Trinny & Susannah Undress the Nation is a British reality fashion-themed television documentary series on ITV featuring fashion advisors Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine.
The newly formatted series, stemming from Trinny & Susannah Undress..., began to air on ITV on 7 November 2007, and explores some of the major fashion problems in Britain."Trinny and Susannah: The interview " – myparkmag.co.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2007. Numerous eye-catching stunts were filmed for the first series of the show in order to emphasise the points raised by Trinny and Susannah. One stunt included Susannah Constantine being transformed into a 70-year-old to look at how people dress for their age. Breasts, bras and uniforms were also some of the themes investigated during the first series.
History The first series of Trinny and Susannah Undress the Nation, which consisted of five episodes, started to air on 7 November 2007."The shape of things to come" – The Belfast Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 1 November 2007."ITV1 Undress the Nation" – merrymedia.com. Retrieved 5 August 2007. The first episode gained high viewing figures of 5.35 million,"Barb weekly Viewing Summary. (Click on w.e 11/11/07) " – barb.co.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2007. becoming the most-watched programme in its timeslot."Trinny and Susannah top off ratings" – The Guardian. Retrieved 8 November 2007. The first episode, which featured breasts and bras, prompted numerous complaints to ITV when scenes of topless women were broadcast before the 9pm watershed. An ITV spokesman commented "The context of this programme fully justified the use of footage of women topless and in bras. The presenters were pursuing a serious subject in an engaging and entertaining way." "But this series is more campaigning. It is more journalistic, but still hugely entertaining. It's a show we feel more proud of than anything we've done to date."— Susannah Constantine talking about Trinny & Susannah Undress the Nation. The new show aims to tackle some of the main fashion problems in Britain, where ITV filmed numerous stunts to be broadcast on the programme to promote Trinny and Susannah's points. Some of the stunts included Susannah being transformed into a 70-year-old to look at how people dress according to their age, and Trinny and Susannah accomplishing a redesign of the supermarket Somerfield's uniform in just two weeks. Somerfield's bosses later decided not to use the newly styled uniform after it had been deemed too impractical. The themes covered during the first series included breasts and bras, men, shape, age and uniforms."Trinny & Susannah Undress " – itv.com. Retrieved 5 August 2007."God's gift to women" – The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2007. Constantine stated "it is putting a microscope on certain areas that affect us all."
The scene filmed for Undress The Nation on 2 July 2007 generated some controversy. The culmination of the programme involved Trinny, Susannah and 100 women giving the East Sussex chalk figure, the Long Man of Wilmington, a temporary female form by adding pigtails, breasts and hips. The women created the effect by lying down in white boiler suits to make different shapes."Dance tutor defends role in Long Man Sex change" – sussexexpress.co.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2007. The hillside chalk carving was not permanently changed or affected. However the scene prompted twenty-two Neo-Pagans to protest at the historical site during filming. The Long Man is claimed as "sacred" by the Council of British Druid Orders, who said the "stunt" would "dishonour an ancient Pagan site of worship"."Pagans object to Long Man filming" – BBC. Retrieved 6 July 2007. A statement made by ITV stated that they were given permission for the event by Sussex Archaeological Society and that they took "the utmost care ... to protect this historical site"."'We won't wear it' – Pagans Furious with Trinny and Susannah " – independent.co.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2007. The owners, Sussex Archaeological Society, later apologised for any offence caused to any "individuals or groups" by the filming."Apology to Pagans over Long Man stunt" – sussexexpress.co.uk. Retrieved 7 August 2007. An e-petition demanding that the broadcast be stopped attracted 782 signatures.
International broadcasting on The Lifestyle Channel and The Seven Network
on Vitaya
on BBC Canada
on TV3
on HOT3
on Granada International
on TV ONE
on Lifestyle Network
on TVN Style
on The Home Channel
on Cosmopolitan
on Kanal 5
on ITV
Episode list
Series one (2007) Breasts and bras – The first episode of Trinny & Susannah Undress the Nation tackles the theme of breasts and bras in Britain where Trinny and Susannah state "British boobs need help!""Ladies, please put your assets away" – The Scotsman.co.uk. Retrieved 8 November 2007. Trinny and Susannah aim to investigate why many British women wear the wrong size bra and aim to promote wearing the correct size bra, and emphasize the benefits."Trinny and Susannah: Trinny boost boobs to 32D for new show" – The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 November 2007.
The fashion duo take their large pink box around the country in which women reveal their bra fittings for Trinny and Susannah to explore how women's bras generally fit."Patronising posh girls or candid style advisers?" – The Guardian. Retrieved 8 November 2007. They have stated that the box "provided a very intimate environment in which women could feel safe and be very honest." In order to investigate how breasts are measured, the two fashionistas go to three leading high-street stores to have their own breasts measured incognito,"Last night on television" – The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 November 2007 so as not to get any special treatment. They both leave each store having been given three different breast measurements, implying that women are disillusioned when choosing which size bra. Then, to have an awareness of what it is like to have large breasts, Trinny has fake moulded silicon breasts fitted by prosthetics experts, taking her from a 32A bra size to a 32D for the day. She later walks down the red carpet at the Classical Brit Awards, causing speculation that she had had a "boob job"."Trinny and Susannah Undress The Nation – Breasts " – myparkmag.co.uk. Retrieved 8 November 2007.
Their ultimate stunt is arranging for nearly 1000 women in Rothwell, Northamptonshire to have their bust measured professionally, complemented by receiving free correctly-fitting bras. Trinny, Susannah and the 1000 participants then take off their tops in public, revealing their new bras and ultimately disposing of their old bras in public, emphasizing the importance of wearing the correct bra size. The results find that 976 out of the 1000 women, averaging at about 90%, actually had the wrong size bra."Retail Therapists" – The Times. Retrieved 8 November 2007.
Men – In the second installment of the series, Trinny and Susannah investiage the fashion issues of men, and ultimately aim to get a nation of well-dressed British men."Trinny and Susannah Undress The Nation: Men " – myparkmang.co.uk. Retrieved 14 November 2007. To start their campaign, Trinny and Susannah attend a dress-down day at a civil engineers where they entice the engineers into their pink box to talk about their outfits. They duo are shocked at the way in which the men dress, with Susannah remarking "You've got amazing coloured eyes but you look like you've just crawled from under a stone." Trinny and Susannah then monitor how men shop via secret cameras. They find that the men they have observed do not actually shop but get taken shopping by their wives.
In order to get into the male psyche, they spend a day at Walthamstow Stadium dog track and subsequently decide to invent six rules of fashion for men based on the way that the betting information is arranged. The six basic body shapes include man boobs, beer belly, short legs, thick neck, broad shoulders and skinny. With each body shape, there includes a list of clothing items men must avoid, and others that are suitable. To test out the rules, Trinny and Susannah travel to a Cumbrian slate mine for the miners to take the rules and go shopping on their own. After the trial, they fear the rules are not simple enough. They seek the help from an advertising company who come up with the idea of arranging the six rules in the form of the Highway Code, therefore renaming the rules The Male Dress Code. Meanwhile, the fashion duo have arranged for the male section of an Oxford Street department store to be sectioned off to allow a male only day. The section has the six important rules displayed, complete with six live male manikins, one for each body shape, to demonstrate the clothing rules. They also invite some of the civil engineers and slate miners to test the newly formatted rules. Then outside of the store, Trinny and Susannah unveil the six male manikins in the shop window to the women outside.
Shape – The third episode features Trinny and Susannah exploring the theme of shape, where they promote wearing clothes suitable to body shape rather than clothing size. Trinny and Susannah get 60 size 16 women to wear an identical size 16 dress in order to discover how many women the dress fits properly. They find that the dress only fits two women, despite all 60 being classed as a size 16. To explore how women see their own bodies, the duo take their pink box in which women can draw their impressions of themselves, finding that they all see their bodies in different shapes. Then 60 of the women from the investigation are introduced to 12 different objects which Trinny and Susannah believe can represent all women's body shapes. The shapes include 'apple', 'hourglass', 'skittle', 'vase', 'cornet', 'lollipop', 'column', 'bell', 'goblet', 'cello', 'pear' and 'brick'."Exclusive Trinny and Susannah Interview." – femalefirst.co.uk. Retrieved 20 September 2007. The different objects are displayed around a gallery where twelve women with tightly fitted outfits, to show their figures clearly, stand next to the object which they best represent to demonstrate the general idea. Each model is then given a makeover according to the rules which Trinny and Susannah have applied to each body shape. The rest of the women are then required to go shopping to buy themselves clothes, complying with the rules. Only the women with the correct shape clothes receive their money back. Also around the town are the 12 live manikins, standing by a list of the rules for their body shape.
To end their body shape campaign, Trinny, Susannah and 100 women go to the hillside chalk carving, the Long Man of Wilmington,"Long Man's TV sex change angers pagans" – The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 November 2007. where Trinny parades a made over woman from each shape category. Meanwhile, in the distance, Susannah organizes the others into changing the shape of the Long Man into a more feminine one by lying down in white boiler suits to give the symbol pigtails, hips and breasts. The event does not come without protest, where Pagans gather in an attempt to stop the proceedings. The episode ends with Trinny and Susannah taking off in a helicopter to view the Long Man with a female form.
Age – During the fourth episode Trinny and Susannah investigate the theme of age. They aim to encourage the older generation to reclaim the high street and become more comfortable with shopping. Trinny remarks "I think for older women it becomes far more complicated as you age because you've got issues, such as what is age appropriate, their budget, their bodies are changing and it can just get worse and worse and more and more difficult.""Trinny and Susannah Undress The Nation – Age " – myparkmag.co.uk. Retrieved 5 December 2007. To view the way in which women age, a human timeline is created by arranging some 20 to 70-year-old women in a line wearing just their underwear.