I shared my bed with Agyness Deyn..until I was kicked out for another man

Posted by mija on Mar 19, 2010 in News | 0 comments

Pal Henry Holland spills the beans on their 13-year friendship
As the hottest supermodel in the world Agyness Deyn isn’t short of men who want to sleep with her.
But a word of warning from her best friend… she snores like a freight train!
And she’s liable to kick you on to the couch if she gets a better offer.
In an exclusive interview with the Mirror, Agy’s oldest pal Henry Holland spills the beans on their 13-year friendship.
Fashion designer Henry has been close with Agy – then a mousy-haired schoolgirl called Laura Hollins – since they were 13 years old and she served him a fish supper at the chippie where she worked after school in their native Lancashire.

Fast forward a few years and Henry, now 26, is designing posh frocks for A listers including Lindsay Lohan, Naomi Campbell and Sienna Miller as well as this week launching a more affordable range H! for Debenhams.
And Agy is gracing the world’s catwalks while coining in a ?3million fortune from her Manhattan base. It’s a far cry from those days back in Ramsbottom when they were teenagers yearning for an exciting life in London.
Henry, who now lives in North London with his boyfriend, says: “Agy and me used to go in the chip shop every Friday she worked there and we used to take the p*** out of the woman in the tabard.
“We had a lot of mutual friends and there was a dry ski slope near us that we used to go to all the time. We used to snowboard down there. And then when we went to college we spent a lot of time together. We have both worked really hard and we have pushed each other really hard.
“I lived with Agyness for three years as she started out modelling and it was hard work, really hard for her.
“A lot of girls get shot by Mario Testino when they are 15 and that’s it, their careers are made. For others like Agy, it is tough tough work, not easy at all.
“We both supported each other and when I was working in magazines she thought it was amazing. And when I got promoted to fashion assistant she was there supporting me.”
The final member of the Ramsbottom Three is their other close friend Jessica Fletcher, another schoolmate who now works as head of sales for his House of Holland and H! ranges.
“I met Jess when I was 11 and now she works with me and lives three doors down from me,” explains Henry.
“We all got together years ago, we were three best friends. I came first because I came to study here then Agyness came to do some modelling part time as she had some work down here.
“She would come and stay with me in my halls of residence and she would sleep in my single bed which was very frustrating because,” he pauses for comic effect at the thought of the supermodel and himself cramped up in a tiny bed, “… she snores!
“We later got a two-bedroom place together – me, Jessica and Agyness.
“There were two beds and we worked on a rotation system. They both had boyfriends so it was very frustrating as I was constantly on the couch!” The trio has temporarily broken up, however. Agyness has now moved to New York where her star has risen further.
“But she yearns for her down-to-earth mates from the small mill town to join her in the Big Apple.
“She’s not coming back,” Henry says wistfully.
source: mirror.co.uk

“She has definitely settled and found her home.
“I miss her loads now she is in New York. She is getting very, very frustrated with us now.
“She has had enough of it and says ‘This is it, I have been here two years, hurry up and move over.’ She keeps demanding that me and Jess come on over and work here. ‘I know it’s tricky but you have to,’ she says. I spend as much time as I can over there hanging out with her.
“I am so busy with my work and she is so busy with hers that it’s not that easy to get time together.”
But Holland believes his Northern roots, and a circle of close friends from Ramsbottom, have ensured his head hasn’t been turned by the bright lights of the big city.
“I have not run away from Ramsbottom five years ago and woken up like this,” he says, sipping a cup of tea in Debenhams HQ for our interview. “I have been working my arse off for five years. I have worked since I was 18 in some form. I have a very strong work ethic.
“It is amazing. I do pinch myself especially on days like today when you are stood in the window of Debenhams.
One of the things I think is special is there are ten of us from the same place who all work in London and we have all known each other since we were 11 or so.
“Jessica sits next to me every single day and if I even show a little bit of the diva… I don’t even get near because she would be all over me.
“The same with Agyness. I don’t think we are divaish. I think it is a northern thing, We aren’t built like that.”
Henry has a new muse for his Debenhams range, 19-year-old Pixie Geldof. The daughter of Sir Bob Geldof and the late Paula Yates might not be a Northern lass, but she helped inspire his new high-street collection.
“Pixie has been my muse actually,” says Henry. “I love working with my friends whenever possible. I first met Pixie five years ago.
“I was working at Smash Hits magazine as a fashion assistant and we were brought on to a Sky TV show, It’s a Girl Thing, the first eight-hour live TV show. It was also the last eighthour live TV show.
“I was there customising Ugg boots and Pixie was presenting.
“It was the first thing she had ever done and she was 14.
“Then over the years we bumped into each other at different things and we’ve the same group of friends.
“She’s slept on my sofa a few times. When all this has died down in a few weeks we’re off to LA to the Coachella music festival.”
But despite his burgeoning success, there is one job that beats all others – his weekend job working in Bailey’s teashop in Ramsbottom.
“Bailey’s teashop, it was my favourite job ever,” he says. “I used to work every weekend. Princess Diana’s funeral was my first day of work and I worked every weekend ever since.
“It was so much fun, Bailey’s. I go in there now when I go home and I know the menu and I know the table numbers and if I go in on a Saturday morning I can point at the regulars and say exactly what they are going to order and their names.” You can take the boy out of Ramsbottom…
Henry Holland’s range is on sale in Debenhams nationwide.