Envious started because Nichola kept meeting the same woman over and over. Not literally the same person, but the same situation. Standing in front of a wardrobe full of clothes, feeling like she had nothing to wear, quietly convinced the problem was her body.

It almost never was.

Nichola is a personal stylist, and the whole business has been built around one idea: that getting dressed should not feel this hard. Not on a Tuesday morning, not before a wedding, not at any point in between. She works with women on their shape, their proportions, their colouring, and the practical reality of their actual lives. Then she hands them the tools to do it themselves.

Dress hire came naturally out of that. So did the Envi Band, which started as a fix for something clients kept struggling with in appointments and turned into a product that now reaches women all over the country.

The through-line in all of it is the same. Style that makes sense for your real life.

I did not start out as a stylist. I spent years in corporate banking, and on paper it made sense. In practice, I was always the person friends rang when they did not know what to wear.

I left to retrain. Certified as a Personal Stylist, Style Coach & Image Consultant, and started working with women one to one. I have four boys at home, which maybe explains why I have so much patience for chaos and so little for anything that wastes time.

What I kept noticing in sessions was the gap between what women thought the problem was (usually their body, always their body) and what the problem actually was (almost always the clothes). Once you understand how to dress for your shape and proportions, so much of the daily frustration just stops. That is the work.

The Envi Band came out of a specific client problem. Women loved oversized tops and dresses, but could not style them without creating bulk or ruining the garment. I made something to fix it. It is as simple as that.

Crop. Shape. Style. With what you own.

I am a mum of three, with a background in women's media, and will not pretend I am not delighted that my best friend is a stylist.

When I saw what Nichola was building I wanted to be part of it. I look after the operations side of the business and handle Envi Band logistics, which mostly means making sure the thing Nichola designed actually reaches you.