Trinny and Susannah

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Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine
Born Flag of England London, England
Occupation Fashion journalists
Website
http://www.trinnyandsusannah.com

Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine are British fashion advisors, presenters and authors. They originally joined to write a weekly style column in The Daily Telegraph which lasted for seven years, but they are best-known for presenting the BBC television series What Not to Wear for five series and then Trinny & Susannah Undress... on ITV. They have written several fashion advice books which have become bestsellers in Britain and America, and released their own clothing and underwear ranges. Trinny and Susannah have also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show as makeover experts. They are estimated to be jointly worth £10 million.[1] Over the course of their career, Woodall and Constantine have dressed over 5,000 women.[2]

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Early years

Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine teamed up in 1994 to write Ready to Wear, a weekly style guide for the Daily Telegraph which ran for seven years.[3] They had previously met at a dinner party hosted by David, Viscount Linley[4] but did not actually like each other at first.[5] They both perceived each other in negative ways: Woodall looked upon Constantine as if she was a as a stuck-up English aristocrat and Constantine saw Woodall as 'Eurotrash'.[5]

They later became the co-founders of Ready2shop.com, a dot-com fashion advice business which ceased trading after running out of funding in November 2000, losing investors a reputed £10 million.[6] During this period, their friendship was almost ended after a heated argument.[7] They later gained their first chance at working on television when Granada Sky Broadcasting signed them up to host a daytime shopping show, also called Ready to Wear. They published their first fashion advice book called Ready 2 Dress but it was an unsuccessful venture and ended in 13,000 copies of the book being destroyed.[8] After a makeover slot on Richard & Judy, Jane Root, the controller of BBC Two, signed them up even after their book Ready to Dress and their internet business Ready2shop.com had failed.[3]

Woodall (left) and Constantine on book cover.
Woodall (left) and Constantine on book cover.

[edit] 2001-2005: What Not to Wear era

After they were signed to BBC Two, they became the hosts and fashion advisors for five series of the BBC style series What Not to Wear in 2001, where they used their knowledge on fashion and harsh comments to reform the appearances and style of the participants on the show. The duo became instantly renowned for their poking and prodding of the contestants, their staight-talking advice,[9] and frequently referring to breasts as tits.[10] The editor of ELLE, Sarah Bailey, has stated "You just don't expect posh girls to grab your tits, call your trousers 'too clitty' and use words like 'pussy pelmet' but they do. You are so shocked by what they are saying that by the time you have recovered and thought of something to say they have whipped you out of your jeans and eased you into a Lycra cat suit."[11] They have stated that their relationship is more like a marriage and that being total opposites, they balance each other out.[12] They cannot imagine working without each other[12] and have even considered taking insurance out on their television partnership should something unforeseen happen.[7] Woodall and Constantine have been accused of being patronising, but reject these claims.[11]

They gained recognition for their work on the show and won a Royal Television Society Award in 2002 in the category of best factual presenter.[13] They have also given different celebrities makeovers which include Jeremy Clarkson, Lesley Joseph,[14] Jo Brand, Sophie Raworth and Ingrid Tarrant. Woodall and Constantine became the faces of Nescafé in 2003.[15] After success with the ratings on BBC Two, their programme was promoted to the more mainstream BBC One in 2004.[16]

Together, they have written several successful fashion books, starting with the book What Not to Wear in 2001, which made sales worth £8.7 million.[17] The book which stemmed from their fashion show of the same name, won them a notable British Book Award in 2003 for "The TV & Film Book of the Year"[18] and outsold Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson when sale figures reached a total of 670,000 copies.[19] [20] The book sold 300,000 copies in just fifteen weeks and was also selling 45,000 copies a week at one point.[21] They then secured a £1 million book deal to produce three more of their fashion books,[22] compared to the £10,000 advance they received for What Not to Wear.[20] Their books have since become number one bestsellers in Britain and the United States and have been translated throughout the world,[23] selling over 2.5 million copies.[24] The books have also appeared on The Sunday Times bestseller list[25] and The New York Times bestseller list.[26]

Woodall and Constantine appeared frequently as a makeover experts on The Oprah Winfrey Show in America where they gave fashion advice and guidelines on how to improve an overall appearance through clothing, often using themselves to illustrate the correct clothing to wear and what not to wear.[27] In 2005, Trinny and Susannah were the contemporary social commentators on the live BBC coverage of The Royal Wedding of Charles and Camilla.[28] They also voiced a robot version of themselves in the science fiction series Doctor Who in the episode "Bad Wolf" in 2005, which saw the gynoids Trine-e and Zu-Zana presenting a deadly futuristic version of What Not to Wear. The robots were prepared to give Captain Jack Harkness a particularly gruesome makeover. Woodall and Constantine have appeared on Parkinson a total of three times, as well as numerous other chat shows.

[edit] 2006: Undress... era

Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine both defected from the BBC to ITV for a £1.2 million contract,[29] and started their new show, Trinny & Susannah Undress..., on 3 October 2006 which was followed by a second series in June 2007. The first two series saw the pair helping couples with marital problems, where they gave them advice and fashion makeovers to try build confidence and ultimately aim to revive the relationships.[30] Critics questioned Woodall and Constantine's capability of dealing with the serious issues they faced on the programme, but they strongly rejected these claims.[31] Since the transfer to ITV, What Not to Wear on BBC One has been hosted by Lisa Butcher and Mica Paris.

When the internet-shopping company, Littlewoods, saw orders rise by thirty per cent during its sponsorship of Trinny & Susannah Undress..., Woodall and Constantine were made the faces of Littlewoods Direct in 2006. The duo have since provided twelve pages of fashion advice within the Littlewoods catalogue, compiled a booklet called The Golden Rules which was distributed to all Littlewoods customers with fashion advice to suit all body shapes.[32] They also compiled online guidelines where customers are able to type-in their body measurements and get instant advice on which Littlewoods clothing is suitable for their figure, and have been featured in television advertisements for Littlewoods Direct.[32] The television advertisements featured them both trying to rob a Littlewoods designer warehouse, but their mission is ruined when Constantine becomes stuck in between the protective bars, prompting Woodall to utter "You and your curves", before they are taken away by security.[33] The 2007 Christmas series of adverts saw them trying to hijack a motored sleigh carrying Littlewoods designer gifts.[34] The £12m television and print campaign featuring Woodall and Constantine is one of largest ever seen for a home shopping and internet-based company.[35] Since the advertisements aired, brand awareness has grown by 13 per cent, whilst total sales have escalated by 18 per cent. The amount of visitors to the website has also risen by 56 per cent.[36]

Also in 2006, they launched their own underwear range; "Trinny and Susannah Magic Pants" which are made of nylon, designed to flatten the tummy and buttocks and thighs so they appear slimmer and compact.[37] On October 16, 2006, they appeared on NBC's The Today Show, giving makeovers to three women and promoted their book, Trinny & Susannah Take on America.[38] In a poll of 3,000 people conducted by Radio Times, they were ranked as the ninth most terrifying celebrities on television, largely due to their use of direct and frank advice.[39]

[edit] 2007-present: Undress the Nation era

Their latest book to date, The Body Shape Bible, was published on September 18, 2007.[31] Prior to writing The Body Shape Bible, Trinny and Susannah conducted a survey on women that helped them to identify the twelve most common body shapes which they would then feature in their fashion advice book.[40] They gave the shapes different names that include 'apple', 'brick', 'pencil' and 'lollipop'.[40] The new book is aimed to help women decipher what particular shape they are, and then proceeds to give fashion guidelines according to each individual shape.[11] An 'apple' for instance, is classed as a woman who is round but has breasts that are smaller than her stomach as the weight is carried around the middle.[40] They have also donated a few pages to highlight their own fashion faux-pas from the past.[41]

On September 20, 2007, they launched their own exclusive Littlewoods Direct Autumn/Winter women's range which consists of trousers, coats and tops and, like their underwear range, are designed to shrink the buttocks, reduce thighs, flatten tummies or emphasize the waist.[31] A series of eight dresses, cashmere knitwear, faux fur and sequinned shrugs also feature in the range.[42] Woodall and Constantine designed independently the clothing items, with Littlewoods advising them on pricing and selling.[40] Constantine stated "If you want to create a waist, there's a dress that's going to do that for you too. We've designed it very much around the female body."[41]

Their newly formatted series, Trinny and Susannah Undress the Nation, began to air on ITV in November 2007 and explored the major fashion problems in Britain.[43] The pair returned to America on November 5 and December 28, 2007, where their makeovers on six different shaped women were featured on Good Morning America.[44] The duo also reported on the 80th Academy Awards' red carpet fashion especially for Good Morning America in 2008.[45]

They announced a tour to New Zealand and Australia in 2007, where they made a series of public appearances at shopping malls owned by the Westfield Group in February and March 2008.[46][47] During the tour, which included visits to Melbourne and Sydney, they performed live styling sessions and gave fashion advice to customers at the Westfield centres.[48] Their appearances at the malls attracted crowds of thousands and the tour finished on March 8, 2008.[49] Woodall and Constantine also appeared on The Morning Show hosted by Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur, to give one of the viewers a complete makeover. They currently write a weekly column for The Sun in Britain.

In a filmed stunt for their new show, The Great British Body, which will be broadcast in June 2008 on ITV, Woodall and Constantine stripped naked with 300 others on a Sussex hillside to create a giant living sculpture.[50][51]

[edit] Popular culture

Woodall and Constantine have been parodied many times on comedy impression programmes. Alistair McGowan's Big Impression took to spoofing their personalities on What Not to Wear,[6] as did 2DTV who made cartoon versions of Woodall and Constantine giving Santa Claus a makeover, where they stripped him of his red suit and added a casual shirt and trousers.[52] Avid Merrion's Bo' Selecta! took to portraying them as lesbians. In an interview, despite being lampooned on Bo' Selecta!, they commented that the portrayal was a compliment as they often feel women's breasts during makeovers on their show.[53]

In an episode of the last series of French & Saunders comedy series, Woodall and Constantine were mentioned as being "bullies" in a Celebrity Grading Report sketch where Dawn French was the headmaster of a celebrity school where she had to write comments on various celebrities. Woodall and Constantine were similarly depicted in the comic Viz in a cartoon strip as being bullies that picked on children who wore NHS glasses and second-hand clothing.[54] On seeing the magazine edition, they threatened to sue the comic.[55]

In 2006, on Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word, Ramsay named his two pigs Trinny and Susannah after Woodall and Constantine,[56] which the duo found highly amusing.[57]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ "What not to bare, Trinny!". Daily Mail. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  2. ^ O'Neil, Nicole. "Trinny and Susannah reveal all". MSN. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
  3. ^ a b "Just a couple of swells". The Guardian. Retrieved March 11, 2007.
  4. ^ "Acne, alcohol … and non-stop sex". Daily Mail. Retrieved March 17, 2007.
  5. ^ a b "Me And My Partner: Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine". The Independent. Retrieved from findarticles.com April 13, 2007.
  6. ^ a b "No, seriously . . . does my cheque look big in this?". The Telegraph. Retrieved March 8, 2007.
  7. ^ a b McIntyre, Sinead. "Susannah's shock at husband's plastic surgery suggestion". Daily Mail, 23 October 2006. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
  8. ^ "Fashion 'makeover queens' land £1m book deal". The Telegraph. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  9. ^ "They Skewer Your Wardrobe In Public". New York Times. Retrieved September 26, 2007.
  10. ^ "Mammary mia!". The Sunday Herald. Retrieved from findarticles.com August 18, 2007.
  11. ^ a b c "God's gift to women". The Guardian. Retrieved September 16, 2007.
  12. ^ a b "Interrogation: Trinny & Susannah". Daily Mirror. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
  13. ^ "Royal Television Society". Royal Television Society. Retrieved February 14, 2007.
  14. ^ "BBC One honours the best TV moments from 2002". BBC Press Office. Retrieved March 6, 2007.
  15. ^ "NESCAF: Trinny and Susannah take us al for mugs". The Independent on Sunday. Retrieved from findarticles.com July 25, 2007.
  16. ^ "Makeover queens switch to BBC1". The Guardian. Retrieved August 23, 2007.
  17. ^ Sherwood, James. "Trinny and Susannah: Frock; stars". Independent on Sunday, 22 December 2002. Retrieved from findarticles.com 20 October 2007.
  18. ^ "British Book Awards". British Book Awards. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
  19. ^ "Parkinson". parkinson.tangozebra.com. Retrieved March 8, 2007.
  20. ^ a b "What Not To Wear is just what to buy". The Guardian. Retrieved April 6, 2007.
  21. ^ "Nothing succeeds like success". The Times. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
  22. ^ "The makeover millionaires" The Times. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
  23. ^ "Trinny and Susannah Undress". itv.com. Retrieved January 26, 2007.
  24. ^ "Trinny and Susannah Have Launched the Official TrinnyAndSusannah.com Website". Press Release. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
  25. ^ "Search results for Trinny and Susannah bestsellers". The Times. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
  26. ^ "Trinny and Susannah bestsellers". The New York Times. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
  27. ^ "The Oprah Winfrey Show, What Not to Wear this summer". oprah.com. Retrieved February 13, 2007.
  28. ^ "The Royal Wdding: Charles and Camilla". BBC Press Office. Retrieved February 16, 2007.
  29. ^ "Susannah's shock at husband's plastic surgery suggestion". Daily Mail. Retrieved June 25, 2007.
  30. ^ Kilkelly, Daniel. "Trinny & Susannah prefer to be nice" Digital Spy, 30 September 2006. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
  31. ^ a b c "Retail therapists". The Times. Retrieved July 16, 2007.
  32. ^ a b "Littlewoods signs up Trinny and Susannah". The Times. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
  33. ^ Burt, Josh. "Trinny in undercover op". The Sun, 10 April 2007. Retrieved 20 October 2007.
  34. ^ "Littlewoods Advert". You Tube. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  35. ^ The Times. "The reinvention of Littlewoods". The Times, 8 April 2007. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  36. ^ Gleeson, Bill. "Trinny and Susannah give Littlewoods Direct a festive style makeover". Liverpool Daily Post, 31 October 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2007.
  37. ^ "Meg Ryan talks to Parkinson". BBC Press Office. Retrieved February 15, 2007.
  38. ^ "The Today Show". MSN Video. Retrieved November 4, 2007.
  39. ^ Editors at Daily Mail. "Ramsay is scariest TV celebrity". The Daily Mail, 16 October 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2007.
  40. ^ a b c d "Exclusive Trinny and Susannah Interview.". Female First. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
  41. ^ a b "Scots Are So Stylish.. And Ewan Mcgregor Looks Fab In A Kilt". Daily Record. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
  42. ^ "What to wear: Trinny and Susannah get to grips with Lorraine Kelly". Daily Mail. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
  43. ^ "ITV1 Undress the Nation". Merry Media. Retrieved August 5, 2007.
  44. ^ "Good Morning America". ABC News. Retrieved November 6, 2007.
  45. ^ "Trinny and Susannah hunt for disasters". Metro, 25 February 2008. Retrieved 25 February 2008.
  46. ^ "Westfield Brings Trinny & Susannah To NZ". scoop.co.nz, 8 February 2008. Retrieved 18 February 2008.
  47. ^ "British reality show comes to Australia". news.com.au. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
  48. ^ "Television's fashion police head Down Under". news.com.au. Retrieved December 28, 2007.
  49. ^ Alderman, Kellie. "Fashionistas' magic makeovers". Courier Mail, 8 March 2008. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
  50. ^ "Trinny and Susannah strip off for 'living art'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 28 April 2008.
  51. ^ "Trinny and Susannah strip naked to celebrate the British body". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 28 April 2008.
  52. ^ "What to wear if you want to make a big impression". The Daily Mirror. Retrieved March 15, 2007.
  53. ^ "We can't stop touching women's boobs". Daily Mail. Retrieved from findarticles.com April 13, 2007.
  54. ^ "Notes from the knicker drawer". Scotland on Sunday. Retrieved July 25, 2007.
  55. ^ "Trinny and Sue". The Sun. Retrieved February 3, 2007.
  56. ^ Press Release. "The Kumars at No 42 returns to BBC ONE". BBC Press Office, 6 July 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
  57. ^ Methven, Nicola. "Laid Bare". The Daily Mirror, 30 September 2006. Retrieved 29 August 2007.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links