April 29, 2017 Swimwear designer Alexandra Miro on Sunglasses, Ibiza & Perfect Red Nails April 29, 2017/ SWIM WEEK CALENDAR By VICTORIA WOODALL via Mail Online Swimwear designer Alexandra Miro I am a huge reader. A year’s subscription to Daunt Books is the gift I now give to all my friends, after my father bought me one last year. You tell the shop what kind of books you like and they send one to you every month. In 2007, I spent a year completing a diploma at Leiths School of Food and Wine. I have always loved cooking and that year was the hardest I’d ever worked! Kitchens are tough places. This leather-bound portfolio contains the recipes I created there and represents a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I spend a lot of time in Ibiza, where this photo with my close friend Aliona was taken, and am often in swimwear. Upon turning 40, I felt there was a gap in the market for swimsuits for grown-up women and set out to design my own. We were trying on the first samples here. 5 of 8My mother Victoria Miro is a gallerist, so my brother and I were surrounded by art and artists growing up. Chantal Joffe came to my wedding and made this collage of me in my Monique Lhuillier dress 6 of 8I am a beauty addict and love a red nail. Chanel Le Vernis in Shantung is perfect and always complements what I wear, which is mostly red, black and white. I’ve loved wearing black since I was a child. I have about 50 pairs of sunglasses – they are a true expression of how I’m feeling on any given day. If I’m happy, I’ll go for an exuberant pair and if I’m sombre, I’ll choose a more sedate option. My current favourites are this Prada pair [second in from right] and Valley Eyewear’s leather-framed Wolves [far left], which look like cats’ eyes.