One of the fashion industry's most respected commentators, McDowell has worked as a designer, stylist, editor, journalist and biographer.  The author of 16 books on fashion and related subjects, he has written on style and design for newspapers and magazines around the world.  He is the senior fashion writer for the Sunday Times Style and is the founder and creative director of Fashion Fringe. Applications for Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden close on May 1^st

What’s your best kept London secret?

Berwick Street, which has so much more to offer than just the street market associated with its name. In any case, it is now sadly very much a shadow of its former gloriously Cockney self that everyone has always loved. But, even if the market is dwindling, the street itself remains one of the most diverse in Soho – with tailors, secondhand book and record shops, art stores and even sanitary-ware stockists all fighting for space with slightly scruffy caffs and restaurants and anonymous, ever-open doors promising untold profane delights to those courageous or desperate enough to climb the stairs. It's all exactly as a Soho street should be.

“London – and Soho especially – still has the guts to be naughty, dirty and rude. I love the fact that at any hour of day or night you can be offered sex, drugs and invitations to dodgy-sounding "nightclubs," new gay bars and who knows what else, if you are young and look right.”

Where do you go to escape a) within the city b) outside of the city.

I live in Soho and I love its mix of nationalities, tongues and attitudes. Sin lurks around every corner and that is so important in a city's DNA – as any one will agree who remembers New York before successive mayors decided to "clean it up" and left a shadow of a once vibrant city, suitable at night only for Norwegian tourists. London – and Soho especially – still has the guts to be naughty, dirty and rude. I love the fact that at any hour of day or night you can be offered sex, drugs and invitations to dodgy-sounding "nightclubs," new gay bars and who knows what else, if you are young and look right. But when I need to escape the clamour and cacophony of the streets of Soho, I go home to my tiny postage stamp fifth floor flat which looks out over the rooftops to Centre Point, Leicester Square, the London Eye and Canary Wharf and is perfectly quiet night and day. Honestly! When I want to get out of London, it's off to my house right on the seafront in Kent, with nothing between me and the lights of Boulogne except the gloriously quixotic sea which changes its mind a million times a day.

“The great thing about London is the variety of food on offer. As in every city, most of it is down-to-a-price rather than up-to-a-standard, and quality here is as low as anywhere else in the world.”

Favourite restaurants?

The great thing about London is the variety of food on offer. As in every city, most of it is down-to-a-price rather than up-to-a-standard, and quality here is as low as anywhere else in the world. Cheap is cheap, after all. Nevertheless, I have a little Turkish bistro, round the corner in Beak Street, which does two courses for under a tenner - and I haven't needed a stomach pump so far! But two streets away is Quo Vadis, a really elegant place to eat when somebody else is picking up the tab!

Still in Soho (just) we have J Sheekey, fabulous for fish, as is Scotts in Mount Street. Long time favourite is Le Caprice and of course, every fashionista's home from home (if only!), the Wolesley – especially for breakfast, when it is full of grass-thin fashion PRs toying with mixed berries and black coffee, equally thin, fey, young men eating boiled eggs and soldiers. Both are longing to get outside and light up, of course, in the hope that somehow that will keep them slim.. All of these places can hold up their heads internationally, but good food, excellent service and elegant surroundings come at a price. Definitely not for the financially timid.

Favourite shops?

I buy very few clothes because I am comfortable with what I wear – 90% of it from Ralph Lauren – and I have no interest in following the will-o-the-whisp of high fashion. I also have so many suits, shirts etc that I will never run out. But I love bookshops and my favourite is Hatchards in Piccadilly, where I have been spending a fortune ever since I returned from living in Rome over twenty years ago. I am a sucker for all book shops and I so regret how Charing Cross Road, once a bibliophile's Mecca, is now filling up with utterly unsuitable things like nailbars whilst the population forgets how to read!

“I used to be a member of several clubs but gave up when I realised that the people in them were if anything more boring, and certainly more likely to be drunk, than those turned away from the door. My ideal is sharing a bottle of red wine with a friend before going out to dinner.”

Favourite bars/drinks?

I am a wine drinker so bars don't do so much for me. I could be happy in Claridge’s bar but I always find it impossible to find a seat. I much prefer the hotel's Library for a drink, because you can at least hear what people are saying to you. I used to be a member of several clubs but gave up when I realised that the people in them were if anything more boring, and certainly more likely to be drunk, than those turned away from the door. My ideal is sharing a bottle of red wine with a friend before going out to dinner.

Favourite time of year in the city?

No matter where I am, I am a winter person. But I hate this and every other city in any season when it rains. In London and New York, the potholes (in wealthy twenty first century cities! How come?) fill up with oily water and the streets resemble those of a Medieval encampment with huge black puddles everywhere, while the taxis disappear as if they were made of sugar and have melted in the downpour. But when the sun shines, then even places like Belgrave Square become briefly beautiful.

Favourite view of London?

From Westminster Bridge, looking either left or right. One of the world's greatest urban views, if not the greatest – and celebrated by one of our greatest poets into the bargain. I also love Oxford Circus and Regent Street at night when the buildings are all lit up and look so very 'big city'.

“Westminster Bridge, looking either left or right is one of the world's greatest urban views, if not the greatest – and celebrated by one of our greatest poets into the bargain.”

Complete the sentences:

I can’t make it through the day without…
at least four cappuccinos;

If London had a soundtrack it would play…
"People" by Barbra Streisand, "Hey! You! Get off of my Cloud" by The Rolling Stones, "Hey, Big Spender" by Shirley Bassey;

A Londoner who most deserves to be on a stamp…
is Hogarth, whose universal view of humanity on the streets of this city is remarkably appropriate to contemporary London, with its squalor, drunkeness and indifference to mankind – just as in his day.

What are your guilty pleasures?

Every possible form of physical self-indulgence, most of which I prefer not to put into words, and reading or listening to music as the work piles up around me.

If you could burn down any building in London, what would it be and why?

As a rough rule of thumb, anything built in the fifties and a lot put up in the City in the last fifteen years. But we don't have to pull down the latter buildings. As they were thrown up simply to make money, they will fall down of their own volition soon enough, thank God.

If you’re in need of a little luxury/pampering, where do you go?

Claridge’s for an omelette Arnold Bennett – the fabulous creamy, smoked haddock concoction created at the Savoy for the novelist whose name it bears – accompanied by a stone-dry sherry, the only drink that can fight eggs.

“We should have a Congestion Charge for Central London pavements with a permit only given to those who can actually answer the question: why are you here? The streets would empty overnight.”

Where do you go for a culture fix?

The London Library until I gave up my subscription because it was just too expensive. Now, the two Tates and when I am feeling very self-indulgent, The Wallace Collection for its glorious mix of the shocking bad with the surprisingly good, all crammed together. Its a complete education in Victorian visual tastes.

What’s your top London tip?

Learn very early that you are invisible, especially to the hoards who, Zombie-wise, drift around the great shopping and tourist areas in a daze of imbecility. We should have a Congestion Charge for Central London pavements with a permit only given to those who can actually answer the question: why are you here? The streets would empty overnight.