The Spark: Katy Ennis-Hargreaves on croc hatred, accidental shoplifting and Vivienne Westwood

0:03We are back with the absolutely awesome, bold, courageous Katy Ennis-Hargreaves. Hello. Hello. Hello. We had a nice chat on Monday, didn't we?

0:15Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:We did. We had a lovely chat. Can't remember a word I said, but it was lovely. Don't you think this is a bit like Blue Peter? Here's one I made earlier. Exactly like that. We like the prep. The listeners aren't stupid. They know I just record the same thing and just split it over the week. They know. You know, don't you, listeners? You do. You do. Put up with my nonsense for far too long. So we were talking about finding your voice, I guess, which is a potential bullshit bingo. You know, leaning into your spirit. Being authentic. Be authentic. Be yourself. no dancing on tiktok um being a woman you know being bold having the courage to be ourselves which you know you'd think would be easy but it's not easy is it having the having the confidence to say do you know what i'm ace and this is who i am this is how i'm going to present myself to the world in it's bloody hard work it is yeah it's easy because it all naturally just falls into place but it's difficult because you've been so used well certainly in my case you've been so used to watering yourself down and tiptoeing and trying to conform a little bit and then you just kind of well you get to my age and you're like nah not doing that anymore yeah it's hard to quieten the voices sometimes everybody's always got an opinion everybody loves to cast an opinion so when they're casting an opinion at you it's kind of difficult sometimes when it's not so um yeah but you know what the thing the thing and for me it's like dressing the way I've always wanted to and in sort of quite voluminous shapes and quite bold things what I'm finding is you do get a little bit of people sort of looking up and down and chuckling certainly in the small town where I am which is fine I don't think they do it maliciously I think they're just curious because I do stand out now um and I quite enjoy I quite like that I dress differently but most people love it and it's a talking point so I opened the door to the to the postie the other morning and they were clearly busy because the girl who normally comes to the door was in the van and she had a colleague with her and she immediately went oh I love your trainers where are they from can I take a picture she immediately took a picture and they were delivering something else to me and I said well thank you for delivering the parcel it might be free I get a lot of free stuff I'm a journalist it's not shopping I shouted at a friend in the van and she went I don't believe you knows your kind but it's just it's just it opens up conversations doesn't it the amount of times there used to be a dog walker near me and I remember he like he was like I just wanted to say I absolutely love those knee boots you had on and I thought oh in a kinky fashion and it wasn't at all it was just I had these lilac metallic knee boots it was like they were mega they were and And then I've had nights out where I've been out in something insane.

3:10Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:Again, I think it might have been knee boots. And I've had like three of the local landlords in them because I'm like, oh, well, so and so at that pub tried them on. You can have a go. So I've got pictures of them all like trying them on. You haven't got big feet, have you? No, seven. They were squidging the way into them. Because when I found that not so much anymore, because I tend to wear lots of men's shoes these days because I can't wear heels anymore, sadly, which would just do your, I don't know. But when I used to wear heels and I told men, certainly in the pub, I'm a size nine, they'd all go.

3:44Oh, they feel a little bit, a little bit threatened. No, I'm threatened. No, and then as the drinks flowed, I'd say, does any gentleman want to try on my heels? And they'd line up. They would line up.

3:59Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:They all said yes. They all said yes. And they all did a little walk back and forth with their hands on their hips. They were so proud of themselves. it was so it's so cute everybody voguing so everybody wants to vogue i think so why not it's like it's good fun wearing heels i'm i can't wear them now because of me little like i call him bernie i've decided to give my herniated disc a name i'm calling bernie bernie the herni bernie the herni that makes entire sense well if you if you don't think of it in your head as this poor little thing that caused you pain for so long instead just sort of like a little shriveled up shrew they've retracted now i'm no longer pressing on your nerves katie oh thanks bernie don't do that again it's far more joyful yeah exactly now and again you sort of like oh what you doing bernie no all right okay bad bernie bad bernie bad bad boy get back in um that sounded kinky um where did that that took it That's like a tangent, isn't it?

5:01Well, I think we're just getting to know each other, aren't we, love? The professionalism is wearing off in my case.

5:08Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:There's no such thing as professionalism. Okay, so we've got some questions to ask you, plus a very, very cheeky question, which had Malika Favre, our previous week guest, laughing her head off. I will message her and let her know I'm going to kill her. She's actually, actually, you should, if you haven't listened to it, you should because she makes a bit of a confession as well so but we'll come on to that um what's a trend you're secretly over but everyone else seems to love i mean i have a huge disdain for crocs which has been an ongoing thing so much so i am sent crock bait on a weekly basis on social media now cannot stand them sticking stuff on them does not make them any prettier does not make them acceptable pretty colors again no somebody said like look i've got someone and i've like made them boldism that does not make that acceptable and i did know you had something on the other day when i messaged you saying when you had a back flare-up i was like is this a crock in the following picture because you'll probably find that's what's responsible for bernie's return no no no no don't water it down you said is that a crock and then i'm pretty sure there was an emoji that was like confused.

6:20A vomit one probably or something. Yeah.

6:23Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:I was disappointed. I said, listen girl, I'm in a cool club. This is what all the cool kids were. It was, for the purpose of the listeners, it was Birkenstock maples in a beautiful sort of, what, like a tan? Not a tan, like a what's the kind of taupe? Like a nice taupe colour. I mean, you can try and talk it up. It was looking a little close to a crock for me, but Birkenstocks are accepted. I do see the croc the croc hatred I am renowned for but now I literally have people I worked with 15 years ago who will send me pictures of crocs not no words no how are you doing people just send me croc bit all the time you've encouraged me I'm going to do exactly the same do hate crocs and I also hate the clean I kind of hate the clean girl or the the clean aesthetic you know we've done minimalism and there's kind of beiges I'm going down at the moment but the high street is awash with black and beige.

7:21Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:Colour is not a thing at the moment and I just think the world needs colour. So I am so over everybody looking the same at the moment. Well, I'm really getting into beige because I went and saw one of these colour consultants who told me that I was a winter and then... Ah, yes. I can't wear warm colours and then part of my pivot... Your pivot? My pivot. I said, sod that and a bag of crisps, I'm going to wear beige. But if you wear beige, you wear stylistically chosen pieces of beige and you wear interesting cuts and it is done with thought behind it, not general. Yes, like I'm wearing this like very simple top.

8:03I can't remember where it's from, but it's it's got these you can't probably see, but it's got this little detail that comes down. And that's what you do. You see, I learned this from the stylist I worked with last year. she said just if you're going to pick basics pick something that's got something a little bit different about it so not just a plain and it's no longer basic and i don't want to be a basic bitch you ain't a basic bitch absolutely what is the smallest thing that instantly improves your

8:30Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:work day it's always a tough one the smallest one is and this is going to sound really basic but But my brain tends to go in many different directions at once. No two days are my same. So I can't actually have a very good structure or routine. So I had a business coach for a while who was like, you know, we'll develop these on and off days for you. And we'll, Wednesdays will be this kind of day and Thursdays will be this kind of day. And it just doesn't work for me. Whichever way the wind blows is the way the work happens. Some days it's very writing. Some days it's creative. Some days I can't do any of that for shit.

9:04Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:But what I do do is switch everything else off. So my phone is all, I have no notifications on my phone. I have, it's always on do not disturb. Everybody goes mad that they can never get hold of me because they ring and it rings out. And my emails go off for large portions of the day as well. So I can just do one task at a time. Otherwise I will find myself distracted, then reading an email, then jotting down an idea, then doing something else. And before I know it, there's six active things happening at the same time. So I have to limit myself. so yeah switching switching stuff off to focus i think very good love it it's a good bit of advice and speaking of advice what's one piece of advice you'd ban from the creative industry forever

9:50Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:fake it till you make it hate that one one piece of advice i do remember that stuck with me though from one of my previous creative directors and i've had some amazing creative directors over the years such a mixture as well um one was don't forget to look up which is a good piece of advice because we tend to you know it's we get told we we try and be in our lane we try and focus on what we're doing but every so often you do need to look up and see what what else is going on and what's happening around you um if not just to calm yourself or just to try and realize you're not alone everybody else is in the same boat so very much at the moment creative industry is a bit rocky at the moment so being able to realize you're not the only one in it and reaching out to people is a really important thing to do I think oh 100 % um and it's why you exist well it's why you do what you do because then you're not feeling so alone and all the people that come to Wilson's feel the same way oh I like this question who's your creative hero past or present and what have they taught you without even knowing it so there's many designers who I love but I do love and this is going to sound really basic I'm sure I do love Vivian Westwood for the pure activism and you know Vivian Westwood said I'm not a fashion designer I'm an activist and I think that's true you can mix you can cross a mixed discipline and I think always always so inspiring yeah so I do love do love a bit of Westwood a bit of Westwood she was amazing wasn't she she was um and got so much um stick for what she wore.

11:23Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:Yeah so much judgment so many people so many nayslayers again but powered on. And did amazing for sticking to her principles. Yeah her vision. Absolutely and she wasn't everyone's cup of tea that's the thing I really learned from Vivian she didn't I can't speak for her but I'm pretty sure she didn't care. She never tried to mass market. No and actually from doing that and leaning into what made her special and unique she ended up as successful as she did so she also said things like i'm the proof you can't throw away tradition wise i know god to be able to go back in time and have an actual dress made for your body by being in the room while she's like getting the pins and so it'd be amazing i've got a few pieces that i absolutely love strange shapes and silhouettes and cuts again.

12:17Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:Yeah, I adore. She's a true, true punk. God love her. And we're going to go on to a very devious and fun question from Malika Favre. And she says, Katie, what was the last thing you stole? Which I am going to message her about and tell her off for setting me up with this one. Because, you know, the last thing I stole, I mean, it's a kind of practical thing. Since we've moved house, I have taken delivery of a couple of things where I have somehow been fortunate enough to receive more than one. So I did order some very cute pink, obviously, boulders, table and chairs for outside in the garden and four chairs rocked up, not two, to which I did not let them know about that.

13:04Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:So they're helpful. So I think that's God's way of getting guests to come round. and then there may have also been an incident involving a very large retailer where I took delivery of some fancy lighting for the garden and seemingly seemed to have sent it to me twice and I haven't necessarily sent the other one back yet. Okay so yeah there you go indirect You might do that you you'll actually you are you did tell me you are actually I'm going to send them back. Yeah, I will send it back. And the chairs too. But I love how God's up there and he's like, okay, so we've got an earthquake happening over here.

13:44We've got to make sure minimal damage.

13:47Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:She needs some more pink chairs. Oh, she's got two more pink chairs. Yeah, I'll allow this. Yeah, she's a good egg, that one. There's got to be balance in the world somewhere, hasn't there? For everything else that's going on. I always used to wonder how Superman could like, you know, handle everything. You know, stop Lois Lane from falling in. You know, spoiler alert. falling into the crevice that opened up in the earthquake. You know, that was trauma for me as a kid. That's lame. My hero dying. He was a busy guy. Oh, well, he made the world turn backwards so he could go back in time and save everyone and everything, including her.

14:26Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:Exactly, and on another level and being gifted somehow with pink and bold items, which just goes to prove I'm on the right path. This is how I'm justifying it to myself. you can see well two hail mary's and five our fathers and you'll be fine being an ex-catholic yes that will be well same same oh well the last thing i stole was a block of marzipan when i was a teenager because i was probably stoned but there you go munchies munchies will do that for you i mean of all the things marzipan oh for the munchies no i just i have um i have like a little bottle of almond uh flavor and now and again the thing i really love to do is just go to the cupboard screw off the thing and just i think that's the problem you need to get looked into i just love i love almond anything to do with marzipan any of that kind of flavor cherry bakewell tart it is just oh and uh at christmas sometimes although i try not to because otherwise you find that the whole bottle's gone by the end of the season and what's it called armaretto oh yeah biscuits you name it and i i will my mom will always bless her make a traditional christmas cake and she knows i hate christmas cake but she knows i love the marzipan so she will just save me a bit of marzipan the marzipan i mean that is i mean there are worse things to be addicted to i think it's a healthy obsession you just gotta find me a perfume well yeah 100 % now what is your question for our next and final guest of the season oh my goodness we're nearly there my next question am I allowed to say who it is or not no you can yeah I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure Rob's not going to let me down it's Rob Draper I think my question for Rob was what is the biggest industry advice bullshit you've been given ooh let's get him mayor spitting that out.

16:30I reckon he'll give us a really good answer to that if I know Rob. There's plenty of it going around, so I want to know. There is. And you know what? It's why this conversation was so refreshing and why I'm so glad you're now without being cheesy in my life. And I hope that we stay in touch and I can come to the next Wilson's Republic and we can just, you know, hang out more because you're amazing. Absolutely. I hope, you know, that everything continues to go so brilliantly for you. And honestly, I say this from the bottom of my heart, thank you for inspiring me and helping me get to this next chapter of my life because you played such a big part.

17:08Thank you, hon.

17:09Katy Ennis-Hargreaves:Oh, don't make me cry. Thank you. Thanks for coming on the show. And thank you for having me. Thanks again to Adobe Acrobat for sponsoring this episode. If you want to explore PDF spaces and see how Adobe is rethinking the way we organise, understand and collaborate around information, head to the link in the show notes. Your future overwhelmed brain will probably thank you.