David Blunkett, veteran Sheffield Labour MP, former cabinet minister and once the leader of the city council himself, had a less charitable view of the deputy prime minister's role in the crushing of the Lib Dems.

BBC: Vote 2011: Lib Dem gloom in Clegg's Sheffield powerbase

Indeed, Howell might be seen to be working in a tradition unrelated to clothes, alongside British artists and designers whose works draw inspiration from the land, such as David Mellor with his Sheffield steelworks, Peter Lanyon's landscape abstractions and the organic forms of Henry Moore.

WSJ: Designer Margaret Howell | The Cult of

Former Labour home secretary David Blunkett, MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, said the unpopularity of his fellow Sheffield MP Mr Clegg was to blame for Lib Dem council losses.

BBC: Labour takes control of Sheffield City Council