EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Fashion star Julian MacDonald – who dressed everyone from Kylie Minogue to Jennifer Lopez – fights to continue trading under his own name after his firm flops

His father worked in a washing machine factory, but Julien Macdonald never let humble beginnings cloud his vision of a dazzling future.

He was spotted by Karl Lagerfeld at the age of 21, was crowned British Fashion Designer of the Year a decade later and appeared in Strictly Come Dancing.

But now 52-year-old Macdonald, who has dressed everyone from Kylie Minogue to Jennifer Lopez and hosted Queen Camilla in her first-ever fashion show, is in the fight of his life.

I can reveal that he has just launched a High Court bid to allow him to continue acting under his own name – extraordinary considering he performed an extravaganza of a show at London Fashion Week earlier this year. The legal move is because his namesake company, Julien Macdonald Ltd, has just been liquidated.

The predicament became apparent last year when accounts showed it had less than £20,000 in its coffers, despite a £50,000 ‘Bounce Back’ loan and staff leave under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Still, Macdonald, a man of instinctive showmanship, and the company’s co-owner Jamey Hargreaves, 51, once lover of the late socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, and son of multimillionaire Matalan founder John Hargreaves, were optimistic.

With clients willing to pay up to £40,000 for his creations – including Catherine Zeta-Jones and top model Bella Hadid – their optimism may have seemed justified.

Now Macdonald is taking legal action – against his own company – in an attempt to keep using his own name.

It is necessary because, under the terms of the Insolvency Act 1986, ‘Julien Macdonald’ has become a prohibited trade name due to its use by Julien Macdonald Ltd before the company filed for bankruptcy.

The law is intended to prevent directors of insolvent companies from becoming directors of companies with the same name for at least five years.

Macdonald suffered a major setback in 2020 with the collapse of the Debenhams department store, for which he had designed clothing since 2003.

He refuses to comment on this latest challenge. But the indications are that he is determined to fight on.

Aside from his legal action, he founded two more companies last week: JM Sparkles and Glitz and Sparkles. Both are dedicated to ‘specialized design activities’.

He was the drummer for the Rolling Stones who rejected the girls’ advances for a life of seclusion in the countryside with the love of his life – his wife, Shirley – and listening to Radio 3.

But the idyllic private world that Charlie Watts created in North Devon, at Halsdon Manor, where he and Shirley bred Polish Arabian horses, no longer exists.

Two years after Watts’ death and seven months after Shirley’s, their daughter Seraphina says goodbye to the mares and stallions.

“She loves the horses and the company,” a friend tells me, “but it’s too painful a memory of her mom and dad.” A spokesperson tells me that most of the 200 horses have already been “rehomed,” adding, “It’s the way Shirley would have wanted it.

The horses were always her priority.’ More than the stones. “I’ve always hated the way rock music and the world of it treat women,” said Shirley. “Especially the attitude of the Stones. There’s no respect.’

Goga Ashkenazi arranged the sale of Prince Andrew’s house for £15 million – £3 million more than the asking price – but she apparently can’t run for a bikini top.

The Kazakh businesswoman and socialite shared this photo of her in a vineyard in the South of France, protecting her modesty with a few leaves.

Oxford-educated Goga, 43, is enjoying what she calls a ‘summer of love’ with friends – minus the Duke of York. He would be afraid to leave Royal Lodge, Windsor, in case his brother King Charles changed the locks.

I really hope Bruno Tonioli isn’t a bad influence on fellow Britain’s Got Talent judge Simon Cowell.

For the exuberant Italian choreographer, 67, was spotted smoking a cigarette outside the ITV summer party in Fitzrovia, London (pictured), apparently unafraid of dropping ashes on his white suit. Earlier this year, Cowell, 63, said he had finally quit smoking 40 menthol cigarettes a day for years.

The entertainment mogul admitted: ‘I was a nightmare. I was drinking and smoking when I was eight, and I almost burned the house down once.”

Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, was buried neck-deep in sand and surrounded by insects during a Bushtucker Trial on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! But the former prime minister’s sister, Rachel Johnson, has suffered more in New Zealand while appearing on another reality show: Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.

“Despite my promise to never do shows with the word ‘celebrity’ in the title again, this one brought out the Bond Girl manque in me and I couldn’t help it,” explains the 57-year-old journalist. When asked how she is doing, she replies: ‘Fine, apart from [a] broken rib and strained gluteal muscle.”