Living Life the Essex Way (12 page)

Mum has always been a cool dresser, although she has quite a different style to me. She goes for a smart-casual look, and looks her best in a nice pair of skinny jeans with heels.

But I think my casual stage, when I was around ten, was too much even for her. I went through a kind of chavvy, trackie-wearing stage, and I’d always be in trackie bottoms and my Nike
Athletic jumper. It was the fashion at the time – think Sporty Spice, that’s the kind of look we were going for. But Mum hated it, and tried to get me out of it. Luckily for her, that
stage only lasted about six months. Even though it was fashionable at the time, it’s one of the few outfits I look back on and say to myself, ‘What were you thinking?’

Sporty Spice wasn’t my favourite Spice Girl anyhow – that was Geri Halliwell. When I was nine I wanted to be Ginger Spice, and even got a copy of her Union Jack dress. We used to
dress up as the Spice Girls, and I would be Geri, Billie was always Baby Spice, although she never wanted to be, and two of our friends were Posh Spice and Sporty Spice. We couldn’t find
anyone to be Scary Spice though, so we got hold of this girl who lived nearby and was just six, put dark bronzer all over her, backcombed her hair and told her she had to play the part. We looked
so stupid, but it was great fun. We never got tired of dressing as the Spice Girls.

Around this time, I was obsessed with these clown necklaces from Argos. I don’t know if you remember them, but they were gold or silver clowns on chains, and everyone wanted one. It was
the most random necklace. Mum finally caved in and I got one – but only in silver, not in gold. Looking back, they were proper chavvy! I also wanted a sovereign necklace, which I wasn’t
allowed. I did get one of those half-and-half necklaces though, where you give one half to your friend – Sarah Fahy, who was my best mate at school, had the other half of mine.

Sarah and I used to have a right laugh and do mad things together. I remember we once spent a whole day trying to make a video to send in to
You’ve Been Framed
. We tried pushing
each other off a trampoline, one of us walking in on the other shaving her legs in the shower, and falling down the stairs. We never actually sent in one of the videos though, so all we achieved
was a load of bruises!

By the time I went on to senior school, I was pretty confident in myself and my fashion choices. I took real pride in what I wore, and yeah, I’d say I was quite a trendsetter. I remember
turning up on my first day at school in my navy skirt, knee-high socks, little jeans jacket and Pringle bag, with my hair in bunches. I was rocking a Britney Spears kind of look. I am sure some
people were like ‘Who is this new girl, and what is she wearing?’ But before you knew it, all my new group of friends were doing the same.

By now my favourite shop was H&M. I was allowed to go shopping in Chelmsford with my friends from Year 8 onwards – and we went every week. Mum would drop us at Brentwood station on a
Saturday at 11 a.m. and pick us up again at 5.30 p.m. The boys came too – it was almost like a big group date – and they would just kind of hang out as the girls went round the shops.
We never bought too much, just a couple of things, maybe a nice cardigan or something. At the time I loved wearing jeans with pumps and cardies. As well as H&M, I liked the jumpers in Gap, and
then New Look started coming onto our radar too. Topshop was a bit pricey then, and wasn’t as big for teenagers as it is today.

Mum would give us money for the train and food, but I always had £20 of my own to spend on clothes, which I earned from my first real job – working on a farm. Each Saturday morning,
from eight till ten, I would go to a farm owned by a family friend. It wasn’t a working farm – I think the woman just loved animals – and she paid me to feed them. So I had to
feed horses, cats, peacocks, dogs, even turtles! Twenty quid was amazing for two hours’ work at that time, so I was well happy with it. I think I did better in terms of pay than most of my
friends. The boys mainly got their money from paper rounds. After we had been shopping, we would go to the cinema, and they would pay for the girls’ tickets with the money they had
earned.

Sometimes we went somewhere other than Chelmsford, although we weren’t allowed into central London until we were older. We went to Romford for a bit, but it was rougher and there was
rivalry with our area, so Mum would ring our mobiles all the time to check on us. In the end, we decided it wasn’t very nice, and swapped back to hanging out in Chelmsford.

We were getting into going out at night now as well, and I have been up for partying ever since. So that means spending a lot of time in the afternoons and evenings getting ready. I put a lot of
effort into my make-up and hair, as you can tell from other chapters, but it is choosing the outfit that really takes the longest. I throw clothes everywhere, especially when I am getting
frustrated – some nights my room looks like a battlefield! The chaos is still there in the morning to deal with, but Mum doesn’t let it remain like that for long. She gets on my case
the minute I wake up. Not good when I have a hangover!

The most expensive item of clothing I own is my school prom dress that I wore when I was 16. It was handmade in Amsterdam and is a gold mermaid-style dress with beads sewn all over it. It is
very Beyoncé, very glam, and very me!

It cost £600 and was a present from Mum and Dad. I was properly touched at the time – I think that must be the most they have ever spent on me in one go. I’ve still got it now,
and am dying for an excuse to wear it again. It is something I will always keep, and I hope I can pass it on to my daughters one day too. It’s well nice to have these classic pieces of
clothing that you can keep and get out from time to time, and then pass on through your family.

I know some people will hate me for saying this, but I would love a fur coat for that reason. I love animals, and if I think about it too much I don’t like the idea of furs, but they are
such a classic thing to own. I’d love to have a collection of them in my wardrobe one day, even if I never wear them.

But a lot of my wardrobe is taken up by fancy dress. My obsession with it didn’t stop when I was little, and I will still wear it whenever I can now, although it is always a sexier version
than it was back in the day! So I will still dress up as Snow White these days – but now it is a sexy Snow White, with stockings and a short rather than long dress. Honestly, I have been
everything from the Queen of Hearts, to a whoopee cushion. Yep, a whoopee cushion . . . I got the outfit from a fancy-dress shop for a party, and even got Joey to try it on. It was brilliant
– he looked so funny in it! In fact he might have to bribe me to stop me putting the photo of him in it in this book! Billie hates all that though, so I always have to bully her into joining
me in wearing silly outfits. Getting her on board for the Halloween party you saw in series three of
TOWIE
, for example, was not easy. But she looks great when she does it, so I
won’t give up on her just yet.

Of course my taste in fashion has changed since being on the show, for several reasons. Watching myself on screen and seeing photos of myself means I’ve been able to take a more objective
view of what suits me. Also I obviously have more money to spend on fashion. And once I was getting out of Essex a bit more, I was seeing alternative ways to do things. Don’t get me wrong, I
still think Essex girls have the best fashion sense, but I also realised that occasionally less can be more, so I have tried to tone down my tan and my make-up, and sometimes I cover up a bit more
than perhaps I did before.

We don’t have any help with fashion on the show at all. We are encouraged to just wear what we would normally go for, although all the cast will think about it that bit more, knowing we
are on TV. We all have much more choice now when it comes to fashion. After the show had been on for about a month, we, or our managers, started approaching clothing ranges. Apparently it is
completely normal for celebs to do that, although it was new to me at the time. Now, to be honest, I get so many free clothes sent to me that I haven’t any hope of wearing them all –
not that I’m complaining!

The idea is that the brand hopes you will be pictured or filmed in one of their outfits, and this will then increase the sales. I remember high-street brands like Siren and Hed Kandi were
especially keen for us to wear their clothes and accessories, even in the early days.

So, if you look back, you’ll see that while we’ve all more or less kept our Essex sense of style, it was rather more typical in series one, if you know what I mean. I remember I had
on a short, white, low-cut bodycon dress with a lot of cleavage on show when we filmed the opening credits. I had worn the dress before and liked it, and when I brought along a range of possible
clothes to wear, the producers liked it too, as it is very Essex. But I’d probably avoid that now, as it is a bit revealing and not as classy as I prefer now.

For the Christmas special after series one, I upped my game and went for show-stopping outfits, and I think that’s when people started noticing my style. Then the next month, January 2011,
at the National Television Awards, it was my first outing where I really felt like a million dollars, and the coverage of the event was really positive about my dress.

My favourite though was the dress I wore to the BAFTAs in May 2011. I borrowed a white and black Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress worth £3,500, and I really felt like an A-lister on the
red carpet. It was the first time I had borrowed a really expensive outfit to wear to an event, and I couldn’t believe this amazing designer was happy to lend me the dress and thought I was a
good representation of the brand. I had thought that kind of privilege was reserved for the likes of Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lopez! But in reality it seems all the celebrities are doing it,
which is lucky, because I would never be able to afford those kinds of dresses, especially with so many events to go to over a year. I don’t suppose the A-listers ever have to actually fork
out for an outfit, which must be amazing.

I did my own hair and make-up that night though, so it wasn’t all A-list glam! Joey was with me and looked reem in Louboutin shoes and a suit – we got so many compliments. Lauren
Goodger, in a sequined dress, and Lydia, in a flowery one, both looked great. I felt like it was a proper turning point which made people realise that I had a great sense of fashion. I can
definitely say that night was the best I have ever felt in my life, appearance-wise.

I kept up the same aim of classy, sophisticated fashion, but without turning my back on Essex glam, with my outfit for the
Transformers 3
premiere in June 2011. I borrowed a red
Alexander McQueen dress, and again did my own hair and make-up, which, even if I do say so myself, looked pretty good in the pictures. Some coverage even said I gave the main star, Rosie
Huntington-Whiteley, a run for her money, which was amazing, cos she is gorgeous! A magazine sold the dress I wore for charity afterwards.

Then there was the flowing white silk dress I wore to the ITV summer party in July that year, designed by Halston Heritage. It was the same dress Sarah Jessica Parker had worn in
Sex and the
City: The Movie
, which some of the press realised, so I just expected to be slagged off, to be honest. I wasn’t intending to compete with such an established fashionista! But I
didn’t get criticised, and in fact the way I accessorised it was complimented, which was well good.

But even though I love that I can now wear designer dresses to these kinds of events, most of the time I still keep to my high-street fashion. It is what I am most comfortable in on a day-to-day
basis, and I like to keep in touch with the fashions that the people who come into Minnies prefer.

I also like magazines that cover high-street fashion rather than high-end, so I will buy
More
and
Look
. I save mags like
Vogue
for the hairdresser’s, and I
don’t end up buying anything in them – I just like to create an imaginary wish list in my head!

When I’m shopping for myself, away from Minnies, I really like Zara, although I go for their brighter, more interesting designs. That bit of bling, the sparkles and the dazzle, are my
favourite things about fashion, and I’d never go for anything which lacked that. I love people like JLo and Beyoncé’s fashion – in fact I think they are really Essex girls
at heart! Or someone like Blake Lively – her wardrobe is so classy, but it’s also fun. I want to always be glam! You will never catch me going for a plain look, like I think Alexa Chung
does, for example. I don’t get her style at all. It’s just not me.

I don’t always have the time to put in maximum effort though. My life is so busy that I don’t have hours and hours to put together an outfit, or perfect my hair and make-up. Some
celebs actually have a strict schedule for beauty and fashion. Take Amy Childs, for example. She is much more of a home girl than me, so she will always have the time to blow-dry her hair perfectly
before she goes out. But nowadays I prefer to use any spare time I have on my shop, so that would be impossible.

I’m obvioiusly not like lots of the A-list celebs, like Victoria Beckham or Cheryl Cole, who have a whole team of stylists to help them out. I decide on my outfits for myself. The most
help I get is from my friend Cafer Mehmet – who we all call Jeff – who works in fashion. He comes round to my house sometimes and gives me and Billie advice on what he thinks looks
good, or he’ll come shopping with me. He also calls in the odd piece of clothing from someone he knows for me to wear.

But no matter how much I love the glam thing when I go out, you can’t beat a good casual outfit when you are on downtime. Obviously it is not always practical to be in a dress and heels,
and it also means I can really enjoy going all out when I do! I love being in my Diesel jeans, Ugg boots and leather jacket. Or, even better, just relaxing at home in my onesie! I think boys love
that too – that side of a girl when they are relaxed at home in their PJs, with no make-up. It is when they can see you for who you really are, and I think it is appealing for them.