When Vernon Kay was a model, he learned to be individual.
It’s a lesson that stood him in good stead when he unexpectedly became one of the most popular television presenters of the 2000s — a soft lad with a sweeping, tousled mop, sharp suit, and a winning sense of humour.
For a time, he was inescapable. On Sunday mornings, he was a comfort to hungover millennials, slotted between the Hollyoaks omnibus and a merciless episode of Popworld on T4.
He had his own Radio 1 show, took over Family Fortunes, hosted too many ITV game shows to count, and even caught attention across the pond, presenting on ABC’s Million Dollar Mind Game.
He hasn’t stopped since being discovered as a model at The Clothes Show Live in the late ’90s – but now, his career has come full circle.
Last year, he returned to fashion, the field that first recognised his talent. He’s co-hosting ITV’s Dress The Nation with AJ Odudu, a competition in which nine amateur designers battle it out to have their creations hanging on rails in the most popular department store in the UK: Marks & Spencer.
It’s a tried, tested and winning formula – not too dissimilar to the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee, only with ‘the best prize on British television’, Vernon tells Metro. ‘There’s no debate.’
The first series was won by David Olaniyi, a former dancer who brought an innovation found in the highest end of fashion to your local M&S. But he found it hard to keep doing his own thing while working within the constraints of the brand. Based on his feedback, this year’s prize has been slightly tweaked.
Vernon explains: ‘Now we’re giving the contestant the opportunity to be mentored by Marks & Spencer. They can still do what they want to do within their own design ideas, but they can use the resources of Marks & Spencer: marketing, design, and manufacturing.’
Vernon won’t tell me which celebrity guests will be sharing their two cents but promises ‘it’s an equal standing to last year’, which saw the likes of Alex Scott, Ian Wright, and Rosie Huntington-Whitely all offering their honest verdicts on the competing designs.
But the stakes feel higher: this year’s contestants have seen and studied the game and come into the dressing room more prepared.
‘What David had is more across the board this time,’ says Vernon. ‘Last year, some of the designers found it difficult embracing the commerciality of Marks & Spencer and they stuck to their couture guns.
‘This year, what they’ve been able to do is expand their horizons and make their bespoke couture designs more accessible to what the experts require within the competition.
‘It’s really brought a fierce competitive element to all the contestants. Even from the first 10 minutes of this series, you realise how good they all are and it’s really difficult to decide who’s gonna win.’
Naturally, a stylish show needs stylish hosts. Vernon’s motto has always been: ‘Your clothes should represent you.’
He jokes that wife Tess Daly is ‘very opinionated about his style’, but he clearly knows his lane and sticks to it. His look has always been distinguished and classic, but his tousled, sweeping hair always gave him a slight rebellious edge.
He hasn’t been scared to go against the grain. He never relied on fashion to be the loudest person on television, but he was still distinctive enough to stand out from the TV crowd.
He says: ‘I love walking past people who others might deem as being extravagant, or “that’s a bit quirky”. I love that, because that’s that person expressing themselves. Sometimes I think that we get too caught up in looking like the person stood next to us.
‘A prime example at the moment is the fuss about the Ibiza Final boss. Every single lad looks like the Ibiza Final boss. I’d be embarrassed if I was one of those lads in those pictures who’s got the little man bag, the horrendous haircuts, the shorts and all that.’
In 2020, Vernon unexpectedly signed up for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! He never made it to the jungle, with the pandemic dragging the reality series away from Australia and to Gwyrych Castle in Wales instead.
For someone as well-known and established as Vernon it was somewhat of a gamble: reality television has ended many a career. I wonder if he had any reservations about being so exposed on national television when he lives such a private life with Tess and their two children, Phoebe and Amber.
‘I think the one thing that TV people have when they go and do I’m a Celebrity is they realise that they’re on TV. If you look at it historically, all the issues have been caused because people forget they’re on TV.
‘You’ve got to be very aware that people are very quick to judge when you’re tired, you’re hungry, you’re meeting new friends who might not necessarily have the same views or opinions as you. If you forget you’re on telly, it can be very dangerous.’
The gamble paid off though. Vernon now hosts his daily mid-morning BBC Radio 2 show and feels like a firmer fixture on television again. A ‘comeback’ feels too strong a term for someone who never really went away, but it’s an impressive return to form. All he needs now is another Saturday night primetime entertainment show and it will be just like the 2010s, when he was barely off ITV.
In 2013, Vernon presented Splash! More than a decade on, it’s best remembered for a meme of Gemma Collins diving in a Bedazzled swim suit with the gusto of Beyoncé and haunting Penny Mordaunt when years later she became Leader of the House of Commons.
Saturday night television has never felt as lacklustre as it does right now. Until Strictly waltzes back in the winter months, there’s very little to get excited about on a Saturday night if you’re a hermit like me.
Is it time to bring Splash! back? ‘Definitely,’ says Vernon.
‘The majority of people within the world of celebrity are more body conscious. The nation went crazy for a bit of Keith Duffy, Dan Osbourne and obviously Tom Daley in their swimwear.
‘But it’s not about the aesthetic. Take the MP Penny Mordaunt, they were like, “Oh, look she’s trying to dive.” It’s not about that, it’s about getting out of your comfort zone and trying something in your swimwear in front of seven million people.
‘When people step out of their comfort zone, it needs to be embraced by other people, because most people couldn’t do it, and that’s why they’re mocking them.’
Dress The Nation returns September 14 on ITV.
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