Celia Joicey: the head of Bermondsey's Fashion and Textile Museum reveals her favourite homeware and fashion boutiques

Celia Joicey is head of the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey. Originally from Yorkshire, she studied history at Cambridge, and attended the Royal College of Art.

Her latest coup has been persuading Italy’s Missoni fashion house family and the MA*GA contemporary art museum in Milan to bring an exhibition of their textiles and art from Italy to SE1.

WHERE I LIVE

I live in a mews in Notting Hill. Our interior is populated by our collection of 20th-century and contemporary design.

I spend too much time on our bright blue Terence Woodgate sofa from SCP, and we’ve got furniture by Jasper Morrison and Matthew Hilton and Eames, including a rare cabinet and bench in walnut from the Organic Design in Home Furnishings exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1941.

We also have a fabulous 1945 George Nelson bench, and textiles by Margo Selby and Sanderson. Plus a pile of fabrics I buy in the hope that I will create something. I’d now like to acquire Josef Frank for [Swedish interior design company] Svenskt Tenn.

MY FAVOURITE FASHION AND HOMEWARE SHOPS

I’m a big fan of fashion boutiques. Smaller-scale shops, often run with impeccable taste, introduced me to designers I wouldn’t have otherwise encountered. The Jacksons in All Saints Road, and Couverture & the Garbstore in Kensington Park Road are regular haunts. I bought my favourite-ever dress in Liberty of London. It would be great to have a big exhibition that celebrates the rich history of London shops.

For homeware, Ceramica Blue in Blenheim Crescent is where we acquired all our crockery and I love to browse Heal’s in Tottenham Court Road, and SCP.

FAVOURITE MAKERS

I love Kitty Joseph and her “print to order” fashion collaboration with pioneering knitwear technologists Unmade. Kitty is a trained textile designer — her studio is on top of the Fashion and Textile Museum — and the Unmade team combine industrial design, engineering, computer science and knitwear expertise. Together they are trying to reinvent made to order.

Sarah Campbell is my favourite maker with her big, bold, lively fabrics. It has been a privilege to show her recent designs at the museum. Her blog is a thing of joy.

DREAM PROPERTY

I dream of living by the Thames, and travel by boat every day. Kelmscott House in Hammersmith has a wonderful outlook from its elegant Georgian windows, and as home to the 19th-century designer William Morris, would be a daily inspiration

SECRET SPACES

The history of London fascinates me. As a child my favourite author was Leon Garfield and his atmospheric, exciting stories of the 18th-century city inspired my enthusiasm for local history. In 2011 the Fashion and Textile Museum was awarded an All Our Stories grant from English Heritage to document the fashion heritage of Bermondsey Street. It’s no surprise London’s history of leatherworking is also tied to the by-products of the industry such as jam (Hartley’s) biscuits (Huntley & Palmer) and photography.

I also love Chelsea Physic Garden, where the apothecaries grew their herbs.