Katherine Ryan: 'My stylist reins me in because she doesn't want to be humiliated'

Katherine Ryan: 'My stylist reins me in because she doesn't want to be humiliated'

Comedian Katherine Ryan on her statement fashion style and Spice Girls style faux pas

Comedians aren’t fashion’s natural playmates, but Katherine Ryan isn’t your usual comedian. Her ebullient fashion choices have not only shaped her on-stage persona (her 14 year old daughter Violet asked her why she was ‘dressed like the Statue of Liberty in drag’ for her Missus stand up show - currently streaming on Sky) but given her real stand-out stand-up appeal, too. Her turn as a single mother in Netflix vehicle The Duchess would have been nothing without the hyper trend driven, statement wardrobe her life-blending-with-art dictated. 

‘I love skincare, I love hair. I really respect and admire all those industries. But I don't know why that doesn't translate into this effortless day look for me. I only have two speeds, I look nuts or I look ready for stage,’ she muses over Zoom from her home in Hertfordshire (‘Zone 5’) which she shares with her now three children (Violet, plus Fred, 2 and Fenna, 15 months with her husband Bobby Koostra). 

Katherine Ryan in The Duchess
Netflix

Of her vibrant on-stage looks she posits that early on, ‘I noticed the men in the big corporate gigs or hosting and awards or they had a chat show, they always looked really really smart. You do need to dress for the job that you want. If you want that big paycheck, you have to look like you're worth that. I think it's just respectful when people have paid for a babysitter. They've paid for parking. They've come to see you on a Saturday night. I think it's really important to dress well for them.’ 

Canadian born Ryan has latterly cleared out the walk-in wardrobe she shares with Koostra (‘we have exactly the same amount of space’) for eBay, where she will host the UK’s first ‘live’ sale (a bit like QVC but hopefully less landfill) with Amy Bannerman, the re-sale giant’s Pre-Loved Style Director. Available to purchase will be a Racil velvet blazer she wore in The Duchess, a Blazé Milano gown, a Rixo sequin dress as well as other vintage gems plucked from the eBay ether - think D&G and safety-pin Versace, as well as Tasha Ghouri’s finale dress from Love Island. It’s certainly giving second hand a sexy new, viral glow up. The sale of Ryan’s pieces will benefit Whisc, the women’s health and wellbeing charity.  

Katherine Ryan with her eBay live items for sale
Katherine Ryan with her eBay live items for sale
Getty Images for eBay UK

Unsurprisingly she has a magpie approach to fashion. ‘I really love embellishments, I think fashion should be colourful and fun. I don't mind taking risks on the red carpet. If anything my stylist reins me in because she doesn't want to be humiliated. Then other times she wants to put me in something really avant garde and I'm just trying to have a nice date with my husband. I've had two babies in the last two and a half years and I've had to adjust what I'm comfortable showing and not showing.’ She admires others with a certain sod-it attitude to getting dressed, citing Julia Fox. ‘She's quite mad, in the best way, and her fashion follows suit. You can see a lot of her own authentic voice in the fashion risks that she takes.’ 

Of the recent Noughties comeback she notes that  ‘that's why it's so important to remember that trends come back. You can't be impulsive buying fashion. I get fearful sometimes when the threat of low rise jeans returns again. But I've noticed that we're wearing wider leg trousers now. I think that's very flattering. [Although] now Rishi Sunak is wearing Sambas so I've had to throw mine away.’ 

Katherine Ryan at the Glamour Women of the Year awards 2023 in London
Katherine Ryan at the Glamour Women of the Year awards 2023 in London
Dave Benett

Like most of us who came of age during that period, ‘I had a denim suit because of B*witched; the Spice Girls got me kicked out of school a couple of times [with] short skirts and zig-a-zig-ah shoes that were inappropriate for a Year Seven. Back then it was more about body type, everyone was basically in a swimsuit throughout the early noughties with maybe a belly chain.’ Now at 40, she joins the rest of us trying to retain our style dignity. She mentions a local mum friend. ‘Her nails are always on point and that's the woman that I would like to elevate myself to be. I want someone to say “that woman looks glossy”, not “here comes Katherine Ryan she’s clearly had a late night.’’’

Katherine Ryan will be hosting eBay’s first ever eBay Live in the UK alongside eBay’s Pre-Loved Style Director Amy Bannerman at 8pm, Wednesday May 1st on ebay.co.uk