The year 2008 was pivotal, not just for Skunk Anansie but also for me personally. It was the year I met my partner Lady – known as Ladyfag – at a Fashion Week party in New York for the designers Dsquared2. I was hanging out with my ‘Italian ’usband’, the designer Liborio Capizzi. I remember getting out of a lift on the rooftop, scanning the scene, and I saw her, bang in the centre of the dancefloor. Who is that? I thought. She’s drop-dead gorgeous and chic as hell! She wore a dazzling outfit and had beautiful dark hair. Up to that point, I’d rarely chatted anyone up. I was scared of being rejected, so I always let people approach me. But on this occasion, I worked my way round the room to where she was standing.
‘Hello,’ I said. ‘Would you like a drink? Would you like some champagne?’
‘It’s all free here, let me get you one,’ Lady replied.
We got chatting and she invited me to her birthday party the next day, which was taking place in an infamous gay nightclub called Mr Black. Many years later she told me that when I curled my fingers around the champagne glass and smiled at her, she thought, I think I’m going to be serving this woman champagne for very a long time.