Fashion Neurosis with Amelia Dimoldenberg

0:01Support for this show comes from Pure Leaf Iced Tea. When you find yourself in the afternoon slump, you need the right thing to make you bounce back. You need pure leaf iced tea. It's real brewed tea made in a variety of bold flavors with just the right amount of naturally occurring caffeine. You're left feeling refreshed and revitalized so you can be ready to take on what's next. The next time you need to hit the reset button, grab a pure leaf iced tea. Time for a tea break. Time for a pure leaf.

0:32Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door. Expertly cleaned and folded. So you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like tea time you. Mmm. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time you. So did you hear about Dave? Or even tea time, tea time, tea time you. Mmm. So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse. It's time to be great.

1:10Hi, come in.

1:17Welcome to Fashion Neurosis, Amelia de Moldenburg. Hello. Can I ask you what you're wearing and why you chose these particular clothes? Yes. um I'm wearing a peachy den shirt I love this brand and I think it's cute and I just did my own collection with them as well I just love wearing them always and Levi's jeans because they're the comfiest and then shoes I don't know where they're from but my stylist Chloe pulled them for me but I was gonna wear something different I was gonna wear a Gucci black dress that was incredibly tight and like pencil skirt and I looked amazing um and then I just thought oh it's a bit too dressed up and maybe I want to feel a bit more comfortable and then I was just re-watching the Kate Moss episode and I was like oh god she's also wearing all black and I was like I don't want to look too much like Kate Moss you know that'll be really that'll be just you know probably I know you know what I mean and so you know I'm just basically wearing this because I didn't want to look like Kate Moss see if you squint a bit it's Kate Moss um so yeah I just thought this would be a bit more um relaxing well it looks good on the sofa but also kind of still tailoring you know so yeah it was like is that one of your good balance peachy den designs no it's not actually I thought I'd be too on the nose to wear my own collection.

2:50But I just really love this piece. And I think it's like casual, but also nice tailoring as well. You're the creator and host of Chicken Shop Date, which is a hugely successful chat show YouTube series, which was too oddball to get commissioned. And the aesthetic of the show is instantly recognisable. And I wondered how you decided on your own look for the identity of this role. oh like as in the show well me everything about it the identity of it well it's in a chicken shop which is a lot of the identity and that idea came about um I was in a youth club in northwest London near where we're here today actually and um everyone there was um we made a magazine and it was a youth run publication um and everyone at the magazine was really into UK rap and grime music and at the time I was listening to like Michael Buble and um Katy Perry and I really wanted to interview the artists that everyone was listening to thought a great way to do that would be a date and I'd also never been on a date before so killing two birds with one stone and um someone said oh you should go on a date where no one would ever go on a first date and that is how the chicken shop element happened um and yeah I love it as a date location and I love the aesthetic of a chicken shop the white the the red um I mean the the overhead lighting isn't always very flattering but I think it adds to the yeah it adds to the vibe of of the show and I think it um humbles the a-listers when they come in to the shop now more than ever um but it's uh location is always very important in anything and especially in storytelling and um I I think it really makes to show what it is it's not in a studio some people think it's a green screen um and then my personality in the show is quite deadpan sarcastic awkward but in a charming way I would say and um I think it's also grown as I've grown I've been doing it for 10 years now um and the kind of persona kind of happened when I was um writing it for the column in the magazine and just thought I'm going to heighten the awkwardness that I already have and as a way to make this more entertaining and to make it more comedic and what about what you decided to wear because going on a date in a chicken shop is like I would imagine it has certain constraints for glamour but did you did you kind of well factor that or have a conundrum or I mean at first I was just wearing you know my everyday clothes I would wear but maybe like a little bit more dressed up but when I look back and I see what I was wearing for the early episode of chicken shop date I just think why were you wearing that well one of my friends came up to me I remember like on the early days and said do you mean to dress frumpy on the date I said frumpy this is my wardrobe um and I also one of what you were mentioning about like trying to get this commissioned for television which I did try to when it first first had the idea and everyone said no um and one of the commissioners said maybe let's do a screen test and I for you for you and I thought okay we're leading we're going somewhere with this I think you should dress in a in a tight dress and a mini skirt and heels and glam it up and I remember thinking no no that would be totally wrong for me and for the show and my style has evolved actually um over the course of the show but as a rule I don't wear black so I don't think I've worn black in any of the over a hundred episodes um and I always try and wear I'm very specific with with what I wear actually on the show because I want to wear things that are bright colorful fun playful cute because I think it's a great contrast to my deadpan dry humor when I roll my eyes I think an eye roll looks better in a pink cardigan don't you think that's really good I'm probably the opposite I I dress dark I want to sort of melt away I always want to dress uh in black more actually because I think it's very chic but then something happens and I just you know it's like two paths and I think I'll take the the dark side and then I always just take the you've got plenty of time to dress dark my mum though she dresses she dresses um all her life dressed in colour so maybe that's where I get it from but she's um in her 70s now and she will be head to toe in a multitude of different colours and prints so so nice you cite the devil wears Prada as an early influence and you have such original style and I wondered why you wanted to be like those caricatures and was it a control or a beauty thing that's funny um Dev Wears Prada is a is a really meaningful movie for me because it's kind of when I watched that I remember so vividly I was 12 years old and I already was interested in fashion magazines but I kind of didn't really understand how it all worked and and watching the Devil Wears Prada to me was like watching a documentary and I really just thought I need to be there I need to be working at Vogue like I need to be doing what Andy's doing and running around grabbing coffee like I just wanted to be in that world so much and I just really just fell in love with it which to many people might sound crazy because you know lots of people would wouldn't want to be in that world at all it's there's lots of um so superficial in many ways but I really related to Andy's character and how she really wanted to do something that was meaningful and um I think Miranda Priestly actually is just such a fantastic character and I think she also is incredibly principled and I love her I just love Emily Blunt as well and um so yeah I I um I I just find that film very it's just impacted me in a great way because then it honestly then led me down the path where I was like okay I want to work in fashion magazines and my mum said well if you want to work in fashion you got to go to Central Saint Martins and so that's why I went and I honestly think it's all because of the devil as Prada God, I'm glad it had some value.

9:35Did you see the Elton John musical? I saw that. I did. It was fantastic, wasn't it? Was it? Oh, I loved it. You loved it? I loved it much more than the film. Are you kidding me? I don't really like the film. I think maybe you're in the minority there. No, I think I was in the majority. Everyone was freaking out. Okay. I feel like the film is stronger, but I love a musical, so I'm never going to knock down a musical, but I would say that the film is better in my eyes. I suppose for me, the film seemed to be the most facile kind of depiction of fashion, which isn't my experience. So anyway, I'm glad it produced your brilliant idea because I think it's much better than Devil Wears Prada.

10:32Well, yeah, I mean, Chicken Chop Day, I guess, wasn't kind of born from Devil Wears Prada. I guess it was like two things were going on in my adolescence was this want to kind of work in fashion magazines. And then through actually going to a youth club where we made a magazine that wasn't fashion specific, it was pop culture specific, I kind of fell in love with pop culture as a whole. I've always loved fashion, but to me, I've kind of loved all elements of pop culture. And that's how the music came through. And yeah, I mean, journalism has been a big interest of mine. I love the idea of being able to uncover and capture different stories and different people's perspectives on things.

11:21And specifically around culture, I think it's fascinating and it's always interested me. I'm really pleased that the Jane Goodall Collection with Brilliant Earth connects to my vision of how we can live in harmony with nature. Every choice we make ripples outward, and you can choose what sort of impact you make. I know that the things I've worked for all my life will carry on. Discover the Jane Goodall Collection exclusively at Brilliant Earth. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin?

12:08Or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today. Nobody knows your customers better than your team. So give them the power to make standout content with Adobe Express. Brand kits make following design rules a breeze, and Adobe quality templates make it easy to create pro-looking flyers, social posts, presentations, and more. You don't have to be a designer to edit campaigns, resize ads, and translate content. Anyone can in a click.

12:44And collaboration tools put feedback right where you need it. See how you can turn your team into a content machine with Adobe Express, the quick and easy app to create on-brand content. Learn more at adobe.com slash express slash business.

13:00Did you have any obsession with certain pieces of clothing as a child? Clothing as a child. I feel like I was always begging my mum to like buy me things and go to different shops. and she was my parents have never been the type to let me have the things that I wanted as a child like yeah I was allowed but I was like I never had anything designer or anything like that and I would always just be like I think it was just this fashion magazine thing I'd be reading the magazine like why can't I have a Prada coat and a Versace handbag and they're like Amelia relax um you obviously can't really can't give you those things um but yeah I remember just going to like Tammy Girl or like Next or you know New Look and you know buying certain things but I don't remember being obsessed with clothes in that way me and my sister used to dress the same a lot um was that an agreement between you both or I'm not sure I think that my sister I think it sort of changed I think at first my sister wanted to replicate everything I was doing so would ask to wear the same clothes as me and then I think that it then shifted and she just couldn't think of anything worse than wearing the same clothes as me and you know and now it's kind of we're back to I don't know I think maybe I copy her style a bit more at the moment but she raids my wardrobe and I'm not allowed to raid hers which is oh so unfair isn't it yeah and you said a lot of your drive comes from wanting to impress your parents I wondered if it is it both of them or is it one more than the other uh I think it's both of them but maybe my dad is a bit harder to impress what kind of things do you try to impress them with yeah well I think that's why I'm so ambitious is because I don't always want the validation of my parents maybe that people other people can relate to that but um I don't know I think as long as I can remember I've always been like hello hello look at me look at me look at me and now I'm like hello I'm famous look at me look at me has it worked so worked yet can you see me um so I'm still figuring that out yeah do you notice whether it is effective where you know are you sensing a kind of that you're getting what you want that they are impressed yeah they are yeah they are they're probably they are my biggest fans so um they are impressed by me for sure um and yeah I think that it's just I've always cared about their opinion and I've always valued their opinion too I think they have great taste and I think that they're great people obviously and so I've always wanted to do right by them but I think sometimes it can go into maybe it's too far and it's like what do I actually want to do what do I actually want for myself but funny you say this I am working on this in therapy at the moment so yeah I had that a lot with my father I felt like I need to know what he thinks before I can really trust that I'm doing the right thing even though I did loads of things that he didn't necessarily approve of but his opinion was so important to me I almost restrained my own instinct about things and I think got in the way um I suppose it got in the way of my confidence but you said you found it difficult to make friends at a certain time and do you think becoming such a brilliant interviewer made you feel more needed by people?

16:53I guess it's like that feeling of like entertaining people or making people laugh is a way to connect with others and I really felt that when I was in secondary school at the beginning of school I like when I started I didn't really have any friends at all and I then kind of made it made a considered effort to like try and befriend people and I found that through using my humor was a way that I was able to connect with people and to make friends and for to be noticed I think that so often when you're young and I even find it you know so many ways as an adult you're wanting to be noticed you're wanting to have a seat at the table and you're wanting people to listen to you and to take what you say seriously and so often that it's really hard and um I think I found that making people laugh is a shortcut to that and it's also a way to figure out who your friends are is I think when you when I think about making friends I think a really great way to make friends is through a shared sense of humor I think that's always the way that you can say okay why are we friends it's like oh because we have the same interests a lot of the time and we also have the same sense of humor so I think it's a very powerful thing is humor it's very endearing as well I must say it's and does your technique of odd questioning come from a way of managing self-consciousness like a deflecting technique so I always remember trying to be as inscrutable as possible because I thought like that they won't be able to place me and they won't be able to negatively compare me I feel like I've never thought about it in that way I think that like to me that the kind of questions I ask are kind of based in a lot of research I do a lot of research on my guests and then I kind of use that research to try and think of questions that maybe people haven't been asked before that maybe often have a joke within them themselves and I think that like the oddball-ness of it kind of comes as well from like yeah wanting to catch people off guard but that again comes from this idea that when you catch people off guard you're able to create this energy between people that is like really unique and special and like not everyone can do that in a conversation and I think it's capturing those moments of like someone being like what's happening or awkwardness that I think people really like with what I do and is what I love with what I do as well um so yeah and I think the sarcasm and within my myself and my work has come from a place of yeah protecting yourself I I think that sarcasm is a great shield and especially against boys.

20:04Yeah. It's very confident and insightful, though, I think, to do, to use language the way you do and also to hold it back. because I always remember meeting someone who I had a long relationship with and sitting there at this table with him and we and there being silence for ages and thinking oh well he doesn't like me later on when we got together he said that's when I knew that you liked me because we had this silence and it was really exciting thing to know and that's cool um I love that yeah it was good yeah I feel like I've I'm comfortable in the silence but I also use it strategically in my work like I I'm like it's the rhythm of comedy I think is what I'm so interested in and I think that so often silences allow for that break that is needed to punctuate a punchline or like you know when I'm in the edit for an episode and even on in everything I do in my red carpet interviews uh and when I'm there I'm like okay this is gonna sing better it's gonna it's gonna be better if there's a pause here because of the melody of the comedy of of it so it's actually kind of I'm using it on purpose there's a game plan yeah it's it's really good and you designed a t-shirt with flirt written on it yes and in your oscars chicken shop date you told mikey madison that you're a professional flirter but you find being sexy embarrassing and i wondered why sexy is an is embarrassing okay this is something i'm trying to work on i actually had an idea while i was on holiday last week that i want to do burlesque lessons because um i actually just find it embarrassing yeah being sexy and I don't know it's like a self-conscious thing isn't it that like I just feel like I'm like oh god because like to be judged being sexy or like for me okay this is my idea of how for me to to think I'm being sexy and for someone to go oh my god what the hell are you doing like that is worst case scenario like I couldn't think of anything worse so it's much safer really to be awkward and funny um because then if someone says that's really weird you're like yeah I was meant to be weird yeah so you can't get caught out whereas I actually have so much respect for people that are sexy because

22:55I'm too self-conscious to be sexy and I I kind of I am obviously behind closed doors like I can do that but like with that eyes on you like oh god I want to work on that I think it would be a good thing for me to work on so I thought it would be fun to do some burlesque lessons because I think that that that is an amazing way to get in touch with your sensuality and your confidence and I also love dancing and I was doing dance lessons for a while and I think that it would just be another fun thing like a hobby to do where you can feel yourself getting better at something yeah it's so true I I totally know what you mean I I um yeah I think I kind of dressed as much as I could like a boy so for the similar reasons like don't get me wrong I don't think you know I'm more than just in this narrow container but but then when you do get into your body it's so much fun and doing dancing is a is a great idea yeah I I find like dressing sexy I can do like I feel like a lot of my red carpet looks and things like that I'm very comfortable being wearing something sexy it's just when it comes to the performative aspect of it like if someone's like okay now pose and be sexy or like walk over there and be sexy or like can you do this interview and like be sexy oh god yeah god no thanks but I suppose it sounds as though you're supposed to be absenting another part of yourself if you're but does anyone ever say to you do this and be sexy no they don't but like as in yeah maybe like in photos yeah photographers or or like in certain things but you know I also think it's why people like my interview style for example is because it's it's its own thing it's me and it's not necessarily so I don't know it it's quirky in a way yeah and that's quite quite fun it's fun and you've acknowledged beauties is considered a currency for women and what about men what what's their currency what is their currency well like everything they have a very wide range of currency they can pull from um literally pretty much anything but I think with women it's a lot more narrow and I think yeah I think obviously I think there's not just your beauty that's your currency but I do think that it in the grand scheme of things and society and it's definitely up there with what's most valued in in women and if you fancy someone don't like something they're wearing does it kill your attraction probably yeah I think clothes are so important I think that you know you there's a guy can just transform with clothes and so can a woman like um you know that program Trini and Susanna from back in the day yes I mean I haven't watched it obviously since I was a child but it was obviously so it was flawed in many ways and it was mean and and lots of things probably if you look back now you couldn't you wouldn't dream of saying but what I liked about the show is is the idea that you you're maybe just wearing the wrong shape clothes for your body and that if you just wore you know a top that wasn't such a low neck or wasn't such a high neck or it was fitted here it you it transforms you and i really think that and i think so often like people especially now you know so obsessed with plastic surgery i think why don't you just get pay your stylist for a day and get get them to tell you how to what shapes um would suit your body and i think that you will look completely different and you won't need to um cut up your face yeah there was a brilliant episode on Trini and Susanna where she makes her the person what changed their bra oh yes I remember this episode it was a it was just a master stroke and it was so kind of sympathetic and and caring of this woman I can't remember much about her except for having this good bra changed everything.

27:34And it's like the kind of things your mother's supposed to do. But my mother never did anything like that. I also think it's so hard to know, like, for yourself, like, not everyone has the eye to do that. And that's why I, myself, and so many other people in the industry are so lucky to work with such amazing stylists who really are those other eyes for you. um that can see because you know we're so self-critical as humans and you see yourself in a way that other people don't the amount of times that like I always think this like when I'm trying when I'm feeling self-conscious I think okay every time I look in the mirror I feel like I look completely different like each day depending on my outfit my hair the way I've done my makeup I think I look amazing sometimes and oh god what are you doing this day yeah but when I think about my friends coming to meet me for whatever every day they look the same every time I see them like they literally look the same and when they maybe look a bit better it's because of their outfit and I think I try and remember that that like honestly you look the same every day like so you're probably having a good day every day and that's a really good approach having a good day every day um I suppose it's true I mean I always tend to choose things that are like the other things I like and every now and then I'll push myself slightly out of my normal yeah constraints and then it feels really exciting but um I mean to me there's nothing sexier than an awkward silence and you're brilliant at that and do you allow those on an actual date yeah I think so it's funny because I like was on like met with someone recently and and um we were just talking the whole time talking the whole time and it was amazing like to be talking the whole time with someone I felt like that was like amazing connection to the point where he said like we never have any silences should we just like stop talking for a bit and so we were like walking down down the street and we just like didn't say anything but it was really funny because we realized we just couldn't stop talking to each other but I think that is a good thing in a way as well I think it's romantic to be non-stop talking with someone as well and a silence I think is when you know you're comfortable with someone and when you when you don't want to fill it yeah and I've had situations with people where I feel I can really feel the silence you know and it's a weight and it's and it and it is really awkward because and that's when you know something's not right but when a silence is just you don't feel it you know you don't even acknowledge it then anyway in a romantic sense I think that something you're on the right track there it's quite sexy to be told not to speak for a while 100 yeah and you said you become weirder to put people at their ease and I wondered if you ever kind of lose yourself in that moment and forget what you're trying to ask them oh 100 % all the time that's literally all I do all I do is forget my questions like some people think oh like when I'm up I like ask I suddenly go okay so like what's your favorite airplane and they're like oh my god she's so random it's such a kooky weird question to ask like no I've literally forgotten my actual question and I had to pluck something out of thin air I saw an airplane and I just said that like it's actually not it's actually I forget things all the time I have the worst memory ever and um yeah definitely being weird and going on a tangent I'll forget it even more well it's very enjoyable to watch anyway I I'm studying your strange questions I just thank you love I love your interview style it's like because your interview style is so specific because it has a purpose it's kind of referencing psychoanalysis and I think it's it's got you know a theme of fashion and I think that when anything you know when it's got like a theme and it's got a purpose and it's got a point of difference I feel like that always stands out which is why when I first saw this series I thought oh wow that's brilliant because even the way it's shot you know hello um it's it's uh got its own identity um and i think that that really stands out especially now and every when uh everything is so oversaturated with the amount of content that we have to consume well that means a lot coming from you in fact i wanted to ask you what chat shows you like watching and um i like parky and did you ever see fishing with john no god it's talk of weird it's really weird really but um but my favorite is hot ones and you've been on hot ones i watched your interview and uh i don't know how you managed to cope with how did you you keep your makeup everything was perfect And how did you manage your body when you were consuming that stuff, which you said that you can't handle spice?

32:50And I think I'd have a sort of internal organ failure if I had to eat those things. Well, that's what I thought would happen to me too. But I take everything I do incredibly seriously. So I did training for this. I did training for the hot ones. I met with my friend and he owns like a hot like a wings company like chicken wings company and we did training where we did hot spicy wings and I did it and the training was worse than the real thing and I did it about two days before oh my god it was it was so intense and then when I came to the studio with Sean to film Hot Ones I was so excited because I love that show too and Sean's a really good friend of mine I think he's such a fantastic host and I love the show and I was just honored to be there and to get to talk to him and um I think you have to see it as a competition really you know it's not like you're eating a dinner with this kind of food it's like you're having a bite and you're trying to get to the finish lines and I'm quite competitive in some ways so I think that was why I was able to keep my cool but I was very um impressed with myself because I don't eat spice like at all and you know I've watched episodes where like Cardi B you know drink drinking milk and ice cream like funneling ice cream down her throat and I thought that would be me but I bossed it so yeah it's cool really did what else is there anything that you've watched and you've thought I love I need I can do that I can I can do better than that in fact well I definitely grew up also like watching Parkinson like at home like my parents would have it on graham norton yeah i think it's the best to ever do it um i actually saw him at a screening he was hosting a screening and i sometimes get asked if i have ever got starstruck and i 100 got starstruck with him more than anyone i've ever met and i so to the point where i couldn't go up to him and introduce myself my friends were like go and say hello like go and say something and i was like i actually can't because i this moment means too much to me and I can't talk to him right now so I'm yet to meet Graham Norton but I know one day we we might um and um Mrs.

35:07Merton I watched that yeah not when it was on but pre like recent not recently but like I watched clips of it um and on YouTube uh I love Caroline Ahern um yeah I'm more recently I love Z-Way um and her show that she does um chat show that she does that's very specific as well comedy leaning and I think she's a fantastic comedian and host um between two ferns Zach Kalafanakis was a big inspiration for Chicken Shop Date again I love the humor and his line of questioning and how it's kind of half interview half comedy skit which I think is definitely something I've always tried Chicken Shop Date to be I kind of see Chicken Shop Date as a performance really between two people more than a just an interview um is there any I've never thought oh i can be better than them i've actually always thought of all these people i've thought wow i'd love to to be as good as you and i'm gonna do it in my own way i don't know why i asked you that because it's an unlikely question from one woman doing that in a way yeah i'm gonna be better than that uh there's people who don't do it very well that i think well i'm better than new, but they've never really made it that far.

36:26How does everyone know what everyone knows? It's a state sometimes called pluralistic ignorance or a spiral of silence where everyone mistakenly thinks that everyone else believes something and no one actually believes it. I'm Preet Bharara, and this week, cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker joins me on my podcast Stay Tuned with Preet to discuss his latest book. It's called When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows. We discuss what common knowledge can teach us about collective behavior. The episode is out now. Search and follow Stay Tuned with Preet wherever you get your podcasts. And you've done the Oscars red carpet interviews and you're so witty and when most people ask such boring questions to the stars and you also wear these dazzling dresses and with cutouts and things and I wondered if you ever get distracted by your dress when you're interviewing someone no but people get distracted by my dress when I'm interviewing them and that's the point um I definitely have been in lots of fittings with my stylist Chloe Griffin where she brings some amazing outfits and then we have to veto them because they're not appropriate to interview someone in and they would be great if I was just attending as a guest and I was just there for my photo moment but when I'm there and I'm interviewing someone and I have to like be able to my body has to turn to them and I have to um be understanding what they're saying I I've tried on things for example like feathers coming out of my shoulders you know and that's not going to work or massive long arms or bubble dresses where I'm going to be at odds with the person I'm going to get in the way we have to start kind of really think about that um and also a lot of the time I actually don't want to be too wow like I want to be wow but I don't want it to be too much that it's distracting um like there's definitely outfits we've tried on that are like oh my god that's unbelievable but it's actually too much because it's not for me to be that like take up that much of the limelight yeah even though I 100 % think that the work that I do is slightly different to your usual journalists where like I put myself I insert myself yeah into the scenario more than others would but I definitely still want it to feel like the dynamic is correct and also you got to think about things like are you too cold are you too hot like I hosted the premiere for Dune part two in New York and it was like zero degrees and I was shivering in my outfit and it affected my performance for sure it was one of my least favorite performances um that I had done and I definitely think it's because I was like freezing and I was I could have worn something else yeah I was watching you know you talking to these different men and they were I mean your wit was part of your brilliant outfit because they were so disarmed by you and it was so enjoyable to watch you raising the game and them raising up with you instead of some of the other stuff which is is the opposite so yeah I think it's quite not it's like catches it's true it catches men off guard I think when there's a woman there and she's wearing a she looks glamorous and then she's got this wit as well and this sarcasm and maybe she's putting them in their place or she's not fawning over them it's they're like what what's happening um and I love that I love it I feel very powerful in those moments yeah you seem it in a really like agile way and when you were talking to um Willem Dafoe who god that was very good it was very that was I could you could feel the chemistry you know the chemistry of brain power and just yeah how attractive the whole thing is it's so great when you you can sense immediately when when you meet someone and you're you're like okay this is going to be great this is going to be a great conversation or they're going to understand they're going to play ball here um but yeah I think that the outfits that I wear and one wears it's all a part of the story that you're telling and the character you know that you're playing and I think that it's very it's really important to me to be very considered with what I wear and and I but then sometimes I I go too far and I get too obsessed with what I'm wearing and how I'm looking and it needing to be outstanding and I can get too in my head with it and it can actually take the fun out of it yeah yeah it needs to kind of have your back the outfit rather than be just preoccupying doesn't it I agree I I still have it's a work in progress with that because some days I'm feeling really chilled about everything yeah it doesn't matter what I wear or like yeah this is great people say it's good i'll wear it and then sometimes i'm like controlling to the max and like being like this is this is average this is not going to be like interesting enough and like you can just drive yourself insane i think it's important to do that though you're doing a good job of it and you've talked about directing and your genius around romantic comedy which you enact in your chicken shop date and um whose work as a director do you admire and i feel like you may have some dark arty secrets somewhere that's a good question i love paul thomas anderson yeah um magnolia boogie nights um incredible um what else i love licorice peach licorice pizza as well i love um i love oh god you know this is one of those questions where like you you know all these things and then suddenly they all like they just vanish vanish yeah um oh oh no no about back i love no about back um and the mumble core um francis mistress of america a marriage story um squid and the whale i think um i love him um i love spike lee i um just watched malcolm x for the first time the other day because i had just watched this this film called k-pop demon hunters have you heard about it no okay neither had i it's the number one movie on netflix ever came out this summer it's it's cartoon and right now in the charts we're filming this in september beginning of september three of the songs are in the top 10 and the number one song in the uk right now is from this movie and i thought okay well i have to watch it because i need to have my finger on the pulse and i watched it and it was it wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be for a movie called k-pop demon hunters it was quite frozen esque but after watching that I thought I gotta watch something that's a bit more with a bit more gravitas so I watched Malcolm X by Spike Lee do you like anyone like I mean my favorite director is Boonewell because they're so sort of surrealist and weird and also very sexy and sort of perverse.

44:15I don't know. He did Belle de Jour. No, I've not seen it. He did all sorts of eccentric films. I mean, he was a genius, but I like him. In fact, there's this new film coming out in late October called Messy, and it's directed, written, and stars this young woman called Alexei Wasse, and it was voted by John Waters as the top film of 2024. Wow, okay, I need to watch that. Yes. I love John Waters. It's so, so ingenious and it's like a sexual rom-com. No way. And it's very funny and entertaining. I need to watch that. Yeah. I also, I've got quite obsessed with Ryan Coogler who did Sinners and Black Panther and I just think he's an amazing storyteller and I think that um I just really love his point of view and um I think he's fantastic god there's so many others that I'm missing but how did you decide on the briefness of chicken shop date because that's something originally I wanted to make this as a very very short chat show and you know it didn't work out I couldn't find anyone to commission I couldn't find a platform all those things but then when it came to making making it it just sort of took over and ended up being longer much longer and I think it's a masterstroke to do something that's brief and leaves people wanting more well I think it's just that well first of all I've had that conversation with so many people in terms of people with ideas people with ideas that have pitched it to other places had an idea for a show or whatever it is and and never been able to find a home for it and then I've always said to them make it make it yourself don't wait make it yourself and I think that you know that always works you know that that's what you have to do that's what I did that's what you've done and I think so many other people now um are doing that and now we have the platforms like YouTube and you can just make it yourself um in terms of the brevity of of and the shortness of of the show and what I do I just don't have the patience for it um I I watch the edits back and you know I film for about 40 minutes 50 minutes and I think god this is boring boring boring it's not funny it's not funny like cut it out I just think I'm just like ruthless with it I just think if it's not like if it's not going to make you laugh for me I'm not putting it in and that's just my show and everyone is different but with chicken chop day it's like if it's not going to make you laugh and or it doesn't tackle one of the themes of the show which is like around dating um or it's not an awkward moment or you know something like that then I just won't put it in and I've tried I've tried to be sincere in the show sometimes I go I'm gonna switch it up I'm gonna like ask a serious question and I do and then I'm in the edit and I think god this is weird I cut it out so you know I think you got to be ruthless with, with what speaks to you.

47:43And then that creates your own genre of something. Um, and you know, I think I was, yeah, just inspired maybe by like things I was watching. Like, you know, I spoke about like two, between two ferns or, you know, even comedy shows like the office or, um, just sketch comedy where, you know, you don't have, um, long, you've got to make your point I think that so much of comedy is in the timing of things and often in the briefness of something um is where comedy really thrives so I think that's why my show is the way it is have you ever tried recording for 10 minutes and that's that or do you always go chicken chop day we can't but I recently just filmed a series a new series sports series and I had 15 minutes with each sports person and I was had to make something out of that and we have so I was pretty impressed with that um and with a red carpet I have two minutes so I am well versed with not having much time uh for me I think it would be harder to do something that was longer because I feel like again I'd be self-conscious because there's so much more to judge I also think that probably when other people watch, if someone were to watch what I did in full, they'd think, oh, this is interesting.

49:13This is interesting. Yeah. Why don't you put this in? This is great. And I'm just like, ugh, no. That's so good to be so certain. Well, I suppose connected really to your instinct about what works. Yeah. That seems really clear. And you don't have any music on Chicken Shop Date, apart from you have the noise of frying. No, we've got the theme song. Yeah.

49:47But again, it's brilliant you create this kind of tension with the sound of the chips. And have you become a superstar in the Chicken Shop fraternity? maybe i do get free chicken quite a lot really yeah and when i'm at restaurants chicken will come over unprovoked to me uh and i will have to eat it no matter if i've already hucked already full or not yeah and do you get solicited by different chains or branches of chicken shops and asked if they really we've got this we've got certain ones we like to go to we're friends with them and I like the aesthetics and I like the people who work there and they're in good locations for because again it's a location it's a shooting location so for me I have to think about if it's in a good location for the talent to arrive to you don't do any kind of western chicken shops they don't exist trust me really I have tried I would love if there wasn't like an authentic local chicken shop to be opened in Soho, please.

51:01Because the amount of publicists that want their talent to be filmed in Soho and we can't. So I would have really liked that if someone opened one. There's loads around Laraport Grove area. Do you actually eat it? Yeah. Really? I love chicken nuggets. Chicken nuggets and chips. That's my go-to. But I don't like chicken on the bone. but um so i just eat chicken nuggets but yeah but i kind of nibble them because i'm thinking about my questions yeah um and then i look down i've just got like a box of nibbled nuggets and chips but i think it's nice to have food when you're interviewing someone because it kind of again it kind of breaks the ice in a way and it kind of makes it more familiar the setting and you don't get too nervous to even nibble like those chicken nuggets i don't get too nervous anymore and you know you've got to eat yeah I always find it really hard to eat when I'm nervous but deep fried is quite good actually because it kind of opens up your appetite and makes you able to absorb something and then you can does it?

52:11yeah when I'm really really nervous and I find it hard to eat when I'm nervous deep fried? deep fried with mayonnaise wow it's like just are you sure that's like someone says I know when they're trying to say why they need to have more deep fried food there's actually a health benefit to it well yeah there is there's a mental health benefit for me so um I do enjoy it that's fun I know it's a you know the show is going on a date but I I wondered how you get people to feel close to you when you're not sparring I guess it's just like again like that idea of me being weird in my own way is a way that disarms them because I think they think okay well she's something's going on there so I can like feel at ease because I'm not as weird as you um and I think being quirky and in that way and you know often filling the silence actually um can make you feel close to someone yeah but um I don't know.

53:17I honestly just always had a knack for it. Like when like everyone's probably got a knack for something and I've just always had that. I've just been able to like connect with people. now i wondered sometimes being sort of quick-witted and clever and brilliant it's people don't know how to comfort one i mean so sometimes i feel like i don't know how to get comfort because i'm very good at closing down the shutters it's just a habit a reflex almost do you do you have that or not really is it one of my old warped I feel like I definitely probably could be warmer maybe maybe people would have that um like friends even might say that about me but I also am very open person um and I feel like I wear my heart on my sleeve and I I definitely definitely say most things that come to my to my thoughts I think I'm quite self-aware um but I definitely also feel like maybe I have a tendency to not let people in as much as others do or show love in the way that maybe people do that show it quite like just you know just giving it giving it out everywhere yeah um but yeah I don't know I feel like it's hard to say of yourself I feel like other people would be a better judge of that yeah I'm always interested in that let's phone them up and someone once asked me what's the best compliment I ever received and I thought it was such a good question and I wondered what the best compliment you've ever received oh my god that is such a good question and i definitely feel like

55:13i've remembered a moment when someone said something to me and i've thought oh that's so nice um a great compliment i mean i always blush when someone says i'm good at dancing because i love to dance um and i think then most of the time they're joking but i still take it as for real but I think um I just think if someone says you're a good friend like I think that's such a great compliment um and I think that's would mean always mean so much to me when someone has said that um because I try so hard to be a good friend um and I my friends are everything to me and I really work on my friendships and I have such great friendships and so if someone says I'm a good friend then I can sleep easy at night I mean being a good friend is almost like a service but being a good dancer nothing can top it nothing can top it that's really something yeah because I sometimes you do a little shoulder movement on your show and it's like oh that's good yeah and you always seem to get a great response to that too I do I give the people what they want yeah They're easy to please.

56:31I don't know. I think you're very good at your dancing. Well, thank you so much for coming on Fashion Neurosis, Amelia. Is that it? I mean, I could talk to you for like 10 hours or whatever. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for having me on this very comfortable sofa. Well, any time. Come back. And I'll gracefully get out.

57:13I'm really pleased that the Jane Goodall collection with Brilliant Earth connects to my vision of how we can live in harmony with nature. Every choice we make ripples outward and you can choose what sort of impact you make. I know that the things I've worked for all my life will carry on. Discover the Jane Goodall Collection, exclusively at Brilliant Earth.