Meeting Claire Richards (From Steps!) & Talking about Fashion

This week I was asked to meet and interview the beautiful Claire Richards about her being Fashion World's new ambassador.

Claire is most well known for being, what I would say, the lead female singer in the UK Pop Group 'Steps'. More recently she has come back into the spotlight by being on the reality TV show 'Big Brother'. Steps was the first concert I went to as a child, so for me, this was an amazing opportunity and I couldn't wait to see the clothes she had chosen for Spring/Summer from the Fashion World collection.

The meet was at BB Bakery in Covent Garden. Upon arrival, the first thing that caught my eye (apart from the mass of press photographers) was how beautifully decorated the place was. There was lots of sweets, meringue, biscuits and cakes that for me, reflected perfectly at the end how sweet Claire was. But we shall get to that part in a moment.

These were the items that were in the Bakery window. How amazing and delicious is this tower of yumminess?

After the press had been given their time for the PhotoCall, I was brought inside where we were given wine, cupcakes, and tea. I went for the wine as well as treating myself to some of the divine little cupcakes that were on the table.

After waiting a while and watching the world go past, several journalists interviewed Claire from behind me. You can here them chatting away, with Claire sounding very confident and bursting into laughter every so often. In-between each interview, Claire would have her flawless make up reapplied, her 'Impassioned' by Mac lipstick just helping to bring out her beautiful eyes.

Then, I was next. She was sat at a cute round table, wearing one of her outfits from the collection, she looked glowing. We started off by talking about the range that Claire had chosen for the Spring/Summer. She said that she was given a large room full of Fashion World's pieces and Claire went through and chose the pieces she liked the most, which apparently she ended up choosing too many and ended up having to spend a lot of time whittling it down to a more suitable number. "The things that I would wear and just the things that I liked" were the rules that she went by when choosing the items. She also let us in on a secret, she has been designing her own collection which will be available at the end of the year!

My question next was then if she felt conscious of what she was wearing whilst she was in the Big Brother house and if she put a lot of thought into what she took in. Claire said she put a lot of thought in because it was important that she felt comfortable but also looked good. She found it annoying that she could only take in two suitcases and a joke was made about Rylan's clothes being a lot smaller so he essentially was able to take more clothes, we all had a little giggle about that.

Claire talked about how her confidence has risen recently and she was able to wear a lot more dresses whilst in Big Brother which she didn't feel she would have been able to do before. Over time she said that she has just learned to feel happy in the skin she is in and not worry about what other people think. Claire said "When I first put the weight on after Steps I just didn't know what to wear, the idea of having to wear a sports bra just filled me with absolute dread."

"The one thing I have learnt that helped me is stop worrying about what other people think of you, just because you are bigger doesn't mean you can't be beautiful". Claire said it has taken her a long time to get herself in to that frame of mind but she is a much happier person now that she is and hopes that whilst her daughter grows up she can grow up with the same knowledge.

Claire is a fantastic role model and I hope that her success continues so that little girls have her to look up to and know that they don't have to be a size 0 to be beautiful and confident, as I have never had such envy of a woman's looks.
With sizes ranging from 12 to 32, "Claire's picks" of must have fashions can now be found at Fashion World.