Locals help fashion gurus figure it out
Apr 14 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal
STYLE gurus Trinny and Susannah descended on Tyneside at the weekend in an attempt to unearth the truth about the British body.
More than 700 people of all shapes and sizes queued up at The Sage Gateshead to take part in the experiment – dubbed The Great British Body – which aims to reveal what the British figure really looks like.
The couple went face-to-face with volunteers to talk about their attitudes towards their bodies.
And DNA tests run by population geneticist Dr Jim Wilson, of Edinburgh University, were conducted to discover whether the FT0 fat gene is more prominent in different parts of the country or if it is hereditary.
What impressed the TV hosts was the number of people from the North East willing to shed their kit. Susannah said: “Everyone has been so welcoming today. There is less pressure up here about how you look than down in the South.
“There is a lot more acceptance here and people are not desperately modest. Everyone is gung-ho about coming and stripping naked.
“It just seems the further north you go, the less the girls wear, and there is a lot more love of your body.”
Trinny said: “We’re going around the country trying to find out how people feel about their bodies, how they perceive them and how much DNA affects your size and shape.
“We hope from this programme we could get people to admire and love their own bodies more instead of thinking you have to be a size zero.”
A giant sculpture of two of the most inspirational volunteers Trinny and Susannah meet on the roadshow – which also stops at Birmingham and Brighton – will be constructed on the Sussex Downs on April 26.
Coleen Chirnside, 23, from North Shields, North Tyneside, agreed to pose for the naked sculpture. She said: “I talked to them about my body and they told me I was beautiful, had great boobs and a nice face.” A number of women from further afield also travelled to Saturday’s event.
Great grandmother, Marjorie Bradbury, 90, travelled from Oldham, Lancashire, to meet the pair – and wowed the crowds by dancing the Charleston, doing the splits and putting her leg behind her head.
However, she drew the line at taking her clothes off. She said: “I told them no, everything is going southwards, and I do not want my great-grandchildren to see.”
And mother-of-two Sara Hayles, 33, from Wakefield in Yorkshire, said: “I wanted to hear about this average British woman, and just who she is.
“My husband is much shorter than me and sometimes it’s difficult because people think it’s strange. I’m happy with how I am, but it must be hard for him.”
