Tabitha Webb - Style DNA - Season 11

Amanda Wakeley: Style DNA

Host Amanda Wakeley sits down with fashion designer and romance novelist Tabitha Webb to discuss her dramatic career reinvention. The episod

Key takeaways

Tabitha Webb's second novel, 'Playing the Field', draws heavy inspiration from the legendary Jilly Cooper.
The fashion brand Project D faced significant hurdles, including investors pulling out and complex cash flow issues.

Main topics

Career Reinvention
Fashion Entrepreneurship

Notable quotes

I'm a blagger in fashion. I'm a blagger in writing.

Conclusion

An inspiring look at how professional setbacks can serve as the cataly

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:02) This season's podcast is sponsored by one of my favorite supplements out there, Gold Collagen. I've always believed that style isn't just about what we wear. It's about how we feel and how we hold ourselves. And for me, feeling confident really starts with how I look after myself. I've been a big fan of gold collagen for a while now, and I've been taking Forte Ageless for the best part of a year. It's become such an effortless part of my daily routine. It's just an easy 50ml bottle that I drink every morning when I break my fast, and believe me, it's delicious. It's packed with 12g of hydrolyzed marine collagen. It contains elastin, ceramides, pro-retinol, with the added bonus that it contains 12g of protein. My skin definitely feels more hydrated, my hair and nails are growing stronger and faster than ever before, and for someone who's always done a lot of sport, I've definitely noticed a difference in my joints. Because of the bundle of vitamins and minerals it contains, I use it as my general wellness supplement that supports everything from my skin to my hair and my joints, and overall energy levels during the day. Enjoy 20 % off the full gold collagen range at goldcollagen.com with the code AMANDA20. Choose the collagen that's right for you. Today I'm going on a style journey with the British fashion designer and rom-com author, the joyful Tabitha Webb. Hello and welcome Tabitha. Hi, so exciting to be here with you. Oh, Speaker 2 (1:38) it's Speaker 1 (1:38) so lovely to have you here. Your second novel, Playing the Field, is published this July. It's a hilarious, spicy rom-com. You've been quoted as being inspired by Jilly Cooper. What can we expect from Playing the Field? Well, Speaker 2 (1:57) so the first book got to number one in the lesbian charts, which was a total curveball. I was like, oh. Oh, wow. My agent was like, take it. You're number one. I wasn't on the bucket list, but I'm going to take it. I'm going to own it. This one, less so. This is about a really hot farmer and it's about a girl who lives in the city and she moves to the countryside. She finds her boyfriend shagging his secretary in the wine cellar. So predictable, you Speaker 1 (2:21) know. Speaker 2 (2:22) So unoriginal. So she's like, I'm going to move to the country on my own and I'm just going to go and see what happens. And she's like, I'm not going to fall in love. I'm not going to have a rebound. And then on like her third day, she sees this really hot guy coming out of the river. He's obviously like my dream and he does not exist, as with all fictional heroes. But he's got his abs and the water's running down his front and he puts his Levi's on with no boxes. I'm so 80s, aren't I? This is sounding very Jilly Cooper. Speaker 1 (2:50) And she stands there and she watches him and she's like, oh my God. Speaker 2 (2:53) And then it's their love story ultimately about them getting together in the end. But their journey and her thinking, do I want to be with him? And then all this wonderful, amazing sex on the riverbanks in front of the fireplace, you know, inspirational, amazing, wonderful, romantic sex. Where is your inspiration from? Unfortunately, not my life, Amanda. Speaker 2 (3:12) So I moved to the countryside about seven, eight years ago. And I do live in front of a river, but it is not an exciting river like that with really hot men coming out of it. They don't just like appear. But I think I sit there. A muddy stream. It's a muddy stream with trout in it, actually. It's not muddy. Sorry, Simon, Simon, Simon, whose river it is. He'd be very upset. It's a very clear river. But I do sit there in front of the river quite a lot and kind of look at it. And I obviously dream of hot men coming out of it. Do you know, it's weird. I sit down to write a book and I don't have a story in my head. I just start writing and random stuff comes as I write. So you Speaker 1 (3:47) don't have a plan, a chapter plan, an outline? No, Speaker 2 (3:51) there is no story. My entire life is chaotic. Everything about me is chaotic. You know, if I start a collection, there is no reason. Rhyme or reason, it's just craziness. And when I start writing, I'm just like... oh, I like this character. Yeah, she's great. Oh, I think her boyfriend's going to shag around and she's going to move to the country. And I love that little cottage that we lived in a few years ago. I'll base it on that. And we've got a river down there and our coffee shop around the corner is great. I'll base it on the coffee shop a bit. And then I don't know, we went to a tractor plower competition and I thought, well, I'll throw that in too. And, you know, there are no hot farmers. Let's create some. And then I fell madly in love with my hero, Luke. I mean, he's just so hot and charming and nice. And Speaker 1 (4:27) how does your hubby feel about all of this? He is so... relax and he just says to everyone it's false advertising he's like Speaker 2 (4:33) my life is not this good none of this happens um but he do you know he's amazingly supportive and when we had our it was either our first or our second daughter he put on the birth certificate romance author and he always really wanted me to write yeah he was like I much prefer you writing to doing fashion like he always massively supported it and he loved the way I wrote and I was always like I'm a blagger I feel like I'm a blagger in everything I do you know I feel like I'm a blagger in fashion. I'm a blagger in writing. And I just kind of try my hand at everything. And I see what kind of comes out in the mix. But I have really enjoyed writing because I love Speaker 1 (5:09) creating the characters. So no Speaker 2 (5:11) imposter syndrome Speaker 1 (5:12) for Speaker 2 (5:12) you? Oh my God, immense imposter syndrome. I mean, I sit here and I sell and sell and sell. I try to make everybody buy it. And then I think, and then I say to them, don't read it. Don't read it. Just buy it because it's really good for my sales. But please don't read it. And don't give me your opinion. And then I think, God, I've got to turn up at the school gates and all these women read all these sex scenes that I've written. You know, I think, I don't know if I can say this, but my publicist said to me the other day, he said, Tabitha, you know, it's got the word cock in it 40 times. And I was like, really not sure I'm paying you to count that. But thank you so much. Speaker 1 (5:45) Why are you Speaker 2 (5:45) so obsessed with the word cock, by the way, while we're at it? Well, just there's a lot of sex scenes in it. And I think when you're writing sex scenes, you know, you've got to... be quite graphic about it. You know, I also mentioned the female parts, so you know, but I'm not going to say that now. Speaker 1 (5:59) Is there another book in you after Speaker 2 (6:01) this? Yes. So I've started the next book. Oh my Speaker 1 (6:03) God. I know. Full on. I just want to. Speaker 2 (6:07) Romance author. I think so. Do you know what? I've been in fashion for so many years and there's a part of me that feels like I might nearly be done with it. Are you going to be our new Dame Barbara Cartland? I so want to be Babs. I can't tell you how much I want to be Babs. Because I am literally an 80s throwback. They did a shoot for me last week and they had my hair blowing in the window. I looked at the pictures and I was like, yeah, it was just like this. I was like, my God, everything about me is so 80s. Rivals. I love 80s fashion. I mean, Jilly Cooper rang me after I wrote my first book. Speaker 1 (6:43) Oh my God. Speaker 2 (6:45) Did you Speaker 1 (6:45) know her? No. Speaker 2 (6:47) Oh my God. I know. How lovely. So I'd done some press in the States and they said, who's your idol? And I said, oh, well, Jilly Cooper, of course. You know, I used to read her sex scenes when I was at boarding school. We used to write sex scenes in the back row of chemistry. I always failed chemistry. I got 10%, but I got good at writing sex scenes. And she rang me out of the blue. I was in the car and I got out of the car and she went, Tabitha, it's Jilly Cooper. And I literally went, mum. And she went. No, Jilly Cooper. She said, I got your number. I saw that I was your mentor, you know, the person that you loved the most in the writing world. And I wanted to ring you and say that I read your book last night. And she said, I read Speaker 1 (7:24) it Speaker 2 (7:25) last night, stayed up till 3am reading it. She said, I've got a couple of comments. I was like, oh, it's gone to print. Please don't give me those. You know, I don't want those. And she said, I love the way you wrote about the creases in the pillow. And I love your descriptions. And she said, I just want to say, I think it is the most wonderful book. Please be an author. Don't give it up. And let me help you with the next book. And she was just like, and I said to her, I was like, this is my dream. I was so uncool. I was like, I can't believe you've run me. And then she wrote to me. How generous. generous to do that and give me that. Speaker 1 (8:01) And Speaker 2 (8:01) then she wrote to me about three or four times and she always wore my clothes when she did shoots. There's this amazing picture of her on Harper's Bazaar in one of my silk shirts. Oh my God. And just always supported and was just so amazing. Speaker 1 (8:15) Oh, wow. Speaker 2 (8:16) I know. Speaker 1 (8:17) How incredible. So Jilly Cooper didn't read the manuscript of this. No, Speaker 2 (8:22) but she did. When I said it was about farming, she did say to me, it's so... relevant at the moment. You've got to be really invested in the farming community. You've got to understand that the politics, you know, everything's going on with inheritance tax, how it's affecting farmers today. So I probably wouldn't have touched on it, but I actually did because I thought, you know, it is a rom-com, but it is also a story. It is multi-generational. It brings in people in their 70s falling in love. It brings in female friendships. It brings in no regrets. It brings in taking risks and starting again, which is something that I'm... very good at, or I tend to do a lot. So it brings in a lot of other storylines. And I think what she was saying is even though it's a romance, it's got to have depth. Speaker 1 (9:02) And actually, in this era of Clarkson's Farm, really shining a light on the farming community, that's very, very salient advice, isn't it? Yeah, Speaker 2 (9:12) it really is. And I think it was probably the one thing that she left me with. And she also said, you know, there were just not enough female romance authors coming through, which... I think actually, I'm not sure that's true anymore because so many people are now at home writing their book. I've spoken to so many middle-aged women who say, oh no, I'm writing a book now. Oh, I'm writing. Not to be rude about that, but I mean, it is much easier for people now. You can self-publish and go out and do that. So another one on its way. Another one on its way, which I'm going to aim to do much faster than this one, which... How long did this one take? I'm going to say five years. It didn't take me five years to write. It probably took me a very focused year to write. But I really struggled to do it alongside the fashion. You know, you have to wake up every morning and write, or I do. If I don't get up and go straight to write two or three hours, I can't do it. And I have to, and it's lonely as well. Yes, it is. Speaker 1 (10:10) Did you find it lonely? I found it very cathartic. But... You're right. You can't be distracted by anything. You've got to really just shut the noise out and put your head down. Yeah. Even if you're not feeling inspired that day, I had this real theory. You have to just get the words down. Yes. And the minute you start writing, even if the first sentence or two sentences are crap. Yeah. Then you get in the flow. I mean, that's the joy of writing on a laptop, isn't it? You just go back, delete, bam. But you get going. You get the momentum. That's how Speaker 2 (10:50) I felt. Did you enjoy the writing process? Speaker 1 (10:52) I loved the Speaker 2 (10:54) writing process. Speaker 1 (10:55) I really, really loved it. And I suppose being the age that I am, you suddenly realise how much you know and how much you want to share. And you've experienced everything Speaker 2 (11:07) that you've done all the way through. Yeah. Speaker 1 (11:09) But so not all of these stories have been experienced. Not all of these. I did go and learn to drive a tractor the other day because I felt it was very important that I did that. I Speaker 2 (11:18) was like, this is great. Love this. And it was a really hot, sunny day. And my friend said to me when I arrived, I mean, it felt so wrong. She went, Tabitha, I've got a treat for you. And out came Ralph. He must have been like... Oh, did I see this Speaker 1 (11:30) on Instagram? Ripped. Speaker 2 (11:32) ripped without his top on. And he walked over and he was like, hi, what did you want me to do? And I was like, oh my Speaker 1 (11:38) God, all my morals. I don't know what to do, but let's do it because I need to sell a book. So Speaker 2 (11:42) suddenly I'm absolutely fine with you standing here naked. Can you jump on the tractor? And I don't know, teach me to drive it and roll that tire. But no, I think, interestingly, I did send the link to pre-order to my little lane, church lane the other day. And I said, I'd love you all to support it. And then I thought, my God, I'm going to have to move. They're all going Speaker 1 (12:00) to be so horrified by Speaker 2 (12:02) all the sex, or they're all going to have a heart attack, or everyone's going to go, is that me? Is that me? And there are a few snippets of... So Dan, who's one of my favourite characters in here, is based on my next door neighbour, who can hold a 10 minute plank. And he's a widow in his late 70s. Speaker 1 (12:20) He's a rare find. He's a rare Speaker 2 (12:22) find. In my book, he's this amazing character who, you know, all the local women fall in love with and bring him food and look after him. And he's just wicked. And he does ultimately find love in the book as well. Speaker 1 (12:32) And I'd love Speaker 2 (12:34) to take his story forward because I Speaker 1 (12:35) love love Speaker 2 (12:37) in Speaker 1 (12:37) the older generations. I think Speaker 2 (12:39) that's Speaker 1 (12:39) amazing. And I think there should be no age limit to love. I don't think there is. And I think, but I think society sort of... tells us what we should and shouldn't be doing and particularly us women but that's a whole other Speaker 2 (12:52) that's another podcast Speaker 1 (12:53) that is um now back in the day let's just go back to fashion for a second um you had a very successful collaboration with danny monogue yeah project d yeah and then when that came to an end yeah you created tabitha webb yeah Speaker 1 (13:10) What the hell? What the hell? I mean, would it be fair to say that your fashion brand is taking a bit of a backseat to your writing now? Or are you managing to juggle them both? I mean, they are 180 degrees apart in my thinking. I mean, so 180. It's Speaker 2 (13:29) such a weird thing, isn't it? I think before Project D, I started with a handbag brand called Orca. Speaker 2 (13:36) I had no idea what I was doing. I'm not trained. I used to be in advertising in my early 20s. And I thought, this is crap. I want my own business. I'm never going to make any money doing this. Lo and behold. So you go into fashion. Yeah, I still haven't made any money. In fact, lost hundreds of thousands. And I thought, oh, I can't find a handbag I like. I'll start a handbag brand. And it was through the yellow pages and landlines. And I went through the yellow pages and I found a leather shop in the East End. And I drove up there and they... pointing me in the direction of a factory and I went in with a crap drawing. You know, I mean, it was like... What a different era. What a different era, but what an amazing way to work. And it was with our hands and it was tangible and I could see it and I could go up and I could watch it being made and it was ridiculous and they never answered the phone and I'd go up and shout and... I remember it all well. You know? And it was the days where, I mean, the brand grew so quickly because so many celebrities wore it because I hit the trend of metallic leather. And it was the days that you'd go into your studio on a Sunday morning because you knew you had a handbag in You magazine and you knew that your landline would ring off the hook and you would sell out that day. So you understood the business and it worked. Speaker 1 (14:44) And Speaker 2 (14:45) then I met Dani through that business. When she said, oh, you know, I'm on the X Factor every weekend in front of 18 million people. Let's launch a clothing brand. I was like, yeah, sure. I mean, I've never made a piece of clothing in my life. yeah, I don't know, let's do it. Mum always said, always say yes and figure it out later. So I was like, yeah, let's do that. Okay. And then she was like, I want to launch it in three months. And I was like, dude, you know, we've got to raise money. And anyway, we went hell for leather. I went hell for leather and raised money. I mean, you'll get this on the day of launch, our investor pulled out. You know, me and my husband ended up financing it. I mean, it was a really like very unexpected rocky road. And because Danny was at that point in such demand, we got every trade account we wanted, even though I would say the collection was definitely not the best. It didn't matter. Nobody wanted to miss out. And we got all those orders in. And I remember saying to Dan, you know, the cleverest thing we could do would be to walk away from some of these orders and to turn some of them down because there is no way we will deliver, you know, good enough quality across the board to all these people. And anyway, we didn't. And we went for it, you know, and we had every big stockist in the world pretty much. And I think it's fair to say we probably never caught up. You know, we were, I felt like we were always slightly on the back foot.