Patsy! Purdey!  Bond Girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service! Joanna Lumley’s acting career has been wonderful and varied and she’s also been an active campaigner for the Gurkhas and for animal rights’ issues. Now she’s joined forces with M&S to revolutionise the way we shop.

Your M&S Magazine caught up with Joanna Lumley and you can read the full interview in our July/August issue, or read on for some highlights and a few exclusive snippets…

Why did you get involved with the shwopping campaign?

‘We feel so guilty for spending money on clothes, we think that if we keep it for a bit longer, we’ll like it again. Or fit into it. We might not and we won’t! Chuck it into an M&S Shwop Box so that it can be used for something or someone else. Don’t throw it away where it just disappears into landfill. That is a wicked waste. Shwop it! And the sensational thing about this new campaign is that you can shwop things that don’t even come from M&S.’

Why do you think some people resist recycling?

‘Everybody knows it’s important – people say they don’t have time or that the little they chuck away can’t hurt the planet. It does. Nobody would dream of chucking bottles away now, you take them to a bottle bank. It’s automatic. This is what we’ve got to do with our clothing and fabrics.’

What will you be shwopping?

‘Things I know I don’t look good in. Colour not right, shape not right. I dye my own hair, so there are all my jerseys with blobs of dye on the shoulder – I’ll keep one, the others can go. And painting shirts, I don’t need 20 painting shirts. Do have old clothes, though – you need old clothes. Your gardening trousers stay as your gardening trousers!’

Is there anything you’d never shwop?

‘Tons of things. My Jean Muir clothes, the classic vintage clothes – they’re far too important. Shwop stuff you don’t want, or that doesn’t work. Not things you treasure. The oldest and most treasured piece I own is one of my father’s silk shirts made in India in 1938. It’s made from heavy cream silk and is still perfect.’

What is your failsafe outfit?

‘I’m not sure if I have a failsafe outfit – I do such different things on a daily basis that it needs to be practical. One night I might be camping out in the desert and the next night eating with the king of that country. I have to be careful about what I wear when travelling and filming. I can’t take very expensive clothes.  I always pack a black T-shirt and trousers or skirt, depending on the region. If in doubt, I always cover my arms and chest. I’ll wear something simple with big jewellery and a bright scarf or chunky belt. Much of life is about not offending when you travel – and I do a lot of travelling.’

Do you have many clothes and accessories picked up on your travels?

‘In Ethiopia I brought an enormous white cotton muslin shawl the size of a tablecloth, which I twist into a shawl. If you choose carefully you can get some sensational necklaces, bracelets and earrings from places like Kenya and South Africa.’

How do you decide what to wear on the red carpet?

‘You can’t really go as yourself. There’s the dress, the hair, the make-up… Quite often the organisers kindly supply you with all three, so that you won’t shame the event by looking less than gorgeous. The whole red carpet thing can be pretty daunting, knowing that the next day you and your frock will be criticised to death in the papers. Try hard to look your best, and smile your head off. If I do attend something I try to sneak in via the ‘Stephen Fry’ entance,  that is to say past the dustbins.’

Your pudding bowl hairstyle in The New Avengers inspired hairdressers all across the country to recreate your look. Who has most inspired your own style?

‘I had a really boyish prep-school hair-cut with a heavy fringe; I wanted it like that. I asked John Frieda to cut it like that – I knew they were doubtful about having a heroine with short hair and I had to sign something to say that I would pay for my own wig if it all went wrong. But I knew it would be right for the part of a busy policeman, which is what Purdey was. As for my own inspiration,  I’m not easily star-struck. I admire elegance and wit and a slightly don’t-care attitude.’

Your career began in the sixties. What decade of style would you like to see return?

‘I’d like to see good tailoring return: women looking elegant in beautiful clothes, not a locker-room or lap-dancing look. You used to yearn outside a shop window – Dior or Lanvin. You’d think, “Oh, to have such a jacket.” Things have to be cut properly to make women look graceful and desirable.’

So now it’s over to our readers. What style decade would you like to see return? What are your most treasured items that you wouldn’t swhop? Leave us a comment below to join the conversation.