be careful, so I keep it very soft, very natural, very dewy. I find for the older the skin, the dewier makeup is better. Not too much heavy eye makeup either because the eyes don’t take it. The most important thing are your eyebrows, which drive me insane because they’re fading. And of course, lipstick. They would be the two. I’d keep an eye on the eyebrows and the lipstick. The eyes will talk for themselves really once there’s a good bit of mascara on them, but the cold light of day is a bloody hard one to call, do you know what I mean? That’s why I love sunglasses!
When you travel abroad, what’s your suitcase packing like?
I’d say I’d bring one fairly heavy bag and then one pull-along! I would plan my outfits beforehand and I’d have a few pieces for the breakfast in the morning, for walking to the beach or the pool, then maybe something if we’re coming up from the beach and sitting at the bar for a little drink at four o’clock, and then something for dinner. I love hats and sunglasses and nice bags. I don’t like flip-flops, there would have to be a bit of a wedge on them!
We want to ask you something about that, we have seen you in your dressing gown wearing not comfy slippers but a small heel! Do you feel odd in flats?
I can’t wear them! I either wear kitten heels – and I have loads of them – or a wedge! I have strong legs, it’s from years of Irish dancing as a child and from years of moving as an adult!
Your book, Glamour & Grit, is your life story, it celebrates your 60 years in fashion and modelling, and 75 years of you. How do you feel looking back on it now?
I didn’t think I would ever do it. But as you know my mum was a hoarder and she kept everything so we had all these boxes of photos and clippings, and Orla one of the girls in the office, started cataloguing it all one day, and there we were all looking at these photos and clippings all thinking the same thing. So that’s where the idea came from. But I was just thinking of all the people who write books and how mine was a bit childish, a bit like someone who left school at 15. But everyone is saying they’re enjoying it, so I’m so thrilled really!
When you eventually got the book back and were going through it, what did you think?
At first I never looked through it! I was nervously waiting for feedback! Then my husband read it and he started crying! It wasn’t until about four or five weeks ago that and I sat down and read it and I was pleased with it to be honest.
You have a great memory for detail.
I have. It never leaves me.
We learnt loads of things about you that we didn’t know, like that you left school at 15.
I did! I found school very difficult because my mother wasn’t well. I was missing school a lot, and I was falling behind. It wasn’t that I was a bad student necessarily…I can’t remember if I was or if I wasn’t. But I started working instead in a clothing factory called Danus. And I was still mad for the Irish dancing. That was my great love, my saviour, my everything. I was brilliant at it.
We also learnt that your parents, Kathleen and Jackie, split up when you were young, how do you think it impacted you?
I don’t think it did impact me at all. Because I didn’t know any different. I was living with my grandmother, who was sensational, and my mother who I loved dearly. And my grandmother had 12 siblings so I lived in that environment and they all loved me and minded me. My grandmother just adored my mum, but my mum did have a problem with her nerves. She struggled with her mental health.
And did that impact you, do you think? Or again, because you were brought up in this big family, they carried you along?
I didn’t find it impacted me at all. It actually made me stronger. My mum pushed me into everything that she could. She’d have her moments, and then she’d be fine. But I had so many aunts and uncles that I was carried along. You’ve always had great determination and resilience.
We wonder, does that come from there?
Everything comes from there. You can either die under it, or you can swim, I swam.
You were a teenager in the 60s, a time of great revolution, and you say you related to the English model and actress Twiggy, tell us why.
Well, she was our icon. She changed the whole face of modelling, I have never seen a shift like that happen in my time. Her hair was cut, the dresses up her backside, wearing coloured tights, and so brilliantly moody.
You say in the book that she also came from the, “other side of the tracks”, like you did.
Yeah, I came from a working class family and I was frightened to be saying that in certain circles. But I thought if Twiggy can do it, so can I.
In the book you have some style tips we’d also like to mention. One is to have the courage to invest in yourself. Teach us how.
Well, I think it’s very important, to invest in your appearance. Take pride in it [she stops and is thinking], but now I’m thinking, this is my industry, and I’m not working 12 hours as a night nurse, so I have to be careful, you know what I’m saying?
We do.
But we must try to think of ourselves, because we don’t enough. Be good to yourself. Invest in a bit of colour in your wardrobe that lifts you. And get to know your body shape. That’s the one thing I’d advise. Posture and body shape.
Even if you don’t like your body shape?
Love it! Minimize what you hate. And maximize what you love. Simple as that. You’ll never see me in tight black trousers. I have a long body. And my legs aren’t as long. So I know to balance myself. I’m better off with nice tight trousers, a nice little jacket that comes to here [she points to her waist]. And high shoes that makes the legs look longer. And having confidence in how you look is your very best accessory. But remember confidence is something nobody has all the time. Life throws too much at us, especially women.
Before you leave us let’s talk a little about being a mother and a grandmother.
When you have your children you want everything for them, and you’re praying that nothing goes wrong. I’ve been lucky with that side of my life. My daughter is wonderful and so happily married, and so is my son. And the greatest gift of all are the grandkids [she finds us videos on her phone to show them off]. Lots of my friends don’t have their grandkids here with them because they’re abroad so I’m down on my knees to God that they’re here in Limerick. I have the five grandkids here and they’re going nowhere! So that’s a blessing. The eldest is 17 and the youngest is making his Communion this year. They are our world.
You’re a proud granny and mammy, Celia. Are you proud of yourself?
You know what, I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved and I’ll pass nobody any apology. I worked my ass off and it paid off. I had luck too, and I was in the right place at the right time. Lots of things went arseways and lots of things went right. It’s been fun.
