Manhattan transfer

Selina Francis-Bryden was never a fan of Sex and the City, but now she's an addict. In fact, the 26-year-old Portobello Market stallholder can't get enough of it. Last week, Selina was pleasantly shocked to see clotheshorse Carrie Bradshaw braving the New York chills in a brown fur coat that she had painstakingly customised.

"It was such a shock," says Selina. "I was speechless. I remembered this mad, wacky woman coming to my stall to buy it but I thought nothing of it at the time."

The mad, wacky woman was Patricia Field, Sex and the City's famously eccentric stylist. She popped by Selina's pitch during London Fashion Week in February and snapped up the £80 coat - a full-length fur, with flapper girls painted on the back.

"She put the coat on and said, 'It really works for me,' and bought it straight away. It's crazy the coat got all the way to New York and will now been seen by millions of viewers around the world," says a bemused Selina, who has been working on Portobello Market since she was six years old.

Her parents had run the same pitch since the 1970s and so she grew up helping her dad sell children's wear. After giving up an English degree, Selina took over the pitch eight years ago and now sells a variety of clothes, including customised fur coats and paint-splattered string vests, under the label Franny B at the market every Saturday.

"I buy stuff second-hand from flea markets and paint and chop them up. I like to make things that are completely original. Sometimes great things happen, like the designer Paul Smith pops by, but then other times I don't take a penny all day."

Selina customises the clothes in her front room in Watford, where she lives with her husband, Jason, and her two children, Jack, seven, and Daisy, three. "I've been doing the stall for so long that it's even stranger this has come straight out of the blue. It's a light at the end of the tunnel that shows it's worthwhile getting up at 4am every Saturday morning."

She has had her fair share of celebrity customers. Dolce and Gabbana have visited twice and last time snapped up four of her distinctive coats, and Sir Paul's last purchase was one of her skirts made from amalgamated shirts. Such accolades mean that Franny B is definitely a label to watch.

Now that interest in her label has increased, Selina's next step is to approach shops to see if they are interested in stocking her designs. And it is likely that Patricia Field will be stocking some of Selina's coats in her store in New York, so Sex and the City fans can buy the real thing. However far the label goes Selina says she will never leave her roots. "I love Portobello, I've been here forever and I can't imagine ever giving it up. There's a real family atmosphere and a buzzing mixture of people. You have rich people, poor people, posh people, mad people. It feels like the centre of the world."

Franny B, opposite Fallafal King, Portobello Road, or call Selina on 07958 611428.