Welcome back to Style DNA. We've just wrapped up an
incredible season 8, and before we dive into an exciting new
season, I wanted to take a moment to look back.
This episode is a celebration of the highlights of the season,
reliving the moments that really stood out when my guests shared
insights, transparency and at times, hilarity.
Whether you've been listening since day one or you're just
joining us now, this is the perfect chance to experience the
best of season 8. 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. Oh, and please do me a favour
and hit the subscribe button if you haven't already.
Thank you. What do you reach for when you
not feeling your shiniest best and you just want to feel
empowered? I think a suit.
I do love a suit. There's something about that
that you, you know, just makes you feel, yeah, I can do this.
You know, get your makeup on, get out, get up.
Because the minute you start sort of, I'm not going to do
that. And not allowing yourself a get
out, you know, there's many days where I think I can't do this.
It's bloody hard. Let's be honest about what a
journey looked like. This looks like it is really
hard. You know, there are times when I
think, can I do this? Oh, stop it.
Well, you there are. And I think, you know, to say
that that isn't true would be a lie.
Would be to say, oh, every day I just think I'm wonderful and
powerful and I can do it is absolutely not the case.
It's. Well, I think that's inspiring
and incredibly honest. It's really hard and really
lonely sometimes. Yeah, it is bloody lonely.
It is. And sometimes you think I am.
You know, I'm exhausted. I can't do it all.
Can I do it? You know, the difference between
somebody that can then go again is being able to reason with
yourself. It's an it's an inner battle, I
think. And you have to be able to dig
deep and say, right, I'm going to deliver this.
I'm going to get it over the line one way or another.
And that's, you know, that's a learning curve.
Where did that grit come from? I guess from my parents, you
know, they, they both, you know, did what they did from scratch.
They both worked really hard. They both became the best in
what they did. And I think I watched them
deliver that in circumstances in some areas that were very
difficult. And I thought, right, you know,
I'm, I, I want to give back to that.
I want to be independent. I don't want to be, you know,
relying on them. I've my turn now.
I've got to take the baton here and I've got to deliver this.
But I do think, again, I've worked with many people, I've
watched many people go on different journeys and I think
you either do have that or you don't.
I think it's very difficult to if you don't have it.
People cap out, they cap out at different stages and they can't
dig as deep. I've, I've learnt that and
realised that now you are, you are different.
You are I, I am different. Otherwise, you, you know you.
There are things you can do that other people can't.
Fluidity in fashion is not just a section in a department store.
Fluidity isn't created by an entrance light flashing unisex
in some ugly bubble font wedged between the hyper stereotypical
men's section and straight leg jeans and flannels and the
women's section with lingerie and skirts.
Fluidity is a way of being, a way of expressing yourself
authentically, and a way of holding yourself in the purest
and highest regard. It's not rooted in gender and
certainly not rooted in unisex clothes.
It's weird to hear someone read it back to you.
In your dreams, what would the retail landscape look like?
We're really. Talking dreams now.
Gender fluid, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I, I think it
would be the fact that it wouldn't be so like segregated
by gender, by category. I think it's hard because I've
had a lot of conversations and I don't wanna like shout outs,
department stores that have explained to me why, you know,
there's a women's floor, why there's a men's floor.
Especially as well with, you know, the different kind of
people that come in during the summer into London that are
maybe from a different, you know, culture or background that
wouldn't feel comfortable shopping alongside someone of
the opposite gender. So I've heard all the kind of
different arguments for why it doesn't exist.
I think for me it, it just, I, I can't fully understand even
hearing all this kind of feedback, why it doesn't?
Because when I look at the people that I dress, I look at
my friends, I look at my partner's friends, like
everyone's grabbing a blazer from someone's wardrobe, A
blouse, you know, maybe your husband's going to grab that
blouse off you. Like it's, it's such a more
fluid way that the customers actually shopping.
So I don't understand why we haven't been able to kind of be
like, OK, fine, we can respect obviously cultural backgrounds.
We can respect people, you know, maybe wanting to have their own
spaces so they don't have to be alongside a gender if it dis
aligns with them culturally. But I just think like it's 2025,
we need to kind of move on to the space where we are all
shopping much more fluidly. I think when I talk to a lot of
people on like all night platforms, they say that they
have like their men's clients, you know, sometimes even 60%
since seasons buying other pieces that are in the women's
women's category. So I think, you know, people are
just scared of change. And I also know that the behind
the scenes actually cost quite a bit of money to change the kind
of storefronts and the different.
I'm not a web guy, so I'm going to sound like I don't know what
I'm talking about here, but all these kind of backup house
details that they're like, yeah, well, it cost 100K.
We don't really want to do that right now.
Fashion's in a tight spot. Like so many people know right
now, we don't want to put the investment there.
Let's just put a blanket term on a campaign where a guy and a
girl are wearing the same thing. So I think there's a lot of kind
of blanketing over this idea of fluidity where actually like not
a lot of people are doing the kind of like legwork to really
go for. And trust me, also, like even
now working at a French fashion house, like it's, it's
complicated because it is, you know, a major financial
investment. And also it's a risk at a time
where right now people are trying to, you know, look at how
many movies are coming out that are the same thing 4567, you
know, everyone's trying to take the more safe route.
And I get that, but people just don't want to take chance.
Would you say that your styles changed through the decades?
I. I so you're only 33.
So yes, over the past three decades, yes, over the past, I
think I've become more confident in dressing like me as opposed
to dressing like I'm supposed to dress.
Has that been quite freeing? Oh, yes.
And also, as I'm so pleased you said earlier, anybody saying
that you can't do that or you can't do this because of your
age, Shut up. Oh, wear what do you want?
Somebody the other day spoke to me about somebody that is in the
public eye who was photographed wearing a very short skirt.
And they said, oh, do you think that she'd learn?
And I said, learn what? And they got such a shock that
my and they said, well, come on, she's in those that age.
I said I think she looks absolutely wonderful and I
applaud her for wearing what she wants.
And, and actually this happened years ago.
So when I first met my husband, we've been together 20 years and
we were on holiday in Italy and there was a woman walking
through the street who had on a bra top and a a sort of Saronghy
skirt. But it had Belle, you know, when
you the the bell belts, you know what I mean?
They were sort of jingling. Yeah.
And she had flip flops on that were jingling.
And I was looking at her. My husband said, why are you
staring? And I said, she looks fantastic.
And then I heard my say myself say isn't it great that she
dresses like that for her at her age?
And then I stopped myself and I said, I'm never saying that
again. Yeah.
And she was, she was probably, I would say she was probably in
her late 70s, eighties. Oh, wow.
She was amazing and she looked incredible.
So that was there. I stopped.
I, I actually meant it as a compliment.
I didn't mean it in a cruel way. And and he said why?
Why you? What's the matter?
I said I must never say that again.
Yeah. Because she just looked great.
Looked fabulous. Yeah.
You said you were married in the late 70s.
Yes. Describe your wedding dress to
me. Oh, my gosh.
Thank you. And I don't think I've ever
talked about this. My wedding dress was from
Kensington Market. Find any pictures?
Oh, no, there are. No, because there was no social
media. Also, he was on stage in a show
called Elvis at the time. I was on stage in the West End
in a play called Once a Catholic.
We only had the day off. We had our reception at the
Astoria in the West End, which is now being pulled down.
My wedding dress was from a. Do you remember the label
Forbidden fruit? I think you're too young, damn
it. Those who are in my age group
will remember forbidden fruit again.
They came in from India. They were big, heavy velvet
dresses with a sort of Amanda, you'd know how to describe this.
It was like a a plate that had embroidery on and from the
embroidery fell these folds. So velvet smoked like it was
smoked around this template basically.
And the back was all heavily bleated velvet with bell
sleeves. Must have weighed a ton.
It would snap hangers, those sheet plastic hangers, but you
never needed to hang it because there was no way it would come.
A deep red, really deep red. Oh, I need a picture of God.
I'm going to try and find you one.
And then a skull cap, A beaded skull cap because I had very
long hair. Also from Kensington.
Oh no, it might have been from Antiquarius.
Oh, I think the skull cap was from Antiquarius.
And then Chelsea girl kitten heeled boots.
What a mishmash of style, truly. I thought I looked wonderful.
Fashion has always been a sort of like mask.
I think, especially growing up, it's very much, it can be a bit
of a status thing. You want to feel cool, you know,
whether when I was 12 and I wanted to buy skater jeans from
roads, do you know what I mean? Or Vans, you know, I think there
was that. And so I was probably liked
fashion for the wrong reasons for a lot for a long time.
But it's probably only again in the last year or two that I've
found what suits me and felt started to actually take more
care in my wardrobes and my outfit.
So a big part I think of like, let's say, manifesting your
higher self or stepping into your most empowered self.
I think such a big part of this is about the way that you dress.
And again, so I keep referring to the book, but in step AI talk
about dressing the part as part of this way that you can show up
as your future self. And alongside that big part of
the manifestation journey is letting go.
So it's letting go of all things that don't serve you.
So whether it's bad habits, behaviours, people, but I think
also the kind of clothes that don't represent who you are
anymore or who you want to become.
So big thing that I did like a year and a half ago, but now I
do it all the time, is I would do mass wardrobe clear outs with
each piece. I would ask myself, would my
future self really wear this? Like think about the person I
want to become. Are they stepping out the house
wearing this? And so that was really big for
me. So I started doing that, but I'm
still evolving and still pushing myself further and further
because I've had a habit recently of wearing my Ugg
slippers every day. And I've got to stop.
Because you've now gone on to create Rosie's Midlife
Reinvention Retreats. Yeah, Yeah.
And that that came about from having the courage to share my
own story because I felt that I needed to be honest about what I
had gone through. Hello.
And the reason why I was leaving.
And I think that's a very powerful, well story.
I wasn't doing a service to other women.
If I am just contributing to this narrative that I'm nailing
life at all stages and now I've decided to be a coach and that's
going to go brilliantly because it really wasn't that
straightforward. It was a complete storm at times
to get through. And I, I felt like as soon as I
was able to just be honest about that, the response that I got
was huge. So many women writing to me.
I did a piece in the Telegraph all about it and I wasn't ready
to do it for quite a while after it happened.
And when I did do it, I mean, the first time I wrote the piece
myself and I just absolutely lost it in tears the first time
that I wrote it because it was all still there.
But then I wrote that piece 4 times through and that was like
therapy. Yeah.
Because by the time I then sent it off, I was like, I'm fine
with this Now I understand it. I was interesting.
That was sort of part of your, probably part of your grieving
process for the, the Rosie I had been.
Yeah. Yeah.
And that's OK. You know, to feel like that
loot, I think it's phenomenally breathing and probably lighting
and your toes are held so to the fire and it's frightening at
times and yeah, you feel like a complete novice, but what a
privilege. Yes.
And And always, as we touched upon earlier when we were
chatting, it leads to a period of growth.
And actually the most challenging, hardest moments are
really the ones that are going to make us.
And it's so worth remembering that if you are going through
something that when you're that down, the only way is up and you
were going to rise again like a phoenix and it's going to be
even better than it was. Is that one particular person
woman that you look at and you think, God, I love her style.
Every single look she wears is just perfect.
I think I take a lot of inspiration in the clean, the
cleanliness and the clean lines of her style and the the classic
nature of how she dresses from the Princess of Wales.
I think that she just epitomises timeless elegance.
It's so I really want to say that it's it's safe because she
wears such bold colours sometimes as well.
But I think she provides a lot of inspiration that can be taken
away and replicated on many different budgets.
And I think that that's a really unique way to have personal
style where you can take that and a simple black coat that she
could wear can be replicated in so many different budgets.
And I really like that. I mean, how do you feel about
the recent announcement of her Kensington Palace saying that
they're not going to release the brands that she's wearing?
I think that information will come out easily anyway.
There are so many pages dedicated to finding her style
that I often find out from those kinds of pages before it's even
released. I think what they're potentially
trying to do is to just keep that focus.
But again, I don't think any of these things are set in stone
and they may change their mind, but there we'll still find out.
We'll still know. The fact of the matter is A,
Editors know exactly what she's wearing because their eye is in
and and B, if they don't, AI will soon be telling them.
Would you say you've had a worst fashion moment?
I'm sure there's been heaps, but one that was particularly
embarrassing. I this was a long time ago.
I must have been a junior editor or something like that.
And I can remember buying this quite conceptual Acne Studios
dress on sale. I always used to hop into, I
don't know if you remember start boutique that was in East
London. Yes, it was such a little hot
spot and, and I can remember, yeah, it was very cool.
But it was kind of very delicate, intricately sewn
together pieces of chiffon. And I wore it into work one day.
I was on the tube, hopped off at Tottenham Court Road.
This lovely girl came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder and
she said I think there's something wrong with your dress.
And I think I I was a bit kind of eye rolly and like she just
doesn't understand Zachary's studious.
It's a real idiot. And then she was like, no,
seriously, that. And I kind of looked behind me
and one of the chiffon panels had completely come undone.
And so my bum and my knickers grayed out on the tube platform.
So that was definitely a rescue mission that needed to happen.
So that was probably one of my most embarrassing.
But good girl. I know.
How lovely. How lovely.
We first met at a party that I hosted in my May 1st order.
I was wearing a leather dress. Yeah.
And it was one of my favorite, favorite outfits.
And I remember feeling so chic in it.
And I was so honoured that you dressed me.
Oh, and I, I lived for that outfit.
Oh, gorgeous. You've talked quite openly about
being a bit lost before or you discovered manifesting.
So let's talk about how your style has evolved during your
manifesting journey. Honestly, I am mortified by 99%
of the outfits that I have worn in the fast honest.
Oh my God, no, honestly, they were awful.
And I don't, I think I don't feel sad about it.
It's like I laugh at it, but I really didn't know how to dress
for myself. And I think that I think because
my priority was male attention, because I felt I had no self
worth, I didn't think that I would ever be successful in my
own right. I didn't think I would be good
enough to have a like good career.
I didn't feel I just didn't feel good enough full stop.
So I felt as I was only as worthy as the man I was with.
And so for me, attracting men was a real priority.
And it's couldn't be further from the truth now, but it was
then. And so I think in that really
impacted my dressing and that I probably dressed, I just think I
dress in a way that was not chic.
It wasn't demure, it wasn't it wasn't cool.
I think it was a bit tacky, but I think that was so reflective
of where I was in my life. And so I think that my style
growth has been really about aligning myself with who I am
now and representing me in a different way.
Was I still like to dress feminine and you know, because
because I work a lot, I don't get many opportunities to feel
like sexy or feminine or do you know?
So actually when I have an opportunity to, I love it
because actually it's only through wearing like a really
amazing dress or outfit, I can express that side of myself.
Boyfriends or wide legs? Stop.
Oh my goodness. I'm going to have to say
boyfriends, aren't I? Because I'm engaged.
No, boyfriends are wide leg jeans.
Oh my God, stop it. No, I'm so embarrassed.
You want me now? I'm going to go over.
You must have thought. Why is she laughing so hard?
I thought you meant being in a relationship or like like wide
legs having open, like having sex all the time.
I can't, no, I'm really hard. I'm going to take the blazer off
boyfriend or what? I can't.
I love that. That's why I was like, I can't
believe you. You just asked that question,
asked you if you want your legs open and do you know why?
I pause. I was like, have you asked every
single guest that and what have they?
Yes, jeans, I can't denim, denim boyfriend I will stick with
boyfriend. Oh, kind of heart.
Boyfriend, boyfriend, fiance denim and in friend jeans.
Yeah, but on that note of rings and and gemstones, do you think
they hold energy? Do you know the funny?
Thing is an emerald. Yeah, I think Emerald is always
thought to be unlucky. I love them, I know.
People love them. They're very strange sayings,
emeralds because they, they, they, they can be much played
around with, you know, and what you get is not.
What you'll, what you bought quite often and they're very,
they're very brittle. So they break very easily.
And I think the reason I thought I was unlucky really is because
they break so much and can break so much.
And also because they can be, you know, they can be oiled,
they can be, you know, filled. They can be all sorts of things.
And I, I think they're such a sort of subtle thing that unlike
dams, which are really fairly sort of standard in that you can
say certain colours, certain weights, certain clarity and all
that sort of stuff with emeralds, that they're
incredibly subjective. You know, it's down to the
person. And the difference between quite
a good emerald and a good emerald and a good emerald and a
great emerald is so vast in price.
Yeah, that I always think, you know, I say well away from them
because I don't really, I mean, I, if somebody wants to get an
emerald, get one. But it's always my subjective
decision on what I think I like is not normally about price, but
I do that with diamonds as well. I mean, I like, you know, I like
stones that that and it sounds weird.
You were saying do they have any energy?
But do they have I I think they have this sort of, they
certainly have a character and you can find a really beautiful
stone even amongst quite sort of, you know, non expensive
stones, you can find these extraordinary sort of beautiful
things. And that that's really my what I
like to. Do you have been on the most
unbelievable trajectory since you launched your brand in 2008?
And I just would love to go back to pre 2008.
What was the inspiration? You know, I had a varied
upbringing where I I sort of lived on a farm, but my mother
was a fashion designer. So so I grew up with a very sort
of rural upbringing but but with the fashion as well.
And I think that sort of moulded who I was.
I ended up going to the agricultural college instead of
fashion college, which is a story we might talk about later.
But when I was there, I was going to events where we were
all standing in the same outfit, which I thought was really odd
because in no other point in your life would you sort of go
to a, a dinner party or somebody's house, think we're
all wearing the same jacket. So I was looking, I was looking
at, you know, groups of people, large groups of people and
thinking, gosh, there must be, there must be a market for
creating something here that that people can feel good in
applicable and, and have something different to wear.
So really that's what gave me the inspiration to think I'm
going to create product initially, which was for those
country events, you know, even things like going to the West
London shooting school. I would see people pulling up in
their Bentleys in a Chanel jacket and then putting on
something that was really I could, I could see that they
felt like it was a downgrade. It was, it was like, oh, I've
got to put this on. And I thought, wow, there must
be, we must be able to cater for these people and for myself,
because I thought, I want to, what do I want to wear?
My law teacher at the time said to me, I should probably leave.
You were just clearly more interested, I think.
Yeah. And I kept saying, oh, you know,
I've got this idea. I've got this idea.
Anyway, you know, I wrote a business plan and I, and I
pitched it to my parents as well.
I said, look, I think I'll, you know, I want to leave.
And what does that look like? And where they said, well, it
looks like a lot of hard work very quickly.
They both run their own businesses and, but, but said,
you know, if you want to do it, then that's your, your choice.
So started in a very small way, tiny.
I had a 2m stand at Badminton Horse Trials.
You know, it was smaller than this table really to get a
customer in, we had to go out of the stand.
It was that small and I had 25 mini skirts and that was it
really. And your vision was always
country clothing? Initially, Yes.
So initially it was that market that that inspired me to do what
I do. And actually I'm in a way I'm
really grateful I did go down that route because I would never
have seen that white space and that I suppose that gap in the
market at that time. One of your most iconic styles
is your gorgeous long tassel boot, particularly loved and
worn for many years by our beautiful Princess of Wales.
Do you know how she came to own a pair of your boots in the 1st
place? Were you aware that she did or
was the first you saw when you saw a fabulous picture of her
looking great in country clothing?
I think that the first time I met Kate and her mother was at
Spirit of Christmas where she bought a pair of boots.
She obviously liked them a lot and wore them again and again.
But it was that moment when there was an image that went
viral of her wearing the boots the day that they got engaged.
Gorgeous. And that went viral all over the
world. And she'd had the boots for
quite a long time by then. And did your website crash?
Did you sell hundreds of pairs overnight?
I'm not sure if I even had a website then.
I didn't have a shopping website.
It was very early on, but I had a wholesale website.
And did the phones ring off the hook?
Yes, they did. And she continues to wear them
to this day. Yeah, and I have to say, I have
a pair. They are fancy forever.
They last forever. They look great.
There's something, I mean, I love a good pair of wellies, but
there's something about that long tassel boot that just looks
a bit chic or a bit more feminine than than a good old
pair of wellies. Now, not many designers can
claim that their first client was someone as globally famous
as Harry Styles. A.
How did that connection come about?
B. More importantly, what did you
wear for that first meeting? Oh my God, it was such a fun
outfit. I was at Center Saint Martins in
my bachelor's degree. I was doing fashions design and
marketing as the course and the tutor who no longer works there
would always be like, this is costume like, what is this like?
I don't get it. And I remember the day I had my
meeting with Harry Styles was my was a crit and this teacher was
like, like the most you're ever going to be in your career as
someone's assistant. And that's all you should hope
for because this is costume. I don't get it.
Like, and I remember kind of laughing.
It's just like, why are you laughing?
And it's like, well, I have a meeting with a really important
person and I'm running quite late.
I need to go. And contacts of that meeting was
Harry Lambert, the extraordinary stylist kind of was the first
real person to support me on Instagram.
He started pulling my work when it was literally me glue gunning
hats together. He saw this thing from the white
show, which was, I think it happens in the center Saint
Martin's where I think everyone gets a couple meters of white.
It's like fleece. It's really cheap fabric.
And the whole point is to kind of push the limits of what you
can do with all the same meters of fabric and this kind of white
color. And we did the show, He saw the
piece, he pulled it, and it kind of started this beautiful
relationship. So he kind of over those kind of
couple months kind of was like, oh, I'm working with this new
client. I think he'd be great.
I kind of knew it was Harry Styles, didn't really kind of
fully know, but he kind of was like just work on some ideas,
references. I was looking at Jimi Hendrix, I
was looking at David Bowie's, looking at my Jagger, just
again, the people that I was obsessed with at that time
myself, I was wearing gold leather flares, pussy bow
blouses that kind of became a uniform a year later from that
pink picture in the bathroom that kind of set up what I was.
I remember I went from that critique where I was told I'll
never be more than assistant went to the Apollo and
Hammersmith. I was wearing silver leather
flares with white silk pouring out the bottom kind of on the
side seams. I was wearing like a Dior.
No, sorry, it wasn't Dior. It was a Gucci blouse that I
bought from Oxfam, but it was the one that employees wear.
So on the label was Gucci. It says employee in bigger
letters. And then this fox for red floor
length for fox isn't fake like like foe not fox foe for red
coat that was floor length. And I remember just wearing that
with a lot of eyeliner on. And I had like kind of my
shortish long messy blonde Bobby kind of hairstyle.
And I remember getting to like the Apollo and I was like, Oh my
God, wait, how do where do I go? And I remember just walking up
to this woman and I was like, I'm here to see Harry Styles.
And she was like, yeah, so is everyone else.
I was like, I'm his designer. And I remember she kind of
looked me up and down. I was like, OK.
And then like led me back. And everyone was like, who is
that? Who is she?
Who are they? Where are they going?
And kind of going back. And I remember I was kind of
greeted by the team, had my first meeting with Harry and
Harry. And it just went really
amazingly. I have like a crayon in my bag.
And I was literally drawing on my little sketch paper and it
was just really wonderful. And I think I'd really hold that
whole experience really dear to my heart because I think if I
didn't have that moment with him, God knows where my brand
would be now. I think I would have hopefully,
you know, worked with other people, but.
But do you remember that first moment that you put something on
and it felt really good and it changed how you felt about
yourself? I don't actually think I fully
understood the impact of a good outfit, no matter what that is,
whether that's a comfy pair of pyjamas or whether that's an
outfit like I'm wearing today. I don't think I understood the
actual impact on my well-being until COVID.
And when there was no reason to go anywhere and we were all sort
of faced with that opportunity to just stay in our pyjamas all
day and getting up and not getting dressed.
I quickly realized how much of an impact that had on my
well-being. And now this is something in a
lesson that I again talk about in my book, Evergreen, but also
practice daily is this element of taking real care in what I'm
wearing on a day-to-day basis, whether that is my pyjamas or my
outfit for the day. And it shows a level of
investment in myself. It's less about other people and
what they think about my outfit. It's more about the investment
in myself that I'm making in what I'm wearing.
And it shows. It's almost telling myself that
I'm worth dressing up for, if that makes sense.
I I, I love that you grew up in Essex.
You live in Essex and there are some fairly pejorative
stereotypes attached to the term Essex girls.
Yeah. Would you say any of those apply
to you? So yes, a fake tan and a lash.
I like a a subtle lash. Is it like short dresses, mini
dresses? I mean, the body con dress is
whatever you want it to be, really.
I wouldn't say that you are typically, no.
I think joining a show like The Only Way is Essex, I knew that I
wasn't all boobs and tight dresses and I knew that I had a
slightly different style and I really honed in on that.
I mean, talking of that, how, how did you cope with the
wardrobe needs for that? Do they, does the show help you?
Do you do it totally yourself? Do they give you some assistance
and budget. And how does it work?
No budget. It's all completely done
yourself. And because it's a reality show
and they want to film you. Yeah.
I was told once to glam up. Yeah.
What? Too many white tanks and jeans.
I was wearing just like an LBD. And the exec was like, I thought
you was going to bring more, more glam.
And I kind of understand. I understood what he meant
because he was like, we're only filming this, you're cropped,
we're not seeing anything. So I definitely felt the
pressure to do more on shoot days and things like that.
They obviously provide the clothes.
But yeah, now I actually love to glam up, but it's a different
kind of glam to what was seen as glam on TOWIE.
Like I love doing a red carpet. This is a conversation that I, I
sort of keep having at the moment is my generation just
don't wanna look like our grannies and don't and and feel
slightly insulted that we're not actually being marketed to you
as much as we could be. Honestly, I think this is the
wonderful thing about who what wears that within any of our
features. You might see someone in a trend
piece, for example, we might have a Gen.
Z girl in there who's into St. wear, but then you could also
have someone fabulous who's 60 plus and loves tailoring.
And I think we try with all of our content to not consider that
it's an age that we're targeting.
It's a type of person. It's someone who's interested in
fashion or beauty and it kind of doesn't matter.
You know, I think the idea of how to wear such and such when
you're 50, it's quite offensive. It's and it's dated And I I just
think that that message of it's not about your age, it's about
your approach is is so important to be hammering home to my age
group because that's inspiring. Yeah rather than to stop.
Yeah yes, exactly. On that note, what does the
craziest Commission that you were ever commissioned to
create? I'm not asking who it was.
If, as a Julie, you're somewhere between a sort of gynecologist
and a banker. And a hairdresser.
And a. Hairdresser, you know, you share
all the secrets, you know, and you somebody's seen walking out
of your shop, You know, if you're a gynecologist, people
are saying you're right for it. Yeah.
You must have a lot of those secrets.
So it's. But you know, some have been,
you know, would be almost too, too, too unusual to describe,
should we say. I want too intimate to.
Try try me a. Lot of below the waist jewelry
one way or the other and and items that might be used below
the waist size. You didn't have to fit them.
I didn't have to fit them. No, no, no. one-size-fits-all.
I think it makes these these cases.
But we've made some extraordinary things.
I mean, I had this this text amount when I was over in Texas
and yet another appallingly inept trip.
This man came up to me and sort of slapped me on the back in a
way which I sort of recovered about a week later.
You know, he wanted a yellow rose for his his girlfriend and
he had a wife very angry and, and he pointed her out.
He didn't actually introduce me to her, but pointed right And
she looked fearsome. I realised that this needed to
be done very discreetly, otherwise he was going to die
terrible death. But he called his his new
sweetheart, the Yellow Rose of Texas, and I said, yes, there's
a song there. Somebody went, yeah, yeah, there
is a song already. And I went really well anyway,
which of course was forgetting in some parts of the world, you
really can't, yeah, you can't use RNA of any sort anyway.
So. So I had to make this yellow
rose brooch, yellow diamond, but it had to have a a box that
opened up those is, you know, things like this is way before
any kind of any kind of even CDs and things.
So there was no kind of, you know, electric device you could
do. So we had to have this thing
made that played the yellow rose of Texas when you opened it and
had a secret compartment that open slid open, had a picture of
her in, in her natural state, as it were, but a rather sort of
exotic natural state in those days.
Of course, you didn't come on on that mercifully didn't come on a
telephone came in this sort of bright envelope.
And he sort of shuffled over my way and I went, oh God, which I
had to travel back to. I thought, I know I'm going to
get stopped. This is where I get stopped and
I have to say yellow rays of Texas and it's going to sound
like some terrible euphemism for some awful kind of deviant
behaviour. Anyway, I had to put this
together for him and but it involved really for the first
time for me a dozen different Craftsman who were not hard and
fast jewellery Craftsman said. I mean, they said the man that
made The Who made the music box was literally a Swiss guy that
made those little things.