Curtain falls on Darcey's role in fabric design firm

BRITAIN'S best-loved ballerina Darcey Bussell has withdrawn from the business she founded with a lifelong friend after it fell into financial disarray.

The 35-year-old ballet star founded Bussell Taylor - which produces exquisite hand-woven materials that have been stocked by the Conran Shop and Liberty - five years ago with childhood friend Lindsay Taylor.

Now it has emerged that Bussell has bowed out of the venture after admitting she could not afford to plough in the necessary cash.

Today Ms Taylor's brother George confirmed the curtain has fallen on Ms Bussell's part in Bussell Taylor - because the company could no longer afford to buy supplies.

He said: "The business is going through a reshuffle and Darcey's involvement with the business will cease."

Mr Taylor added: "The business has not shut down but its future is as yet undecided. There is not much of a business left."

Bussell, who is married to City banker Angus Forbes, has said that, although a huge number of orders were lined up, there were not enough funds to buy the fabrics to fulfill them.

Bussell was five when she met Lindsay at Fox Primary School in Notting Hill.

The pair have been firm friends ever since.

Ms Taylor trained at Chelsea Art School and their company employs Indian craftspeople in self-help cooperatives who use traditional skills to reproduce her designs.

The materials, made with natural fabrics and dyes, are reproduced in limited-edition collections of cushions, curtains, bed linen and scarves.

Bussell returned to the Royal Ballet as principal ballerina after giving birth to her second child, Zoe, in April.

Zoe was delivered by a planned Caesarean section seven weeks early to prevent a repeat of the serious case of pre-eclampsia that nearly killed Bussell while she was giving birth to her first daughter Phoebe in 1999.

Bussell returned to the fold at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden on Saturday night for the start of the new Royal Ballet season but disappointed many critics, who described her performance in Requiem as "below-par".

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