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Noelle Reno's Rhodes trip: The model 開始する，打ち上げるs her fashion 範囲 with Britain's most celebrated designer

Updated: 20:01 BST, 3 July 2010

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It’s been a difficult few years 関係-wise for Noelle Reno. First, an acrimonious 分裂（する） with banking 相続人 Matthew Mellon; and now her 現在の beau Scot Young is going through his own very public, very messy 離婚. But, she tells Jane Gordon, the most important 共同 in her life 権利 now is her burgeoning 商売／仕事投機・賭ける with iconic designer Zandra Rhodes

Revved up and raring to go: Noelle models a piece from the Z by Zandra Rhodes collection, which she co-designed

It’s difficult to decide which of the two women 提起する／ポーズをとるing for 圧力（をかける） photographers in London’s Harvey Nichols is the most startling. On the left is an impossibly tall 20-something American blonde wearing a tiny 黒人／ボイコット jersey dress and ridiculously high heels; on the 権利 is a small, striking 60-something wearing a frantically printed tunic that 衝突／不一致s with her shocking pink hair.

Model-turned-entrepreneur Noelle Reno and the grand dame of British fashion Zandra Rhodes may look like a mismatched 同盟, but their new 着せる／賦与するs 共同, Z by Zandra Rhodes, is 申し込む／申し出ing them both a welcome new beginning.

For Zandra, 共同 with the dynamic 27-year-old Noelle ? who has created a 範囲 of casual and affordable jersey pieces using historic Rhodes prints ? is a chance to bring her 独特の designs to a new 世代: ‘However youthful I might think I am, it takes someone with Noelle’s 運動, enthusiasm and new ideas to make these 着せる／賦与するs work for young people,’ Zandra says, looking 情愛深く at her new 商売／仕事 partner.

Noelle’s need to reinvent herself is probably even greater than Zandra’s, not least because she has a history of unusual 共同s across the 世代 divide. An 同盟 with the iconic designer will, she hopes, fare better than her previous foray into the fashion 産業 with her former partner ? and one-time fianc? ? 45-year-old Matthew Mellon (the American banking 相続人 who was 以前 married to Jimmy Choo’s Tamara Mellon).

From left: Noelle with the new man in her life Scot Young; at a Mothers4Children charity lunch with fellow designers Melissa Odabash (second left) and Kelly Hoppen (centre)

In 2007 the couple ? who were tog ether for four years ? co-設立するd Degrees of Freedom, a brand of luxurious casual 着せる／賦与するs that was 財政／金融d 単独で by Matthew but which would become, a little under a year later, a 犠牲者 of their acrimonious 分裂（する）. Unbowed by the 失敗 of both her 商売／仕事 and her 関係, 12 months ago Noelle began dating Scot Young, another older man with かなりの baggage and 複雑にするd 財政上の手はず／準備.

Young, 20 years her 上級の, is 伴う／関わるd in a bitter and very public 離婚事例／患者 in which his ex-wife Michelle, 45, is 捜し出すing 維持／整備 and a 株 of his ‘lost’ ￡400 million fortune. The former 所有物／資産／財産有力者／大事業家 and 億万長者’s ‘fixer’ 主張するs that he is 破産者／倒産した and therefore unable to 会合，会う the 需要・要求するs of his wife of 11 years (they parted in 2006), who is the mother of his two daughters, Scarlett, 17, and Sasha, 15.

This new 投機・賭ける, however ? Noelle is quick to point out ? has 絶対 nothing to do with the men in her life and everything to do with her 共同 with Zandra (they are 50/50 株主s in the 商売／仕事). The designer, Noelle says, is an 奮起させるing 役割 model who has created and run her own 商売／仕事 for 40 years without outside 投資家s. Together they are a team of ‘two very 独立した・無所属 women’.

‘It’s been a hard year, but Scot understands what 設立するing a 商売／仕事伴う／関わるs’

Zandra and Noelle have agreed to 会合，会う me on the day of the Z 開始する，打ち上げる, and after a quick cup of tea with a jet-lagged 行方不明になる Rhodes ? who 分裂（する）s her life between homes in California (where she is 現在／一般に designing the 衣装s and 始める，決めるs for the San Francisco オペラ’s 生産／産物 of Aida) and her UK base at the Fashion and 織物 Museum she 設立するd in Bermondsey ? I am left alone with Noelle.

It is the second time I have interviewed her ? three years ago she 開始する，打ち上げるd Degrees of Freedom with an 排除的 photo shoot for YOU, and Noelle’s charm and 運動 were as evident then as they are now, but with one difference: she is no longer constrained by the overbearing presence of a partner/fianc? with a controlling 財政上の利益／興味.

Noelle says that she has no ill will に向かって Matthew, but, 観察するing his moody and distracted behaviour at the 2007 shoot, I understood only too 井戸／弁護士席 the difficulties of living and working with a man with a history of 麻薬乱用; a man whose ex-wife 公然と（人命などを）奪う，主張するd that he was ‘like a child’. Now Noelle’s only real 悔いる about the break-up is the fact that she has lost 接触する with Matthew and Tamara’s daughter Minty, now seven.

With 商売／仕事 partner Zandra Rhodes

‘I 行方不明になる her so much. Minty was not やめる two when I （機の）カム into her life and she was six when Matthew and I 分裂（する）, and those are really big years in a child’s life. I think I had やめる a special 関係 with her because Matthew had been raised with staff and it was nice to show him that connecting with a child isn’t about 現在のs or extravagant 遠出s. All a little girl really wants to do is bake pancakes with you, or draw with you, or take the dog to the park to 料金d the ducks. The last time that I saw Minty was when Tamara and Christian Slater were still together, and it was very emotional,’ she says.

Although Noelle has 明確に利益（をあげる）d financially from her union with Matthew (it was （人命などを）奪う，主張するd that he gave her gifts of jewellery during their 関係 that were 価値（がある）￡1 million, and they 結局 reached a 解決／入植地 in which he bought out her ‘株’ of Degrees of Freedom), she 述べるs the fallout from their break-up as ‘the hardest thing I have ever been through’.

She was just 21 when she met Matthew ? an 相続人 to the Mellon banking family fortune 概算の at $10 billion ? and （危険などに）さらす to such wealth must have been intoxicating for an ambitious young woman from a comfortable, but by no means 豊富な, professional Seattle-based background. At the time Noelle was an aspiring actress living in LA (she had been modelling through her teens), but having followed Matthew to London she took a 商売／仕事 degree and became his partner in their 高級な fashion line 目的（とする）d まず第一に／本来 at their 豊富な friends (cashmere sweatpants 小売d at around ￡1,400). Losing her fianc? and her 役割 in Degrees of Freedom ? she was summarily 解任するd after she left Matthew ? was 破滅的な.?

‘The 分裂（する） with Matthew was dreadful. But everyone is all 権利 now. And Tamara has been fabulous’

‘It was dreadful. But having been through that I pretty much know I can get through anything. Luckily everyone is all 権利 now ? Tamara has been fabulous ? and I never say anything bad in the 圧力（をかける） about Matthew. I watched him do it to me and, believe me, there were many things I could have said and done, but I didn’t. It was painful but everyone （機の）カム一連の会議、交渉／完成する and now it’s nice for me to go to parties and have 確かな people say, “Noelle, I really 尊敬（する）・点 how you dealt with all that,”’ she says.

Noelle is 気が進まない to discuss Matthew’s somewhat 迅速な関与 with Nicole Hanley, whom he married in April this year. The couple became engaged いっそう少なく than two months after his 分裂（する） from Noelle. ‘She was more my friend than Matthew’s. She 現実に held my 手渡す through one break-up with him and I w as very surprised to hear they were together. But, hey, the best of luck to him; the best of luck to both of them. All I can say is that Matthew has a very good heart and he wants to be a good person but, 井戸／弁護士席, dot, dot, dot…’

After their 分裂（する） Noelle 退却／保養地d 支援する home to Seattle, 苦しむing, she thinks now, from a form of 地位，任命する-traumatic shock. Creating Z was her way 支援する from that difficult time, and for the past six months she has been working 17-hour days organising everything from the 商売／仕事計画（する） to the 製造（する） of the 着せる／賦与するs. 危険ing her own money has made her more 焦点（を合わせる）d on 確実にするing the brand’s success than she was in her previous 投機・賭ける (she thinks now that Degrees of Freedom was doomed anyway because of the 後退，不況) and more 現実主義の about the 現在の market (nothing in the 範囲 costs more than ￡100).?

She has also 証明するd a very savvy marketer, 交渉するing the 排除的 UK 権利s on a fabulous new vending machine from which her 範囲 will be dispensed at Harvey Nichols. And now Noelle doesn’t mix her 私的な and 商売／仕事 lives ? she is very happy with Scot but she 収容する／認めるs that her 優先 now is her work.

The couple had met 簡潔に when Noelle was with Matthew (she says that Scot is still in 接触する with Matthew and that they are talking of ‘having dinner together as a foursome’ when Matthew is next in London) and met again, through 相互の friends, at a dinner a year ago.

‘Scot was in a bad place and I’d been in a bad place; it was just 完全にする関係 and empathy and it worked. He is my best friend first and 真っ先の, which is 広大な／多数の／重要な. He’s not in that place in his life ? as boys of my own age are ? where he is trying to 証明する himself. He’s done that and he understands what 設立するing a 商売／仕事伴う／関わるs. He knows that for me Z is everything ? I wake in the night and make 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）s on my BlackBerry ? and he’s 冷静な／正味の with all that. He is a very giving, gracious person,’ she says.

Noelle explains her attraction to older men by 主張するing that she has a problem ‘connecting with boys’ her own age. But she then jokes that Scot ‘doesn’t really look 48 and certainly doesn’t 行為／法令／行動する it’. Indeed, when I 会合，会う Scot at the 開始する，打ち上げる party later that evening he is in the 基準 uniform of the uber-豊富な辞退するing to 受託する encroaching middle age: ジーンズs, leather jacket and a baseball cap. But such 遠出s are rare, she says ? the couple prefer evenings in at his flat to a hectic social life. ‘If we go out I do 選ぶ up the 法案s but I would rather cook for him at home. It’s new for him, because in his previous 関係 they had staff cooking for them,’ she says.

Noelle will not make any ‘on the 記録，記録的な／記録する’ comment about Michelle Young or Scot’s lost or mislaid fortune, although she does say ? with 有罪の判決 ? that ‘it will come out that he has no money’.?

As we part, I ask her if she thinks they will marry. ‘It’s been a hard year ? we have both been trashed by the 圧力（をかける） but we have come through it and it’s given us something like seven years 価値（がある） of 関係 in 12 months. To his credit the 離婚 has not disheartened him against marriage at all. Funnily enough, if anyone has been put off by his 離婚 it’s me. I look at what is going on in 法廷，裁判所 and it makes me even more 決定するd to be an 独立した・無所属 woman making my own living and my own way in life. That’s why the most important thing in my life 権利 now is my 商売／仕事共同 with Zandra.’

Z by Zandra Rhodes is on sale at Harvey Nichols (harveynichols.com) and Matches.