Today I'm going on a sartorial Journey with the wonderful
British actor and director, Angela and 0 on stage.
She's played lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare company.
The National Royal Court and Almeida theaters on television,
she appeared in two series of Doctor Who as Francine Jones 90
episodes of the BBC's long-running medical drama
casualty and EastEnders and oh, made her Hollywood debut.
You in Autumn 2009, starring as Nelson.
Mandela's Chief of Staff, Brenda Master Buco alongside Morgan
Freeman, as Mandela in Clint Eastwood's drama film, Invictus
since 2020, she portrays lady Danbury in the Netflix Regency
romance series. Britain in July 20, 22, and oh,
became an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of literature.
She's also an ambassador for fair trade and the International
Rescue committee and oh, also directed and starred in.
First, major production of Richard, the Second with a
company entirely made up of women of color.
So, add you are welcome. Thank such an honor to have you
here. I've been a massive fan of yours
and then when I saw you on the Royal Windsor Horse Show.
Oh, just so lovely. Had tears, down my eyes.
Yeah, wonderful. Wonderful voice.
And so to be here in person with you, is such a treat.
So thank you for making the time.
I am going to start right at the beginning.
Okay, say what is your earliest, sartorial memory?
When did you first realize the impact of clothes?
My mom is 6 foot and she is a great, she was a choreographer
and my games mistress, oh my God, and she, she's sit up.
Straight, stand up, straight, you've got one, you know,
posturing, you know, and she was one of those those tall girls at
school. Who was told, don't hide your
height, you know. She was got to play.
You know, male leads in school plays because it was very sporty
and all those sorts of things and she loves clothes, my mother
loves clothes, she has in their old house, the whole of the top
floor was clothes. And did you play dress-up when I
was a kid? We were fairly Paul.
So mom used to make me. She would make you clothes.
She would make though, they think they were cloth kits that
used to get in the post and they were usually called Roy and she
Would make clothes from those she would make clothes from
curtains. She would crochet, she wouldn't
it, she was, she was The Fantasticks.
You made all my costumes for place, you know, and my
grandmother did the same fat both.
My grandmother's were great clothes makers.
So I come from a family of women and men actually who love a bit
of schmatta. They like a nice cut.
They never my father at 90, I was with him and Garner a couple
of weeks ago and it taken as ages together is 1:30 in the
morning. And dad said, so shall we unpack
the suitcases I'm thinking as 1:30 and okay, dad, and my
stepmother had? I mean, I was getting this
beautiful, the handkerchief, the pocket squares are all
beautifully ironed and put in just so the shirts folded
beautifully and I went your Butler's good.
He went, yes, she is. So I'm adding everything up does
and I think we're that with that mot, you know, it's 90, it's
1:30 in the morning and he's kind of working out what outfits
are gonna So yeah, there's a lot of but when do you remember the
outfit that you put on that? You went I have the photograph
of me. I must be four in our garden.
In this little village in the Cotswolds called brick wall and
dad is taking forever. Taking the photograph as, you
know, come on, and I'm in the garden.
And I'm wearing an olive green dress, with Paisley cream,
swirls in it, which my mother has made me with a cowl.
Neck and in my head I know he's doing photo is my first moment
of going. Oh, I have to pose and I am
standing just sir in my for ages going.
Is he ever going to take the picture?
But I just, I love that outfit. It had long sleeves and they
were sort of gathered. So they're a bit puffy at the
end but I love the cowl neck and I was a kid that would I would
decide I was going to be Pipi Longstocking, so I'd get red
tights, my mum's eyeliner. You putting this thing on have
strike, pee socks. Clogs.
And some skirt, I picked up from a jumble sale and I would, I
would troll up and down the one Street in my tiny village with
people like her. If she comes now, she wearing.
So I've yeah, I love clothes. I've always liked, I'm
interested in the different stories we tell by what we
choose to put on. Yes.
Because I often think that clothes are armor and I don't
mean that in an aggressive way, but they are what sits between
our naked selves and the world. Yeah, absolutely.
I agree with you and it's, I'm always, you know, with work.
I'm always interested in, what is the thing?
What is the correct thing for this character for this scene?
I've because I do think it's a huge bit of information that you
communicate publicly, but you sort of, reflect back on
yourself to give you, whatever it is.
You need to have in that in that moment, and it's still dressing
up. It is, it is, it is, I mean,
I've got a million questions to ask you about.
About your costumes but just going back to your childhood.
Yeah, I read recently about your comments on how inspiring
Nichelle Nichols was to you and I know she was inspiring to you
as a woman of color who was on the television, but did her, did
she inspire you sartorially to? I always thought she had a lot
of Swag. She had great She was always
just, you know, I mean, there was a, there was a level of
uniform that they had on Star Trek.
But she wore hers with great Panache and style and I always
see really owned it. She really didn't.
She always just looked fabulous and I love that about her.
She had she had great self-confidence, she had a real
twinkle. She there was always a bit of an
eyebrow being raised at something.
Ridiculous, the boys were doing and great command over her
brief, which was to be the translator, and the
communicator. And I She carried that wall off
brilliantly and frankly in the middle of the Cotswolds in the
1960s, she was a black woman on the television looking fabulous
and so that was an enormously rare heartening, like them.
Yeah, I met her at a. There was an awards dinner for,
I don't know. Black artists in must have been
in the mid 90s and she was being, you know, given a
Lifetime Achievement Award. And I went to the Loo and I came
back to do when she was heading. For the lift because she was
tired and it was late. She ran after I got into the
list for dick with her and her partner who must have just
thought, oh my god, get this woman out.
And I just did a whole sort of my childhood.
He would I love mustard meant a lot.
She laughed. She was.
Yeah, she was really lovely and you know, she Martin Luther King
when she wanted to leave after one series of Star Trek said,
you have to stay in it. You are a role model, we need to
see women of color like you in roles.
Like that in this fantastic show.
That's all about Humanity coming together and traveling into new
universes so it was so ahead of its time.
Yes all of that I mean just yeah amazing as an actor you're
actually always telling a story and through your character and
yeah costumes are fundamental yet part of that.
Yeah and I always think never more so than fabulous lady
Danbury yes bro. Yes.
How much are you actually involved in your unbelievably
involved? Yeah, love it to me.
Well, because I don't, I'm my thing is, you know, I who is
Lady Danbury. What is she doing?
What's her purpose? How does she function in, you
know, 18th into 19th century, upper class Society, everything
is performative. And for me I was very clear when
I went into the The show, she is an anomaly in that society as
his Queen Charlotte and we're doing.
There's a prequel that shonda's written that we're filming at
the moment and you get to see the back stories of her, Queen
Charlotte, and violet Bridgeton. And I was really interested in
who she was. How she came to be there and
authentically. What were the true historical
stories that you can sort of just Leap into your romantic
drama. And and so I it was very clear
to me that when she goes into a space.
It's performative. It's always performative.
So what is she going to wear to enhance that that performance
and for me? She's not married for a woman in
that era. You were, you didn't have voting
rights, you were passed from your husband from your father,
to your husband, or even from your eldest, your Mother to your
husband, or whatever male person was in charge, anything that
belonged to you, then belong to your husband, you didn't have
agency over your life. So for me, she's a widow her
children live far away and so she's the master of our own
ship. So I wanted to have a masculine
feminine feel to her. So she wears hats, like the men
would like Regency men would. She has the cane which?
Yes, you can go over. Because she's an old woman, but
for me, it's also about its Pasha, and it's part of the
thing. She has a shot Len because
that's what the men would have. And I had, I requested that all
the cuts for her. She's very tailored and, you
know, her jackets fit just so the caller is up, you know, the
sleeves are long and they're and they're buttoned and they're,
you know, they never, they're always just above the knuckle.
So there's all these sort of fact, frankly obsessive Details
that have for me have become part of her as you say, her
armor and you worked very collaboratively.
Yeah. Yes.
Very generous costume Department.
Yeah, because I've always loved velvet in InDesign and yeah, the
richness that yes. Yes.
Eurasian and I couldn't help but notice that you wore a lot of.
There's a lot of alpha. Yeah.
Is there a symbolism in that? No, I just like them.
I like the richness of it and as an actor working in course It's
for sort of 15 hours a day. I like the movement of it and I
like the flexibility of it. There is some of the heavier
denser Fabrics, which I don't like wearing, cause I feel a bit
like, I'm inside this sofa, and I can't move properly.
So the Velvet gives you the sort of richness, but it also gives
you movement the softness. Yeah, yes.
And I often wonder when you're getting into character, when
you're about to go on set, Is putting on the costume?
A transformative moment or are you thinking, you know, when
does the when do you transform into from from me into her into
lady Danbury, that's a really good question because I don't
really know anymore. I, I think she's become.
I think I'm well, I'm at work. I'm probably a more Danbury side
of Then I am. You know what?
I'm walking the dog or doing the gardening or trolling around
Sainsbury's, you know. So I think there's something
about, she comes to work with me and you know, she's sort of she
sort of in there and what once I'm on set and I'm in my own
space and with my lines and I'm, I'm straight into her.
I think that was one of the things when I got sent the
original, you know, sides to go and And read for her.
I just read it and went, oh, I can do something with her.
I know I recognize that, that's my mum.
That's my Auntie that's my grandmother's that my as an
actor that must feel wonderful. Ya know that the so much of her
and you or you in her it was. Yeah.
And sometimes those roles come along where you go.
Oh yeah. So you were talking about them
Invictus when you were doing your intro for me and Brendan as
Buco was the same, I got the size on.
Out. Yeah, I know her.
I know what to do with her. Yeah.
Do you have a favorite look from Bridgeton?
I really love my hats. I love a hat.
That's just my mummy. She loves her hat and do never
had outside of of the show. Yes.
I I it's got a bit hard now because peaky, blinders is so
popular, but I do love a Baker's Boy hat, and so I wear them
along really suit you. Yeah, and I used to wear, when I
had dreads, I used to have lots of big big hat.
That's for my hair and my mum will crochet me.
I wear little skull cap sometimes.
Now just you know if I'm some I really hot for example, just to
protect your head that sort of thing.
Yeah. You forget to keep any of your
costumes. No, not.
Well, would you want to have from other shows?
But I mean sometimes they'll be a little something.
I like I did Blood wedding at the Almeida years ago and that
and I just have to wear this this really soft fine black
shirt and I just loved it. So I just left the theater with
it at the end of the run that happens sometimes.
Yes let's not dwell on that. Just talking about clothes has
armor so one of my kids is trans and it was really important for
them to be able to be in the world and manifest as the gender
that they felt themselves to be before they'd had chance to
address that in a It's of medical way.
So clothes were hugely important about you are like like I'd be
able to what anybody can imagine, just to go out, feel
safe, feel confident, not be mispronounced and all that sort
of stuff and clothes finding, you know, the clothes that
allowed the body shape that was required to look authentic and
present was, it was hugely important and were you Part of
that process, did you? Yeah, we would have those
conversations. We would also do you go shopping
together. Yeah.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
And those must have been some really precious moments as a
parent. I think so.
And and also its performative, and I'm a performer.
So just in taught in terms of talking about posture or Voice
or the way you walk, the way you carry yourself as You know that
all adds to the story that you're telling with the clothes
of the person that you feel yourself to be but don't yet
physically manifest it all. It all was really important to
get that to build the picture. Yeah.
I mean I know and I love, you
know, I love, I love and I sort of androgyny.
I do like that. I'm really interested in that
for me. I feel I feel quite comfortable
in in sort of Gender-neutral e, clothes.
I'm interested in people being who they are as a person.
Not conforming to any particular stereotypes.
We have about what a gendered person should should be.
Do you think that's come with age to?
Because I have for me, definitely.
As I as I get older, I love being all that.
Not today, as you can, well, you know, chiffon me to baking hot,
but I actually love that sort of androgyny.
And and actually being more me and my clothes are part of who I
am but then they're not absolute.
They're not wearing me. Yes.
Well that I think that's, that's always really important.
I mean, I loved I loved the women's football final I'd
loved. And I want why I loved it was
just about seeing women in their bodies, you know?
Just in their bodies because the bodies are Thing and it needs to
get the ball from that end into that net.
And I there was a freedom in it and I sometimes think what's the
androgyny thing about for me? And I think it's something
about, I like it, but it's, there's a freedom in it because
as a woman, there are certain even in the 21st century and
hip. And groovy London, there are
sort of subconscious constraints that we're all still operating
within and that the at they aren't the and the androgyny
thoughts of Gives permission to be.
And I remember even in my early teens people would go, you were
going to a boy because my hair was so short and I'd be like,
yes. I'm just me.
And I and I, and I think I'm, you know.
However, many decades later I'm still sort of enjoying the, the,
the times when I can feel sort of free.
Yeah. As a well-known face.
Yeah. You ever aware of, you know,
Popping down to get a pint of milk or walk.
The dog, am I going to get popped?
The are sort of very conscious of leaving the house and I I've
made myself not I schlepp out in my, you know holy old denim
shorts and a vest to walk the dog and a pair of old
Birkenstocks quite happily. And if I get stopped, I get
stopped. But if people ask me for a photo
and it's early in the morning and I've had two Not sleep.
I'll say I'm really fancy it today and people are usually
pretty lovely. Yeah, fundamentally, do you
think you dress for yourself, your husband, your kids other
women, I definitely dress for. I dress sometimes I dress for an
occasion, I will dress for an occasion, obviously, build it up
and sometimes I dress just to make myself feel better or to
make myself invisible, or sometimes I will put Put on a
pretty dress for my husband, just for that brief moment,
where he's not with his Biffy old wife for once that she might
be slightly soft around the edges.
It's a fiction. Obviously, I'm not.
But yeah. So I will do that.
I loved that it seems to me we really enjoy fashion is, is bit.
Would you say being stylish is important to you?
It's important to me if it makes me feel, if it makes me feel
better if it's a sort of enhancement of my mood.
If it becomes a stick to beat myself with then I want to
Swerve away from it. Do you ever use a stylist?
I have a, I do, I do. I do use a stylist and I also, I
love a good suit, so I get suits made for me.
Now, where do you get those? I go to the deck.
Oh, lovely. It yet I go to Daisy at the deck
and I love the the whole concept.
I like the ethos of it, the ethos.
Yeah. A woman on Savile Row.
Yes. So right, isn't it?
Yes, I think so. So I love that.
In fact I took my mum, we went to Wimbledon and then the next
day I took her to get a couple of Suits.
Oh good, good. Because she likes a suit to,
there's nothing more empowering, I think than a beautifully cut
suit in fact, what I remember of clip my mum She had a sort of
deep aubergine e velvet suit in 1972 and she used to have her
hair up and she'd wear big earrings like this and and I
just remember my mum in that suit and I just remember, being
a little girl kind of going. My mom looks so beautiful.
You know, so I, yeah, it's lovely.
Those moments, isn't it? I remember a few years back
doing a brown suede flare. Ted fled pant and a brown suede
Blazer. And remembering that my mother
had had something very simple similar.
Yeah. In the 70s and thinking how
unbelievably Chic she was. Yeah, and and sort of really
reliving that moment. Yeah, absolutely.
Very good one. Would you say your weight or
perception of your body affects your choice of what you wear?
Definitely a red. And one interview that you never
really liked your legs, and then you went back to Ghana realize
that you had I'm now an leg. Yes.
And it will make you more accepting.
Oh, it was, it was just, there is a, there's a, there's a
certain leg shape which is a flat knee, and no ankles.
So your leg just goes. And then there's your feet.
And that's, that's my legs. And, and obviously, because I
grew up in the Cotswolds, my peer group didn't have legs like
that. We were the Africans for about
50 miles. I didn't even inherit my
mother's six-foot. Gorgeous, long legs.
I've got my Big R little chunky. African Stumpy sturdy, sturdy,
little leg. He's so, but yeah.
I went to, I went to Ghana and is a bit like, you know, the
ugly duckling who finds out that he's not a duckling.
He's Swami's as well and it just suddenly kind of going.
Oh okay does that's just they've got owe you every last me.
Yeah. And that was Just reassuring
reassuring and kind to yourself. Yeah, wonderful.
What do you reach for when you need to feel empowered?
I go for a good suit jacket and probably a pair of chicken boots
and jeans. Good girl.
Yeah, it would you consider to be your style icon?
I love Katharine Hepburn. Mmm, I love her.
I loved what I love. What she wore.
I love the way she wore things. There was a sort of confident
flamboyance about her that I really I really and also that
bit of mask Yelena T. Totally in there.
She will pantsuit fantastic. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. What do you most enjoy shopping
for? Do you reckon Well, if I'm
honest, I kind of hate shopping because when I really look for
something, I never find the thing.
So what I love is The Accidental shop.
So a couple of about a month ago, I was in Harvard giving the
address to the class of twenty one, that's quite a drop.
That really, it is slang really a with no, but I was so touched
because they didn't get to That thing last year because of
covid. Yeah, and I've never been to
Boston. My husband is a novelist and he
was also beat specialist so Jack Kerouac.
Massachusetts, all of that stuff and I've never been to Boston
and Katharine. Hepburn is a New Englander.
So that was an appeal, and I had half a morning after I'd given
the address the night before before had to fly back to
London. And I happened to go to two
shops that were next door to each other and I walked into one
shot. And I went, oh, I like that.
I like and I just did two shops and left with bags and that sort
of, that's me. That would be me down for a bit.
Love, ya, do you think your sartorial Church style, has
changed through the decades? I don't think my tastes have
changed. I think my body shape has
changed. And so, to a degree, I've had to
adapt. My taste to the facts on the
ground, but I still think I You know, I used to wear my dad's
suits, his seats from the 50s I used to wear them.
Oh, I love, you know, for viewing those yeah.
Yeah. With a belt around the waist
because they were too big in the pants.
But, um, yeah. So what is the one item of
clothing? That means the most to you, is
it something that was your dad's?
Is it? Wishing dress is it?
I yeah, I have still. I've got the the I do have the
the christening dress that I wore that my daughter war.
And if she ever get my eldest daughter and if she ever gets
her son, baptized, he'll probably be too big for it, but
he could wear it to II think I've got Apache.
What I have got is I've got a purple concerned.
It's anyway, it's gonna Ian, it was made by my grandmother in
the 60s for my mum and it's a traditional Canadian to piece.
So it's a the neck, does that sleeves come down to about here?
It goes in at the waist and has a sort of little peplum and then
it has the skirt. That's a bit of a fishtail that
comes down to the ankles and I don't think it's going to
particularly fancy material, but it was just it's the fact that
my grandmother made It my mother wore it and I wore it at is
about using that baptisms I worked at the baptism of our two
youngest and yeah and I and then you have the extra piece of the
the cross. It just sits over one shoulder
and do you have a node address? No.
That's that. Each a fool is generally that's
sort of more Nigeria is going on saying Nigerian yes.
Oh no, I couldn't tie one of those.
If you paid me. A gold cuff them.
Yeah, yeah, coming back to planning.
I would imagine that the planning that goes into a
perfect red carpet. Look is enormous.
Yes, sort of like a wedding dress, really?
Yes. Does it fill you with Dread?
Yes. Feel about yanking the red
carpet. I feel horrible a lot of.
No, I just don't like it. I just I just has a little bit
of the West country. Oh, look at you think you better
than you ought to be? It is it that that me everyone's
got to look at me? Yes.
I think what it is is I like being a much happier being a
character. It's time to sort of a bit of a
cliche like that at sort of the acting cliche.
But the other thing for me is I'm dyspraxia.
The so my torso, the muscles are soggy your knee joint, your hip
joints, your ankle joints, everything is soggy.
So if I'm in a pair of high heels on the red carpet, it's
like a dice with death. Am I gonna go over on it
tonight? Have you ever been over?
I haven't on the red carpet knocking would but I have come
off stage at the Royal Court and misjudged it and gone.
And and being in a pair of, I think it was a 70s heels hips
and platform number and misjudge the step and completely gone,
over my ankles, just gone like that.
So that sort of thing. Always makes me feel a bit
uncomfortable. I'm smiling, but I'm really
going. Please don't fall over or
onstage. I remember I was doing a show
called The Revengers tragedy at the national and it was in the
Olivier 8. So the big circular stage and I
was playing The Duchess who is the vamp.
So I mean red Red velvet, big Power shoulders, it's fitted.
There's no back to it. I've got high heels on and the
the opening of the show everyone has to walk in sort of slow
motion around the stage that must have been your idea.
It was my idea of hell and press night doing that it.
I just, it just went on and on. I just thought, just get me off
the stage, I was practically crying because there's nothing
to hold onto and I'm in heels, and I'm supposed to look,
fabulous and vampy and I'm just scared.
I'm going to fall over. But interestingly, do you feel
The necessity to wear heels on the red carpet.
And yes, sometimes I do I just think there's a sort of line, it
can give you that in the posture that on Hosta and all that.
So if I can sometimes cheat that and where you know, some
slightly chunky heeled boots or cow boyish, shoes or something
like that then and then I can do that sometimes in that will do
you feel more confident in Aboot, that's holding your foot.
Then I feel confident in anything that's holding my foot,
because that's that sense of, you're teetering from the ground
up. I find that quite tricky.
Wow, what would you say is being your worst fashion moment?
Well, it was Kim, Smith's birthday party, it was 1973.
And I had begged, I had begged my mother to let me wear
Something fashionable and we'd gone to Tesco's 73.
So you were 10. I was 10.
I'd so, I went up here early. So, I was at secondary school,
and I was 10, Kim Smith was a cross country Runner.
She was blond, and she was tall, and she was funny and everybody
loved her. And I really wanted to look nice
for her party. And I ended up going in a sort
of, it was a sort of brownie, beige, with a sort of check on
it. It and it had a frilly collar
and puff sleeve 370 and really seventies.
And it came in at the waist and then it went out.
And then it had layers of Frills all the way down to the ground.
I looked horrible, I had a mono brow, and a mustache and to sort
of Afro that wasn't quite dead, just like.
But how did you feel terrible own Moon?
As soon as I got there, like mistake mistake.
Yeah, yeah, there's nothing. No.
More empowering or disempowering?
Yes. Than clothes.
I always think. Yes, how often do you spring,
clean? Your wardrobe.
It's on the to-do list forever Amanda.
I mean I do have clothes in my. I have my I have a dress that my
mother wore in the late 60s, but with big puff sleeves and a sort
of it's green with a sort of medieval print on it.
And Greensleeves, you know, the phone Williams Greensleeves was
one of her favorite songs. And I always thought that it was
about that dress and then one day she don't darling, I don't
want this job. So I have the dress in the
world, I never wear it. But, you know, there are just
these and you're hanging onto it for sentimental reasons, I think
I am. But I also think I will wear
that because really nice dress. I haven't worn it.
I have I think I still have some underwear from school.
Do you do you look after your clothes really beautifully?
No, that's not high on the agenda.
At know, it is. It's on the when I grow up and
I'm turning into a responsible human being.
I'm just gonna, you know, there are like I have a wardrobe of
Doom upstairs there. There are shoes wedged in there.
I think there are probably sandals in there.
I haven't warned for a decade. Honestly, How many pairs of
shoes do you earn? No, it's over 100.
And no probably but probably in the 60s or 70s.
I've heard worse. Have you?
I have heard worse. Don't beat yourself up.
What brand would you say is? Your guilty secret and why?
Oh my God. I'm really bad on Brands.
I'm just, I just, I just don't really.
I don't really follow brands at all.
So the most expensive item you've ever bought.
Probably some of my homemade, my homemade handmade suits.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because yeah, they're up in the
and accessories are your handbag.
Girl. I, I like I do like Bag.
But I tend to buy, I'm very fond of.
There's a guy who weaves handbags in all sorts of ways,
under a tree in Accra, ran the corner from the shopping mall
and I tend to go and negotiate with him for banks.
And I really like leather, ghanaians Ganesha, Ganesha in
leather bags. And yeah, how.
So my bags tend to be from Ghana.
So they're from Ghana, not Chanel.
Yeah. Oh, because I was going to say,
When you're buying an expensive piece to ever justify it on
pounds per wear. Ask girls are quite good at
that. That's a really good one.
Yes, I do a lot. Right but I'm yeah, I'm I like
things I'm not so much about Brands, but I just like if I
like it, it can be 10 pounds or 500 pounds.
If I like it, then I like it and who's made it is irrelevant kind
of less interesting unless they have a really particular style.
That's that's Liam wonderfully confident.
Do you have a particular Zone? Zoom look, I wonder especially
during lockdown. You must have done some odd
castings on Zoom. Everything was on doing as much
do you treat if you're doing a casting on Zoom, do you try and
get into the character at all with what you're wearing?
Well interestingly because bridgie came out during a
lockdown. We did a lot of publicity on
zoom and then when season 2 came out I got covid for the first
time whoo-hoo so I had to do all my publicity on on because there
was no lying down and being poorly.
So what were you wearing? I was getting, I was getting
designer things being sent to me.
I would be in big puffy ball things.
I think the thing is it's a very small canvas, so you have to be
quite, you have to be quite bold.
Yes, I did. And I was I was doing something
for their Kelly Clarkson show in America.
Our and I wasn't there, and two of the cast were there.
So I wore a dress, that was so orange.
It was burning the lens practically, but it was sort of
you just need big shapes and big, big pictures, I think.
And but when you're doing a casting on, when you're doing a
casting, then I just think you need to lean into the character
as much as you can and I mean within that screen.
Yeah. Yeah, and be with them and just
make sure you're very well-lit. Ring, light ring, lights are
good. And also, for brown skin, gold
reflectors goals of gold gold, gold, gold, gold reflectors.
And how do you do that personally then?
Well, sometimes I'm lucky and I have my brother, if he's over
from the states and he's a photographer.
Oh, Pearl. Be like, come on, Pooh face,
come on, come on. And then you just, you know, you
do the you do the thing that everybody does the smoke and
mirrors, you balance that thing there, and that's got a bit of
of stick out, you know, you stick gaffer tape on the back of
your frock and you dip, you know, all the things all of the
little seats, I don't like to call them cheats their asses.
Their part of the structure, aren't this?
Absolutely. So going on to sustainable
fashion, what's your views on that and your approach to it?
I mean it sounds like you love to hang on to things, so it's
not like you're a fast fashion. I'm not a fast fashion consumer.
I mean, I love Hang on to everything, you know.
It could be books as well as shoes or clothes.
It's Grim. So you haven't heard your Marie
kondo moment. No, but I need to have it
because it's completely unnecessary and it starts to get
a bit overwhelming after a while doesn't.
And it's also that thing of just the cop beat.
Be thoughtful about your life. Do you wear it?
Have you read that? Are you ever going to read it?
You know, you feel that coming on?
Yeah, it's funny. I yes I don't you think that's
an age thing a time of. I think it's I think it's it's
part of the same conversation that we've been having about
reflecting on your life and sort of pairing out the Clutter and
going. No this is what I want to do.
This is I don't want to be constantly doing, you know, why
don't I have time to sort things out because life is like this
and at certain point you have to go you know it's not rehearsal.
Yeah make it how you want it now because who knows what tomorrow
will be. So so yeah I do need I do need a
Cutter moment. I've lost track of what your
question was there. Amanda.
It was your approach to sustainable?
Oh yes, and I can't bear the thought of a child.
Who is the age of my grandson or you know one of my kids when
they were little in some Factory sewing on sequins when they
should be in the fresh air or they should be in school.
I know I'm in my next question was is, do you ever think about
The person who actually made the Garment always you're wearing
all the touching on. I think about it all the time.
I think I call it sort of mindful consumption that I I
love thinking about it. Yeah.
And giving that person that moment of thanks.
Yeah, credit. Yeah I agree with you so I'm I
don't like I think I think I'm turning into an old get is what
I think but Paul Of that is that I think as a society we are
utterly hooked into disposable everything.
You know, I want to fix the iron, I don't want to throw the
iron away and get a new one. You know, it's all that.
Sort of where is it going? It's just for filling, landfill
sites with this stuff and so on clothes.
And so, I will close. It sounds, same thing.
Just hang on to them at the moment.
I hang onto them but and I also do, you know, I give a lot to
do. 22. It'll be a charity like Oxfam or
something like that. Where I know that it's not going
to end up in a landfill site, just outside of Accra, which is
where a lot of, you know, that all we know it's going to be
recite. No, it's not.
Just going to talk to someone else, some of those sites from
outside Accra are quite disturbing.
Yeah, they are. And there's so-and-so.
I don't I and I and I want to think about.
So this is with my fair trade hat on this.
Trade cotton. So I know it's going to be not
full of pesticides for the land where it's grown that the people
who are picking in are being, given a decent income with all
the extra premiums that happen around, Healthcare and
education, and women's empowerment that perhaps, with
fair trade. So I try to buy so that I can
get something lovely and we can share the love at the same time
at the other end of the chain, as it were love that do it.
You have a by binta jh. Oh listen, I said, well, I
suppose we called it secondhand, but I used to live in second
hand shops, I was a, I was a punk in the 70s, saw the clash
in 1977 changed, my life. Well, what were you wearing?
I'm still a punk in my heart. I've been wearing my dad's
suits, men's brogues, a lot of eyeliner skinny ties.
Yeah, lots of men to my hair was short.
It was short. It was not short of this but it
was short and sometimes it was blue and sometimes it was red
and sometimes it was green and sometimes I was banned from
school. So, yeah, and then and then when
the two-tone came along, I would be in the in the second-hand
shops. Getting my my crimp my pink
crimplene suits and little dresses and little, I mean, my
feet are ruined from Winkle Pickers.
Yeah, yes, she nods. Yes, yes.
Now, I have some Quick fire questions for you high-end or
High Street. Can't be both II.
Think I'm I think I'm probably more high-end than High Street,
but only in terms of interesting design as opposed to
cookie-cutter design, bling or bear.
Roar, I think I'm probably bling, minimalism, or
maximalism. Whoo-wee.
Oh, I it can really change from day to day but I'm on generally,
I'm pretty minimalist, I suppose I would say so cultural charity
shop. It's an awful lot of both
Harrison. Well, it kind of is because you
know you might find those fantastic cut in the charity
shop and then you might look at the picture and go, I don't
understand this season is not for me.
So it'll just be where my nose leads me one awful bug off.
Oh, I'm a great believer in. If you see that thing that you
really like that pair of trousers that fit you perfectly
get three pairs. You may never get a fifth good
as that again, love that, Crocs cute or puke.
They're very good on a pebbly beach on this, in the Sussex
Coast, as a as an item of beauty.
No sneakers or stilettos. I think I know the answer to
that. You know, we're going sneakers.
Skinnies or boyfriends as enjoy boyfriends.
Body Connell boho. Oh no, I do understand what you
just said on the body. Yeah, any tight.
Yes or boho flowy. I think it depends what it is.
Cuz I like a tight. I like a tight t-shirt or a good
type polar neck. But I also as you can see you
quite a boho. Girl, I'm a bit boho today.
You're a bit of everything. Sorry.
Sports Luxor, rock chick. rock chick glamour, grunge Hmm.
The crunch can sometimes be quite glam.
I think I'm going to go grunge in an honor of my punk red
carpet or relaxed dressing up. Is fun party.
Where or PJs? God, I do love my PJs, but I do
like a party. Can I do party?
Where and then come home and put on my PJs and do whatever you
want Trend or Style Style color or monochrome, monochrome
experimental, or uniform. Mmm, I mean, I do like a suit
and that's fairly uniform. I think I'm uniform actually
Kashmir or cotton cotton order or editor.
I think we know the answer to that.
I'm a shameful hoarder. Lot of be an editor.
I want to Vintage your rental. Oh vintage, I think shapewear or
sexy lingerie chewy shapewear. If I'm if I'm working sexy
lingerie if I'm playing a lot of information that title
stockings. Tights bikini or one piece.
Well, I like a bikini because I like sunbathing beanie or Barry.
Beanie. And finally, a Joe one last
question at the end of the day, what do you or don't you wear in
bed? Oh it depends how hot I am.
Amanda editor 10 point in life. It's just the heat.
I wear an it in the summer. Cotton or I don't wear nothing
if it's too hot. And in the winter, there is a
farmer's Outfitters in my mother's town in Shropshire, in
Bishop's Castle guavas and they still do win C8 pajamas because
up in those Hills on those farms in the winter, it's bloody
freezing. So in the winter, I will be in
some guavas, winter, yet pajamas and I don't care a journey.
It has been Always an honor to spend time with you.
Thank you for sharing your sartorial, secret, thoughts and
feelings with me today. Amazing Amanda.
I've had so much fun. Thank you so much chatting with
you all evening. Thank you, brilliant, thank you.
I hope you're enjoying the podcast.
If you are, please leave a review and hit the Subscribe
button. Please join me next week when I
am talking to the gorgeous. Tasha Guri, who shares loads of
Secrets from behind the scenes in the love Island Villa I hope
you're enjoying the podcast. If you are, please leave a
review and hit the Subscribe button.
Please join me next week when I am talking to the gorgeous.
Tasha Guri, who shares loads of Secrets from behind the scenes
in the love Island Villa