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Byline: ByMarc Baker Wales on Sunday

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Julien Macdonald picks up the phone on time.

It's not what you expect from the self-confessed enfant terrible of Britain's fashion industry. With showbiz friends like Kylie, Martine McCutcheon and Co, it would be easy for the 33-year-old designer to play the diva. No one could blame him for turning into a London luvvie - but Merthyr Tydfil made him and he hasn't betrayed his straight-talking roots.

Which is why he has been picked as the Simon Cowell of Sky One's Project catwalk, a reality TV show starting on January 12 in which 12 hungry women's wear designers will handbag it out to become the next big thing before a panel of judges, made up of him, Patrick Cox and Ben di Lisi.

He's well-qualified to do it, fashion is in his blood.

At 13 he knocked-up cardigans for his family and even reworked his school uniform. And when he was at Cardiff Art College, he was plucked from obscurity to work at Chanel.

By 2001 he was British Designer of the Year and was handed the top design job at Givenchy.

'I am the Simon Cowell of the programme,' he boasts. 'I think I'm known for my honesty and openness. If I don't like something then I'll say. I won't beat around the bush.

'You have to be honest with people. To make it in fashion you have to be born with a gift. You can't learn about it from a book.'

Turning his critical eye on himself, Julien admits to making a fashion mistake or two in his formative years, studying for a one-year foundation course at Cardiff Art College.

'I wore boiler suits covered in oil when I was at college,' he confesses. 'I thought I looked great but I looked more like Bob the Builder!'

It didn't put off Chanel supremo Karl Lagerfeld, who snapped him up to produce the French fashion house's knitwear.

While he designs for the sequinned showbiz set, he has won a place in women's hearts across the land for his Star label for Debenhams - yet another example of his down-to-earth nature.

He has resisted the urge to have his own shop - 'they tend to lose money rather than make money, it's more of an ego thing' - and he prefers to set out his stall on the High Street.

'I love what everybody else does but there is a place for everyone in fashion. We all design in different ways and we have different customers.

'It's nice that people in Cardiff can go into Debenhams and buy Julien Macdonald,' he says.

Even so, it's still too tempting to ask about his famous clients, like Miss Minogue - and Miss Piggy!

'Miss Piggy asked to come to my show at Brochures Printing London Fashion Week,' laughs Julien. 'So I said yes.

'I'm also good friends with Kylie and I'm happy to say she is now much better. She has told me she will start her tour again next year in Australia.

'It's a positive sign that she has made a full recovery. She will soon be back where everybody wants her to be.'

As for catwalk pal Kate Moss, who has bounce back from her cocaine scandal, he will only say: 'I'm happy now that she is much better and is back in full swing.'

So who's he got his eyes on next to wear his famously glamorous gowns?

'Cherie Blair? Oh, I wouldn't
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