Season 7 - Style DNA: Rachel Stevens

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