WEBVTT - Clare Hornby, Founder and CEO of ME+EM 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:03.960 Who is He's table for It's now a book. Paul McCartney, 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:08.799 Michael Kaine, Kamala Harris, David Beckham, Tina fey Elton John 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:12.680 and many more. It's full of stories, beautifully designed, and 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.239 a celebration of the way food connects us all. It's 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.480 available now wherever you buy your books. 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:24.479 I bought this black Armani suit. 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:27.480 Bal you a eleven thousand pounds. 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:32.040 Yeah on eleven thousand pounds seventy discount in the sale. 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:35.640 So I did it. Yeah, and then probably and then 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:36.199 probably were in. 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.279 What did that? What did that feel like? Buying an 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:41.840 Umi suit? It? Yeah? 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.240 That was That was a big moment, and that got 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.240 me my next job, which was. 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:48.800 Was in advertising. 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.159 This wonderful woman called me a Dixon, who gave me 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.200 my first job in advertising. 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.320 And she I don't need to listen to word I said. 0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:58.600 She just loved my suit. 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.920 My mother used to tell me, Ruthie, always seek out 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.360 the quietest person in the room. It's advice I've carried 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:13.759 with me as so often those who have the most 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.559 interesting things to say about themselves are also the ones 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.600 least inclined to tell you. This is true of my 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:25.399 friend Claire Hornby, the founder and CEO of ME and M, 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.400 one of the most successful international fashion companies in Britain. 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:34.199 As a designer, Claire wants women to feel confident, comfortable, 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.280 and at ease in the clothes they wear. Going into 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.000 her stores, seeing the skirts and the sweaters, the trousers 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:44.000 and the shoes, it's as if she anticipates what her 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:48.240 customers might need before they even ask. Today, Claire and 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:50.760 I are here to talk about food and fashion, food 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:55.000 and family, the ingredients of her life, the ingredients of 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.880 mine and the recipe of her success. So of all 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:02.200 the recipes and all the books and all the times 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.960 you've eaten here, are you chose well? 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.480 I've been practicing how to say this with my Italian 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:10.200 one of my Italian friends at work. 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.760 Zucchinie Brilliants, that right. 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:23.079 So you need five hundred grams of zucchini, one liter 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.320 of sunflower oil, and then for the batter, one hundred 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:29.840 and fifty grams of plain flour, three tablespoons of extra 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:32.919 virgin olive oil, three tablespoons of warm. 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:34.480 Water, and three egg whites. 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.600 You cut the zucchini into match sticks, place in a colunder, 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.720 sprinkle with salt and leave for half an hour for 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:44.959 the batter. Sift the flour into a bowl, make a 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:47.440 well in the center, Pour in the olive oil and 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.880 stir to combine. Add enough warm water to make a 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.600 batter the consistency of double cream, and leave for half 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:58.160 an hour. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.560 into the batter. Pat the zucchi me dry, dip them 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.400 in the batter, then frying batches in the hot oil 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:11.120 until golden and crisp. Serve immediately, so dutifully read why 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:12.560 did you choose this recipe? 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:14.200 Of all? Do you make it? 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:15.519 Did you eat it? 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:25.040 It's always when we eat regularly and every that's what 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:29.280 everybody wants. They're they're just delicious, and they're so hard 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:30.079 to do well. 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.200 And I don't want them from anywhere else. 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.480 Just here it is. It's a really nice recipe. I 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.720 think simple. It's so simple. Again, you can do it. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:40.920 You can make the batter and then put the egg 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.320 whites in at the end, and you know, dip the 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.680 dip the zucchina. I really like starting a meal. Also, 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.040 I was here last night and there were four people 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.480 I didn't really know that well. And then everybody has 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:53.400 a little bit you know, and you take it or 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:55.720 some people put it on their Are you the sort 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:57.360 of put it on your plate and take it off 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:57.839 your own plate. 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.000 We've got to be quite quick because otherwise my husband 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.640 and Johnny he so we're always quite quick. Yeah, so 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.119 we do again on our plate and from there. 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.240 Yeah, did you grow up in a fact? Well, tell me, 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:10.760 let's start at the beginning. Tell me about Oldham? Where 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:12.160 did you grow up? Where was it? 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:12.360 So? 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:16.080 I grew up in a place called Saddleworth, which has 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:19.560 the highest concentration of pubs in the country. It's just 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:23.679 above a place called Oldham, which is in the north 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:24.640 north of Manchester. 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.520 Yeah, so I was on I grew up on the Pennines. 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:30.599 It rained all the time. 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.120 And what was it like? Was your family? Tell me 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:35.479 about your parents and your. 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:40.680 So very very normal. My mum was a teacher. My 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.200 dad ran a small joinery company. They made doors and 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:48.359 windows and cabinets. They did a lot of work for 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:53.360 the university. But I remember going because they both worked 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:54.839 in our school holidays. 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:57.760 You know, I tagged. I tagged along with my dad 0:04:57.800 --> 0:04:58.120 a lot. 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:02.760 So that sort of smell of would shaking with making things? 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.440 Did it potentially? 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:05.840 Yeah? 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:08.960 But yeah, I spent a lot of time in a 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:13.200 joinery shop. We're a very very close family. They were 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:20.719 phenomenal parents, endlessly proud, very normal, just very salt of 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:22.520 the earth family upbringing. 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:25.240 When you were if your mother was working, would you 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:29.359 always sit down to dinner in the evening? Yeah it was. 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:34.279 It was tea in the north those days, it was tea. 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:35.679 Yeah, we ate at six. 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:38.760 I was very sporty, so I would always I'd come 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:44.200 home late from school and then I was always starving, 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:49.440 always starving, played so much sport, so then would always 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.080 sit down at sex and have Mum cooked. Did you 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:57.840 have the very wholesome food shepherds pies, meat pies, lots 0:05:57.880 --> 0:05:58.799 of fish and chips. 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:03.680 Did you go abroad? Did they take you to other countries? 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:05.000 Did you go to France or Space? 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.160 My first trip abroad was when I was seven years old. 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.680 It was the summer of nineteen seventy six, so it 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.520 was hotter and you went in England in nineteen seventy six, 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:19.719 it was the hottest summer on record. We had a 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.760 host pipe band and we went on our first trip 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:28.599 to abroad to forment Terra, which makes it sound like. 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:32.760 We were really cool. They found out actually. 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.440 There was one apartment block just being built and we 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.480 arrived just because it wasn't quite finished, so it was 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.000 very cost effective way to go on holiday. 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:46.400 So we went to Formantera, which yourself, what did. 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:48.039 You love about it? 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.840 It was the first time I'd been anywhere like that, 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.320 so it was very exciting because it was the first 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:53.960 time I'd ever. 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:54.520 Got on a plane. 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:59.159 And you know, the water and Formentara is mind blowing. 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:03.040 It still blows my mind now. It's so blue and clean. 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.799 And the salt marshes and lots of cycling. We cycled 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.200 ever it can cycle around the Pole Island. It's quite small. 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:14.440 It was the first time I seen live lobsters in 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.800 a tank, but then I didn't like that they were killed, 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.520 so I didn't like that. Those remember crying over the lobsters. 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:24.920 Do you think that the focus, your focus and the 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:29.200 work ethic from your parents did that form you in 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.960 your early years? I'm sure. 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.640 And they made me work for every single school holiday. 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.240 They made me work for my holiday money. So from 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:45.280 the age of fourteen I worked. It's on older market. 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:50.240 My dad found me a friend who had some damaged 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.680 shoes Italian shoes so I set up market stalls and 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:55.160 sole shoes on older market. 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.800 That was my first job Q fourteen. 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.680 Yeah, and then I worked in and then as I 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:03.800 got bit older, I worked in denh in factories. So 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:08.600 it's lankash Is it was Lancashire. No, No, probably about sixteen. 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:10.040 I worked in factories and. 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.320 These weren't school holidays school holidays. 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:14.520 And then I worked in shops. I was a waitress, 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:18.480 I sold double glazing. I mean I worked and worked 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:20.840 and worked so they they I wasn't allowed to go 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.160 on holiday unless I'd earned my holiday money. 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.640 Yeah, so there was a stayed with you do you 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:26.920 think as an adult? 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.160 Yeah, it was also needs musk, like we didn't have money. Yeah, 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:31.240 you know it wasn't. 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:34.199 I don't think they did it to be to form you. 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.960 It was they needed the money. So and you know 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.520 that carried on when I came to London. I had 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.720 to work. I mean I worked all through my degree 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:45.360 at Manchester. 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.520 I worked. I got worked in the tyraq, I worked 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:52.640 in pizza restaurants. I worked where it worked. I mean 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.240 there was no there was no option. I didn't. I 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:56.160 had to make ends meet. 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.880 Yeah, and so what was it like leaving home when 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:04.280 you got to Manchester. Let's see what's that. 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.520 I was going to stay living at home, but then 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:13.320 I met these two great girls and we actually and 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:17.680 so we lived together for my final three years, which 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:19.960 was good for me because I needed to break the 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:22.920 umbilical cord. So I didn't go away to school or 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:30.000 you know. It was a very poseted upbringing. But I 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:31.240 was very bullied at school. 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.160 How did that affect you? 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:37.400 You know, it's funny. You just did you really just 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:39.960 deal with it. I didn't want my mum to know 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.480 because I knew she get involved. So the first time 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:45.240 it happened, I actually ended up in hospital. 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:46.280 What did they do? 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:47.720 They tripped me? 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:48.559 They physically. 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.600 I was running down a hill and some boys tripped 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.520 me up and I skidded across the playground and smashed 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.040 into the sport the science block and knocked myself out. 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:00.080 But I think I then put. 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.400 Texted my mom from it because I was worried that 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.320 it get worse if my mum knew so, and then 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:09.240 I had this hero friend who stopped it all. 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.880 You did you have food isshoes at all? Growing up? 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.480 Did you ever have anything that you thought about eating 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.400 in a certain way to Did you eat anything you 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:21.080 wanted and never felt? 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:21.720 Yeah? 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:25.760 Love food, yeah, love food. And if you play a 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:26.920 lot of sports. 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:27.800 You need a lot of food. 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:34.080 Yeah, so with the sports and sport was great. So yeah, 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.320 and what about fashion in those early years? Did you 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.200 know that because you were saying that you made things 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:40.240 you watched. 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:42.440 Yeah, we forgot the most important. 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:46.160 How did your mother dress? Did she? Did you think 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:47.720 clothes were important to her? Yeah? 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:49.920 We shopped a lot together. We used to sneak it 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:53.320 in so my dad didn't say, but we made clothes together, 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.400 and trousers, and I do remember standing in front of 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:01.160 the mirror thinking about pocket position and length and shape. 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.520 And so it's amazing what you do with your children. 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:08.240 How it can you can become you know those it's 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:09.360 the small things that matter. 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:15.520 It's like cooking, like or you know, many many things 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:17.920 that you you know when you and they you know 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.120 you might not have been interested at all, but that 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:22.160 you were interested and that she could do it. Yeah. 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.080 Formed do you have any of the clothes that you 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:26.680 made with her? Did you get Yeah? 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.320 I remember this one pair of trousers which we got 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.960 horribly wrong. Whereas when I got to school, everyone teas 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.600 me that I look like at the Bear, and I. 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:40.000 Have this kind of lens out now where. 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:46.440 When the design teams present me with things, I have 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:48.800 a list of characters that you might look like if 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:55.000 you wore those, because if it's a bit overly, you know, 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.079 there's like bo Peep, there's Dennis the Menace, there's bupe 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.599 at the Bear, There's I can't remember them all, but 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:02.800 there's no, no, no, we can't make that. They'll look 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.360 like this, or I've got a very visual sort of 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:07.960 no no no, that's a bit milk Madi. 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:10.520 No, no no. But it's a great big trend and 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:12.160 like we're leaving that trend behind. 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.559 Yeah, there's plenty of others. I really wanted to talk 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.160 to you about how because you know, I started a 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:23.760 restaurant very small. You started something that is now very big. 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.199 And we went to La together and when I was 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.880 in New York, I went shopping at me. Are you 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:30.480 in other cities in America? Yeah? 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:31.360 We have started. 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.360 So we're now in what will be the next one, Stanford, 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:41.400 Palo Alto, we're in Atlanto, Dallas, we're close to signing 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:47.760 in Washington, and we're looking at the cargo and Miami 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:48.880 and yeah. 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.080 And also so so again looking back, this trajectory of 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:56.720 going from making close at home was Manchester Fashion School 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:57.840 when you went there, Yeah. 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.480 Well I wanted to be a fashion buyer, so studied 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:07.319 fashion marketing. Retail marketing was called Manchester and that segue 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:09.760 to me getting a job at Harold's. So I was 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:13.120 on the graduate training scheme at Harrods. And I wanted 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:14.200 to become a fashion buyer. 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.160 So you didn't necessarily want to design, you're not trained. 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:25.720 Still, my role at ME and M is really customer strategy, product, 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:30.760 product strategy, brand strategy. Yeah, you know, growth strategy, locations. 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:33.640 But I wanted to be a fashion buyer, which is 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.440 why I did that degree, and then why I ended 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:38.319 up on the graduate training scheme at Harold's. One of 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.080 the girls that I lived with at Manchester, her father 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:43.480 had an apartment in London, so that's how I afforded 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:45.840 to live in London. So I was very lucky because 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.320 I didn't have any money at all. And you know, 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:54.280 I mean, if you remember those first salaries there nineteen 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.240 ninety two, ninety two, the salary for working in eleven 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.600 thousand pounds, so and you know you had to decide 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:03.120 whether you were going to go on the tube or 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.480 buy a sandwich or by newspaper. You know, there were 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:09.320 decisions around the very basics in life. But then what 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.600 I used to do was use my staff discount in 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:14.599 the sale to go and buy. 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:16.720 Beautiful things. 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.120 When Georgia Emani died, I did think back and think, well, 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.240 you know you helped me a lot. 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:25.960 Do you think about that when you're when you're choosing 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:31.440 clothes for your for women to wear to interviews to it. 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:35.960 Really matters that first impression. It shouldn't matter, but it 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:37.000 still does. 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:39.920 What is your experience of being on the other side 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:41.800 of the table when you're interviewing. What do you look 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:45.720 for someone who comes for a job interview do obviously 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.840 the way they dress, so they mostly wear me and 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.800 them when they come for an interview with you, No, 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:54.280 would you like? That doesn't matter? 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.360 It matters that they've been into a store and bothered. 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.840 That really understands. It depends what job they're going for. 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:08.360 Normally you're looking for you're really wanting to see whether 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:12.360 they really are passionate about what you're doing, because passion 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:13.840 counts that absolutely everything. 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:21.640 When you interview people who're just talking about interviews. Do 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.960 you ever go with them to a restaurant because a 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:26.920 lot of people that I've talked to say that they 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.760 would always at some point I want to take somebody 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:33.200 they were working closely with to a restaurant, because you what, 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:34.960 it's like a date, isn't it. You know, if you 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:38.400 go on a date you discovered are they coming to 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.600 the waiter? Do they get impatient if the food is laid? 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.920 Do they share? You know, you learn, you learn about someone. 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.320 Do you feel that, Yeah, I've done that a couple 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:48.800 of times and what did you learn? 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:49.760 Yeah? 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.440 You learn a lot, you really do. I do a 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.640 lot of customer research in restaurants. 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:55.920 Well, tell me about that. 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:00.240 So when I chose Madison Avenue in New York eight 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.520 in all, you know, I went and had breakfast in 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:06.760 the right places and supper in the right places in London. 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:09.360 You're seeing the customers and what they're wearing. 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.320 And when you in terms of your business about how 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.360 many you say that five about five hundred people work 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.240 for you and you're doing for five hundred, how have 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:20.360 you grown? I know how I've grown. You know, we've 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.120 grown slowly. We've grown from well originally two chefs. It 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:26.680 was myself in rows, the two people. One of us 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.120 would make sandwiches, one of us would make a pasta, 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.000 and we had nine tables. But in a way for me, 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:34.960 those restrictions were so helpful. If I had just come 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:37.040 into this space and said we're going to open a restaurant, 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:39.680 it would have been a disaster. But you also started. 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.480 I didn't know what I was doing. I mean I didn't. 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:47.440 I literally I was clueless. I mean I know I didn't. 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:51.200 You must have known, because you succeeded. 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:56.479 Very much like you, though started incredibly small, definitely started 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.360 a business that taught me a lot, which was the wrong. 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:01.360 Business, yarmor room. 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:04.680 So we went, I know there's a gap in because 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.639 I'd worked in advertising for twelve years, so oh, you 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:08.960 have to look for a gap in the market. So 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:10.520 I looked for the gap in the market and there was. 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:16.080 There were the land where sort of revolution hadn't really 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.320 started then, so everything was a bit nothing. There was 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.480 nothing beautiful to wear at home. So we made really 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.200 beautiful landwear, as you as you know, and you bought 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.240 it for Rose when she was poorly, but it was 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:29.560 too niche an idea. 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:30.840 It wasn't going to grow. 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:34.719 So we changed very quickly to me and em and 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:39.119 that was a combination of me and my business partner, Emma, 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.240 and then Emma left the business quite early on. We're 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.720 still very good friends. We're still in book club together. 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:49.280 We're going to book club tonight. But that was the 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.359 start of the growth because we could there was no 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:58.920 shortage of ideas. But because we started online, we suddenly 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.840 realized that we were to consumer business, which meant that 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.480 we weren't selling through wholesale, which meant we were only 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.239 looking after one margin, which meant that we could make 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.000 beautiful clothes for less. And then I remembered all my 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.199 love of luxury through my days at Harold's. So a 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:20.800 combination of my love of trousers, my from making clothes 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:25.000 with my mum, my sort of consumer insight from advertising, 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:26.760 my love of luxury from horsf I think if you 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.240 melt it all together, you get me an m And 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.679 because of our because we stuck to one route to market, 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.240 we were able to make the clothes for less. So 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:40.359 we suddenly had this and then we grew into this 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.720 modern luxury positioning. And then we added British because we've 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.160 realized people didn't know we were British, so we now 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.040 position ourselves as British modern luxury and that was very 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:55.560 important going into America to have that positioning. So and 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.199 you know when we became famous for trousers, and there 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:02.440 are very few businesses trousers are the most difficult things, 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:07.560 are they because the fit of them is very technical 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.439 and they fit on you know, women are very different 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:19.240 around the bottom area, so you've got to be very patient. 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:24.600 And we built up lots of DNA around our fit, 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.080 which I actually did myself in the early days with 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.040 this incredible fit technician from she was She's German, she 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:36.520 called Ursula, and we created lots of different trouser shapes 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:38.720 and I'd say, I don't like it like that. I 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.119 think it should fit like this, and she was very patient. 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.840 She go okay, well let's adapt it like this, and 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:50.960 she was like a scientist. And then we started to 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.520 get talked about in the press as the trouser whisperers 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:56.800 and the trouser geeks, and that was when the thing 0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:58.760 started to get going. 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:04.080 So those foundation pieces. I was thinking about. My favorite 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:04.560 dish with. 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.679 You outside of zucchini wish, is that how you do 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:12.560 mozzarella because for some reason it's just the right giving 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:17.919 us about how you can respin mozzarella endlessly. Yeah, so 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.119 I always have it so good, like no one can 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.080 make it like you, and how you design all the 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:24.800 ingredients that go with it, but are always different. 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:26.480 It's the same with a pair of trousers. 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:31.359 You have to start with the beautiful bass fabric and 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:33.679 then you can put lots of different ingredients with it 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:36.399 and you can wear that trouser every single day looking 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:37.280 completely different. 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.240 I think there is a parallel between, but you do, 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:44.359 you know, I've been thinking a lot about ingredients lately, 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.520 whether I'm interviewing a writer and his ingredients or her 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:51.720 ingredients or words, or you know, interview a business person 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.199 and their ingredients are financial equations, but you know, and 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.480 yours are fabric and yours are designed, and yours is technical. 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:01.280 But if we don't have right ingredients and they don't 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.400 have to be the most expensive ingredient, but the quality 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.159 of the ingredient is where you start from, whether it 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:09.520 is a word, or it is a tomato or it 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:13.040 is a cotton, And then the technique that that then 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:16.679 that you create doesn't it makes it, you know, very 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.000