Temperley and Norman Parkinson

Sweet schemes are made of this: Last year, Alice Temperley was having dinner with multiple Grammy Award-winning diva Annie Lennox, a longtime Temperley fan who counts the fashion designer as part of her philanthropic society of high-profile ladies, The Circle. After the evening's brainstorming, Temperley conceived the idea for her latest venture—an auction of prints inspired by, and featuring work from, 1960s fashion photographer Norman Parkinson. Temperley had come across the Parkinson prints on a visit to one of her mother's friends in Somerset, Englan, and, inspired by Lennox's charity work, decided to put them on the auction block, with part of the proceeds going to Oxfam. Completing the auction catalogue are one-off printed canvases Temperley created for her fall 2010 fashion presentation in New York— “typically British” women, including Lennox, and models Liberty Ross, Jacquetta Wheeler and Sophie Dahl, were photographed in a classic style that pays homage to Parkinson’s work. In an added twist, the life-size images have also been embroidered with lace, filigree and beading work to reflect the techniques used in the new Temperley collection. Both the Parkinson prints and Temperley's elaborate masterworks go on sale at Phillips de Pury, London, on May 18.