With her long platinum hair, signature specs and crimson lipstick, the Nicky Hambleton-Jones who welcomes me into her smart Southwest London townhouse seems to have little in common with the dowdy, unconfident women she is famous for making over. Yet during the next few hours, I discover there are more similarities than you’d think.
You may recognise Hambleton-Jones, now 53, from Channel 4’s 10 Years Younger, which launched in 2004. It was revolutionary at the time, taking a tired, bedraggled victim – sorry, participant – out on the street and asking the public to guess their age.
The estimates were invariably, and humiliatingly – no doubt the point of the show – a couple of decades older than the person actually was. There then followed a makeover, with the participant getting their hair, make-up and clothes revamped, dentistry and, in later series, surgery, before having their (hopefully younger) age guessed again.
When I tell her that her stern, verging on schoolmarmish, vibe came across as sometimes cruel when telling 40something participants, many of whom had had a hard life, they looked 60, she dismisses her role, saying she ‘was just the front person’ for the show.
When pushed she does concede that the process did ‘challenge people emotionally’ and that it would ‘never happen today’.
Nicky Hambleton-Jones became a household name for presenting Channel 4’s 10 Years Younger
The first series was called 10 Years Younger in 10 Days, and that was a bit of Botox, a bit of filler, plus hair and make-up. Next series, boom – full facelift, upper blepharoplasty, the works
But Hambleton-Jones, who had been plucked from obscurity to become the show’s presenter, had to deal with her own emotional challenges when, in 2008, after five successful series of the show, she was unceremoniously replaced by Myleene Klass.
The shock sacking led to her disappearing from the public eye for over ten years.
However, she’s now back on our screens on This Morning’s series Drop a Decade, giving fashion advice. Oh, and she has a new book out, Bolder Not Older, which aims to help you ‘look fabulous at any age!’
So what is the backstory on the UK’s makeover queen? Hambleton-Jones grew up in South Africa and told her dad she wanted to work in fashion. He said it wasn’t a sensible job, so she trained to be a dietician.
‘I graduated with honours but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life,’ she says; after two years in the business, she switched to become a management consultant in London, working for the firms Arthur Andersen (now Accenture), then Capco. She says she wasn’t ‘necessarily known for my corporate skills but more for my handbag matching my coat’.
After two years of punishing hours and commuting across the Atlantic, she was made redundant.
Above: the age-guesses, experts and willing women who made 10 Years Younger a hit
As far as Hambleton-Jones was concerned the show was a hit, pulling in around 2.4 million viewers, which is why being replaced by Klass came as such a shock. It was ‘horrendous. I just got dropped. Overnight.’ (In the pink: Nicky last month)
‘They said, ‘“Just leave. Go to your desk, take your laptop to IT and exit the building.” It made me feel so rubbish. My colleagues said, “Oh god, we’re so sorry”, but I said, “Don’t worry, watch this space. I’m going to be famous one day.” Then I turned around in a flurry of coats and colours and left.’
On the advice of a life coach, she started a styling business. ‘I had an idea to bring the concept of the celebrity stylist to the high street.’ She called it Tramp2Vamp. ‘The name is so embarrassing now.’
She had no experience in fashion, but a lifelong love of ‘transforming people. It gives me a buzz’. She began seeing clients.
‘The first woman thought that she had a “massive backside” and wore big clothes, thinking no one would notice. ‘I said, “You have a beautiful shape and you are wearing the wrong size.”’ Hambleton-Jones says the client was ‘blown away’ with her finished look.
It wasn’t easy, though. ‘People didn’t understand what a stylist was, so it was hard trying to convince people they needed to spend money on someone to take them shopping.’
Then, in 2003, the email from 10 Years Younger arrived and she was thrust into filming and into the public eye. It was addictive TV. The concept, the format, the content – it all felt fresh and thrilling.
‘Styling was a new industry. So was the tweakments business. The first series was called 10 Years Younger in 10 Days, and that was a bit of Botox, a bit of filler, plus hair and make-up. Next series, boom – full facelift, upper blepharoplasty, the works.’
The presenter is back on our screens on This Morning ’s series Drop a Decade , giving fashion advice. Oh, and she has a new book out, Bolder Not Older , which aims to help you ‘look fabulous at any age!’
Nicky pictured with Marcella Detroit and Lisa Faulkner
As far as Hambleton-Jones was concerned the show was a hit, pulling in around 2.4 million viewers, which is why being replaced by Klass came as such a shock. It was ‘horrendous. I just got dropped. Overnight.’
They didn’t call her, she says, let alone speak to her face to face. Instead they told her agent they wanted to give the programme a refresh. ‘TV is all about something new.
But that show was like my baby. And it was successful, so it didn’t make sense. It was devastating and had a domino effect in my life.’
So despite looking like she has it all, Hambleton-Jones has dealt with life’s hard knocks. It softens her edges a little, makes her more relatable.
After 10 Years Younger, she refocused on her client-styling business and had two children (now aged 15 and 11) with her husband Rob. At times she struggled socially at the school gates, not wanting anyone to recognise her.
‘I’m really shy. I actively toned myself down to fit in that school-mum group thing. It just never really worked for me.’
And she’s honest that, like many of her clients, she’s not totally genetically blessed.
‘I’ve never had a great figure. I was the one with the big legs. I had to exercise just to maintain average. Now all that grind, from my teens to my 50s, wearing SPF daily, hitting the gym, keeping it consistent, has paid off. All of a sudden, I’ve got to my 50s, and when I compare myself to university , the ones who had perfect figures, it’s like, now, “Whoa, who’s the attractive one?”’
So despite looking like she has it all, Hambleton-Jones has dealt with life’s hard knocks. It softens her edges a little, makes her more relatable.
So her fascination with makeovers is understandable. She knows that with know-how and effort you can look and feel great. She says even in her darkest period, post 10 Years Younger, ‘the one thing I relied on is what I wear’.
Clothes are her armour. At social events she wears ‘bold clothes because then people gravitate towards me’.
Enter her new book, in which she advises on how to ‘embrace your boldest, most confident self’. It outlines a 12-week programme to ‘revamp your wardrobe’, ‘transform your style’ and ‘reclaim your confidence’.
What’s obvious is that her makeover focus has moved from purely external to creating a psychological shift. ‘Initially it was very much “just get a new wardrobe”, but the older
I’ve got and the more I deal with clients the more I find it’s their mindset holding them back. They’re limited by how they think they should dress: what they think they can wear, because of their body shape, what they think they should or shouldn’t do for their age.
There’s so much noise that goes through someone’s head before they make a decision on what to wear. That’s why the book is a process. I’m there reassuring you, showing you. I’m putting looks together.’
She says all this in her usual schoolmarm tone. Which, quite frankly, is the push I need to go home and throw out the baggy leggings I keep wearing on repeat.
Nicky’s book Bolder Not Older will be published on 17 March by Synergy, £25. To pre-order a copy for £21.25 until 2 March, go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937. Free UK delivery on orders over £25.