AceShowbiz - Singer-turned-entrepreneur Lily Allen was inspired to launch a clothes shop by her love of fancy dress costumes. The pregnant "Smile" hitmaker walked away from recording and touring earlier this year to start a family with boyfriend Sam Cooper and concentrate on her business interests.

She launched a London-based designer clothes hire shop, Lucy In Disguise, in September and now she's revealed she has wanted to run a fashion store since she was a child - when she would dress up in outrageous outfits.

Allen tells Stylist magazine, "When we were kids we were always dressing up. We'd do themes like farmyard animals, and we'd all dress up as dormice and pigs." But she quickly realized her store would have to stock more sombre clothing to make a profit, adding: "After all, not everyone wants to dress up as a pig."