Statistics
Occupation
Fashion guru and style advisor
Gender
Female
Spouse
Sten Bertelsen
Children
Joe, Esme, Cece
Ethnicity
English
Net worth
£5 million (estimated)
Notable credit(s)
What Not to Wear
Trinny & Susannah Undress
Official website
http://www.trinnyandsusannah.com
Susannah Constantine (born June 3, 1962 in London) is an award-winning English fashion guru, fashion and style advisor, television personality, presenter and bestselling fashion author. She is best-known as the co-host, along with Trinny Woodall, on the BBC style series What Not to Wear. Following her success on the show, she went on to co-host Trinny & Susannah Undress amongst making appearances as a style advisor on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her earlier career consisted of working for several well-known designers such as John Galliano.
She has co-written many fashion advice book some of which have become bestsellers in the United Kingdom and United States. Her second book, entitled What Not to Wear, has won her a prestigious British Book Award and has sold 670,000 copies. It is estimated that her various style advice books have sold 2.5 million copies in Britain and the United States.
Constantine is best known as a fashion guru and style advisor, where her fashion career started when she worked for many years for fashion designer Giorgio Armani as a shop girl in America. She later came back to London and worked for designers such as Alistair Blair and John Galliano and gained an even greater understanding of fashion. Constantine had previously taught children for three years and has also worked for Harrods. She then started working with the British Brain and Spine Foundation and consequently met the sports editor of The Daily Telegraph. Whilst doing a piece for GMTV, he asked Constantine to report the women's World Cup Final in cricket on finding out that it was her passion. She proceeded to write about cars and then fashion.
She teamed up in 1994 with Trinny Woodall after they had met at a party hosted by David, Viscount Linley. They proceeded to write Ready to Wear, a weekly style guide for the Daily Telegraph which ran successfully for seven years. Constantine and Woodall were also co-founders of Ready2shop.com, a dot-com fashion advice business that ceased trading after running out of funding in November 2000.
Constantine made her television debut when Granada Sky Broadcasting signed her and Woodall to present a daytime shopping show named after their column in the Daily Telegraph called Ready to Wear and soon released their first fashion advice book. The book was unsuccessful and resulted in 13,000 copies of the book being pulped. Soon after the start of their television career, they secured a frequent makeover slot on the show Richard & Judy. It ensured that they had further exposure in television and gained attention from Jane Root, controller of BBC Two, who took a risk and signed them up after their book Ready to Dress and their internet business Ready2shop.com had been unsuccessful.
Constantine is well-known and was made famous for co-hosting What Not to Wear with Trinny Woodall, which required using her fashion advice, expertise, and some brutally honest remarks in order to reform candidates' appearances and fashion style. Constantine says that she finds dressing other women easy, but finds it difficult when dressing herself. The show made Constantine and Woodall household names are now known together as Trinny and Susannah. She co-hosted the show from 2001 to 2005 where she was often noted for her tactile behaviour with the candidates. A notorious moment arose when she spontaneously pulled a female candidate's underwear down during filming as her knicker line was visible.
During her time co-hosting What Not to Wear for five series, she and Woodall gained recognition for their work on the show, winning a Royal Television Society Award in 2002, for being the best factual presenters.[10] In 2002, Constantine provided Jeremy Clarkson with a makeover on a celebrity version of What Not to Wear,[11] and later did a spin-off show called What Not to Wear on the Red Carpet in which she transformed the appearances of Jo Brand and Sophie Raworth for a BAFTA Award ceremony. What Not to Wear also gained her international fame when it was aired in countries such as Spain, America and Portugal.
Constantine defected from the BBC to ITV for a deal worth a reputed £1.2 million,[12] where she started a new show, Trinny & Susannah Undress on 3 October 2006. The second series has recently been airing on ITV. The show sees Constantine advising couples who are finding problems within their marriage. The advice and fashion makeover provided, aims to make the troubled relationships stronger. Since the transfer to ITV, What Not to Wear on BBC One has been hosted by Lisa Butcher and Mica Paris.
The Oprah Winfrey Show has also seen her appearing regularly as a makeover and style expert, where she gave fashion advice and guidelines on how to better your overall appearance and figure. The show also saw Constantine and Woodall giving numerous American citizens fashion makeovers.[13]
For charity, Constantine has appeared on Children in Need in 2004, which saw a special segment, with her giving the fictional EastEnders characters Little Mo and Mo Harris a makeover à la What Not to Wear, commenting on them in her usual style.[14] She has also appeared on Comic Relief: Red Nose Night Live 05.
In 2005, Constantine was a guest on the live BBC coverage of The Royal Wedding of Charles and Camilla, where she contributed as a fashion and contemporary social commentator.[15] In the same year, Constantine voiced a robot version of herself in the science fiction series Doctor Who. In the episode "Bad Wolf" in 2005, Trine-e and Zu-Zana were two robots acting out a deadly futuristic version of What not to Wear, offering makeovers in a more gruesome form.
Constantine has appeared three of times on Parkinson and made appearances on This Morning and Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car which is a recurring segment on the BBC Two motoring programme Top Gear, amongst numerous other talk shows. In 2003, when Constantine and Woodall were interviewed on Parkinson, actress Meg Ryan had a controversial interview with Michael Parkinson, which resulted in negative publicity. Parkinson said that he felt Ryan's behaviour to his fellow guests Woodall and Constantine, whom she turned her back on, was "unforgivable".[16]
Constantine has co-written several style advice books with her fashion partner Trinny Woodall, some of which include What Not to Wear, What You Wear Can Change Your Life and Trinny & Susannah Take on America and have sold a reputed 2.5 million books worldwide. The fashion advice books have been number one bestsellers in Britain and the United States, appearing on both The Sunday Times bestseller list[17] and The New York Times bestseller list,[18] and have been translated throughout the world.[19]
Other success with their books includes winning a British Book Award for their book What Not to Wear in 2003 for the TV & Film Book of the Year. The book was at one point selling 45,000 copies each week and sold 300,000 copies in just fifteen weeks.[20] Total sales reached 670,000 copies, consequently outselling Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. It was also reported that Constantine and Woodall secured a £1 million book deal to write more of their fashion books.[21]
In the same year that Constantine moved from the BBC to ITV1, she co-launched an underwear range called "Trinny and Susannah Magic Pants" which were made of Nylon, produced to flatten the tummy, buttocks and thighs, so that the areas appear slimmer and compact.[22] She currently co-writes a weekly column for The Sun.
Constantine and Woodall became the faces of Nescafé in 2003, when they were featured in advertisements promoting the brand of coffee.
She later became the face of Littlewoods with Woodall, as during its sponsorship of their new ITV1 programme Trinny & Susannah Undress, orders rose thirty per cent. From January 2007, the pair produced a twelve page fashion advice section within the Littlewoods catalogue and made a booklet called The Golden Rules, which was distributed to all Littlewoods customers with fashion advice to suit a range of body shapes.
They have also produced online guidelines for Littlewoods, where customers are able to key in body measurements and get advice on clothing according to their figure.[23] Constantine and Woodall made their first appearance in television advertisements to promote Littlewoods in April 2007.[24] The Mission:Impossible-themed advertisements include Constantine and Woodall as themselves dressed as two agents trying to rob a Littlewoods warehouse.
Constantine grew up in an old priory in the Leicestershire village of Knipton and went hunting from the age of seven.[25] She was educated at boarding schools including St Mary's School in Wantage, Oxfordshire, and Queens Gate School in South Kensington, London. She was close with her father, who was successful in the property and shipping sectors, was an ex-Eton pupil and served in the Coldstream Guards. When she was young, Constantine would rely on her father for fashion advice and has commented that any style that she has, she learned from him. He was a talented artist and was offered worldwide art exhibitions, although too modest to accept. His death came suddenly and was a landmark for Constantine.
Constantine became a fixture in 1980s British gossip columns and newspapers as the result of her relationship with Princess Margaret's son, David, Viscount Linley which lasted for eight years.[26] Princess Margaret thought well of Constantine and even called her "my daughter-in-law".[25] She has also had a relationship with Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan but is now married to businessman Sten Bertelsen, and has three children called Joe, Esme and CeCe.
After having her first child, Constantine suffered from severe postnatal depression.[25] Upon discovering that she was pregnant for a third time, as well as being overcome with delight, she felt despair as it came at a time when best friend Trinny Woodall was struggling to conceive and undergoing IVF treatment. Constantine's pregnancy was unplanned and unexpected whilst Woodall was struggling to conceive. In an interview Constantine said that she "couldn't bear to tell her." A short time later however, Woodall became pregnant with her first child.[25]
When on a visit to Cannes film festival, Constantine and Woodall were the targets of gem thieves. The thieves broke into the villa on the French Riviera where they were staying, and rendered Constantine and Woodall unconscious with chloroform, continuing to steal money and jewellery.[27] Carol Vorderman was involved in a feud with Constantine and Woodall in 2003. Vorderman commented harshly about the double-act, after they had called her an "overdone Eighties nightmare" and named Vorderman in their list of the 20 worst-dressed celebrities.[28]
On the show Big Impression, impressionists Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona took to spoofing her presenting techniques on What Not to Wear,[29] just one of the shows in which Constantine's character has been spoofed. She has also been referred to on the comedy sketch show French & Saunders and was spoofed in a sketch on 2DTV when it featured her giving Santa Claus a makeover, substituting his traditional red suit for a casual shirt and trousers.[30]
She was also portrayed as a lesbian with Woodall on Avid Merrion's show Bo' Selecta!. Even though she was lampooned on the show, Constantine took the portrayal as a compliment.[31] In 2006, on Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word, Ramsay named his two pigs "Trinny and Susannah" after Constantine and Woodall.[32] Constantine and Trinny Woodall were featured in a cartoon strip in the comic Viz where they were portrayed as school bullies. When Constantine and Woodall saw the cartoon strip in the comic, they threatened to take legal action.[33]
Year
Programme
Other notes
2001-2005
What Not to Wear
Herself
The Kumars at No. 42
Herself, interview
What Not to Wear on the Red Carpet
Herself
V Graham Norton
Herself, interview
Parkinson
Herself, interview
The Terry and Gaby Show
Herself, interview
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Herself, interview
Children in Need
Herself
Top Gear
Herself, interview and racing
This Morning
Herself, interview
Comic Relief: Red Nose Night Live 05
Herself
Parkinson
Herself, interview
This Morning
Herself, interview
Doctor Who
Episode "Bad Wolf", voice of Zu-Zana
Parkinson
Herself, interview
This Morning
Herself, interview
Sports Relief
Herself
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
Herself, interview
The Sharon Osbourne Show
Herself, interview
The View
Herself, interview
2006-2007
Trinny & Susannah Undress
Herself
Richard & Judy
Herself, interview
Happy Birthday Elton!
Herself
Year
Title of book
Ready 2 Dress: How to Have Style Without Following Fashion
What Not to Wear
What Not to Wear 2: For Every Occasion
Trinny and Susannah - The Rules
What Not to Wear: The Rules
What Not to Wear: For Every Occasion
What You Wear Can Change Your Life
What Your Clothes Say About You
Trinny and Susannah: The Survival Guide
Trinny & Susannah Take on America: What Your Clothes Say about You
Trinny and Susannah Undressed: Everything You Need to Know for a Lifetime of Dressing ... and More
