Amanda Wakeley: StyleDNA

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the terrific Tanya Rose.

From childhood memories of Gordonstoun and weekends spent at Sandringham with the Royal Family, to building one of the world's leading luxury travel businesses, Tanya shares the remarkable experiences that have shaped both her career and her personal style.

We talk about timeless dressing, travelling with purpose, finding confidence through simplicity, and the sentimental pieces she never leaves home without.

Her Style DNA? Simple, Elegant and Modern.

This is a conversation about travel, style, confidence and some wonderfully unforgettable royal stories.

Thank you Tanya for such a joyful conversation xx

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the wonderfully colourful fashion designer, Olivia Rubin.

We talk about the moment she decided to stop shrinking herself after becoming a mother, why colour became her form of self-expression, and the inspiration behind her "Anti-Beige Club" movement, encouraging women to wear what makes them feel good, regardless of age or body shape.

Olivia also shares her journey with postpartum anxiety, her passion for slow, sustainable fashion, and why she now designs entirely for women who refuse to disappear.

Her Style DNA? Colourful, eclectic and whimsical.

This is a conversation about confidence, creativity and embracing the joy of dressing for yourself.

Thank you Olivia for such an uplifting conversation xx

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with one of the UK's most respected beauty editors and broadcasters, the brilliant Sarah Jossel.

We talk about her debut book Diary of a Beauty Editor, why beauty has never been about vanity for her, and how turning 40 has brought a new sense of confidence and resilience.

Sarah speaks openly about growing up feeling self-conscious, learning to care less about other people's opinions, and discovering that confidence comes from feeling comfortable in your own skin. She also admits she's still finding her Style DNA, sharing how a recent stylist helped her embrace tailoring, cleaner silhouettes and colour in a whole new way.

This is a conversation about beauty, confidence, style and learning to dress for yourself, not everyone else.

Thank you Sarah for such an honest and inspiring conversation.

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the broadcaster, journalist, author and passionate campaigner, the wonderful Mariella Frostrup.

We talk about her tireless work to change the conversation around menopause, her latest books Cracking the Menopause and Menolicious, and why she believes women deserve better information and support.

Stylistically, Mariella has embraced a wardrobe built around comfort, confidence and timeless tailoring. She also shares some brilliant stories — from turning up to a date with Iggy Pop in a green velvet unitard, to getting married on a landing craft off the coast of Panama wearing linen culottes and an Armani top.

This is a conversation about confidence, individuality, ageing and finally learning to dress entirely for yourself.

Thank you Mariella for such an honest and inspiring conversation.

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the British horse racing presenter, podcast host and quite possibly the chicest woman in any paddock, Francesca Cumani.

From travelling the world covering horse racing’s biggest meetings to life at home in Yorkshire with three children, Francesca’s world is a fascinating blend of glamour and muddy wellies.

We talk about her accidental journey into television, her love of horses, working with stylist Sarah Kate Byrne, and the impossibly chic Italian grandmother who shaped her approach to style and introduced her to the elegance of Giorgio Armani.

This is a conversation about horses, heritage, timeless fashion and why buying less but better never goes out of style.

Thank you Francesca for such a wonderful conversation x

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the founder and CEO of the Rodial beauty empire, entrepreneur, author and former Dragon’s Den investor, the fabulous Maria Hatzistefanis.

Maria’s story begins on a tiny Greek island where, as a young girl, she spent her pocket money on fashion magazines, creating mood boards of the life she hoped to one day live. Decades later, she rediscovered them and realised she had become the woman she had imagined all those years ago.

We talk about being fired from her banking job, launching Rodial 25 years ago, building a global beauty brand without outside investment, and the lessons behind her latest book How To Make Your First Million.

Stylistically, Maria describes her Style DNA as restrained, elegant and sporty, favouring tailoring, monochrome dressing, beautiful overcoats and timeless pieces over trends.

This is a conversation about ambition, resilience, personal style and building the life you once dreamed about.

Thank you Maria for such an inspiring conversation x.

In this opening episode of Style DNA Season 11 I go on a style journey with my old friend the legendary Duran Duran frontman, the wonderfully charismatic Simon Le Bon. From their early days in Birmingham to global stadium tours, Simon has spent decades at the centre of music, fashion and pop culture. 
We talk about making his own punk clothes as a teenager, auditioning for Duran Duran in pearlescent pink Chelsea boots and leopard print drainpipes, the psychology of performing on stage, Savile Row tailoring, Japanese selvedge denim and why he once didn’t wash a pair of jeans for over ten years…
This is a conversation about individuality, creativity and the enduring power of personal style. Thank you Simon for such a fascinating conversation x
Duran Duran's new single Free To Love is out now. They headline London's BST Hyde Park on July 5th. Tickets for the full summer and autumn tours are at duranduran.com/tour.

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the model, television personality and entrepreneur the effortlessly chic Misse Beqiri.

From building a career in modelling and television to stepping away from London to reset in Mallorca, she speaks openly about finding calm, clarity and strength in a new chapter.

We talk about her return to Ladies of London, launching a marble interiors business with her sister, and the lessons she’s learnt along the way — including navigating public perception and personal challenges.

Her style is rooted in comfort and confidence… strong, structured pieces balanced with an effortless Scandinavian ease.

Thank you @missebequiri for being such an open and charming guest xx.

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the extraordinary, eccentric and wonderfully joyful British designer and creative Henry Holland.

From creating slogan t-shirts that “went viral” before social media even existed, to building House of Holland and now reinventing himself through ceramics and interiors — Henry’s career has been anything but conventional.

What began as four t-shirts worn on nights out quickly turned into a global brand. We talk about his entrepreneurial instinct, the realities of running a fashion business, and the moment House of Holland came to an end — something he describes, surprisingly, as a release.

Stylistically, Henry is bold, playful and entirely led by mood… dressing as a form of storytelling.

This is a conversation about creativity, reinvention and knowing when it’s time to evolve.

Thank you @henryholland for such an honest and inspiring conversation xx

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the vintage curator, brand consultant and founder of ATELIER MAYER, the wonderfully elegant and eclectic Carmen Haid.

Carmen has spent her career in the world of luxury fashion, beginning at Yves Saint Laurent before following her instinctive love of vintage — long before it became the movement it is today.

She tells me she doesn’t follow trends… and yet somehow always anticipates them. Drawn to pieces with history, craftsmanship and soul, her approach to fashion is entirely intuitive. Her stories of sourcing are extraordinary… from discovering a Paul Poiret coat in a crumbling house to uncovering couture treasures across the world. These are not just clothes, but pieces of history.

This is a conversation about sustainability, individuality and the magic of clothes that have lived a life before us.

Thank you for such a wonderful conversation @carmenhaid xx

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the British fashion designer and Creative Director of Max Mara, the thoughtful and incredibly humble Ian Griffiths.

Ian has spent more than three decades shaping the aesthetic of one of Italy’s most iconic fashion houses. Although proudly British, he has lived in Italy for many years and jokes that he has become an “Italian version of an Englishman” … embracing Savile Row elegance with a touch of Italian flair.

We talk about his unexpected route into fashion, the influence of literature and philosophy on his work, and why the coat has become one of the most powerful garments in a woman’s wardrobe. Ian believes great clothes should empower the woman wearing them rather than overpower her … pieces that enhance a woman’s life rather than compete with it…

This is a conversation about culture, creativity and the quiet power of timeless style.

Thank you Ian, for such a thoughtful conversation… I loved it x

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the impressive founder and CEO of the fashion rental platform By Rotation, the brilliant Eshita Kabra-Davies.

Eshita didn’t begin her career in fashion at all. She was working in investment management when the idea for By Rotation first came to her while planning her honeymoon — wishing she could access a beautifully curated wardrobe for each destination without having to buy everything.

Today By Rotation has become one of the most exciting businesses in circular fashion, allowing women to share pieces from their wardrobes while encouraging a more thoughtful and sustainable approach to fashion.

Eshita also speaks candidly about her early career in finance — including being criticised by another woman at work for expressing herself through fashion and being told she should “let her work do the talking”. A moment that ultimately reinforced her belief that style is an extension of identity.

This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, sustainability, confidence and dressing with joy.

In this week’s episode of Style DNA, I go on a style journey with the brilliantly talented artist and illustrator Clym Evernden @clymdraws, whose hypnotic “unfolding” drawings have captivated millions.

I first met Clym when I commissioned him to sketch portraits at my Albemarle Street store opening in Mayfair. Fast forward to today, and he has built a global following, working with some of the world’s leading luxury brands.

He describes his work as offering a small moment of calm in a frenetic digital world, and it truly does. One of his recent festive films reached an extraordinary 42 million views… with a cumulative watch time of 22 years.

From Central Saint Martins to discovering his signature ink brush line, this is a conversation about creativity, individuality, sustainability, and the quiet confidence of dressing for oneself.

In this week’s episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the impressive founder and CEO of the ultra high-end resale platform Sellier, the brilliant Hanushka Toni.

Hanushka didn’t set out to build one of the most talked-about luxury resale businesses in Europe. The story actually begins with her mother, Dina, who opened a tiny consignment boutique in Knightsbridge simply for the love of beautiful designer pieces. When Covid hit and the doors closed, Hanushka stepped in with nothing more than her iPhone… and started live-selling from the shop floor.

Sellier now operates at the very top end of the resale market, with an average order value of around £3,500 per item — extraordinary by any e-commerce standard. We talk about the psychology of luxury handbags, the mystique of Hermès, the waiting lists, and why often a pre-loved Birkin can command more than its retail price…

Hanushka admits to owning over 600 bags (yes, you read that right), including more than 150 by Hermès. She describes herself as a mood dresser — starting with colour and energy before selecting the perfect companion from her enormous collection…

Hanushka has a wonderfully entrepreneurial side to her …she tells me about the inspiration for her newly launched “female intimate moisture melt”… genuinely clever!

There is something incredibly honest about Hanushka. She speaks candidly about post-baby body confidence, about being prejudged in business, about dressing to project power — and about the moment, only a few years ago, when she truly discovered her own Style DNA. She certainly has a passion for fashion and the circularity of it.

This is a conversation about ambition, image, luxury, reinvention… and the emotional power of a handbag.

This week on Style DNA I go on a style journey with the brilliant British British designer and creative director Clare Waight Keller — a woman whose career has quietly shaped modern fashion as we know it.

From working with Calvin and then Ralph, to leading Chloé and Pringle to becoming the first female Artistic Director at Givenchy, where she reopened couture and designed the wedding gown for Meghan Markle - Clare’s career is nothing short of extraordinary. She now sits at the helm of women’s and menswear at Uniqlo, overseeing a $23 billion global business.

We talk about being “given the keys” to Givenchy, immersing herself in Hubert de Givenchy’s archives, and the responsibility of reviving couture in a modern world. She shares what it felt like to meet him in Paris shortly before he passed away — a moment that clearly left its mark.

Of course, we revisit the morning of the royal wedding — the precision, the pressure, the veil, the steps… no rehearsal, just instinct and absolute focus.

But equally fascinating is Clare’s upbringing in Birmingham, learning to sew alongside her mother, sourcing fabrics from the local rag market, and how that early discipline shaped everything that followed.

Her own Style DNA? “Tailored. Tonal. With a touch of femininity.”
That tension between sharp structure and romantic softness feels very modern woman to me.

We also discuss motherhood in a high-pressure industry, why there are still so few female creative directors, sustainability as longevity (not trend), and the power of a great coat — she owns over 60.

Elegant, intelligent, generous and quietly measured — this is a conversation I absolutely loved.

I hope you enjoy it.

In this episode of Style DNA I have a fascinating conversation with the International News Anchor and Lead World News Presenter for Sky News Yalda Hakim. Yalda is an Afghan-born Australian broadcast journalist, Lead World News presenter for Sky News, and documentary maker. She was one of the chief presenters at BBC News broadcasting in English in the UK and globally. Known for her on-the-ground reporting and in-depth interviews, she has covered major global events from conflict zones including Gaza, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Darfur, as well as key political moments shaping world affairs.

Her work is marked by access to high-level decision makers, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and a focus on bringing clarity and context to complex international stories. Born in Kabul and raised in Australia after leaving Afghanistan as a child refugee, Hakim has built a two-decade career in international journalism and documentary filmmaking. She is recognised for holding leaders to account while telling human stories behind global politics. Beyond broadcasting, she founded the Yalda Hakim Foundation, which supports education and mentorship opportunities for Afghan girls.

Yalda offers so many insights about her style journey.

She is very aware of the gravity of her ability to communicate the story accurately.  I ask her about her thought process as to what she wears for specific interviews. She says she gravitates towards black as her power colour whereas many other journalists wear colour in the belief that they will stand out in the crowd. 

She tells me about learning to manage her emotions and getting in the zone before a massive broadcast which she generally does in her “safe space” the hair and makeup chair…once ready her ritual is to look in the mirror and tells herself “You have got this”… and watching her as much as I do on Sky News she absolutely does!

I ask her who was the most intimidating person she has ever interviewed… the Dalai Lama who she says has so such a powerful presence…. What did she wear? A mustard velvet Dolce and Gabbana jacket which symbiotically toned with his His Holiness’s saffron robes. She says it was an instinctive decision…lovely.

Her insights into the world of women in Afghanistan and the Taliban are fascinating… and truly sad particularly when told by an Afghan woman whose life is so different to what it could have been had her parents not taken the brave and bold decision to flee their homeland when they did. 

Yalda recalls that when Kabul fell, a heartbreaking moment, she reached out to a handful of powerful women to help get 1000 young women and girls evacuated.  She singles out Tory Burch, who has a woman’s foundation, as someone who dug deep and engaged with the mission from start to end.  Tory gifted Yalda a beautiful white jacket which is particularly precious as it reminds her of both the pain of the moment but also the power of the sisterhood to make a difference.

We talk about her approach to sustainable fashion and she tells me that she did a piece on the Rana Plaza disaster and the precarious other sweat shops that she visited in the area. She has seen the impact of fast fashion up close …as she says “we need to think about why something might be only £6.00… why is it so cheap?”… clearly because the makers are not being paid a living wage.

Unsurprisingly Yalda is fabulously eloquent and wonderfully open…Her words paint such powerful pictures of her extraordinary life …

Thank you for allowing me to turn the tables and make you the interviewee Yalda…this conversation was a real privilege xx

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the English TV and Radio Presenter, Actress and Model the gorgeous, glamorous and very down to earth Kelly Brook.

We talk about how as a child she wanted to be a ballet dancer but her body had different ideas and in her teens she became a glamour model…as she says “I had a child’s face and a porn star body”.  That her body didn’t represent the young woman she was. It took a while for the body,  the brain and the soul to connect.  The late 90’s was a time dominated by waifish aesthetics and she stood out as a modern pin-up, reshaping mainstream ideas of beauty with a confident, fuller-busted silhouette. She is very open about how long it has taken her to accept her looks and her body…

I ask her about her amazing confidence and what she put that down to …she admits to imposter syndrome especially in the presence of all of the brilliant journalists on Loose Women, which she appears on regularly. She admits to wanting to keep learning.   She talks about curling her hair and getting out of the door…she never thinks that she is the finished article and she doesn’t mind that …nor should any of us IMHO.

And then I ask her about her body confidence – she puts that down to her husband, Jeremy Parisi, who she says loves her body and her curves.  She says she was an 8-10 dress size when she met him and is now 12-14 and how he has never even commented on that. She feels a responsibility to be confident and honest about how her body looks, insisting that the images from the recent shoot for her Kelly Brook for Next swimwear edit were not heavily retouched (because it is so easy to tweak pictures), but she wants to show who she is and what her body is and feels that this is an important part of how things get moved along. Bravo…brave, refreshing and inspiring.

Over the years Kelly has been voted FHMs sexiest woman in the world, she has graced the cover of American Playboy and as the glamour model that she was ….the pin-up on millions of young men’s bedroom walls so I wanted to discuss the aging process with her. In her pragmatic and honest manner she says she is comfortable with the it in this age obsessed world …she says that she is all about quality over quantity, definitely feeling happier as she gets older…yes!

Kelly currently hosts the  London Drive Show on Heart Radio with Jason King which is now the No 1 Commercial Drive Time show in the country.

I loved this positive, honest and quite frankly joyous conversation …thank you Kelly for being a wonderful opening guest for season 10 x

For the season finale of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the English model, television personality, author and serving Police Constable the glorious Penny Lancaster.

Penny counts herself as incredibly lucky. She had a loving upbringing, her life with husband Rod Stewart has spanned continents, she’s made incredible friendships, become part of an amazing family and embraced motherhood. But it’s not all been plain-sailing. From being relentlessly bullied at school and underestimated because of undiagnosed dyslexia, Penny also experienced a harrowing sexual assault as a young girl. This has made her a staunch campaigner for women’s safety and, these days, she regularly puts in hours as a Special Constable for the City of London Police, where her primary concern is making the streets safe for women. She’s also navigated the challenges of having the weight of the world’s scrutiny thrust upon her in her twenties, undergone IVF treatment, supported her husband through a cancer diagnosis and overcome her own depression as she manoeuvred through menopause. Amongst a heady mix of royalty, rock legends and renegades, her story is one of resilience. 

Penny has recently published a book Someone Like Me,  and in it she tells her full story for the first time, with a natural empathy and humour that she hopes will help others on their own life journey. She shares her wisdom from hard-earned lessons, including “the shame” of a sexual assault,  showing that the key to navigating both storms and sunshine is staying true to you.

Penny is delightfully open about her struggles with her weight over the years…from being “too skinny” as a child, to “not skinny enough” when she started modelling and the lengths she went to to be  “model size”… all the way through to the side effects that several rounds of IVF, 2 pregnancies, lockdown eating and the menopause had on her body… she is still not fully comfortable in her own skin …

Of course I ask her about her life with Rod from how she met him (in a nightclub), to being whisked off to the Bahamas when she was still a student studying photography only to find a wardrobe full of designer clothes on arrival that Rod had personally selected and bought for her (so thoughtful and romantic in my book), to their personal struggles with health (his cancer diagnosis) and their wonderful life as a blended family.

When I ask her how Rod would describe her Style DNA in 3 words she immediately says Sexy Hot Legs… she is just that…and so much more, warm, self-deprecating and hugely grateful for the life that she lives.

I hope you enjoy this conversation. Thank you @penny.lancaster for being such a great guest xx

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with Maddy Evans, the visionary who has presided over the transformation of M&S womenswear, she is  the Director of M&S Woman, overseeing the womenswear and lingerie categories…no small job. 

I ask Maddy what has been her secret weapon? She tells me that she went through the revamping of Topshop with Jane Shepherdson and it was that experience that gave her the knowledge of how to create change. It was clear at the outset, there was a lot of reliance on history, and a perception of the customer that wasn’t actually true… that she was an older lady who wasn’t interested in style. When she arrived she did a product review with the whole team, some of whom had been at M&S for years, a wonderful and diverse team all wanting to feel stylish, modern and relevant. When she asked them if they would wear anything that they were reviewing no-one put their hand up…there lay the problem.

She knew from the beginning that the 13 million M&S customers, yes extraordinary, trusted M&S for their quality and value but not from a style perspective. So they obviously wanted to protect the value and quality, but with style, so that was the vision. Then it was important to work out what style meant to their customer? It wasn’t leading the trends, but responding to them, and making their customer feel stylish and of the moment. 

We talk about how they wanted to work with people to help change the style perception, hence the Sienna Miller collaboration. As Maddy says Sienna is a woman who has matured in front of the cameras and has had an evolution of style and that resonated with the M&S business and customer. They wanted to work with a woman who understands her style…no better person really.

On a personal note I ask Maddy when she first started to understand clothes…she talks about when you’re very young you want to conform, and she remembers going to school having been asked to take in wedding photos of their parents.  She was looking round at everyones mums in white wedding dresses, and her mum was in a hand crocheted skull cap, a brown floral dress, suede Mary Janes and freshly picked flowers and her dad looked “nothing short of John Lennon”. It was her first realisation that there are different clothing tribes, and that clothes really did something for you…

We talk about the importance of first impressions and how they really count. I ask her whether she ever gets snow blinded by being exposed to so much fashion… perhaps being overwhelmed by choice? She says she has really stuck to her style, especially as she’s got older, realising that trends don’t work for her…she doesn’t let fashion wear her… such a great lesson!

Stylistically she says she is inspired by the designer Phoebe Philo, a woman who is totally confident and comfortable in her own skin. But also by Kim Bassinger in 91/2 weeks…just totally fabulous, and the uber stylist, the French woman Emanuelle Alt, who as she says, manages with a few product types to “make it look new every time”. She is clearly drawn to women who use a uniform of sorts…their uniform.

I absolutely loved this conversation with Maddy, she is incredibly modest, considered and gracious. Thank you for being such a great guest x

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a sartorial journey with the Founder and CEO of Gold Collagen, the visionary Tony Sanguinetti.

Growing up in Italy, Tony’s love of great-tasting food (a cultural expectation!) was bolstered by the idea that fresh ingredients were inherent to a healthy lifestyle. He was taught that we are what we eat and drink, and this philosophy of living better, for longer, remains at the heart of the Gold Collagen brand today.

As a young man, Tony carved out an interest in nutrition and followed an exacting diet and fitness routine. In his 20s, he embarked upon a successful career as a model for leading designers in Milan, Paris and New York where he realised that beauty captivates consumers - not just in the fashion industry, but in every aspect of life. He walked for the shows of Armani, Dolce Gabbana, Ferre and many others …the exposure to these beautiful clothes refined his style.

It was a life-defining trip to Japan that radically shaped the perspective of his future business and inspired the ethos at the heart of GOLD COLLAGEN®. Unlike European culture, which relied heavily upon external creams to combat ageing, he noticed that Japanese women treated aesthetic beauty as external evidence for inner health. In other words, they believe that a healthy body from within is the first step towards ageless beauty. The myriad benefits of their diet, health and well-being routines were immediately apparent to Tony. Treating food as a medicine and using nutrition and supplements to support inner health and restore balance had given the Japanese the highest life expectancy in the world. He realised that in doing so, they’d also identified the root cause of the visible signs of ageing.

Inspired by his trip, Tony had a vision to innovate, create and develop a formulation that could support the immune system from the inside out.

In our conversation Tony explains his mission to reduce the effects of ageing. He tells me that a person’s age is defined by 3 factors: skin (plump and hydrated versus dry and wrinkly), hair (thick, shiny and voluminous versus thin, dull and brittle) and body mobility (supple joints versus aching, stiff joints, strong muscles versus weak, tired muscles) and discovered that the unifying thread that tied those 3 factors together was collagen. And that the amount of collagen in our body decreases as we age.

We discuss aesthetic medicine too…fascinating.

And how clothes are our armour, how we message through them and how Tom Ford is his style icon.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you Tony for being such a great guest.

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a thrifting style journey with the British stylist, editor, author and long-standing champion of second-hand fashion the brilliant Bay Garnett. Often called the “Queen of Thrift”, she is known for her eclectic, vintage-infused styling and her belief in the creativity and sustainability of re-wearing clothes… yes to that!

She started her career working on Cheap Date magazine where she worked on the second hand fashion advertising pictures, changing the font from high designer names to thrift stores and charity shops ( Salvation Army replacing Yves Saint Laurent, Cancer Care Calvin Klein, and so on). Her witty irreverent spreads were spotted by the editor of British Vogue Alexandra Shulman who invited Bay to work on the magazine’s first charity shop fashion shoot and become a contributing Fashion Editor. Bay approached her good friend and thrifting buddy Anita Pallenberg to help her pull some looks together for Jurgen Teller to shoot Kate Moss in…the iconic shoot is often referenced by designers and creatives to this day. She went on to use vintage in all fashion shoots moving forward over 25 years. Working with photographers from Bruce Weber, Jurgen Teller, Tom Craig, Glen Luchford and Craig McDean. 

In 2016 she became an Independent Fashion Advisor at Oxfam and styled their first runway show, Fashion Fighting Poverty. In 2019 she Co- founded Second Hand September with Oxfam… the first campaign starred Stella Tennant and her daughter Iris, and then following year, Michaela Cole, then Sienna Miller and a new face each year. 

She is a true champion of second hand style … she tells me that a shocking 13 million pieces of clothing goes into British landfill A WEEK…food for thought…

She shares her thrifting tips with me…it can be pretty intimidating to go thrifting if you have never given it a go.

She is also the author of Style and Substance: Why What We Wear Matters (2022), a collection of essays exploring the deeper meaning of fashion and clothing. It is a beautiful and thought provoking book which I have enjoyed dipping in and out of. SOPH CAN WE LINK TO AMAZON?

She is now working with Smartworks …the most amazing charity to help women prepare for interviews by assisting them with what they will be wearing (they have stylists on hand to guide them through the process), as well as helping them with interview techniques and then gives them several outfits once they have the job to set them on their way. Bay has been invited by Bicester Village to create her ultimate charity shop (open now for the next month). She has sourced everything and all the money goes to Smartworks…bravo! If you are nearby over the next month do pop in and check it out…you may even get the chance to meet her.

We talk about age being a consideration as to how we dress…and some style hacks for remaining cool as the years tick by…funnily enough she is also a fan of a good belt!

I hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you @baygarnettt for being such a great guest xx

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the extraordinary Mary Portas OBE. Mary is a businesswoman, broadcaster, author and activist. She started her career as a window dresser at Harrods but her creative flare soon saw her go from Top Shop (in its heydays) and on to Harvey Nichols, becoming a board member at the tender age of 32. Mary was the person responsible for Ab Fab using the then Harvey Nicks as their destination for shopping as well as creating some visionary and memorable windows turning the once fusty department store into THE place to enjoy the theatre and discovery of fashion. Her recently published book I Shop, Therefore I Am: The '90s, Harvey Nicks and Me is well worth a read, or even better, a listen on Audible as Mary is the most brilliant narrator as well as an excellent accent mimic. 
Harvey Nicks in the early 90's is where our paths first crossed and trust me, fashion was an entirely different proposition back then. Mary tells me it is still the era that she was the last time we were all truly connected....mobiles and social media have totally changed the way we all operate and not necessarily for the better. 
From Harvey Nicks she went on to found her on retail consultancy. Mary has since worked with some of the biggest names in global retail. Her BBC series, Mary, Queen of Shops premiered in 2007 and she has presented on television and radio ever since. In 2009, she partnered with Save the Children to reinvent charity shops...Mary's Living and Giving Shops.  She also conducted a review of the future for high streets for the British government in 2011. As co-chair of the Better Business Act, Mary heads a coalition of businesses calling for a change in the law to ensure UK companies align their interests with those of wider society and the environment and in 2024, she was awarded an OBE for her services to business, broadcasting and charity.
As you would imagine for someone who has been so deeply entrenched in the fashion world Mary is not short of opinions ...but they are incredibly insightful ones. Charmingly she is not afraid to laugh at herself, as well as sharing stories of her fascinating journey through fashion and retail recalling moments from what feels like another era now. She talks about the late deputy editor of Vogue, Anna Harvey, (the most fabulous low key editor on the planet) advising her on her wardrobe as she progressed from the windows to the boardroom and suggesting that she really should invest in a Saint Laurent Le Smoking... it nearly broke the bank at the time but she still reaches for it when she wants to feel empowered... that's what I call true investment dressing. She is wonderfully open about how her style has evolved including choosing looks for her recent book tour with an old friend and colleague by shopping in her own wardrobe.
We talk about the giant circus of fashion, which brands are inspiring her now (and why) wedding outfits (one to a husband and one to a wife) as well as Botox, facelifts, hair colour and so much more...
I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did creating it. Thank you @maryportasoffical for being such a great guest xx

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a sartorial journey with the brilliantly talented English-Italian acoustic singer, songwriter, and musician Jack Savoretti.

Jack’s reputation as a singer-songwriter is perfectly epitomised by those he has collaborated with over the years, which reads like a “who’s who” of the music world including names such as Bob Dylan, Kylie Minogue, Shania Twain, Nile Rogers and Zucchero.

We laugh about his style growing up, how important his school uniform was to him, and the identity that he gets from his clothes. Being dressed correctly is clearly important to him…he loves  ”timeless elegance”.

He is a good story teller in proper Italian fashion… embracing British country wear for their life in Oxfordshire, rather than for the streets of Milano where the Italians love to promenade around the shops in their Huskies and Barbours…albeit immaculate ones! 

He tells me he bought a 1912 tailcoat to get married in to his beautiful artist wife Jemma Powell (who also wore vintage)…sexy rock chic for the record!

When his father died he found himself reaching for his father’s style…particularly suede jackets which his father loved and he found it incredibly comforting to dress like “Italian men”.

We discuss the privilege and the unique sartorial experience of wearing the great Italian designers…namely Armani and Brunello Cuccinelli in Venice… 

He makes sure he and his band are elegant and unified on stage. We talk about him asking his band to get dressed for the show sound check as he says that they perform better when they dressed….there was a professionalism and new level of respect that kicked in when they arrived for rehearsals looking smart.

Jack will be celebrating his 20 year career in music for one night only at The Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 23rd April 2026. Get your tickets quickly before they are all sold out! www.jacksavoretti.com

Thank you @jacksavoretti for being such an entertaining guest x

In this episode of my Style DNA podcast I go on a style journey with the international interior designer Sophie Paterson who is known for creating luxury residential projects across the UK and globally.

To my delight, Sophie arrived for the recording wearing a vintage Wakeley cream scuba jersey two piece given to her by her mother in law which she clearly loves and wears on repeat. It was from a collection that I did about 15 years ago and I can honestly say it looks as current today as it did back then.

I had never met Sophie before but she came across as humble, approachable and wonderfully focused. She is understated and states that it is “all about the client”. I asked her whether she adapts her style to the client she is visiting… she absolutely does, going so far as saying that she will pick out the most controversial colour in the presentation and wear that. If she is filming one of the properties for YouTube she will dress to match each room so that all the focus is on the interior. If she is meeting a client for the first time she will underplay her look saying that the star of the show is the client, it is all about customer service and she doesn’t want to steal their thunder in any way …clever and refreshing…

Sophie talks about how “everyone has an age to shine in”…hers being her 40’s, however, she understood her silhouette from way before and even going so far as wearing glasses that she didn’t need when she was young in business as she wanted to come across as older.

I loved the advice she was given by her “very stylish mother in law – don’t go smart with everything - if you are going to wear a diamond necklace wear it with a T shirt” … I could not agree more.

Sophie is polished and very considered in everything she does be it interiors, beauty or fashion… I really enjoyed our conversation and hope you do too.

Thank you @sophiepatersoninteriors for sharing your style journey with me xx

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the celebrated author, entrepreneur and television personality Jo Wood. Her life has been steeped in rock n roll having spent 24 years married to Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.

Jo left home at 16 to become a model, was married for the first time at 17 and had her first child at 18.

Jo hilariously recounts meeting Ronnie at a party having “never been a Rolling Stones fan” …he followed her around the party and asked her where she worked. Having a laugh, she told him she worked on the broken biscuit counter at Woolworths on Oxford Street.  When she arrived home the following day she was greeted by a slightly confused Ronnie who had been waiting outside Woolworths for her… the rest is history.

She spent years on the road with Ronnie and the Stones, often travelling with no fewer than 12 suitcases when they toured for a year at a time She clearly loved styling him and doing his wardrobing on stage, whilst respecting the Mick hierarchy in terms of looks…

She has always had a passion for vintage fashion…and over the years she has clearly collected some amazing pieces that are obviously a diary of her life that she will probably never part with. For our interview she is sporting an 80’s Saint Laurent tiger printed velvet jacket that looks as cool today as it must have done when designed…

She laughs at herself when she recounts going on a pilgrimage to Tibet with Sadhguru. Meeting him the morning of their departure he told her that she would be carrying everything she needed on her back.  She had to edit her suitcase down in the hotel lobby to just enough clothes to fit in her backpack and how liberating that was…she didn’t miss any of her extra “stuff”…there is probably a lesson there?

Never one to take herself too seriously, Jo tells me that her worst fashion moment was probably  post-divorce and being caught on camera in a see through top that was seemingly opaque at home but under the power of flashlights completely see through.

Thank you Jo Wood for being such an entertaining guest xx

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the British television presenter and journalist, best known as a Formula 1 pit lane reporter for Sky Sports…the vivacious and energetic Natalie Pinkham.

Natalie was the first woman to commentate on a Formula 1 session for British television and is recognized for her skill in interviewing drivers during high-pressure post-race moments.

We chat about life in the often windy and sweaty Pit Lane …how she approaches her track looks especially having experienced a skirt lifting moment when she was caught out by a gust of wind in South Korea captured on film by a nearby pap (reassuringly put back in his box by none other than Bernie Ecclestone).  She talks about the camaraderie of a growing band of female reporters and pundits in a once male dominated sport and how the popular Netflix series Drive to Survive has definitely exposed the sport to a much wider audience.

We discuss the power of feeling great in your clothes and wearing the right thing especially for a particularly intimidating meeting with the editor of a national newspaper after her friend Caroline Flack had died.

Natalie went on to Co-found Flackstock the mental health music festival set up in memory of her precious friend Caroline. She is a passionate Mental Health advocate - developing AI solution for kids struggling with mental health problems.

She is wonderfully down to earth and no subject seems off limits including a reference to being a frequent sleepwalker …let’s just say that is why she now goes to bed clothed head to toe in pyjamas to avoid another potentially revealing moment.

Thank you @natalie_pinkham for sharing your wisdom and insights so warmly xx

In this episode I go on a Style Journey with the renowned Multi award winning skincare expert, author, and founder of the Skin Rocks skincare brand and app, arguably known as the most important person in British Beauty, affectionately dubbed the Queen of Skincare…it’s Caroline Hirons.

Caroline literally grew up around the beauty industry, with her mother and grandmother working in the industry from the 1960’s onwards. From her first day on the counter in Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, Caroline fell in love with skincare in particular and went on to qualify in beauty therapy.

Caroline launched her blog in 2010, and quickly amassed millions of devoted followers across her social networks. Caroline has proven that when she recommends a product or collaborates with a brand, sales spike and sell out. She quite literally creates a retail stampede and can change the fortune of a business overnight. 

Caroline’s success comes from honest and science-backed knowledge, and she’s utilised that to launch her own brand, which includes her Limited-Edition Kits of recommended products which sell out in hours, as well as the Skin Rocks brand which consists of the award winning skincare line and app. Her skincare brand Skin Rocks has swiftly become a cult favourite, recognised for its clinical credibility, proven results, and no-nonsense approach to skincare. Female founded and female-led, the brand is driven by a leadership team committed to delivering expert-led, trustworthy skincare to all. Built on the pillars of education, efficacy, and trust, Skin Rocks entered the market to challenge industry noise with evidence-led products and straight-talking guidance. Every formula is rooted in clinical testing, developed with science-first principles, and delivered with a tone that speaks directly to consumers. It’s a brand that has earned authority without losing relatability — standing out in the crowded masstige skincare category with a unique blend of credibility and community.

Unsurprisingly Caroline’s no-nonsense approach to beauty transcends into her approach to getting dressed. She openly admits that real fashion didn’t come into her life until she was in her 50’s when she had “lost weight and made money”…as she says, she didn’t feel body positive when she was heavier. During perimenopause she realised that White Carbs were not a food group and that red wine was probably not something to be ingested daily!   

We talk about her love of vintage designer bags (too expensive new), her 100+ pairs of Adidas trainers and the fact that she is not convinced by the recent resurgence of M&S…she is not a woman who is short of an opinion and that opinion is delivered with her fantastic sense of humour.

Caroline is fabulously direct and pragmatic about the way she approaches life and business…she recounts some toe curling moments during her recent fund raising round for Skin Rocks… generally involving men …I can’t write what she asked one potential investor… 

I hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you to the wonderfully down to earth, witty, perceptive and entertaining Caroline Hirons x

In this extra episode of Style DNA we celebrate the highlights of Season 8 …reliving some of those moments when my guests shared insights, transparency and at times hilarity ….

Style DNA Season 9 will be launching in mid September with a fabulous mix of guests in store…in the meantime I hope you enjoy this episode …ooh , and please do me a favour and hit the subscribe button if you haven’t already … thank you x

In this episode of Style DNA I recorded a special bonus episode with Ro Huntriss, Chief Nutrition Officer (I love this title) of this Season's sponsor, The Simple Life App. Health and Wellbeing have always fascinated me and so I was not only curious to interview Ro on the benefits of Intermittent Fasting but I wanted to discuss how the way we live, and eat, can influence the way we dress.

Just to give you a little background, Ro Huntriss is an award-winning, London-based Registered Dietitian with 14 years of experience working across the NHS, private practice and commercial business. Ro has specialist clinical experience in a number of areas including weight management, metabolic health, gastroenterology and women's health and seven years of experience working within international health tech. She has two Master's degrees, the first in Advanced Nutrition and the second in Clinical Research and is the Chief Nutrition Officer at Simple App, an AI weight loss coach with 17M downloads globally, recently crowned Best Virtual Health Coach in the 2025 Med Tech Breakthrough awards.

Ro’s is a passionate advocate for how digital tools can empower healthier habits and drive measurable outcomes across populations and one of her key missions is to make credible, personalised nutrition support accessible at scale...yes!

We discussed our personal Intermittent Fasting journeys...I am a genuine advocate of IF and have been for many     years ... I find that it keeps me focused and has helped hugely with balancing my blood sugar levels.  

Of course we discuss Style and body confidence, when we are feeling good in our bodies we tend to have more enjoyment in our clothes... I’ve always believed that personal style starts from within.

But Ro isn't all about strict rules...she is an advocate of "80/20" (me too)...whereby 80% of the time you are consistent in your habits and nutrition and 20% of the time less so... ultimately it is about finding what works best for you personally.

Thank you Ro for being such a great guest xx

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In this week's episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the British luxury footwear designer, the wonderful Penelope Chilvers.

Penelope grew up in Britain but as a child she spent every school holiday in the province of Girona and her love affair with Spain and local craftsmanship began.

For a few years, Penelope lived in the city of Barcelona, working as a painter and designer where she collaborated with artists and artisans. While living in Barcelona, she enjoyed riding in her lunch break in the national park of Collserola in the hills above the city wearing traditional Spanish riding boots. She pursued the idea of bringing the Spanish riding boot to England and commissioned a small number of traditional artisans in the hills of Spain to make the perfect equestrian boot to her own specifications.  The Long Tassel boot remains a firm favourite in the collection, most famously worn back in 2004 by Prince William’s then girlfriend, Kate Middleton and the photo of her wearing these boots went viral the day they announced their engagement. HRH Catherine, Princess of Wales continues to wear her boots to this day.

We chat about her memories of being allowed to tidy her mother’s silk scarf drawer as a young girl and how that ignited her passion for colour, pattern and luxury.

She has a dedication to timeless style, designing boots and shoes that will stand the test of time…she really believes in the power of longevity.  She tells me that she loves the process of taking care of her shoes and boots… how footwear can get better with age and wear…  and her desire to teach her customers how to care for their shoes…lovely.

I ask her about how she feels about being the face of her brand and her response is charming and endearingly humble …she says she feels lucky that she is still relevant. She has clearly enjoyed creating and building her brand…saying it’s like a work of art to her. Both of her daughters are now involved, one working with her on design and the other in marketing and as the company stylist. It is a true family business and Penelope clearly enjoys the cross generational aspect.

I question whether she feels that her style changes when she spends time working in Spain, and she admits that it does actually… she admires the fact that Spanish women have a confidence and a femininity and that it’s probably a little more formal.  

The Penelope Chilvers brand has gone from strength to strength and has recently added a store in Stow on the Wold in the Cotswolds to its collection.

In full disclosure I own several pairs of Penelope Chilvers shoes and boots…sublime embroidered velvet slippers, Spanish leather boots and beautiful suede cowboy boots … all timeless classics …

I hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you ⁠@penelopecheilvers⁠ for being such a lovely guest. xx

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In this episode I had the privilege of interviewing the fashion designer and creative director Harris Reed... and I have to say I was blown away by his vision, his confidence, his charm and his down to earth warmth.

Fighting for the beauty of fluidity, half-American, half-British Harris Reed designs to create conversation. Growing up with a strong sense of self, Harris was able to quickly understand the transformative power of clothing and its correlation with identity and liberation.

While still studying at Central Saint Martins, he caught the attention of the likes of Harry Styles who he dressed in some iconic looks for his tour including his signature pussy bow blouses and flares. Alessandro Michele, the then creative director of Gucci, spotted him and recruited him to his design studio. 

His brand has gone from strength to strength showing Demi-Couture collections biannually in London and garnering VIP fans and clients including Beyoncé, Adele, and Sam Smith. The overall DNA of the Harris Reed brand and personal identity, is best described as Romanticism Gone Nonbinary. It puts the wearer and their fluidity - in whatever way it manifests, front and centre yet all while staying true to the brand’s ethos that strives for a vision of gender fluidity and inclusivity. 

Personally, Harris dresses to invite the looks and stares, to blur the preconceived fault-lines people have about gender and sexuality. He is an incredibly striking and magnetic human being. 

In 2021 he was invited to dress Iman for the prestigious Met Gala... both he and Iman looked spectacular despite a little personal mishap on his way there...too funny and too personal to write about but listen in and you will hopefully laugh with us.

In September 2022, aged just 26, he was appointed the youngest ever Creative Director of French fashion house Nina Ricci. He is absolutely flying... In October 2023 Harris married his husband Eitan Senerman in an intimate ceremony in London at Chelsea Old Town Hall and Claridge's... The second wedding celebration in Palermo, Sicily in June 2024, saw Harris in 4 different outfits ... looking ever more spectacular in each one...of course we delve into why he designed each look...and how he wanted to feel... His recently published, beautifully illustrated book Fluid, is well worth a read...

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In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the simply joyous Gaby Roslin....one of the most positive and kind human beings on the planet. Gaby is one of the country's most popular TV and Radio presenters with incredible amounts of energy & enthusiasm for all things moving pictures and spoken words.

Alongside hosting BBC1's Morning Live, on Saturdays on Magic Radio and Shop Smart Save Money on Channel 5, Gaby has released her first book Spread the Joy, as well as having her own incredibly successful podcast Reasons to be Joyful, and the list goes on... Work is her passion and she has no intention of slowing up, in fact, she admitted that she "would like to work until she is 99, host a live show and just go to sleep" ... 

Gaby grew up around the broadcasting world and was obsessed by TV from a young age, following her father into the TV studios and dreaming of being part of that world with a mission to make people smile...she does that in spades.

She is passionate about #shoppinginyourwardrobe ... LOVES colour and believes that age is irrelevant ... that we should wear what we want to wear...YES to that.

We laugh about being eternally 33, in our heads at least, Gaby has a wonderful, youthful positive energy and it makes her shine...she is magnetic. Her aptly named That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful is unsurprisingly a happy listen.

We talk wedding dresses, the power of a white trouser suit, dressing for 28 hours of back to back broadcasting on Millenium Night (not quite sure how she managed that) ...and in full disclosure, some of her old Wakeley favourites... 

Thank you ⁠@gabyroslin⁠ for our joyous conversation xx

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In this episode I go on a style journey with one of the UK’s original and leading digital creators, Lydia Millen. I was drawn to interview Lydia as she focuses on the luxury space for her content creation, which, perhaps needless to say, is a space I have always loved. Her 15 year journey has seen her work with brand giants from Jo Malone to Hugo Boss and Tiffany…Lydia’s commercial influence is hugely impressive and often unrivalled.

She is influenced by the beauty of nature and seasonal living, and has amassed a global audience of over 3 million who respect and trust her authentic opinions and eye for industry-leading products and passion for timeless style that defies trends.

Her journey has not always been straightforward and she has experienced her fair share of trolling but she is pragmatic about the fact that not everyone will love her content and perhaps in the early days she didn’t fully know who she was, very few people do quite frankly, but she is clear now.

We chat about how she didn’t really understand the full impact of a good outfit on her wellbeing until Covid hit, when there was no reason to get dressed up as you weren’t going anywhere but she realised the importance  of taking real care with what she wears on a day to day basis is an investment in herself, it was less about other people…in her words she was  “telling myself that I am worth dressing up for”…I SO love this sentiment…

By her own admission there have been some dodgy style choices including choosing to have a full blonde mullet haircut as a teenager to impress her then boyfriend.

Lydia is incredibly considered about her clothing choices and just one look at her feed shows a glorious and curated grid featuring a mainly neutral colour palette…saving strong colours for big moments…ie Ascot and special occasions…

Its no secret that she has always loved bags and by her own admission was a big collector of well made (and expensive) bags. Her first designer bag was a Mulberry which she worked 3 jobs while at university to be able to afford. Many of us have those memories of saving for that first designer purchase…mine was a Dior bag, and it was probably the cheapest one in the range but my, it felt good to go into the immaculate dove grey store on Conduit Street and soak up every moment of making my selection, watch it being beautifully wrapped and walking out of the door swinging that carrier bag proudly for the rest of the afternoon in London…

We bond over a mutual love and awe of Harris Tweed…  the tradition, the craftsmanship and the local passion that still goes into creating it.

She slightly surprised me with her Style Icon…but on reflection I fully understand why…

I hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you Lydia for your considered conversation xx

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In this episode I go on a Style Journey with the English TV personality and Co-Founder of the wellness app Shoorah, the inimitable Ferne McCann.  Ferne first became a public figure when she appeared in the hit reality series The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE) for no less than 9 series... She quickly became one of the standout stars on the show and led to her appearing on ITV's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, plus having her own ITVBe series, Ferne McCann: First Time Mum (2018) which later became Ferne McCann: My Family & Me. 

The show marked Ferne as one of the most trusted and relatable celebrity mums. In addition to her TV career, Ferne has become a successful entrepreneur, collaborating with premium global brands in the fashion, lifestyle, and wellness industries. 

Her influence on social media reflects her dedication to health, self-care, and family, inspiring her followers with a positive, relatable approach to modern motherhood. Ferne co-founded Shoorah, the wellness app that promotes personal growth & mental health. It is now one of the most successful apps in that genre. Ferne's healthy ambition for a new challenge saw her compete on Dancing on Ice in 2025, adding a new chapter to her career. Ferne is a true Essex girl born and bred and I ask her if she is stereotypical ... that is for you to discover...

As such a well known star on Social Media I ask her how she deals with the inevitable trolling that comes with the profile and she offers a valuable and practical insight as to how she protects herself...in fact how we can all protect ourselves if we so choose.

One of the things that is very endearing about Ferne is that she doesn't take herself too seriously, although she does admit to being "very competitive"... she laughs about her early elimination from Dancing on Ice and how her grandfather blamed it all on her choosing to be a Troll for the dance...however she was clearly blown away by the creativity of the costume team.

Ferne clearly has a tight knit team around her including her mother, her "style icon". She bemoans the fact that social media has perhaps made us all less creative and more inclined to question our own tastes and follow the pack...to the extent of making us believe that we want something because we see it so frequently on different feeds...social media drives you to follow rather than stick with your own personal style...there is some truth in that...it certainly is the quickest way for brands to reach the widest audience possible now.

She has been very open about her post-partum journey and how she has been an advocate for breast feeding, and continuing to breast feed. She understands that this can be a divisive subject but she is also very aware of the support it gives to many women at a similar point in their lives. We discuss the aging process, tweakments and her well documented rhinoplasty (nose job)... and the dilemma of staying totally true to herself and her audience yet being tempted to  "fix" her boobs post breast feeding... she is refreshingly transparent on the whole subject. 

She is about to start her own podcast called Every Cloud, to talk about trauma and people's stories inspired by her own life and how "when you are in the thick of trauma it often bumps you into the right direction"...very true. Finally we had a properly hilarious disconnect moment in the Quick Fires when I ask her whether she preferred Boyfriends or Wide Legs...of course I was referring to her choice of jeans ...Ferne, on the other hand thought I was referring to Ahem something completely different...!

I hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you Ferne for being such a great guest x

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In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with Hannah Almassi, the Editor-in-Chief of Who What Wear UK. It’s a wonderful digital fashion, beauty and style platform which can take you down rabbit-holes of inspiration …

Hannah joined Who What Wear UK following a seven-year career at Grazia magazine, where she led front-of-book news, fashion features and shopping specials as fashion news and features editor. With experience in both print and digital across fashion and beauty, Hannah has over 18 years in the field as a journalist, editor, content strategist and brand consultant.

Her passion for fashion started very early, as a young child she would “edit” fashion catalogues, cutting them up and creating her own mini catalogues…proving that some things are just innate in us!

Hannah first got into fashion as she wanted to be part of the democratisation of fashion….in her words she wasn’t the “archetypal fashion girly, I am not tall, I do not come from a wealthy background, I am not slim …I felt like I had a responsibility to represent (me) and sometimes that’s hard because at times it would be easier to look great in a picture if I was 6ft tall but at 5’1” it’s definitely more challenging”…but how inspiring and refreshing.

We talk about how intimidating it can be to circulate within the fashion industry and the importance of remaining true to yourself rather than being too “influenced” by those around you. I ask her about wardrobe planning for those epic fashion week trips to the shows.

Of course I ask her about ageism in fashion … and her opinions on sustainability in an industry that is designed to encourage you to consume more…her answers are thoughtful, informed and those of a true industry insider delivered in a pragmatic, considered way.

Being the fashion insider and editor that she is I couldn’t help but ask her opinion on the top 3 trends from the Autumn/Winter 25 catwalks…

She is also happy to laugh about her own fashion mishaps along the way too…

Thank you ⁠@hannahalmassi⁠ for being such a great guest x

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In this episode I go on a style journey with the inimitable and side-splittingly funny, iconic British Jeweller, Theo Fennell. I have been lucky enough to have known Theo for decades ...our first shops were close on the Fulham Road in Chelsea. Theo has always been the most brilliant raconteur, often making himself the butt of the joke and I must admit as I listened to his two books, narrated by him, I found myself howling with laughter...a great summer listen (links below).

Born in Egypt, to an Army family, Theo’s early years were spent moving around the globe before being sent to boarding school in England...in truth he went to Eton College where the uniform was and still is to this day, tails and a stiff collared shirt.  He went on to art school in York, and he tells me with some hilarity about his choice of clothing for his first day there. Initially he pursued portraiture, but, unable to get a likeness, he luckily discovering a passion and talent for jewellery and silversmithing.

Theo Fennell is one of Britain’s most iconic and original jewellers, renowned for his bold, imaginative designs and a distinctive creative voice blending fine craftsmanship with storytelling, wit, and a quirky flair. For over four decades, Theo has redefined the traditional boundaries of jewellery, creating extraordinary, bespoke pieces worn and collected by patrons from royalty to rock and roll, stars of stage, screen and fashion to tastemakers around the world ... and also his friend Norman.

From his first studio in the Fulham Road in the 1980s to his current gallery and workshop in the Chelsea Barracks development, Theo has built a reputation as one of the few jewellers who still designs and makes each piece by hand in-house in London. His atelier brings together master goldsmiths, engravers, enamellists, and stone-setters, producing work that fuses rare artistry with theatricality and timeless appeal. A passionate advocate for the applied arts, Theo has mentored emerging talent, collaborated with artists, and championed the importance of craftsmanship in a fast-paced, mass-produced world. His pieces often tell intimate, sentimental or humorous stories, making them cherished heirlooms as well as expressions of individuality.

Being the story teller that he is Theo entertains us with stories of his earlier, let's say, more than slightly inebriated years when he managed to loose a priceless emerald during a celebratory night out, having sold said emerald but not delivered it.... lesson learned...

We chat about his passion for unusual stones, craftsmanship and telling stories through pieces. Knowing that he has a who's who of rock and royalty as a client base I couldn’t help but ask what his most unusual commission was...the story of the Yellow Rose of Texas is brilliantly told!

We talk about his style inspirations (from Fred Astaire to the dandyism of Patrick Litchfield in the 60s) and the influence of accompanying his father on days shopping... from Henry Poole on Saville Row for "Gents natty summer suiting" ...and on for shirts...and shoes. Theo clearly loves clothes, shoes and socks...he has an eclectic, chic style, and an eye for detail befitting of the brilliant designer he is.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed this conversation with the raucously funny Theo...and if you don't know his jewellery (unlikely) but do check it out...it is truly exquisite. Thank you Theo for entertaining us so fabulously!

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In this episode of Style DNA I go on a stylistic journey with the Author, Broadcaster, Editor and Coach Rosie Nixon. Rosie is the author of three novels, The Stylist, Amber Green Takes Manhattan and Just Between Friends, plus the Be Kind book. Her new novel called Bad Influence is out this August.

After a long career in women's magazines, including Grazia, Glamour and Red she became the award-winning Editor and Editor in Chief of HELLO! Magazine for an incredible 16 years. The 24/7 pressure of being at the helm ultimately led to her near burnout (which she is very open about) and like many of life's challenges, there is often a silver lining. She says that she didn't think she was serving herself as a woman saying it was all going well, so being honest about her own struggles really helped her and inspired her into the next chapter. 

She became a qualified life coach and in 2024 she launched Rosie's Reinvention Retreats - a series of day retreats for midlife women, to support navigating changes in career, business and wellbeing. A complete career change, starting from scratch in a way, albeit with all the knowledge built up over the years ...and I know well what guts that takes. We discuss how the magazine world has changed over the last couple of decades and the 24/7 pressure that goes with being the editor or a magazine that in its heyday sold 1 million copies a week.  

We talk about Kindness and she says that she started thinking about kindness when she first started at Hello! which was slightly vilified about always being nice about people.  Rosie believes that Kindness is a super power and should be worn as a badge of honour... yes to that!  She feels that kindness is probably responsible for the longevity of the magazine and is one of it's strengths because everyone is treated with respect.  

She felt proud and protective of this stance and was passionate that it should be the thread that was woven through the magazine. Of course we discuss Rosie's personal style journey, her haircuts and fashion phases...her borrowed Alberta Ferretti wedding dress (way ahead of her time back then) and the all-important discussion of dressing our age ...she admits to dressing older than herself earlier in her career to be taken more seriously ... I hope you enjoy this episode ...thank you Rosie for being such a warm, open and inspiring guest x

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In this episode I go on a Style DNA journey with the very impressive Jade Holland Cooper Founder and CEO of her eponymous brand, Holland Cooper. Jade had a rural upbringing which was all about her ponies and horses...she didn't really think about clothes other than their functionality. 

It wasn't until she went to study at the Royal Agricultural College that she realised that everyone was dressed the same...that there were very few options for chic country clothing. This was her lightbulb moment. She drew up a business plan, left college, created a few tweed miniskirts that she sold from a "2 metre stand at Badminton Horse Trials" and she realised then that she was on to something. She has built an astonishingly successful brand in just 15 years, turning over 40 million pounds, and is in the process of building a 7,000 sq foot head office in Gloucestershire. I can honestly say, her achievements are extraordinary. 

I ask Jade who her biggest inspiration is and she says Ralph Lauren, ironically the king of classic British style . The Lauren influence is clear but in a more obviously branded way. She admits that she wants to get the name on as many items as possible as it is effectively "free advertising". We laugh about how in the early days she bought an embroidery machine so that she could get her name embroidered onto as many pieces as possible, how she would have the machine running 24 hours a day with the assistance of a baby monitor.

She tells me that her mother is her style icon, and was a designer herself, and that although they have different styles she is very inspiring. I ask her whether she thinks about her mother when designing? She says she is aware of her age group but makes the point that classic product appeals to multiple ages ...so true and so appealing to so many. 

I ask her about the pressure of being the face of her eponymous brand (something I remember well), and to a degree an influencer of sorts. She admits it could be a full time job...but as the business gets bigger her "minutes get more important" but that she never want to lose the experience and interaction with her customers. She personally replies to her Instagram messages to get feedback, she is on the shop floor every 2 weeks and admits to obsessing about her business, living and breathing her customers. 

Talking customers, she says that having Catherine as a good customer has been a great endorsement for the brand. 

Despite her incredible success she admits that there are "many days I feel like I can't do this. It's an inner battle to get things over the line. Can I do this? It's really hard and really lonely" (gosh it is). I ask her what she reaches for on those vulnerable days and it's always a suit...the power of good tailoring is always a winner.

She is clearly the style queen of Cheltenham Races...her home turf.  She is her own best ambassador, there more than anywhere else I would say,  and we laugh about how she always decides what she is going to wear at the last minute, much to the frustration of her fabulous team. I hope you enjoy this episode. Jade is a truly awe inspiring and incredibly focused human being... I wish her continued success and look forward to visiting her in her dreamy new head office later this year. Bravo!

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In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the award winning BBC radio host, TV fashion presenter and Influencer, who goes by the name of MiddleAgedMinx,  the fabulous and joyous Jo Good.

I first met Jo when she interviewed me for her Gold show for SheerLuxe and we clicked immediately…laughing about how age was just a number, that it is wrong to be pigeon-holed, and agreeing that we like to think of ourselves as ageless.

She talks with great humour about customising her very conservative “English public school inspired” school uniform while growing up in Australia…which included steaming her stiff boater into a Stetson shape…I would love to see a picture!

At 5 foot Jo is an inspiration to other petite women…she refuses to conform to the normal “rules” of petite dressing and has great style hacks to offer on the subject.

Jo loves to document her life in her popular YouTube vlog and her Instagram channel. We discuss the term Influencer and she makes the excellent point that as an actress she was paid to be in a lot of commercials promoting all kinds of stuff, stuff that she had no knowledge of and no affinity with the brand.  She feels that as an Influencer it is wrong to be chastised to be paid to promote things that you have actually trialled and like. As she says, the insights from Instagram will tell you how well you have performed, and this is why she has great respect for Influencers who work consistently for the same brand, because they are clearly proving their worth otherwise the brand wouldn’t keep working with them.

We close by discussing her approach to Sustainable Fashion …why she doesn’t do fast fashion but also why she doesn’t buy vintage…in her brilliantly quick turn of phrase she says “I have a thing about vintage on vintage  - I think it can make you look really old!” 

Of course the Quick Fires were far from quick and this whole recording ran on for longer than normal but it was so full of joy, wisdom and nostalgia that it was hard to cut. Thank you ⁠@middleagedminx⁠ for being such a wonderful and witty guest x

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In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with none other than the world-renowned self-development coach, inspirational speaker, manifesting expert, and three-times Sunday Times Bestselling author, the inspirational Roxie Nafousi.

I first met Roxie when she came to one of my London Fashion Week parties at my Mayfair Store and the shy woman I met back then was worlds apart from the confident communicator that I had this Style DNA conversation with… I have to say it is heart-warming to see someone evolve so positively…and in this conversation she eloquently explains how that evolution came about.

Roxie has talked opening about being lost, until she found manifesting and I ask her how her style has evolved from being the person she was previously? She admits she hated her style before, how she felt only as worthy as the man she was with and that impacted her dressing. She states that her style growth is aligning with who she is now.

We talk about when she discovered her passion for fashion? Fashion had always been a bit of a mask for her…that she liked fashion for all the wrong reasons, it’s probably only in the last year that she has started to take more care of what she wears. She writes about it in her latest book Confidence, that a big part of manifesting your higher self or stepping into your most empowered self is about the way you dress. In Step 8 of the book she talks about dressing the part as one of the ways that you can show up as your future self. Alongside this, she says that a big part of the manifestation journey is letting go, letting go of all things that don’t serve you, whether it’s bad habits, behaviours or people but also the kind of clothes that don’t serve who you are anymore, or that are not who you want to become. It’s definitely food for thought…

She has clearly found her confidence…and feels that she is of value to the world but is humble enough to admit that she has days when self doubts creep in but she is better equipped to deal with them and most importantly wants to share her learnings…

Bravo ⁠@roxienafousi⁠…thank you for your frank and open conversation…hugely thought provoking and helpful to many I am sure x

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In this final episode of Season 7 of Style DNA I go on a Style journey with a true icon of British design, my friend, the  world-renowned Interior Designer, Author of 10 books, affectionately dubbed the 'Queen of Taupe', ...the titian haired, inspirational pocket-rocket power house that is Kelly Hoppen CBE. 
I first met Kelly when she was looking for a wedding dress...there are some designs that you never forget as a designer and to this day, 35 years on, I could sketch that dress, coat and shoes precisely ... all very pre-Raphaelite...I was thrilled to learn that Kelly still owns it and what's more still wears the floor length velvet coat over jeans.
She talks openly about how long it took her to find her style and how much more relaxed she is in making her purchasing decisions now that she has her style formula...her Style DNA.
We laugh about her going to give a talk at Bloomberg and how she dressed up to fit in with what she thought was expected of her, as though she was going into a boardroom, only to be told by someone very close to her to go and change, asking "where has Kelly Hoppen gone?!" and reminding her that Bloomberg had invited her because of who she was. This was clearly a pivotal moment for her, and the lesson was to never lose your own identity because of what you perceive to be someone else's expectations of you. Such good advice.
Of course, I had to ask her about her time as a WAG when she dated the footballer Sol Campbell (16 years her junior) and she talks honestly about some of her fashion choices being "quite questionable" for a time.
Now she lives between London and the Cotswolds and we discuss what country dressing means in that uber glam part of the country...it's certainly not jeans and tweeds!
But more importantly, we chat about her being chosen by L'Oreal to be one of the faces of their brilliant Age Perfect Campaign...a real pinch me moment for Kelly but one that she truly deserved. The Kelly I know has always worked diligently at her fitness and wellbeing and at 65 she has never looked better, clearly comfortable in her skin, and more relaxed than ever. Bravo Kelly and thank you for sharing your Style journey, Prozac boots and all!
I hope you enjoy this episode ...it was a treat for me to take a journey through time and style with someone I have known for so long...thank you @kellyhoppen for friendship and this style chat xx

If you’ve ever wished that beauty treatments could come to you at home instead of the other way around, then you have Venetia Archer to thank. In this episode of Style DNA, I sit down with the brilliant entrepreneur behind Ruuby, the concierge beauty app that has revolutionized the way we book and receive our treatments.

A true multi-hyphenate, Venetia started out in the corporate world, where she quickly realized that busy women (herself included) needed a more flexible way to fit beauty into their schedules. And so, Ruuby was born—a service designed for the busy modern woman who barely has time to grab a coffee, let alone schedule a salon visit for a beauty treatment.

Prior to founding Ruuby, Venetia worked as a geopolitical risk analyst, specialising in Somali piracy - and spent a stint in Kenya researching pirate gangs and negotiating with Somali pirates (yes, really) – and during that time she learned that fashion isn’t just about looking good—it’s a tool for power and confidence.

We dive deep into her mother’s influence on her personal style...lucky Venetia appears to have the perfect source of vintage designer pieces care of her mother’s generous cast offs! 

We chat about how fashion has always been her armour—from boardroom battles to fundraising rounds. In the early days she admits to a bit of a rebellious ripped jean, cool jacket tech spirit and how now the armour of a great jacket and a heel are her go-tos when she wants to feel empowered. 

We discuss the joy of buying a “treat to self” to mark time or a deal …has anyone else discovered the sheer independent delight of that?

Venetia is as sharp as she is stylish, and our chat is filled with gems…whether you’re into beauty, business, or just love a great fashion story…Thank you Venetia for sharing your insights.

In this episode I go on a style journey with the longest standing former editor of British Vogue …  Alexandra Shulman CBE. 

As a young designer at the time I will never forget being invited by Alex to a one on one lunch at San Lorenzo not long after she became Editor in Chief.  I didn’t quite know what to expect, but I came away thinking how kind and approachable she was…in fact the polar opposite to the intimidating image of most editors at the time…There was never anything Devil Wears Prada about Alex.

In this episode she talks openly about her relationship with fashion …proclaiming she knew nothing about fashion when she took the job and maybe “ignorance was bliss”. But when she took the helm of Vogue it was a unique moment in fashion…there was an incredible pool of British design talent and at the same time the High Street was breaking through and democratising fashion. Of course I ask her what she wore on her first day in the ever-imposing Vogue House…

We talk about the pressure of dressing to attend all the shows around the world and she is wonderfully pragmatic about how she knew she was never going to be a “Carine or an Anna”… How the editors grand hotel rooms would always be laden with flowers on arrival from all the big houses, often with handwritten notes from the designers…and a time that Karl (as in Lagerfeld) wrote several pages to her as to how he was feeling about a particular situation…

During her editorship she was asked by the then Kate Middleton to recommend British designers for her wedding dress…Alex submitted her ideas, bearing in mind the possible dynamic between the designer and Kate, the obvious need for incredible security not to mention, could the designer/house create a dress worthy of making history for all the right reasons. She had no idea until the wedding day who had actually got the job.

She talks lovingly of spending time in her mother’s dressing room as a child (the only time she and her siblings got to see her during the week), watching her get dressed for work as the editor of Conde Nast Brides magazine. How glamourous and stylish she was and indeed still is in her 90’s…  

Alex’s book Clothes and Other Things that Matter… is not only about clothes but about the way we live our lives. “From childhood onwards, the way we dress is a result of our personal history”.  Not dissimilar to this podcast, our clothes have stories …

I hope you enjoy this episode…it was a rich conversation peppered with stories of the crazy world of fashion.

Thank you @alexandrashulman for being so wonderfully open and brilliantly eloquent x

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with one of the original YouTubers Jim Chapman. It’s hard to believe that that was only 15 years ago and yet it feels, to me at least, like half a life time ago. I am showing my age now, but when I was Gen Z age the internet didn’t even exist and we were consuming our news the old fashioned way…via a printed newspaper or on television, now online is the primary source of news information. So it is not surprising that characters like Jim Chapman achieved such a massive following so quickly…it was a moment in time and by his own admission it happened by accident. But as one of the original ‘content creators’ he has also carved out a role as a high-profile brand ambassador, presenter and writer. He has amassed an audience of over 7.5 million people across social media, has written for various publications, including British GQ, and is a published author.

Jim graduated in psychology but wanted a creative outlet, so he turned to creating content and posting it on YouTube, inspired by his sisters the makeup artists PixiWoo who had started to post makeup tutorials. In terms of building a following it was a unique moment in history, it was new and exciting with very few people doing it and followers were  truly organic. By the time Instagram was launched he was ready to pounce on it. Over the years his audience has not only grown, but grown up with him.

With a psychology degree under his belt of course we talk about how we message through clothes. He grew up in Norfolk and his stylish mum ran a second hand clothes shop … he always had an opinion on what she wore but he also talks about how he has blanked out his abusive father’s style (unsurprisingly).

We talk about the next chapter in the world of Social Media …there are so many issues with it. He has concerns about the fact that the platforms are drawing us all in to get that tiny hit of dopamine as we scroll but as he says, that hit is net negative as you are not doing anything that is constructive, which actually makes people less happy. He is hopeful that there will ultimately be legislation around usage and the need to register your identity so that no-one can post anonymously…idealistic perhaps, but well-meaning for sure.

I am always fascinated by how men approach clothes versus women…

I hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you@jimchapman for being such a great guest.

This episode's Style DNA guest is the Best-Selling and multi award winning English Singer, Businesswoman, Model and Actress - the truly fabulous Rachel Stevens. Rachel is best known as one seventh of one of the largest pop bands of the noughties,  S Club 7. 
Rachel tells me about her sliding doors moment when she was in the right place at the right time to audition for the band and the rest, they say, is history. She was just 19 years old when the band was formed by the brilliant Simon Fuller and by her own admission it was not the easiest time in her home life, S Club provided a "huge and exciting escape". Did she know who she was? Perhaps not...the 90's were high octane but behind the glossiness she had her vulnerabilities and in her words she was "playing a part". The process of writing her recently published book Finding my Voice - A story of Strength, Self-Belief and S Club 7  was clearly a cathartic process. 
I ask her about finding her own stylistic identity within the group and it is clear that she has always had a passion for fashion and a really clear vision as to what she likes and what works on her... and being a diminutive 5 foot tall has also made her critically aware of proportion. This has stood her in good stead for her collaborations with various fashion brands ...work that she clearly loves.
Of course we discuss all of her various costumes from S Club to Dancing on Ice to Strictly and how her clothes have always been part of her performance ..."style is a silent communicator"...so true.
It hasn't all been perfect ...she recalls wearing a yellow Julien McDonald dress for the Brits which was not her finest style moment...
I couldn't help but ask her about being voted FHMs Sexiest Woman of all time in 2014...quite an accolade whilst being a lot of live up to! She chats about loving the collaborative process of working on the shoots for FHM, how they were done with integrity and how she was fully in control of her sexy image. Refreshing to hear. 
I hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you Rachel for being such a great guest x

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the Author, Diversity Advocate, Speaker and Influencer, the simply positively infectious and inspirational, Candice Brathwaite.

Candice is a prominent British author. Her latest book, Manifest(o) was released in September 2024, becoming an instant Sunday Times Best-seller…with good reason. Sharing her revolutionary and inclusive approach to manifesting, The Law of Attraction…call it what you will, there's no denying that using your mind to bring your dreams into reality is having a moment. Believing that you deserve abundance is the route to inviting it into your life. But what if your life experiences so far have demonstrated the exact opposite? What does Manifesting look like if you're not white, thin, traditionally pretty, or able-bodied?  In Manifest(o) Candice, with her customary no bullsh*t candour,  shows you that manifesting can be for everyone - not just those to whom the universe has already been kind…

The conversation I had with Candice had me laughing and nearly crying …she has a lot to say and she says it well…she is massively entertaining often when the joke is on her. Whether recounting stories of slipping out of her school “uniform”,  to her clothes now being her armour. We talk about the sheer luck of finding her perfect wedding dress …or did she manifest it?  …her Oscar de la Renta dress had first been priced at a whopping £22,000, yes you read that right… reduced to the £700 she actually paid for it. 

In terms of discovering her personal Style DNA she tells me how she had a lightbulb moment in her early 30s and decided to dress as her and not to cosplay anymore…but not before a time of being in the public eye and feeling the pressure to “be dressing like everyone else” …but the everyone else at the time were “white, middle class, yummy mummies”  wearing Boden, M&S and hiking boots…she confirms that all photographic evidence of this chapter has since been deleted!

We also talk about the inspiration for her shaved head and red lips…and much much more.

Thank you @candicebrathwaite for sharing your style and life stories so beautifully... you are truly inspirational xx

In this episode of Style DNA podcast I go on a style journey with a long time friend and collaborator, the woman who I think is the most passionate fashion editor I have ever met… the inimitable and fabulously energetic Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou. Sophia is the Founder, Global Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of 10 Magazine, 10 Men and 10+.  In 24 years, the 10 Magazine empire has grown to include a series of international sister publications, including 10 Australia, 10 USA, 10 Japan and most recently 10 Deutsch. She began her fashion career at British Vogue, and went on to hold Fashion Director titles at a slew of revered publications, including The Independent Magazine, Sunday Times Style, Harper’s Bazaar UK and Vogue China, Japan and Russia. Throughout her career, she has worked alongside industry renowned brands including Antonio Berardi, Elie Saab and Roland Mouret and was Collection Creative Director for Victoria’s Secret for nine years. 

Sophia talks so knowledgeably about the industry…we chat about the incredible spectacle of the shows, especially the immersive experience of the Cruise shows put on in exotic locations by the very big houses, and how tough it is for smaller designers trying to compete with that spending power. I ask her about how younger designers can cut through and who has done it well…and of course we chat about the joy of working with both the models and the brilliant creative teams on the Victoria’s Secret shows.

Sophia undoubtedly has real fashion chops but aside from her infectiously positive personality, I have always admired the fact that she found her personal Style DNA quite early and then she has honed it through the years whilst staying very true to herself despite the vagaries of fashion and trends. She talks about being a “curvy girl” and which brands she has always been drawn to…the timeless appeal of Alaia and The Row in particular. I ask her about trade discounts and much quoted press freebies, but for as much as I am sure that there have been those, they do not sway her opinion on what she wears and she is fully prepared to pay full price as she works on the price-per-wear mentality.

We laugh about her choice of wedding dress as a 23 year old Greek/Cypriot bride …considered an “older bride” at the time…and her mother’s reaction to the dress she had commissioned.

We talk about her 600 pair shoe collection…yes, but they have clearly been acquired over decades and all have memories attached…a nostalgic diary of sorts. Then there are the bags…

Thank you Sophia for sharing your warmth, fun and wisdom x

I kick off Season 7 of Style DNA with a dose of true hilarity from the queen of quick quips and feminist observational wit,  the brilliant and irreverently funny million copy best-selling author Kathy Lette. 

Many moons ago we shared a hilarious evening at a bar in Florence… I can remember howling with laughter all night… 

Oh my, how I have laughed and laughed re-listening to this recording, trying to whittle down the clips. We talk about everything from ageist sexism, she was dropped by both her agent and her publisher because she wanted to write a book about middle aged women and being told that “Middle aged women are like Mogadishu and Sudan…we know they exist but no-one wants to go there”…She admits it knocked her confidence but the resulting novel, The Revenge Club about four scorned women and one perfect plan (every snippet apparently true but reconstructed for the purpose of the story) has clearly been Kathy’s best revenge, together with a huge dollop of humour and well deserved success… 

We laugh about the misogyny she and her girlfriends experienced growing up in the “surfy” culture of Australia which included “tan tattoos” …and then 80’s fashion, replete with perms and shoulder pads…how she invented the term Pussy Pelmet (who knew that widely used term was her wordsmithing?). How and why she started wearing comedic clothes including a custom suit printed with corgis, originally made for when she commentated on Kate and Wills wedding for Australian TV, and then pulled it out again for an Aussie gathering at Buckingham Palace which the late Queen found highly amusing. She confesses to being “a bit of an Imelda Marcos” when it comes to shoes and the joy of receiving her good friend Kylie’s cast offs …every story delivered with a sharp, often feminist, wit.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did having it…and if you need some light relief I urge you to download The Revenge Club or HRT Husband Replacement Therapy on Audible and let her mellifluous tones accompany you on your morning walks or a long journey … I promise your abs will get a work out and you will probably also have some light bulb moments to chuckle about.Thank you Kathy for being such a fabulous and hilarious guest.

But I first came across Kathy’s writing when her cult classic Puberty Blues was published in 1979. It is the definitive story of teenagers navigating the chaos of life…her observational and totally relatable humour had me, as a teenager at the time, totally hooked on her writing and I have chuckled and guffawed through most of her novels since.

In the final episode of Season 6 of Style DNA I go on a style journey with none other than the Retired Ballerina, the President of the Royal Academy of Dance, Presenter, Judge and Classical Ballet Coach at the Royal Ballet Company …the dazzling and divine Dame Darcey Bussell DBE.

Full disclosure, I have been a fan of Darcey’s dancing for as long as I can remember …not only was she the most technically brilliant ballerina she danced with such a palpable joy and flare that she was mesmerizing to watch. Much of our conversation centred around dance and she talks openly about her body, dancer’s bodies, and I ask her how she went about de-tuning hers after the intensity of training for at least 8 hours a day for 20 years. She admits that having had two children during her career helped prepare her for stopping but obviously nothing prepares you for the full stop and losing the “family” of the Company.

Darcey is the consummate professional, you don’t get to the very top of your field without 100% commitment and she certainly has always had that. She is passionate about the transformative power of dance and is working hard to get it into all schools, as much for mental wellbeing as for physical wellbeing.

She was invited to perform at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics for which she came out of retirement, giving herself, her confidence and her body 8 months to prepare. She laughs about how little rehearsal time they had at the stadium itself and that the actual pyrotechnics had never been rehearsed…it wasn’t until she was gliding down the wire with the pyrotechnics alight on the frame around her that she thought about how much hairspray she had in her hair and the potential flammability of it!  But even for someone of Darcey’s stature she admits it was still a pinch me moment to be part of it all.

We talk about preparing for a show and the inevitable conversation about pointe shoes…fascinating.

We chat about her 7 years as a judge on Strictly and being in control of her own image for that…something she hadn’t been for all her years as a ballerina where you are a complete chameleon to the role you were dancing.

Talking image – The National Portrait Gallery owns 9 images of Darcey and she talks about one of her favourites being the one taken by the photographer Bryan Adams of her in a very covered yet sheer McQueen dress wearing “very high heels” and not a lot else…

I hope you enjoy this episode…thank you @darceybussellofficial for this fascinating and insightful conversation.

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the British television personality, entrepreneur, and social media influencer, best known for her role on the reality TV show Made in Chelsea, the wonderfully down to earth Mother of 3 Binky Felstead. Binky’s new show, Beyond Chelsea, has just launched on E4 and she assures me that it is a very different kind of show…more a diary of her life as a mother, wife and entrepreneur with a  fraction of the drama, and jeopardy (something that reality TV producers tend to strive for, often pitching individuals against each other…). She talks with disarming honesty about her lack of interest in fashion and style when filming MIC, often turning up on set in holey jumpers and the crew having to lend her their clothing so that the scene could be filmed.

She was the first of her contemporaries to have a baby at the age of 26. She talks openly and relate ably about losing her identity when she had her baby India. The anticipation of a front cover for Women’s Health Magazine saw her back in the gym getting fit and “strong not skinny” …she has a refreshingly healthy attitude to her body.  Then, with the help of a stylist she has clearly been finding her style mojo, recently attending The Pride of Britain awards looking truly sensational… a far cry from her self-proclaimed fashion disaster when she was collecting her BAFTA. The endearing thing about Binky is that she really doesn’t take herself too seriously and it is charming and funny.

She tells me about her wedding dress(es) journey…from Chelsea Registry Office to the beach in Corfu…

We chat about disastrous hair extensions, Botox and the dreaded salmon sperm facial…

Binky has a transparent and inspiring approach to life and parenting. She shares her learnings in her 2023 book titled The Making of You: a guide to finding your identity and bossing motherhood…two things she has done rather well IMHO. 

Thank you @Binkyfelstead for our happy chat …

In this episode I go on a style journey with former British number one Tennis player, Broadcaster and Commentator the serene and gorgeous Annabel Croft.

Annabel is the BBC commentator and pundit for the coverage of Wimbledon and hosts the Wimbledon finals ceremony … of course we chat about planning her on screen looks particularly for the final’s days. 

Annabel grew up on the tennis circuit, (the Tour), and in her words she spent her entire childhood in a uniform …either school or tennis kit. We chat about her choice of tennis dresses and how important that was to her in an era before the fantastic technical fabrics we have now and how the Williams sisters have set a new bar in terms of women’s tennis fashion.

She talks openly about getting a little lost stylistically after having her children but Annabel clearly loves fashion and her daughters Amber and Lily have become her trusted style gurus, sometimes pushing her out of her comfort zone but always knowing what will work on her.

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We talk about her brilliant (and brave) participation in Strictly Come Dancing in 2023. Obviously we talk about her wardrobe, the talented team led by Vicky Gill and her partner Johannes, with an incredible eye for detail, having a lot of input into her costumes to make sure they enhanced the dance and her movement. But SO brave, as Annabel had lost her husband, the love of her life, Mel,  just a few months prior to this after a short battle with cancer. She talks movingly about still sleeping with his scarf … and the pain of seeing his clothes in the wardrobe … and the emotional attachment she has to certain items that he bought her or loved seeing her wear…

Annabel talks with an almost disarming honesty …such openness and warmth … I loved this conversation with a woman I am lucky enough to call my friend. Thank you Annabel for this lovely conversation.

In this week’s episode of Style DNA I chat with the original Princess of Punk, the truly extraordinary, iconic and zany, Dame Zandra Rhodes DBE.

Known for her fabulously bold prints, she launched her eponymous fashion brand 56 years ago. Rhodes is renowned for perfecting the art-of-print as an intrinsic influence on garment shape. With dramatic designs and her own distinctive look, she paved the way for fashion as theatre and entertainment.

We chat about dressing international stars including Freddie Mercury, Diana Ross, Barbara Streisand and Jackie Kennedy, as well as British Royalty, most notably, Princess Diana and Princess Anne… and I cheekily ask her if, given the opportunity, what she would design for the current Princess of Wales…

She talks about how her big career break was in the 70s, meeting two Ukrainian models who persuaded her to take her collection out to America where they were sure they could find her a backer… she arrived in New York with a letter of introduction to Diana Vreeland who fell in love with her designs and instantly commissioned a huge shoot for Vogue starring Natalie Wood…and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Rhodes grew up in Kent and was surrounded by fashion from an early age as her mother was a pattern cutter for The House of Worth. She would quietly watch the bridal fittings and appear in the children’s section of the shows. She evolved her own style including her love of pink hair and a dramatic eye…and always has, and still does, wear the clothes she has designed.

In 2020 she formed the Zandra Rhodes Foundation, a charity that ensures future generations of designers, artists, researchers, students and educators are able to study her life and designs, with an emphasis on her methods and techniques. Dating from the mid 1960s to the current day, the Foundation is working to catalogue her six thousand garments, printed textiles, drawings, accessories, fashion films, kodatraces, silk screens, press cuttings, personal memorabilia and collected artworks. A central collection will stay with the Foundation and the remaining material will be donated to permanent collections of major museums across the world, including the Fashion and Textile Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Now in her 80’s her focus more recently has been on strategic collaborations with fashion and lifestyle brands such as IKEA of Sweden, Happy Socks and Poppy Lissiman. In 2003, she founded London’s Fashion and Textile Museum, which to this day showcases some of the best in fashion and textile design.

She recently published a book, Iconic - My Life in Fashion in 50 Objects …it’s  an insightful memoir told through a variety of mementos collected over the years, in which

Zandra shares her life story for the first time…definitely worth a read!

I hope you enjoy this conversation … thank you @Zandra_Rhodes for taking me on your style journey.

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with Entrepreneur, Celebrity Influencer, Presenter and Media Personality …the exquisite Rosemin. I first met Rosemin when she hosted a dinner for me in Dubai in 2018 to promote my new collection…what was lovely is that pretty much every woman attending that dinner arrived wearing Wakeley, and it felt like the most generous endorsement of me as a designer.

Rosemin grew up in Canada, her family emigrated there from East Africa in the 70’s escaping Idi Amin’s regime and effectively having to start over but exhibiting an incredible entrepreneurial work ethic to Rosemin and her brother. Her early passion for fashion took her to study fashion marketing at The London College of Fashion and then Rosemin cut her teeth in the fashion world working for Mr Ford, as in Tom Ford himself. Clearly the opportunity to work so closely with him was incredibly important to Rosemin, witnessing first hand how he approached his Creative Director role.

Following her time at the Gucci Group she was head hunted to help launch Juicy Couture in the UK and Europe. Her honed eye meant that she approached celebrity seeding in a very targeted way, and it worked. Celebrities from Kate Moss, to Gwyneth Paltrow to Queen Rania of Jordan were all photographed wearing the newly expanded collection of Juicy… the sunglasses, the slip dresses and the trench coats.

Rosemin recently remarried in Paris and we talk about her Faraz Manan wedding lenge (exquisite) and her Tamara Ralph gown (fairytale)..and why she chose these designers. We discuss the longevity of Chanel…what a brilliant job Stella McCartney is doing championing sustainability in fashion…her style icons…and the joy of wearing an Abaya …

I hope you enjoy this episode …thank you Rosemin for being such an inspiring guest!

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a Style Journey with the Founder and CEO of the online publisher SheerLuxe … the brilliant Georgie Coleridge Cole. Georgie founded SheerLuxe from her kitchen table back in 2007 inspired by the concept of sharing her recommendations, magazine style in a digital format. It was early days in the digital revolution, but knowing that she had slightly missed the heady days of print publishing she backed herself to create the now formidable SheerLuxe which has shaped what successful digital marketing looks like in the UK. She has a team of over 70 employees, over 700,000 newsletter subscribers, over 2 million social followers and a myriad of emerging and well-established brands and retailers as its commercial partners – from Net-a-Porter, and Harvey Nichols, to Reiss, Charlotte Tilbury & Chanel. Alongside well established retail brands they are huge supporters of British founder led businesses and entrepreneurship. Not surprisingly Georgie has a great sense of her own style and we chat about how her mother and she approach clothes and style in a very different way…but both care deeply about their appearance. I question Georgie about being a deb in the 21st century and we talk about how her wardrobe has evolved now she is spending more time at her new office  in the Middle East. I challenge her on ageism in fashion…something that I feel a lot of brands and publishers are missing a trick on…I do firmly believe that this is going to be the next big Ism… I hope you enjoy this conversation – and if you haven’t signed up to SheerLuxe I highly recommend it.

Thank you Georgie for being such a great guest.

In this episode I go on a Style Journey with the world-renowned florist, author and designer, affectionately dubbed the UK’s ‘Queen of Flowers’. . .the whimsically wonderful Willow Crossley. She is best known for her innate floristry skills and knowledge of botanicals and has worked with brands from Dior to Chanel, and private clients (including The Royal Family) in phenomenal spaces in Britain, Europe and America. She is also the author of four books: The Art of Handmade Living; Inspire: The Art Of Living With Nature; Flourish; and The Wild Journal: A Year of Nurturing Yourself Through Nature.

Willow and I chat about her inspirations, growing up in the country, in the wilds of Wales… where she absorbed a love of colour. Back then all her pocket money went on magazines which she would devour and analyse with her stylish mother. She moved to London and studied at the London College of Fashion and went on to work at both Vogue and Tatler which certainly honed her aesthetic eye in an era when the editors were “super glam”. 

We talk bridesmaids dresses…Willow has been a bridesmaid an astonishing 14 times!…and then her wedding dress and her blister-inducing Louboutins…and then moving to Provence and spending the summers floating around in Edwardian cotton pieces that she had collected over time.

Back in the UK and based in the Cotswolds with a burgeoning business and 3 boys, we discuss her eclectic style, her love of colour, her passion (borderline obsession) for sneakers, and the challenge of staying warm and stylish for her frequently chilly work, as well as her collaborations with the likes of Brora and her approach to sustainable floristry as well as fashion.

Thank you @willowcrossleycreates …I so enjoyed our happy conversation xx

In this episode of Style DNA podcast I take a Style Journey with the fabulous, inimitable and hilarious Katherine Ryan.  

Unsurprisingly, being the brilliant comedienne that she is, Kathryn’s observations on life are hysterical and our conversation is peppered with witty quips. We discuss the fine line that comics walk so as not to expose too much of their family life but she has me hooting with laughter time and again as she peppers the conversation with snippets from her home life, including her husband Bobby’s inspired step-parenting, not to mention Botox (apparently you can’t have too much when you have babies as they need to see your expressions), and the side effects of having to take steroids during a pregnancy…all dryly delivered…

When it comes to clothes, we discuss the power of dressing for the occasion – she says she “wants a world where females dress for their worth”…what’s not to love about that? Being drawn to older women. Why Celine Dion is her style icon and the fashion mistake her stylist didn’t allow her to make…and so so much more 

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it …thank you @kathbum for entertaining us all so brilliantly…

In this episode I go on a sartorial journey with the celebrated British Milliner Stephen Jones OBE. Jones is considered one of the most radical and important milliners of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He is also one of the most prolific, having created hats for the catwalk shows of many leading couturiers and fashion designers, from John Galliano, Kim Jones and Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, the house of Schiaparelli to Rei Kawakubo at Commes des Garcons. His work is known for its inventiveness and high level of technical expertise.  Stephen’s hats have adorned Rock Stars and Royalty and way beyond… His major retrospective exhibition opens in October at the Palais Galliera in Paris.

Stephen is chatty and has a wonderful way with words, painting pictures as he goes…We discuss jointly dressing the then Meghan Markle for her first Royal engagement when she attended the Commonwealth Service in 2018 with Prince Harry. He shares his insights on the process, the importance of the Royal Family to the world of millinery, and how people the world over use hats and headwear as style signifiers. 

I ask him to explain his quote  “You wear clothes – and hats – to convince yourself and others that you’re a certain way. Fashion is still a fabulous, fabulous lie.”  …needless to say his answer was both insightful and amusing.

Fashion and appearance clearly run deep in Stephen’s veins and he talks with such knowledge, intuition and wisdom…and more than a little cheeky humour. I felt privileged, and entertained having this conversation with him.

Thank you Stephen for sharing your wit and wisdom.

I am launching Season 6 with someone who is known well to her 1.3 million followers as she lives her life so openly via her Instagram channel … she is warm and engaging, the sort of girl you feel is your friend even though you have never met her personally… I am talking about the lovely Lorna Luxe.  

Lorna started her career as cabin crew for Virgin, back in the day when you had to do “X Factor-like day long auditions” for the 800 places that 800,000 applied for that year.  She loved her job flying around the world, proudly sporting her “empowering” Virgin uniform…that is, until her anorexia got the better of her. Unbelievably, Virgin HR used to measure each of their crew members in their annual reviews … clearly another era (not so long ago) and another story…

Lorna had always loved her fashion and became an early adopter of Instagram back in 2014…she takes me on her Instagram journey and the secrets of her success but it is all underlined with a real passion for beautiful clothes, accessories and beauty. She is very considered …knows her fashion well, and talks with a wonderful Northern pragmatism. It wasn’t until she had 500,000 followers that she started to monetize her feed…she is rumoured to consistently take home in excess of 7 figures a year…yes, you heard that right. 

Lorna is driven and always wanted to create her own brand, she talks about her journey starting up @LA Space with total transparency and honesty. We chat about her love of mood boarding, her style icons and being passionate about size inclusivity. It doesn’t surprise me that she has built the community she has, and the success alongside - she is one authentic, clever and intuitive woman… I loved our conversation. Thank you Lorna x

In this final episode of Season 5 of my Style DNA podcast I go on a style journey withPrince’s Trust Women for Women Ambassador and transgender fashion designer Serenity Mason. Serenity started her fashion business in 2018 - Vault of Serenity, a stall in Tunstall Market, Stoke, after completing The Prince’s Trust Enterprise programme. The programme had offered her practical advice about tax, business planning and pricing her items, as well as the support of a business mentor.  

I met Serenity at a Prince’s Trust fund raising dinner and I was so struck by her and her story that I felt the best way for me to help shine a light on the incredible, life changing (and, at times) even life-saving work that the Prince’s Trust is doing was to use my Style DNA platform. It’s a fascinating and optimistic conversation and I have to thank Serenity for sharing her story so openly…to be so frank about her gender identity and her struggles.  I really hope that this is heard by many and reaches the ears of some who may find it helpful…

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a Style journey with the award winning BBC broadcaster, TV personality and DJ, bowel cancer survivor and Marathon record holder, the remarkable Adele Roberts.
Adele is a wonderfully open and vulnerable guest talking about how she never felt feminine growing up ...gravitating towards the menswear section because she didn’t feel like she fit in and feeling like she would be judged...heartbreaking actually. She is trying to be more vocal about this now to help other kids who perhaps don’t feel like they fit in. Her life partner of 20 years, Kate Holderness, is clearly helping her to understand that clothing is a form of expression and self-love, gently navigating Adele's style journey with her... 
She says that it wasn’t until she had cancer, and then a stoma, that she learned to love her body ...we talk about dressing around the stoma (which she has affectionately called Audrey...there is a story behind that) and the joy she is now finding in fashion...even wearing a bikini on a recent holiday with her stoma showing with pride.
She has written a book about her life and her cancer journey... Personal Best - From Rock Bottom to Top of the World which is a beacon of hope...she has clearly done a lot of soul searching especially when she was preparing for her record breaking Marathon run... in her opinion she was holding onto too much toxicity which was possibly the cause of her cancer...it is an inspiring read.
I hope you enjoy this sincere and soulful episode...thank you @adeleroberts for being so beautifully honest and open... I loved our conversation x

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a Style journey with Actress, TV presenter, Philanthropist and Entrepreneur  … the gorgeous Geordie girl Donna Air. 

Donna rose to early fame aged 10 as an actress in the children’s television series Byker Grove, a popular show set in the Newcastle area. She went on to form the pop duo Crush which found some success in the late 1990’s. Her career has spanned presenting MTV, to the Big Breakfast as well as appearing in numerous films and TV dramas.

Donna is currently performing in the award winning ghost story 2:22 at the Gielgud Theatre alongside James Buckley, Stacey Dooley and Joe McFadden…The play, written by Danny Robins is a supernatural thriller that has received critical acclaim for its intense and gripping narrative with the story revolving around a couple who hear strange noises in the new house and begin to suspect it might be haunted… I for one, can’t wait to see Donna’s performance.

Success came early in life for Donna and we chat about her teenage years in Newcastle “geared around her Saturday night outfits”…in time this passion transferred to her pop video or performing clothes. She reminisces about her youthful inability to control her clothing spending, particularly whilst touring in America.

We discuss her love of strong female characters and how inspiring they are…not to mention the fact that slowly there are more female roles for women post their 30’s…finally!

Donna clearly loves beautiful clothes, whilst not being remotely materialistic, but she laughs about how in the past these beautiful things have slipped through her fingers …how she would give away her clothes and accessories to friends and how her daughter Freya, now 19, keeps asking her where pieces are that she is wearing in old photographs that she would love to wear now…all since long gone!

Thank you @donnaair for sharing your stories and your insights so generously.

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the English singer, songwriter and TV personality Wes Nelson… His most recent claim to fame being his incredibly catchy and hugely successful collaboration with Craig David and the hit Abracadabra but during our conversation I saw Wes in a whole new light and I found his self-deprecating sense of humour, his honesty (and his chuckle) both infectious and charming…

He trained as a nuclear systems design engineer thinking he would follow his father into the motor industry but it seems that this self-proclaimed “Bloke from Stoke” has a different destiny. Passionate about music and performing from a young age, he was discovered partly through social media, and then a spell on Love Island led to his viral collaboration with Craig David (his childhood idol)… the rest is rapidly becoming history as he evolves his songwriting and music, as well as his personal style.

We laugh about how he spent WAY too much in his early days …dressing in the “expected” Rapper style for his rap performances replete with the diamond encrusted gold watch and strongly logo’ d designer pieces like his Nigo X Vuitton double denim. He clearly loves his fashion and is on a journey with it, evolving his style as his music evolves… I for one cannot wait to see what this next chapter holds stylistically and musically.

We discuss the symbolism behind his different tattoos including a can of Sunny D to remind him of his grandfather… and his love of Rimowa luggage…why? Because apparently he rides it through the airport…probably not how or why it was designed, but I couldn’t help laughing at the image of him riding his Rimowa down a ramp in Gatwick airport.

I hope you enjoy this episode… I found Wes a breath of fresh air and came away from our conversation with a light-hearted feeling and a knowing smile on my face… clothes, after all, should bring us joy… they certainly do Wes.

Thank you @wesnelson for bringing such a great conversation to the table…will you come back next year and update me on the style evolution that you are planning?

This week's Style DNA podcast episode is with the Irish chef, TV presenter, cookbook author and resident chef on This Morning - the wonderful Clodagh McKenna.
It was such a treat to open the door to a joyful Clodagh who arrived carrying a freshly baked carrot cake which she proceeded to ice herself before we started our recording ... I can honestly say her carrot cake is the best I have ever eaten and it took serious will power on my part not to dig in during our conversation!
Clodagh grew up in Cork and she paints a beautiful picture of her childhood family rituals including baking bread and prepping food at the weekend for the week ahead. 
Eating home cooked food around a lovingly laid table with fresh linen clearly influenced her appreciation of the importance of mealtime. Her mother would always tidy herself and apply lipstick before her husband came home from work which is a charming custom that Clodagh has adopted herself.
Her passion for baking was ignited when a young Clodagh went on a French exchange, and she returned to Ireland able to make a cracking Tarte Tartin but also with a flavour for Gallic style which still influences her dress sense to this day.
Clodagh is one of those individuals whose passion for everything she turns her hand to is infectious - she trained at the legendary Ballymalloe Cookery School. When she felt she had learned everything she could in Ireland she moved herself to Turin, Italy to immerse herself in Italian food and culture... before finally moving to London in her early 40s when she started opening up her kitchen to do dinners for guests ... a charming custom that she still does to this day. 
We talk about discovering her style DNA, which she feels didn't really happen until coming to London. Her formula, which clearly gives her confidence,  involves a lot of denim, white shirts and tailoring.  We laugh about last minute wardrobe changes on the set of This Morning when the all-male crew realised her top was just a little bit too revealing (let's just say totally see-through) for the viewers...and how being led by an overly enthusiastic stylist for a book launch shoot left her feeling totally lost...all good lessons learned and all stories told in a way that inimitable Irish way... 

This week’s Style DNA guest is the 90s British supermodel, turned entrepreneur, TV personality, author AND pub landlady … the awesome Jodie Kidd.

We first met in the 90s, it was Jodie’s first London show season at the tender age of 15. She had been encouraged to give modelling a go as a way to pay for the new horsebox she wanted as she was a competitive show jumper at the time. I remember my casting director being so excited to get Jodie in my show…but I also have a vague recollection of Jodie having to cram her feet into the shoes that I had designed for the show …at 6’2” with size 42.5 feet my show samples were a full size and a half too small… but she just did it, and as you will hear…she just carried on doing it with an incredible career trajectory walking for all the great houses doing the shows from New York to London to Milan to Paris and then on to the couture shows in between …until the pace of it all left her completely burned out, very underweight and crippled by anxiety. At which point she dramatically quit the modelling world…literally walking off a catwalk in Milan mid show.

Being a country girl at heart she found solace in nature and home grown food, and then returned to her first passion, horses. However, Jodie never does anything by halves, within no time at all she was playing polo for the country, and her need for speed then saw her set a track record on Top Gear which in turn got her noticed by Maserati, who she then went on to drive for professionally in Italy…

Jodie’s career has twisted and turned …she is a true force of nature…whatever she turns her attention to she throws herself into 150%. Perhaps, because of her varied careers she is wise beyond her years but she shares her experiences and insights very openly. Her views on the mad world of fashion are initially through the lens of a very young country girl who came into the industry almost accidentally. She has warmth and charisma in spades.  I hope you enjoy this episode.

In this episode I go on a style journey with British born international visual artist Sophie Tea. Sophie has recently come onto my radar…her work is defined by her vibrant use of colour, energetic drips and signature splats – it champions inclusivity, self-acceptance, accessibility and strives to make women feel just a little bit nicer about themselves… a resounding YES to that!

Sophie’s subject of choice is women…naked women. She is fresh off the back of her Send Nudes Live show at The London Palladium in which 50 naked women are painted for a live catwalk show, her 6th to date. She had a staggering 10,000 applications from women to walk in the show so she is clearly onto something. We talk about how when she was growing up she had never felt comfortable with her body shape, how the role models of her childhood were very stereotypical and how as a result of this she wants to celebrate the female form in all it’s wonderful variations.

Sophie’s mission is to make art more accessible… she is open about her commercial approach to this, using social media to reach her customers and offering payment instalments to her young audience who may be too intimidated to go into a gallery… she is brilliantly entrepreneurial and certainly breaking the traditional gallerist mould.

We discuss how as human beings we bond through our clothes, we sometimes connect with people simply by what we are wearing and being in a similar style tribe. We talk about how our clothes can often tell stories…Sophie undoubtedly has a passion for fashion, it’s definitely a hobby for her… be it thrifting (in “posh areas”), to buying full-on designer pieces, to the joy of choosing yet more cowboy boots at the mecca of cowboy boots that is Allens in Texas… not to mention something we are both guilty of… “milestone” shopping.

I hope you enjoy this episode…thank you @sophieteaart for being such a great guest …let’s go thrifting!

In the final episode of Season 4 Style DNA I go on a Style journey with the inimitable, iconic, Dame Prue Leith, currently best known for being a judge on The Great British Bake Off as well as her Saturday morning ITVX show, Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen. 
Prue is now in her 9th decade and appears to be speeding up rather than slowing down... she says she is still discovering her style with the help of her 2nd husband John who used to be in the fashion industry and loves nothing more than shopping for her. She credits him with suggesting her more youthful haircut which now sees her hair swept off her "lined forehead that was being hidden by her fringe" into a wonderful choppy crop that has honestly taken 20 years off her look...
We discuss the lasting impact of the vibrant colours that she grew up surrounded by in South Africa  - and how she loves the fact that "many women write to me and say that they never wore colour until I saw you did it" ... and with 323K followers on Instagram alone, she is a veritable Influencer... 
We talk about her love of wearing trainers and how our choice of footwear can be so transformative...either making us look older or cooler...not to mention, the power of good posture.
She talks about the joy of a super organised kitchen which translates into a super organised wardrobe...all colour coded for ease...  
We talk about the challenges of dressing for the Red Carpet ...and, in fact, her love of all things red...the red Lanvin dress she chose to wear to her pre-wedding dinner to John, her favourite red coat and a colourist once telling her never to wear red as it is an aggressive colour ...(I must admit I think fashion "colourists" have a lot to answer for) ... 
And we giggle about her dislike of Botox ... at which point I try to move my forehead...(ahem, with difficulty)... and the fact that she has never worn sexy lingerie but thinks she may still give it a go...
I so enjoyed this conversation with Prue Leith... thank you for sharing your thoughts with such warmth and humour.

In this episode of Style DNA I go on a style journey with the British jewellery designer, the founder of both Links of London and Annoushka, the Creative Director and Entrepreneur, Annoushka Ducas MBE.

I couldn’t resist asking Annoushka her views on the difference between lab grown versus mined diamonds and how the jewellery industry is notoriously opaque…she talks about her passion for re-using existing stones from vintage jewellery and how all of her newly sourced diamonds are certified by the Kimberley Process (established in 2003 to prevent conflict diamonds entering the mainstream market) …but perhaps more importantly, the joy she still feels discovering new varieties of semi-precious stones …and how the experience of travelling to a pearl farm in the Philippines and learning about the whole process of cultivation of  golden pearls and the attention to detail and sheer hard labour that goes into pearl cultivation shone a whole new light on their beauty…

We laugh about the “trauma” of her mother’s appearance at the school gates …this seems to be a recurring theme with my guests!  However, in time, some of her most precious pieces in her wardrobe are pieces that once belonged to her mother…

She talks about her first job, being a PA to her godfather Mark Birley (the supremely stylish founder of Annabels, Harry’s Bar and Mark’s Club) and how he took her to the then newly opened Manolo Blahnik on Old Church Street and treated her to 3 pairs of shoes to elevate her appearance…and we agree that by wearing just one really special piece (whatever that may be, jewellery, shoes or a jacket) can be transformative, and can totally up your game sartorially. 

I ask her about the competition from the mega jewellery brands … she says that when she created Annoushka jewellery she purposefully positioned it between Links of London (silver) and the high jewellery brands like Cartier …  she knew she wanted to appeal to women to buy for themselves and she wanted her jewellery to have a very personal appeal with her clients… and there is nothing more personal than her My Life in Seven Charms collection…inspired by her love of Desert Island Discs…she refers to it as an 18ct gold autobiography of someone’s life…just gorgeous.

This week's Style DNA guest is the English singer, songwriter, actress and radio personality…the undoubted Queen of British Soul…the extraordinarily talented Beverley Knight MBE.
Beverley is fabulously open about her style journey ...it's ups and downs ..and how her body confidence (and at times lack of) affected her choices, and how her gay best friend had been instrumental in helping her find her fashion mojo.
We talk about how she has got braver as she has got older (a recurring theme currently) and more comfortable in her own skin. She threw a gig to celebrate her 50th birthday and wanted to make a statement by wearing a body skimming unitard.
I was fascinated to understand how her first trip to Jamaica (her parent's birthplace) hugely impacted her sense of style especially during her visit ...
Of course we talk about her stage costumes and some of the extraordinary events she has performed at...from Princes's post Oscars party to the closing ceremony of the London Paralympics, and the planning behind the looks...not to mention the floor length latex look she wore to collect her Olivier Award...

This week I go on a style journey with the American Television Journalist Deborah Roberts. I first met Deborah when she came to the UK to cover the Royal wedding of Harry and Meghan and she kindly chose me to guest on her ABC coverage in the lead up to, as well as on the actual day, at Windsor.

Apart from being an award-winning ABC News senior national affairs correspondent for Nightline, Good Morning America and World News Tonight with David Muir, in September 2023, she was named co-anchor of 20/20. A media veteran, Roberts has travelled the world for her reporting and has been awarded multiple Emmy® Awards for her national and international coverage of world events, including the AIDS crisis in Africa and maternal mortality in Bangladesh.

Despite some of the gritty subjects she covers, Roberts has a passion for fashion (and is very knowledgeable about brands and designers), yet she is also aware of the messages that clothes can convey. We discuss how we make a statement through our choice of clothes and the importance of dressing for the occasion … even how the Civil Rights campaigners would dress up to go on a protest.

She talks about growing up in the Deep South and going to a segregated school (yes, just a few decades ago) and how when she was in the 4th grade, at 9 years old,  the school became integrated mid-term… it’s hard to imagine the importance (to her) of what she chose to wear on that first day of integration …how she would potentially be judged by her peers that she had never met before…it’s hard to put oneself in her shoes at that time, not to mention horrifying that this actually happened as recently as it did…however, she speaks about it with her brilliant, eloquent journalistic grace and not an ounce of victimisation.

She is a beacon of positivity and generously shares her personal insights.

In this Style DNA episode I go on a style journey with the serial entrepreneur Marcia Kilgore, who founded a string of game-changing companies in the worlds of beauty and wellness…she is recognized globally as an industry leader, a business visionary, a beauty expert and an inspiration for female entrepreneurs everywhere.
In 1997, Time Magazine chose a 29-year-old Kilgore as their cover star, pegging her as one of the new generation of entrepreneurs – whose hard work, ingenuity and fearlessness trumped the networking, business school bigshots. In May 2011, when Oprah Winfrey’s final show aired, Oprah referred to her former facialist - Kilgore - as one of the most inspiring people she’d ever met. In 2022, The Sunday Times said her new digitally native business had  ‘forever changed the way we shop for cosmetics’.  In between, Kilgore had sold one business (to LVMH), another (to Alliance Boots Walgreens) and started three others. Recognised by Vogue (UK) as one of most powerful women of 2023 in their power list.
I have to admit I have followed Marcia's career in awe as she built and sold Bliss Spas …followed by building and selling the upbeat, tongue in cheek Soap and Glory …and not content with those two juggernaut successes she founded the biomechanics-meets-fashion-footwear brand FitFlop (only sold over 65 million pairs of sandals, sneakers and boots worldwide to date)…and if that wasn’t enough in 2016 she created my slight obsession …the fabulous buyer’s club skincare and makeup brand – Beauty Pie bringing luxury beauty to a wider audience...if you don’t know about it please check it out (and NO this is not an AD)  I just really believe in shining a light on things I love, especially when they are created by brilliant women.
In full disclosure, Marcia is a great friend and we share a crazy passion for ski touring (walking up hill with specialist skis on) however, we use this form of exercise as a great excuse to chat about everything from beauty to fashion to LIFE! As you will hopefully see and/or hear, Marcia is one of the most brilliant raconteurs ...she shares her astute observations with wit and warmth whether it is her love/hate relationship with fashion, dressing through her body building years (yes, you heard that right), the power of a great haircut, to her best shopping tip...
I hope you enjoy this episode.

I am very excited to introduce you to Season 4 of my Style DNA podcast … launching today with none other than the Supermodel who is known (for good reason) as The Body…the exquisite, effortlessly chic and serene Elle Macpherson. Elle is not only a Supermodel, she is a Mother, Businesswoman, Television Host and an Actress.

I loved our conversation …we discuss her personal style journey,  growing up in Australia and not really being into fashion as she spent most of her time outside in nature. By her own admission she took a leap of faith into modelling as a way of making some pocket money while at University.  The universe clearly had a different plan for her and before she knew it she was modelling New York, working with all the top fashion photographers and gracing the covers of all the major magazines. In 1989 Time magazine coined her nickname “The Body” after she had appeared on 3 successive Sports Illustrated covers…(with 2 more to come). At the tender age of 21 she married the famous French photographer Giles Bensimon (20 years her senior) in a glorious and avant guard Azzedine Alaia couture gown. She is open about how it felt to effectively grow up in front of the lens whilst being styled to be endless different women… and working out her own personal style when she was not in front of the lens… 

She tells me about the 180 degree shift in perception…when she first started in the modelling world,  the more distanced you were from your audience, the more iconic you were and the more successful you were… and how today,  the closer you are to your community, the more accessible you are, the more successful you are…and navigating those changes. Not to mention being on the covers of magazines still at 60…

We chat about the challenge of staying stylish as the years creep by and how staying true to your essence is one of the most powerful style statements we can make… her thoughts are considered, eloquent and thought provoking.

Elle’s beauty is undeniable but it is far more than skin deep … she has been on a wellness journey, inspired by turning 50 and “hitting a wall” and not being able to rely on genetics any longer…she says she didn’t recognise herself anymore.  Her personal journey led her to the creation of her highly acclaimed WelleCo brand of “clean, plant-based elixirs & boosters backed by science, driven by nature”. She is the embodiment of beauty coming from within… and it was a great privilege that she shared so much with me in this episode.

In this episode I go on a Style Journey with the iconic hairstylist Sam McKnight MBE. Sam’s unparalleled portfolio of work reads like a who’s-who of high-fashion and A-list celebrity: he is credited with the creation of Princess Diana's iconic slicked-back hairstyle for her 1990 Vogue magazine shoot, and was her personal hair stylist for seven years. He has worked extensively with the supermodels Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Kate Moss & Naomi Campbell  from the 80’s to today. Sam’s work has included over 200 Vogue covers; campaigns for Chanel, Tom Ford, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Armani …the list goes on and season-after-season he influences the evolution of hair at runways shows from Chanel to Vivienne Westwood… 

We talk about his time being Diana’s personal hair stylist …how “slavishly following fashion trends is terribly unfashionable” (I could not agree more)… reminiscing about wearing platforms in the 70’s (but having to take a pair of slippers to his driving lessons) and most importantly how good clothes can make you feel good (why I designed so passionately for 30+ years). Of course we talk about his friendship with Kate Moss who he has collaborated with for many years and has always said “Sam has the magic touch”.

I hope you enjoy the episode…thank you Sam for being such a wonderful guest.

For my ultimate episode of the season I go on a style journey with British luxury accessories designer Sophia Webster who is known for her fun, playful and feminine touches, not to mention her iconic butterflies. She has built a global brand in just over a decade brilliantly harnessing the power of social media to assist her on the journey.. her joyful creations have graced everyone from Beyonce and Madonna to Grayson Perry...  There really is a transformative magic in shoes and bags that Sophia understands so well.

The weekend before we met I did my research by immersing myself in her wonderful new book  “Oh My Gosh I Love Your Shoes!” … BTW how often have you said exactly that? The book is a beautiful, self-illustrated visual diary of her journey.

We discuss the sexiest heel height… her love of butterflies (actually hard-wired into her DNA)…buying her first pair of Buffalo boots (beloved by the Spice Girls at the time) and thinking that she “had made it now”… and hysterical stories of lost wedding dresses and then lost wedding shoes… not to mention unfortunate “Anthea Turner haircuts” …as she said, great on a grown woman but not quite as good on a child.

Like most women I know, I am a veritable shoe (and boot) lover so I hope you enjoy this conversation with one of the most talented young designers I have met…

In this episode I go on a Style journey with Singer, Songwriter and Musician Corinne Bailey Rae… and what a joy it was.

Corinne shot to stardom with her self-titled, Corinne Bailey Rae debut album in 2006, featuring the global hits 'Put Your Records On' and 'Like A Star'.

Corinne is one of those people who paints beautiful pictures with their words… I felt like every word that she spoke was purposefully chosen….she is wonderfully eloquent.  I was fascinated to hear about the inspirational journey she went on having discovered the Stoney Island Arts Bank in Chicago and how this fuelled so much material for her newly released and globally acclaimed album Black Rainbows. We discuss how she chooses the designers she wears for her stage looks and the album imagery she created in collaboration with the photographer Koto Bolofo. She speaks nostalgically about her mother’s proud sense of style as she was bringing up her and her two sisters and how she evolved her own style through the 90’s.  We talked about her becoming a widow at 29… and how she cocooned herself in her late husband’s clothes as part of her grieving process. During her metamorphosis she found love again and she describes her second wedding dress, flowers and hair with such detail that it is impossible not to be swept into the love and sheer joy of their Winter Feast of a wedding.  

Corinne shares her style journey so far, so beautifully… I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did having it. Thank you Corinne for being such an insightful and articulate guest...  

This week’s episode is with the eponymous founder of Karen Millen, Karen herself. Her story is an interesting one…she founded her brand with her husband Kevin Stanford in 1981. Using a £100 loan they purchased 100 metres of white cotton which she whipped up into stylish shirts and they sold party-style to friends. From this they gradually grew a retail empire founded on their commitment to affordable luxury and making investment pieces accessible. In 2004 they sold Karen Millen to Mosaic Fashions under an SPA for £100m. The terms of the SPA prevented Karen Millen from using her name in connection with any similar businesses or competition in the future…challenging for any eponymous founder and she later challenged this in court but lost. Unfortunately she also lost millions in the collapse of Kaupthing Bank…but in true Power Woman style she swivelled and followed her love of interiors culminating in creating an online interiors business called Homemonger.com.  

However her passion for fashion was reigniting …In 2019 the Boohoo Group bought the Karen Millen brand and in 2022, in a full circle moment, and in an attempt to inject some of the original DNA back into the brand, Karen was invited to create The Founder Collection, a capsule collection of 30 signature pieces. The huge popularity of the first collection saw her invited to create a second collection which launches this week…

I loved chatting to a fellow fashion brand founder about what had driven her designs, how she has dressed through the decades including as she says a moment when she had become “rich” and how that impacted her style…not necessarily what you would expect…but amusing and insightful!

I hope you enjoy the episode as much as I did creating it… thank you Karen.

In this episode I go on a style journey with Melissa Odabash MBE. After entering the swimwear industry as a model Melissa launched her eponymous label in 1999. She is credited with ‘introducing high fashion into resortwear’ with her swimwear being quickly described by Vogue as ‘The Ferraris of the bikini world.' 

Her first collection was curated with chic solid coloured bikinis, however this soon expanded into beachwear,  often inspired by her Mother’s 1970’s crochet pieces,  before developing and growing the collections to what we know today. Her collections are sold in 65 countries, available in over 500 stores.

Throughout her success as a designer, Melissa continues to support her philanthropic ventures including: Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, Prince’s Trust, Kidsco, CHIVA  and  has partnered with Elton John’s Aids Foundation. In 2015 Melissa launched her debut mastectomy line with the Future Dreams Breast Cancer Charity and she continues to support, partner and champion their cause whenever she can.

This week’s Style DNA style journey is with actor, writer, photographer and artist Lisa Hogan AKA The Tall Irish.

Lisa is Co-Founder of the now infamous Diddly Squat Farm Shop on Clarkson’s Farm…she is not only Jeremy Clarkson’s girlfriend, she is his hilarious accomplice and harshest critic with her fast wit and dry sense of humour. Her ability to laugh at herself recounting her sartorial stories of different chapters in her life is infectious. These chapters have included modelling, working in the city, acting, being a mother, a lot of travel and, this latest chapter obviously includes her approach to “Farm Fashion” … from wellies and overalls to the inevitable pig sh*t…

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed chatting to my old friend… thank you Lisa.

This week I go on a style journey with TV and Radio Presenter, Model, Author, Menopause campaigner, Podcast host AND Celebrity Master Chef Winner, the gorgeous Lisa Snowdon. Lisa and I worked out that the first time we met was when we were both London Fashion Week virgins…the first show she walked in was the first show I put on…Fashion has reconnected us over the years and it was lovely to sit down and chat about her journey both professionally and personally, from having a body that didn’t conform to industry expectations at the time, to walking the red carpet with George Clooney, to the major looks that were created for her to present Britain’s Next Top Model (and laughing about sometimes going a little too far)… as well as dressing as our bodies change…and the catharsis of a complete wardrobe turnout

Earlier this year Lisa published a book Just Getting Started – Lessons In Life, Love and Menopause… we discuss the inspiration behind it … Lisa’s mission to prove that getting older just means getting better … Lisa is fantastically frank and open and I hope you enjoy this warm and collaborative chat.

This week I go on a sartorial journey with Canadian film maker David Furnish. David is CEO of Rocket Entertainment Group and Chairman of the Elton John AIDS Foundation which has raised a staggering $600 million to dateto support programs in 55 countries around the globe through prevention and education, elimination of prejudice and discrimination, and providing services to people living with the disease.

Of course we talk about shopping …and how he and Elton sometimes use the process as a reward for hard work, not to mention the benefit of how beautiful things are mood altering and make you feel good about yourself. We chat about how cathartic it is to have a good clear-out in the spirit of both circularity and fund raising for a great cause…in the process giving someone else the opportunity to enjoy those pieces – bravo to that – I have been doing the same myself and it is so rewarding to see something gorgeous head off to a new home to make new memories and be valued all over again.

David is wonderfully generous about sharing insights into the glamorous life he shares with his husband Elton… His “Pretty Woman” moment in Paris…dressing up for legendary parties from Elton’s 50th to White Tie and Tiaras and so much more… He clearly loves fashion and appreciates the passion and creativity that his designer friends put into their work … he is undoubtedly a super stylish man.

In this episode I go on a sartorial journey with the Fashion Designer, Business Woman and mother of five the brilliant Anya Hindmarch CBE.

Anya founded her eponymous company as a teenager in 1987 and has since grown it into an award-winning global brand known for its craftsmanship, creativity and sense of humour.  She launched the hugely successful 'I'm Not a Plastic Bag' campaign in 2007 which saw thousands of people queuing to purchase the tote from Sainsburys …a staggering 80,000 were sold on launch day. The bag garnered huge press coverage globally, igniting the debate around the use of plastic bags and contributed to the eventual decision to charge for plastic bags in the UK. Her achievements, creativity and marketing savvy know no bounds… 

We talk about how we convey who we are and roles that we play through what we wear… IT bags, and why they are priced how they are.  Anya talks in an informed and passionate way about what sustainable leather and sourcing actually means (no greenwashing here)  …We chat about the power of dressing in comfortable clothes and her approach to planning her wardrobe (fascinating and helpful) as well as the history of heels!  Anya shares a fountain of insightful information on all things style related… 

This week I go on a Style journey with Philanthropist, Designer and mother of 5, the wonderful India Hicks. India is the daughter of the celebrated interior designer David Hicks and Lady Pamela Mountbatten, a lady in waiting to the late Queen.  She is a god daughter of the King, was a bridesmaid to Lady Diana Spencer and resides in Harbour Island, the Bahamas with her husband David Flint Wood and their 5 children…

We chat about being a Royal bridesmaid (obviously), what it meant to grow up in the creative world of David Hicks, being inspired by her grandmother Edwina Mountbatten (Countess of Mountbatten of Burma) and the process of choosing a dress for getting married for the first time in her 50s and so much more…  

I first met India in the early 90s when the young aristocratic model walked in one of my early shows.

Her peripatetic lifestyle is beautifully, and articulately, documented on her Instagram feed @indiahicksstyle.

This week I go on a style journey with my gorgeous friend Yasmin Le Bon.

Yasmin walked in my inaugural London Fashion Week show back in the early 90’s…it was my first exposure to a super model (which I had assumed would be pretty intimidating) but she was kind, encouraging and incredibly down to earth…oh, and totally breathtakingly beautiful. Despite her global fame and the fact she has been married to the rockstar Simon Le Bon, front man of the legendary band Duran Duran, for nearly 40 years, she remains wonderfully grounded, inciteful and funny…and still breathtakingly beautiful.

She has appeared on over 300 magazine covers across the world including the first issues of both British and American Elle. Her modelling career spans 5 decades and she and her oldest daughter Amber are the mother and daughter faces of Boodles jewellery. Yasmin has an informed passion for fashion, she is honestly one of the most effortlessly stylish women I know, and I loved hearing her thoughts and insights on the complex world of modelling, ageing, as well as her own approach to style.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did having it…

In this episode I go on a style journey with Broadcaster and Amnesty Ambassador … the human ray of sunshine that is Vick Hope. Vick is one of the most joyful and positive women I have met in a long time. Chatting to her I wished that my 21 year old self could have been a fly on the wall for the conversation and taken on board some of her wisdom. Her sense of self and acceptance of who she is is inspiring …(not hard, I hear you say, when you look like she does), but like every woman I know, we all feel we could be better at this, or life would be easier if we looked like that…yet Vick has reached a place of loving life, and all its imperfections, and her joy is simply, and beautifully, infectious. We talk about how she didn’t feel like she fitted in growing up, then felt like a fish out of water when she went to Cambridge University, and how she had been “a bit unkind to herself”, before finding herself when she moved to London. She clearly loves fashion and shares anecdotes of being inspired by her mother, clothes swaps at Uni and dressing for her different broadcasting roles which to date have been many and varied included presenting Crufts, the Paralympics, and boxing, to co-hosting the Baftas and the Brits…she is about to be a guest presenter on Pointless and currently hosts the Drive Time Show on Radio 1 with Jordan North…and so much more…her life is clearly a happy whirlwind, and she is joyfully embracing every moment…in a word…inspirational.

My podcast guest this week is the designer, entrepreneur and podcaster Ollie Proudlock. Ollie grew up surrounded by creativity, his mother was a knitwear designer and he remembers Ralph Lauren’s visits to their family home where Ralph would select designs from his mother’s Fair Isle collection, often modelled by him, his friends and his siblings.  After attending Art College Ollie starred in 10 seasons of Made in Chelsea and cleverly leveraged his own image and love of fashion and style to create his brand Serge DeNimes in 2011. Starting with seasonal collections of clothing and accessories before swivelling to take advantage of a gap in the market for high quality fashion jewellery for men.  We talk about men wearing pearls… how his first collection was inspired by photographs that his mother took when visiting the Rio Carnival in the 70’s,  all the way through to the influence of music on fashion…

This week on the podcast I go on a style journey with the funny and self-deprecating former You Magazine Editor and now CEO of Children with Cancer Charity, Jo Elvin.

I first met Jo in the late 90’s when she was editor of New Woman (we both admitted to being slightly intimidated by the other)…she went on to become editor in chief of Conde Nast’s Glamour magazine, a position she held for 17 years before being lured away to edit You Magazine which she led brilliantly for 4 years before turning her hand to leading a major UK Charity.

We talk about how she found her fashion mojo and dressing for the “gladiators arena” of the fashion world…to the politics of the Front Row and on to her now famous Week on the Wall wardrobe planning that she shares on Instagram … to getting her first tattoo… all told with warmth and humour.

I am kicking off Series 2 by going on a sartorial journey with Actress, Singer, Producer, Radio Presenter…the star who is known as the First Lady of British Musical Theatre…the wonderful and brilliant Elaine Paige OBE. This petite pocket rocket is a force of nature… she has wowed audiences through the decades starring in everything from Cats to Sunset Boulevard to Evita to Piaff and so much more… she has performed around the world from The Great Wall of China to The White House… Amongst other things we talk about the importance of getting dressed for her auditions, how the process of applying her makeup herself helped her transform into her character for her performance, and her all-important “Act 3” look …all interspersed with her infectious, inimitable laugh and self-deprecating humour.

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Join Amanda Wakeley as she is joined by a different celebrity guest each week as she uncovers their very own Style DNA.

This week's guest is Paula Sutton – Digital Creator, columnist and author Paula Sutton. After starting off as a press officer for Elite Premier model agency in London, she worked in fashion PR and as a model agent before landing at Elle, where she was the bookings director (planning the sets and locations for the shoots). Paula moved from London to rural Norfolk 10 years ago where she re-defined her personal style evolving from cosmopolitan career woman to English country chic. Her photogenic posts about English country living have earned her a large and loyal following. On Instagram, where she posts as @hillhousevintage, she chronicles the pleasures of dressing, entertaining, decorating and gardening from her home in Norfolk, England.

Join Amanda Wakeley as she is joined by a different celebrity guest each week as she uncovers their very own Style DNA.

This week's guest is Anita Rani – TV and Radio Presenter, Author. Anita’s career spans over 20 years and she is a true girl’s girl, happy to share her ups and her downs…the hard knocks of being a brown girl (her words) growing up in a very white Britain…Her recently published and self-narrated memoirs The Right Sort of Girl is painfully raw, honest but wonderfully upliftingly, humorous too. We discuss her passion for fashion, ignited by her father who was a tailor and her uncle who was “incredibly cool” … how being on Strictly Come Dancing took her way out of her comfort zone and of course that Saree moment when she was presenting for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.  

Join Amanda Wakeley as she is joined by a different celebrity guest each week as she uncovers their very own Style DNA.

This week's guest is Lisa Armstrong OBE….Lisa is The Telegraph's Head of Fashion. She began her career in fashion at Vogue. She has written four novels, has an honorary doctorate from the University of Arts in London and was awarded an OBE in 2022 for services to fashion. After a childhood spent in rural Dorset Lisa shares stories of her fashion journey from starting out as a junior at Vogue through to attending the bi-annual Ready to Wear and Couture shows around the world and how the industry is now less about show critiques and more about fashion know how and how to - Lisa has an innate knack of fusing fashion intelligence with a woman’s perspective…helpful, stylish yet attainable advice… I have known Lisa my whole career as the fashion editor she is but this conversation allows me the opportunity to turn the tables and be the one asking the questions!

Join Amanda Wakeley as she is joined by a different celebrity guest each week as she uncovers their very own Style DNA.

This week's guest is Liz Earle MBE …In this episode I go on a sartorial journey with Liz Earle MBE…Liz has been a trusted authority in the world of wellbeing for over 30 years. She has written over 35 books on many aspects of nutritional, hormonal and gut health, as well as being a regular wellness TV presenter and podcast host. She is passionate about improving the health of mid-life women and beyond, especially helping women from all backgrounds achieve a better ‘second half’. In 1995 she founded her eponymous skincare brand Liz Earle. I have known Liz for over 30 years and have always been in awe of her passion for making women FEEL great (something we share) …whether through the wonderful skincare range that she created or more recently through her advocation of health and wellbeing … she is a complete inspiration and has always been so generous when it comes to sharing her knowledge …which she does on an almost daily basis on her social media feeds.

Join Amanda Wakeley as she is joined by a different celebrity guest each week as she uncovers their very own Style DNA.

This week's guest is Ella Vaday - I always knew that I wanted to include a Drag Artist in this first series. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the brilliant and very modest Ella Vaday (say Hell Of A Day fast and you will understand the humour behind the name), AKA Nick Collier, the actor and dancer. Nick created his drag persona Ella Vaday during Lockdown and then went on to be a finalist on the third series Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK. We had a fascinating conversation about the transformative process Nick goes through, his attention to detail and his passion for getting the proportions right… think about it…if you have a huge wig and broad shoulders there is quite a skill in getting the proportions to balance. Nick kindly agreed to come as Ella and I was transfixed from the moment she walked through the door… I hope that comes across in our conversation.