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Amie talks with the easy confidence of a girl who's grown up with
celebrity. Hardly surprising, because in her time there was no one
more famous than Amie's mum. Plucked by Adam Faith from her job on
Ford's Dagenham production line, at 17 she was topping the pop charts.
Then, in 1967, she brought home our first ever win at the Eurovision
Song Contest, with Puppet On A String. There are some women who personify
an era - and Sandie, now 54, seemed to embody the breezy, barefoot
sexuality of the sixties.
So what was it like to grow up as the daughter of a cultural icon?
"I guess we were encouraged never to be starstruck in front of
people, and I don't really remember famous family friends," says
Amie. "But I realised my mum was famous when she kept getting
recognised in petrol stations and supermarkets and I wouldn't understand
how these people knew her name."
There were moments of pure magic too: Amie remembers dancing with
her mum on stage when she was just eight years old. "It was during
an Aids charity gig. I remember being on stage with her and hiding
behind the speakers and doing my own little dance with her."
Despite her natural charisma, Amie is appealingly down to earth. Dressed
in Miss Sixty jeans and well-worn trainers, she isn't one of those
terrifying It-girl teenagers who mix Marc Jacobs with Gap and are
personally acquainted with Chanel couture.
"I can't really afford to do designer," she says. "i
am a student. I like Hennes and Topshop. You can go in with a tenner
and come out with ten bags. And I am too lazy to buy vintage, but
i am a binge shopper. I don't shop for six months, then I find myself
in Oxford Circus and I am like, 'I must spend money'."
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| "I
realised my mum was famous when she kept getting recognised
in supermarkets. I couldn't understand how these people knew
her name" |
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However,
we are probably talking a few tenners here or there. Amie loves the
woven leather bags by hip Italian label Bottega Veneta (she admits
she can't pronounce the name) but she balked at the £780 price
tag. "I was like, no way."
Surely Sandie must have a few Sixties pieces just waiting to be borrowed?
"Mum is quite protective about her wardrobe. I do have a few
good hand-me-downs but most of it is in storage. I would be in real
trouble if I went near it. I think she copies me actually. i really
think she does."
Amie's favouite nightclub has no door policy, a great gay night and
plays "old Madonna tracks and really stupid music that you can
actually dance to." It sounds like a great night out - so what
would she usually wear? Amie pauses. "I'd still be in my jeans
and trainers but I might make an effort with my top half. I can never
wear a mini skirt. I look so gangly." |
Although
she has linked up with Hilfiger (she's the perfect Tommy mix of athletic,
youthful freshness), Amie fell into modelling only through a family
friend who works in the business. She certainly didn't grow up wanting
to be a Kate Moss. Ambivalent about the modelling game, seeing it
as 'something to take the pressure off A levels and make a bit of
money", Amie doesn't even read fashion magazines. "There
is just so much more that I want to do."
Might that include following in her mum's bare footsteps?
" I might sing in the shower," she laughs. "But mum
is too hard an act to follow. Music is not my scene at all."
Neither, these days, is it Sandie's. After the hits dried up, and
her first marriage (to fashion designer Jeff Banks) ended, there was
a period of soul-searching and finacial hardship. She remarried, to
film producer Nik Powell (Amie's dad) and trained as a counsellor.
In 1994 she opened the London-based Arts Clinic, which helps those
in creative professions to deal with the pressures of fame.
There is certainly no pressure on Amie, from either of her parents,
to take a particular path in life. Sandie and Nik are very protective
of their children: pictures of the family are rare and Nik even walked
Amie to the interview. Sandie and Nik are divorced but custody is
amicably split between them. Amie and her brother Jack, 16, divide
their time between Bedales school in Hampshire, Sandie's home in Oxford
where they go to "chill out and watch TV", and their father's
place in Maida Vale, West London, where they party and shop.
What about following her father into the film industry, either in
front of or behind the camera? Amie seems more enthusiatic about this
idea, although she's reluctant to pin down her dreams with anything
as dull as a career plan. " I have thought about that,"
she says, "but really I shall see." |
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With
a gap year streching out tantalising before she begins her Spanish
Studies at Leeds University (apparently it has the best night life),
Amie is more interested in making money in the short term. Due to
tour Cuba, Mexico and Peru with a friend, she needs to pull in some
cash before she leaves in January. She is toying with the idea of
making jewellery, after taking a course at Bedales.
A modern-style ring sits on her finger - "a present from Mum,
I lost the other one on the dance floor, I was so, so upset"
- and makes the odd wrist cuff: "I twisted coloured wire through
perforated metal. It was so wicked." But also in her endearingly
pragmatic way, she is planning to hit a local supermarket for shelf-stacking
shifts. "It sounds funny but they are offering £9 per
hour. What else am I going to do on a Sunday night? I may as well
be stacking beans. And besides, " she laughs, "I have
height on my side."
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