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.