Emily Maitlis: I feel at my sexiest when I look my worst: after an amazing run and a swim in the Serpentine

The Newsnight presenter on power dressing and her Goth phase
Fitness fanatic: Emily Maitlis
Hannah Nathanson10 July 2014

You tend to learn the hard way if an outfit doesn’t work on Newsnight. The cameras move the whole time, so you can never be sure how it looks. The only way to play it completely safe would be to don a velour leisure suit every day.

It doesn’t take me long to get ready. We don’t have much time and it’s not really that kind of show.

I’m not a power dresser — the words conjure up Dynasty’s Krystle Carrington and that’s not my style — but I hate wearing flat shoes in the studio, which may be my own nod to needing stature of some kind.

I’m open to what people tell me on social media but not particularly influenced by it. There was one bloke who wrote every week to BBC London saying, ‘Dear Emily, wear leather skirts.’ It would be odd if I took it all on board.

My biggest fashion faux pas was thinking a Pringle golf sweater would work on air. It really didn’t.

I feel at my sexiest when I look my worst: after an amazing run and a swim in the Serpentine. The older I get, the more I prioritise fitness over beauty.

On my day off I am invariably in tennis shoes and gym kit. Life is so much more efficient if you stay in running kit all day. I have an entire drawer of Sweaty Betty, and endless black leggings and tennis skirts.

When I was little I wished so badly I had long hair that I would use a pair of navy blue opaque tights to pretend I did. I’d put the waistband part over my head and each leg was like a ponytail. It was an incredibly fetching look.

I was the third of three sisters, so I was dressed in hand-me-down Clothkits clothes, mostly purple and green combinations. It was very hippie in that 1970s-commune way.

I worked in a hairdressers when I was 14. I used to sneak old tubes of Majirel colour home and dye my fringe a different colour every week. The maroon was particularly vibrant. I also wore very tight jeans which, looking back, were highly unsuitable.

Later on I got quite into Goth clothes, with lots of floor-length black skirts and sweeping lace. It was never considered rebellious at home; I think my mother secretly rather liked it as it looked vaguely Victorian.

I adore wearing Victoria Beckham because when it fits, it fits like a glove. You feel a million dollars — which is, sadly, around what it actually costs.

Emily Maitlis is a supporter of The SMA Trust, a charity for spinal muscular atrophy (sma.org)

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