Susannah Constantine - Early Career

Early Career

Constantine originally did a year of Montessori training after she had left school but she then moved onto other projects such as studying sculpture in Brussels. She later said of this time that she "lost virginity, went a bit mad." Constantine had taught children for three years, and also worked as a shop girl for Harrods. She found the job, in her own words, "boring" and even tried shoplifting for the sake of excitement, but she has since expressed admiration for shop girls. Constantine's love for horses had inspired her to become a mounted policewoman in London, but was deterred when she found she was required to do four years walking the beat. She wrote a book about present giving, which prompted The Daily Telegraph to write a hostile article implying she had never done a day's work in her life, something which deeply upset her. She has stated defiantly "I've always worked."

She is now best known as a fashion guru and style advisor. Her fashion career started when she worked for many years as a shop girl in America for Giorgio Armani. She later came back to London with the hope of securing a job with Armani but ended up working for designers such as Richard James, Patrick Cox, Alistair Blair and John Galliano which gained her an even greater understanding of fashion, providing an in depth knowledge of how a garment progresses from a sketch. 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.

In 1994, she first met Trinny Woodall at a party hosted by David, Viscount Linley. Though they did not like each other at first, the two women proceeded to write Ready to Wear, a weekly style guide for The Daily Telegraph which ran successfully for seven years. The column promoted affordable high-street fashion and they used themselves to illustrate which clothing suited which figure. Constantine and Woodall also became the co-founders of Ready2shop.com, a dot-com, but the business venture failed, and investors subsequently lost a reputed £10 million. It was during their time running the internet business that they had a serious argument that almost ended their friendship.

Constantine made her television debut when Granada Sky Broadcasting signed her and Woodall to present a daytime shopping show called Ready to Wear, and they soon released their first fashion advice book, Ready 2 Dress in 2000. The book was unsuccessful and resulted in the pulping of 13,000 copies. 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 venture and their internet business had failed badly.