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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We discuss aesthetic medicine too…fascinating.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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