Fearne Cotton - The Biography. Nigel Goodall
it was still relatively embarrassing. We are all force-fed an ideal of what we should look like and hopefully what I wear proves that I refuse to subscribe to any of that.
‘I’ve made loads of fashion mistakes in my time – and I still do – but I actually quite enjoy it. Recently I went to this party dressed in some mad eighties outfit: cream spotty top from a junk shop with one sleeve in lace, with this bright pink stretchy skirt, leggings, bright red boots and a massive big chain around my neck. I thought I looked really cool and like I was really expressing myself but the next week I was singled out in one of those magazines saying, “What the hell is she wearing?”
‘At first I used to feel quite stung when I saw negative things about me in the press because I assumed that everyone reading it would agree but these days I really couldn’t care less. If it’s a personal attack about how well I’m doing my job, then that hurts, but when it’s your clothes then it’s just an opinion. As a society we’re programmed to agree that one certain look should be “in” for a certain amount of time, which is actually just a myth created by the fashion industry. It’s important that people are individual and I refuse to play that particular game.’
It’s probably the reason why she launched her own ‘Go Organic with Cotton’ range for New Look in July 2007 that was made available in over 500 high street stores across Britain. And with a surname like Cotton, this was a marketing marriage made in heaven. The collection was aimed squarely at festival-goers and although organic menswear, baby and maternity collections were also made available, the mainstay of the range was for women.
Unlike Kylie’s ‘LoveKylie’ collection of sexy lingerie or indeed Lily Allen’s ‘Lily Loves’ floral prom-dress collection, Fearne’s selection was far more practical with such items as denim tops, blouses, trousers, accessories and what the press called a ‘gorgeous Maribou maxi dress’ that she modelled herself, both online and out in public.
Renowned as a seasoned festival-goer, it was always going to be ideal to launch her range with a digital campaign that included her own online music, fashion and festival blog, for which Internet users could see her decked out in the entire collection, hear her views on music and fashion, as well as receive regular updates on the year’s summer festivals. There were even online competitions offering such prizes as tickets to Fearne’s favourite V Festival, a video iPod a day, a tent signed by the designer herself and a complete ‘Go Organic with Cotton’wardrobe.
But as she herself was quick to explain, ‘I’m not paid to look like a supermodel – I’m paid to talk. As long as I’m doing my job and improving each week then I’d rather gauge my success on that level. I have done a couple of magazine shoots with the “sex symbol” tag, but they take these photos when you’re made up, got your hair done and you’re wearing some glamorous bikini. It’s not me, it’s just a fantasy that they’ve created and I love being part of that, but it’s not my reality. It’s one particular image created for one particular magazine on one particular day, whereas the real me is sitting on my sofa wearing tracksuit bottoms, looking like an old hag, with unbrushed hair, eating a big bowl of cereal.
‘I’m just like any other normal twenty-something: some days I wake up with a big spot on my chin, feeling a bit run-down and flabby, and other days I feel like I could take on the world. The most important thing is to walk into a room believing in yourself and in the clothes that you’re wearing because if you’re not comfortable, it always shows.’
Despite what blogger Katie Button posted on the TV Scoop website, perhaps it’s Fearne’s natural vivacity and quirky dress sense that got her noticed in the first place. After all, she prides herself on her boho style. She has a nose stud, tattoos and hair extensions, and refuses to be what Paul English wrote about her: ‘an identikit blonde babe’. ‘Oh no,’ she says, horrified, ‘it’s important for children to see that you don’t have to conform and should express yourself individually.’
For her, part of that expression lies in tattoos: ‘I love working out different ways to wear my tattoos with my outfits,’ she laughs. ‘They’re part of my style. I’m really into art, so it’s an extension of that. I love getting tattoos done. I’ve got about ten now.’ But on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross she told Ross that she had 11 tattoos over her body, the most notable being a fern leaf, covering her right hip up to her ribcage. Very rock’n’roll, some may think. But Fearne admits she’s really not that hard-core when it comes to pain: ‘One tattoo took three hours, which was horrible, but worth it in the end. I’m planning a new one now, in fact. I want something to connect the fern on my ribs and the henna plant on my back. Maybe a bit of extra foliage or something …’
By the time she left Diggit, she had spent a year on the programme and was already on her way to becoming one of the most sought after presenters of children’s TV. To all intents and purposes that is why she left: so that she could concentrate on other television commitments, which included such shows as Mouse, Pump It Up, Eureka and Petswap. It also meant that she could join the BBC, which of course was her dream, but the gossip columnists were also tempted to ask whether she landed a job with the Corporation simply because she was distantly related to BBC mogul Bill Cotton, son of the late wartime bandleader Billy Cotton. But, no, it wasn’t how it happened, she insisted. She hadn’t seen him since she was five years old and that is what she told anyone who asked; she was proud to have made it all by herself.
Before she branched out to present Eureka, the after-school children’s science programme on CBBC, Petswap was probably the most popular of the shows that she was presenting on the ‘other’ channel. This was an afternoon weekday game show on ITV, offering animal-mad contestants the chance to change places with their pets. Ideas such as the opportunity for youngsters to run around a giant hamster wheel, store food in their cheeks and climb through an enormous cat flap were all part and parcel of the concept.
Although this was clearly a show for kids, it proved popular with both young and adult viewers. As one journalist commented, ‘it was a whole lot of fun’and was superbly anchored together by Fearne, who by then was already being hailed as ‘the busiest new presenter on the small screen’.
And certainly that was true. The show was another ideal vehicle for Fearne as she helped to pitch participants against each other in a series of physical and mental challenges based around a giant pet shop, a large aquarium and the Petswap garden. In one review the programme was described as ‘Children’s TV at its most mad, but brilliant stuff’. After all, where else could viewers watch contestants experience animal antics on a giant scale, from nest-building and navigation to pest problems and feeding?
According to producer Graham Brown, ‘the trick was to have lots of fun doing all the things that pets do but to learn some handy tips and simple pet-care facts along the way. We wanted kids to realise that having pets is great fun but they do need a lot of care and attention as well.’ This concept was something close to Fearne’s own heart – after all, she did have two cats of her own. She named them Tallulah and Keloy after the magic words from Disney’s 1971 Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Interestingly enough, Keloy appeared in the 2006 PDSA calendar with Fearne and was photographed by the late royal photographer Lord Lichfield. With her love for animals, as far as she was concerned, it couldn’t get much better!
By the time Petswap aired in March 2001, she had already turned her thoughts towards a place of her own: she began shopping for a property near to her parents’ home and before she turned twenty she had found what she wanted. For her, moving out of the family home was particularly heart wrenching – but not for obvious reasons. How on earth would she cope with being separated from her parents’ vast collection of vinyl?
‘I begged them to let me to take it with me, but no luck,’ she later admitted. ‘They were afraid I’d throw wild parties and spill beer all over their most treasured records. They only started to relent when I got myself properly sorted in a nice, orderly flat and fixed myself up with a state-of-the-art hi-fi. Then I was allowed to borrow their collection in small instalments, solemnly promising to take care of it. Over the years I managed to borrow quite a large chunk and I’ve got hundreds of my own records.’