Jean-Charles de Castelbajac is just one of those people who you'd like to have over for dinner. He'd sit there, chatting away, talking about the people he's met, the things he's seen and the clothes he's designed. You would do nothing but listen and imagine the life he's led. As an designer and artist, JCDC has developed his eponymous label into a lifestyle brand. If you haven't been to his Conduit Street store in London, that is currently most obvious in the corner space of Selfridges that JCDC has taken over, complete with colourful and hugely imaginative window displays. The in-house store of course features clothes, but it's mainly full of JCDC's pop art inspired stationary, interiors and general 'things'. It took the JCDC team eight months to prepare after being approached by Selfridges and it will enlighten the Oxford Street department store for two months. The theme of JCDC's SS10 collection is 'alienation' and 'accepting new people', and fittingly that thread runs through the retail space as well, but in a different kinda way...

"I was influenced by aliens", Jean-Charles explains. He points to four small boxes in the shop containing figures and paintings; they all illustrate different kinds of close alien encounters. "The first close encounter is to see a space ship, second is seeing an alien. The third encounter is speaking to one and the fourth is making love to one of them", he says. Then he turns and points towards the main window and the JCDC mannequins displaying his clothes: "The last close encounter with an alien is partying with them". You laugh when you hear him say it, but we all know that no one else but him would be able to put on a party worthy of extraterritorial visitors! JCDC could name drop celebrities all day long. His dresses, many of them on display in the window, has been seen on Beth Ditto, Santogold, M.I.A and Katy Perry, to mention just a few, but Jean-Charles is more in the mood for talking about one particular friend of his: Malcolm McLaren. He counts both McLaren and Vivienne Westwood as close friends, and at the punk godfather's recent funeral, JCDC spoke about their friendship. The family connection continues. Currently, JCDC is involved with Malcolm and Vivienne's son Joe Corr, the founder of Agent Provocateur, in producing a t-shirt for the charity Humanade entitled 'Friendship is my Spaceship'. You know you want one.