"Every purchase I make involves about 18 conversations and a large row, flouncing out and then coming back," says Nick Springett. "Don't go for the bazaar look," he advises, "but for the more sophisticated mosaic tables and mirrors, or antique moucharabieh" (lacy-looking wooden furniture and other items). Habitat buyers travel with just a few images and a palette of five or six colours, to focus them on what to look for."The Moroccan influence will be big," predicts Nick Springett, buyer for Liberty, which is planning a Moroccan exhibition from September. This means Moorish shapes in furniture, with rich shades of saffron, aubergine, turquoise and maroon on fabrics and tableware. Do what professional buyers do, and train your eye to "edit". Before you go, visit shops in Britain, and consult books such as Thames & Hudson's Living In series.

"The Egyptian look is essentially overblown and decadent, mixing Persian carpets and coloured Tunisian glassware with weathered gold, Islamic metalwork, European candelabra - with wonderful colours such as opaline and turquoise."The elements of the look - coloured Tunisian glassware, for example - can be found in markets around the Mediterranean. "The cultural influences in Egypt are extraordinary - from the Pharoahs to European Art Deco," says Michael Macrae of the General Trading Company. But the two sides are clearly wide apart.Credit card companies claim that faulty goods are properly treated under the Sale of Goods Act. Compensation and cover available to UK credit card companies are substantially better than in most countries. Foreign travel, however, is the biggest influence on Nineties house style. And when the home is seen as a setting for glorious objets trouves from abroad, surely holidays are ideal furnishing opportunities? Buyers of trendsetting stores such as Liberty, the General Trading Company and the Conran Shop travel constantly, hunting out individual treasures and working with foreign factories to develop and mass produce adaptations of local artefacts.Following the craze for the bold patterns and simple shapes of Provence, these professionals are now moving on to Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Photographs by Jeni Thompson Black-and-white-striped bikini, pounds 69, by Calvin Klein, at Harvey Nichols, as before Navy terrycloth cardigan, pounds 275, by Isaac Mizrahi, at A la Mode, 36 Hans Crescent, SW1 (0171- 584 2133); plaid shorts, pounds 75, by Katharine Hamnett Denim, from Katharine Hamnett, 20 Sloane Street, SW1, and Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, SW1.

What seems perfect on holiday, virtually tasting of sun and brilliant colours, yet back in Britain brings on nausea and regret? Its not the ouzo but that other tourist pitfall, the holiday souvenir. For the complete holiday wardrobe, tailored for when sea breezes run high, don't forget a cotton cardigan and a pair of hot pants to pull on over your string bikini. Welders (bottom) clock out at 6pmIn the fabrication shop (right) workers weld the structure that will be used to convert the 'Solitaire' into a pipe-layer. In the shipyard (centre) cable salvaged from an oil rig is cut up and stored Welders (bottom) clock out at 6pm. Coney Island, the sun, the sea, a slice of pizza and a sprinkling of goose pimples. The day before these pictures were taken, it snowed in New York City.

In fashion's calendar, summer clothes are available only in winter; when the temperature hits 70F, summer dresses and bikinis are gathered on to the sale rails. Derek Drake (centre, below left) in Cullercoats working men's club in Tyne Mouth, a few miles down river from the shipyardIn the fabrication shop (right) workers weld the structure that will be used to convert the 'Solitaire' into a pipe-layer. In the shipyard (centre) cable salvaged from an oil rig is cut up and stored. In trying to get the best of both these worlds - the busy-ness of a real industrial river, the prettiness of a post-industrial one - the Tyne is entering uncharted territory. But the revival of a dirty, ancient, traditional business such as Swan Hunters is uncharted territory, too.

And that shows every sign of going very well Off duty: workers (left) in their half-hour lunch break in Swan Hunter's canteen. Cheek by jowl, however, is the old, unreformed Tyne: gasometers, scrap processing plants, dirty quays where dirtier ships come in to be fixed up. Bustling maritime life is part of the attraction of a major river, part of the charm. The Thames today has far too little, its emptiness contrasting starkly with the noise and activity of 25 years ago; rivers in the developing world, such as Shanghai's Huang Po, arguably have rather too much: living close to that would be like having a home looking out over the M25.The state of the Tyne today suggests that a mean may be achievable between these extremes of congestion and abandonment. Like so many other dilapidated dock areas in the Eighties, deindustrialisation here was followed by a rash of yuppy-ish housing developments, business parks, pretty little marinas.