Jo Fairley

GREEN & BLACK’S CO-FOUNDER, SPEAKER AND LEADING ENTREPRENEUR

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Jo Fairley writes regularly for Telegraph Online, among her media portfolio. Here are some of the articles she's written about women and business and/or entrepreneurialism, appearing under the ‘Wonder Women’ experts section. Simply click on the article title below to read. Others can be sourced at the Telegraph.   

Why you should think about women's achievements today (your own included)

Construction needs to ditch its macho image and nail the gender imbalance fast

Women do need to man-up and stop using the word 'just'

High-achieving women have these 6 personality traits. Do you?

Mark Zuckerberg is right - personal goals are great. So what should you be striving for?

My Bizhub: Inspiring Entrepreneurs: an interview with Green & Black’s co-founder Jo Fairley

Digital detox baths: are we finally ready to be cleansed of our tech addiction?

How to have a sense of humour in the office (even when everything's gone wrong)
 

TWITTER

  • Josephine Fairley
    Tomorrow this begins, in our house. The idea is that every day you put aside something for trusselltrust until you’… https://t.co/usMZBnIhKy
    about a week ago
  • Josephine Fairley
    RT @actionhappiness: Be gentle with yourself. You can’t do all of the things all of the time https://t.co/TapPAyuko6
    about 2 weeks ago

INSTAGRAM

I am always so focused on getting to my speaking engagements on time & ensuring my skirt isn’t tucked into my knickers when I step on stage that I rarely give a thought in advance to the setting for the event. Pretty blown away to be ‘In Conversation’ with Des McDaid of @goldmansachs about my leadership journey in this incredible historic Wren-designed building in #oxford (built from 1664-1669). Awesome to meet all the graduates of the #goldmansachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme - you go, go, go!!! At the end of the day, we all face similar challenges. Honoured and humbled to have shared my journey with you tonight... #ilovemyjob
I am always so focused on getting to my speaking engagements on time & ensuring my skirt isn’t tucked into my knickers when I step on stage that I rarely give a thought in advance to the setting for the event. Pretty blown away to be ‘In Conversation’ with Des McDaid of @goldmansachs about my leadership journey in this incredible historic Wren-designed building in #oxford (built from 1664-1669). Awesome to meet all the graduates of the #goldmansachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme - you go, go, go!!! At the end of the day, we all face similar challenges. Honoured and humbled to have shared my journey with you tonight... #ilovemyjob
Banana and peanut butter loaf. Tastes (as usual) better than it looked. Not gonna be ready for #gbbo anytime soon...
Banana and peanut butter loaf. Tastes (as usual) better than it looked. Not gonna be ready for #gbbo anytime soon...
It’s been a #chocolate kinda weekend... Unbelievably rich #hotchocolate @grazeongrand in an interlude of warm #wintersunshine
It’s been a #chocolate kinda weekend... Unbelievably rich #hotchocolate @grazeongrand in an interlude of warm #wintersunshine
SWIPE! Lucky enough to spend two glorious nights with @craigsams @heckfield_place whose beautiful @wildsmith skincare I did a project for earlier this year. When I stay anywhere, for some reason, I always find myself forensically picking things apart to figure out how I’d do things differently/better. But I can honestly say in all my hotel-going years I have NEVER stayed anywhere more perfect, from the #biodynamic farm which supplies the glowing bounty for @skyegyngell and her team to cook sooooooo deliciously to the massages in the Little Bothy spa, the walks, the stacks of really interesting coffee table books in every room, the Ploh chenille robes (sooooo snuggly), the incredible paintings (almost any of which I would love to own), the monumental flower displays - often just elements of nature, like giant boughs from trees, balls of mistletoe etc. brought inside and simply and genius-ly (if that’s a word) arranged by @kittengraysonflowers - and the tea, the TEA! Supplied by my darling @raretealady and her @rareteacompany . We slept like babies on the most wonderful mattresses and have never switched off so fast in all of holidaying history. Frankly I love our home better than anywhere in the planet but we’ve got a #heckfieldplace piggy bank now. Thanks @oliviarichli @skyegyngell and everyone there - #heckfieldplace is utterly extraordinary in every way (but you know that...)
SWIPE! Lucky enough to spend two glorious nights with @craigsams @heckfield_place whose beautiful @wildsmith skincare I did a project for earlier this year. When I stay anywhere, for some reason, I always find myself forensically picking things apart to figure out how I’d do things differently/better. But I can honestly say in all my hotel-going years I have NEVER stayed anywhere more perfect, from the #biodynamic farm which supplies the glowing bounty for @skyegyngell and her team to cook sooooooo deliciously to the massages in the Little Bothy spa, the walks, the stacks of really interesting coffee table books in every room, the Ploh chenille robes (sooooo snuggly), the incredible paintings (almost any of which I would love to own), the monumental flower displays - often just elements of nature, like giant boughs from trees, balls of mistletoe etc. brought inside and simply and genius-ly (if that’s a word) arranged by @kittengraysonflowers - and the tea, the TEA! Supplied by my darling @raretealady and her @rareteacompany . We slept like babies on the most wonderful mattresses and have never switched off so fast in all of holidaying history. Frankly I love our home better than anywhere in the planet but we’ve got a #heckfieldplace piggy bank now. Thanks @oliviarichli @skyegyngell and everyone there - #heckfieldplace is utterly extraordinary in every way (but you know that...)
My kinda #fridaynight @greenandblacks @champagne_bollinger @everymancinema
My kinda #fridaynight @greenandblacks @champagne_bollinger @everymancinema
#tbt to that time about 10 years ago when I needed new clothes and took @lilz4evz to Paris with me as my personal shopper/stylist. She was great. Still wearing many of the things we bought. This was our #teabreak @maisonladuree #happydays #sockmonkey
#tbt to that time about 10 years ago when I needed new clothes and took @lilz4evz to Paris with me as my personal shopper/stylist. She was great. Still wearing many of the things we bought. This was our #teabreak @maisonladuree #happydays #sockmonkey
#scentedcandle #heaven @diptyque - lucky enough to visit their archive in #paris recently for a story I wrote for the magazine I edit for @theperfumesociety - The Scented Letter - and took this snap of the candle wall in their rue Saint-Honoré shop. Did you know that there is a colour for each type of fragrance note in the candles so each one has a different tissue paper ‘uniform’? I’m not sure I’ll ever figure it out but it pleases me immensely #secretcode
#scentedcandle #heaven @diptyque - lucky enough to visit their archive in #paris recently for a story I wrote for the magazine I edit for @theperfumesociety - The Scented Letter - and took this snap of the candle wall in their rue Saint-Honoré shop. Did you know that there is a colour for each type of fragrance note in the candles so each one has a different tissue paper ‘uniform’? I’m not sure I’ll ever figure it out but it pleases me immensely #secretcode
SWIPE FOR SPECS! For me glasses are a fashion accessory (as well as absolutely necessary for reading, looking at my computer and seeing bus numbers, all of which require a separate pair - and that’s BEFORE we get to sunnies!) This very cool guy @tom.herrington designs some of the most beautiful specs I’ve ever seen (under his label @rockoptika ) and sometimes has a secret stash of vintage specs which I’ve been known to raid, too. He’s in the heart of #stleonardsonsea (an old bank I believe) and yet another important fixture in our retail landscape, which proves there IS life in the high street yet #retailisnotdead
SWIPE FOR SPECS! For me glasses are a fashion accessory (as well as absolutely necessary for reading, looking at my computer and seeing bus numbers, all of which require a separate pair - and that’s BEFORE we get to sunnies!) This very cool guy @tom.herrington designs some of the most beautiful specs I’ve ever seen (under his label @rockoptika ) and sometimes has a secret stash of vintage specs which I’ve been known to raid, too. He’s in the heart of #stleonardsonsea (an old bank I believe) and yet another important fixture in our retail landscape, which proves there IS life in the high street yet #retailisnotdead
Some of my favourite people (including a very new and adorable one) Welcome Priscilla (Scilla) Peach Helia Gutierrez #modernfamily
Some of my favourite people (including a very new and adorable one) Welcome Priscilla (Scilla) Peach Helia Gutierrez #modernfamily
SWIPE! The love these two chaps - Jasper and Otis, our local #greengrocers - have for retail shines out via glowing produce and a shop that’s, well, just what shopping should be: beautifully arrayed, smile-y, creative. And for Christmas at the back of the store they’ve put together a little pop-up emporium/grotto selling great @hillcoulter branded stocking fillers and gifts (including their own fab scented candles, bath bombs etc.; they also happen to be fragrance nuts and the fireside-y and #vegan Pigs in Blankets candle has to be smelled to be believed!) Got LOTS of gorgeous stocking fillers (although I’m of course permanently tea-ed up via @raretealady and her very excellent @rareteacompany ). Hats (or rather caps) off to you, guys; you’re a wonderful addition to our shopping landscape 🥰
SWIPE! The love these two chaps - Jasper and Otis, our local #greengrocers - have for retail shines out via glowing produce and a shop that’s, well, just what shopping should be: beautifully arrayed, smile-y, creative. And for Christmas at the back of the store they’ve put together a little pop-up emporium/grotto selling great @hillcoulter branded stocking fillers and gifts (including their own fab scented candles, bath bombs etc.; they also happen to be fragrance nuts and the fireside-y and #vegan Pigs in Blankets candle has to be smelled to be believed!) Got LOTS of gorgeous stocking fillers (although I’m of course permanently tea-ed up via @raretealady and her very excellent @rareteacompany ). Hats (or rather caps) off to you, guys; you’re a wonderful addition to our shopping landscape 🥰
Tomorrow this begins, in our house. The idea is that every day you put aside something for @trusselltrust until you’ve collected 24 items and then take them to your appointed food bank for distribution. Staples are obviously key - pasta, sauces, cans of soup & beans, coffee, teabags etc.(note their recommendation to contact your nearest food bank to find out what they lack most). Actually I’m going to put aside TWO items and deliver to the local #trusselltrust food bank in 12 days to give them time to distribute for Xmas (Hastings folks, it’s on the Ridge). I will be putting aside items which are the same as we enjoy ourselves (though not as many lentils!!!). It is, frankly, the least those of us fortunate enough to have full fridges and bountiful larders can do... #trusselltrust #joyofgiving #gratitude #instagood
Tomorrow this begins, in our house. The idea is that every day you put aside something for @trusselltrust until you’ve collected 24 items and then take them to your appointed food bank for distribution. Staples are obviously key - pasta, sauces, cans of soup & beans, coffee, teabags etc.(note their recommendation to contact your nearest food bank to find out what they lack most). Actually I’m going to put aside TWO items and deliver to the local #trusselltrust food bank in 12 days to give them time to distribute for Xmas (Hastings folks, it’s on the Ridge). I will be putting aside items which are the same as we enjoy ourselves (though not as many lentils!!!). It is, frankly, the least those of us fortunate enough to have full fridges and bountiful larders can do... #trusselltrust #joyofgiving #gratitude #instagood
And while I was in the area... The @dvf tree in Claridges’ hallway is pretty flipping spectacular, too... It really is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!
And while I was in the area... The @dvf tree in Claridges’ hallway is pretty flipping spectacular, too... It really is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!
WHAT a lunch. WHAT a privilege. Over my career as a beauty writer I’ve been honoured to meet many members of the Lauder family - including Estée who I interviewed at The Plaza over tea. As she walked into the room a whisper went round the Palm Court: ‘Estée Lauder, Estée Lauder...’ - she was just like New York royalty. Her son Leonard once wrote to me jokingly after I asked YOU Magazine readers to help save a product due to be discontinued to write to him (Herbal Hair Pack) asking me to be his campaign manager if he ever ran for President, and I have fond memories of times with him and his gracious, late wife Evelyn who taught me so much about the importance of writing thank-yous (no meeting ever went unmarked by a follow-up note from Evelyn thanking ME!). I’ve interviewed @aerin Lauder many times and had great fun with Jane Lauder ‘coolhunting’ in (yes) Manchester. Yesterday they - together with William Lauder & Ronald Lauder and two Lauders from the next generation, Josh and Will, ALL hosted the most splendid lunch @claridges (what you don’t get from this pic is the scent of the amazing aromatic foliage). The hosts all made witty, sometimes hilarious speeches and it was wonderful to get a sense of the huge love this family has for each other (there was much family banter) but also, actually, for those of us in the room whose paths have crossed with theirs at some time as they built the most astonishing beauty empire still powered by the dynamism of its founder, the ground-breaking Estée. Attention to detail included monogrammed ribbon with our individual initials on the crackers!!! (Which of course contained beauty treats.) I always hugely admire people who are driven to work as hard as these guys do when they could justifiably relax and retire - Leonard’s in his late 80s! - and it inspires me to keep rolling up my sleeves and working on exciting ventures and projects. Thank you SO much to all the Lauders for having me (though in true Evelyn style I will be putting this in writing). I’ll honestly never forget this special celebration 🥰🍽🍾
WHAT a lunch. WHAT a privilege. Over my career as a beauty writer I’ve been honoured to meet many members of the Lauder family - including Estée who I interviewed at The Plaza over tea. As she walked into the room a whisper went round the Palm Court: ‘Estée Lauder, Estée Lauder...’ - she was just like New York royalty. Her son Leonard once wrote to me jokingly after I asked YOU Magazine readers to help save a product due to be discontinued to write to him (Herbal Hair Pack) asking me to be his campaign manager if he ever ran for President, and I have fond memories of times with him and his gracious, late wife Evelyn who taught me so much about the importance of writing thank-yous (no meeting ever went unmarked by a follow-up note from Evelyn thanking ME!). I’ve interviewed @aerin Lauder many times and had great fun with Jane Lauder ‘coolhunting’ in (yes) Manchester. Yesterday they - together with William Lauder & Ronald Lauder and two Lauders from the next generation, Josh and Will, ALL hosted the most splendid lunch @claridges (what you don’t get from this pic is the scent of the amazing aromatic foliage). The hosts all made witty, sometimes hilarious speeches and it was wonderful to get a sense of the huge love this family has for each other (there was much family banter) but also, actually, for those of us in the room whose paths have crossed with theirs at some time as they built the most astonishing beauty empire still powered by the dynamism of its founder, the ground-breaking Estée. Attention to detail included monogrammed ribbon with our individual initials on the crackers!!! (Which of course contained beauty treats.) I always hugely admire people who are driven to work as hard as these guys do when they could justifiably relax and retire - Leonard’s in his late 80s! - and it inspires me to keep rolling up my sleeves and working on exciting ventures and projects. Thank you SO much to all the Lauders for having me (though in true Evelyn style I will be putting this in writing). I’ll honestly never forget this special celebration 🥰🍽🍾
Glorious #golden #glowing #ginkgo hanging in there on 27th November #eastcastlestreet
Glorious #golden #glowing #ginkgo hanging in there on 27th November #eastcastlestreet
I love it in all weathers... #hastings #ourpier
I love it in all weathers... #hastings #ourpier
Pickling up a storm! The only problem with these #fennel #pickles from Pickled book by @freddielookatme is that I have to make MORE each time (for the people I’ve given it to before). So easy! I’ll be ready for kimchi soon... #wetsaturday #ilovemykitchen
Pickling up a storm! The only problem with these #fennel #pickles from Pickled book by @freddielookatme is that I have to make MORE each time (for the people I’ve given it to before). So easy! I’ll be ready for kimchi soon... #wetsaturday #ilovemykitchen
Love a pretty loo @petershamnurseries xx #pressedflowerart
Love a pretty loo @petershamnurseries xx #pressedflowerart
SWIPE! Had the loveliest interlude with @mirella_ricciardi - whose daughter Marina was one of my most-loved friends - showing me her unbelievably stunning exhibition @guinevere_antiques yesterday. Mirella’s African photographs have been blown up and hung as if it was someone’s utterly stylish boho home (basically I’d like to move right in please, Guinevere). I’ve never seen her photographs in a more appropriate or striking setting. Mirella refused to let me photograph her - still prefers to be behind the camera - but there are a couple of photos in the show from when I first knew her as my friend’s impossibly glamorous mum. I met Marina in Kenya when I was 18; she was four years younger than me, at boarding school & my ever-welcoming mother offered her a home-from-home. We spent her 21st together at Disneyland after a row with her fiery dad Lorenzo. We hung out together her on her Bennington College campus. I utterly adored her but she died way too young of cancer (and I will never ever regret flying to San Francisco just to spend a little precious time with her as she was dying). It was so lovely to remember her with Mirella over coffee afterwards and even fill in a few gaps for her mother. I think Marina would have loved this show, which her equally beautiful and very lovely sister @amina_ricciardi_dempsey coordinated - she’s doing a brilliant job of helping Mirella to get the glory she deserves. Deffo worth the piligrimage to New Kings Road (and although there’s a scary buzzer to get in they couldn’t be lovelier) #goodtimeswitholdfriends #vanishingafrica
SWIPE! Had the loveliest interlude with @mirella_ricciardi - whose daughter Marina was one of my most-loved friends - showing me her unbelievably stunning exhibition @guinevere_antiques yesterday. Mirella’s African photographs have been blown up and hung as if it was someone’s utterly stylish boho home (basically I’d like to move right in please, Guinevere). I’ve never seen her photographs in a more appropriate or striking setting. Mirella refused to let me photograph her - still prefers to be behind the camera - but there are a couple of photos in the show from when I first knew her as my friend’s impossibly glamorous mum. I met Marina in Kenya when I was 18; she was four years younger than me, at boarding school & my ever-welcoming mother offered her a home-from-home. We spent her 21st together at Disneyland after a row with her fiery dad Lorenzo. We hung out together her on her Bennington College campus. I utterly adored her but she died way too young of cancer (and I will never ever regret flying to San Francisco just to spend a little precious time with her as she was dying). It was so lovely to remember her with Mirella over coffee afterwards and even fill in a few gaps for her mother. I think Marina would have loved this show, which her equally beautiful and very lovely sister @amina_ricciardi_dempsey coordinated - she’s doing a brilliant job of helping Mirella to get the glory she deserves. Deffo worth the piligrimage to New Kings Road (and although there’s a scary buzzer to get in they couldn’t be lovelier) #goodtimeswitholdfriends #vanishingafrica
#purple pies!!!!! Purple sweet potato mash is my new and dramatic favourite pie topping (and soooooo good for you!) Filling the freezer in anticipation of the arrival of @lilz4evz new baby who I swear will be part-English, part-Mexican and part-lentil 😀🍴😈
#purple pies!!!!! Purple sweet potato mash is my new and dramatic favourite pie topping (and soooooo good for you!) Filling the freezer in anticipation of the arrival of @lilz4evz new baby who I swear will be part-English, part-Mexican and part-lentil 😀🍴😈
#iloveparisintheautumn 🍁🍂🍁 It is still pretty much a miracle to me (having survived many a death-defying drive into Paris from Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports) that I can get on a train in London - or even Ashford if I’m really lucky - and a couple of hours later be in Paris. For. The. Day. (In this case exploring the utterly fascinating @diptyque archive for The Scented Letter, the magazine I produce for @theperfumesociety ). And home for bedtime #amazeballs #nofilter
#iloveparisintheautumn 🍁🍂🍁 It is still pretty much a miracle to me (having survived many a death-defying drive into Paris from Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports) that I can get on a train in London - or even Ashford if I’m really lucky - and a couple of hours later be in Paris. For. The. Day. (In this case exploring the utterly fascinating @diptyque archive for The Scented Letter, the magazine I produce for @theperfumesociety ). And home for bedtime #amazeballs #nofilter
I am always so focused on getting to my speaking engagements on time & ensuring my skirt isn’t tucked into my knickers when I step on stage that I rarely give a thought in advance to the setting for the event. Pretty blown away to be ‘In Conversation’ with Des McDaid of @goldmansachs about my leadership journey in this incredible historic Wren-designed building in #oxford (built from 1664-1669). Awesome to meet all the graduates of the #goldmansachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme - you go, go, go!!! At the end of the day, we all face similar challenges. Honoured and humbled to have shared my journey with you tonight... #ilovemyjob Banana and peanut butter loaf. Tastes (as usual) better than it looked. Not gonna be ready for #gbbo anytime soon... It’s been a #chocolate kinda weekend... Unbelievably rich #hotchocolate @grazeongrand in an interlude of warm #wintersunshine SWIPE! Lucky enough to spend two glorious nights with @craigsams @heckfield_place whose beautiful @wildsmith skincare I did a project for earlier this year. When I stay anywhere, for some reason, I always find myself forensically picking things apart to figure out how I’d do things differently/better. But I can honestly say in all my hotel-going years I have NEVER stayed anywhere more perfect, from the #biodynamic farm which supplies the glowing bounty for @skyegyngell and her team to cook sooooooo deliciously to the massages in the Little Bothy spa, the walks, the stacks of really interesting coffee table books in every room, the Ploh chenille robes (sooooo snuggly), the incredible paintings (almost any of which I would love to own), the monumental flower displays - often just elements of nature, like giant boughs from trees, balls of mistletoe etc. brought inside and simply and genius-ly (if that’s a word) arranged by @kittengraysonflowers - and the tea, the TEA! Supplied by my darling @raretealady and her @rareteacompany . We slept like babies on the most wonderful mattresses and have never switched off so fast in all of holidaying history. Frankly I love our home better than anywhere in the planet but we’ve got a #heckfieldplace piggy bank now. Thanks @oliviarichli @skyegyngell and everyone there - #heckfieldplace is utterly extraordinary in every way (but you know that...) My kinda #fridaynight @greenandblacks @champagne_bollinger @everymancinema #tbt to that time about 10 years ago when I needed new clothes and took @lilz4evz to Paris with me as my personal shopper/stylist. She was great. Still wearing many of the things we bought. This was our #teabreak @maisonladuree #happydays #sockmonkey #scentedcandle #heaven @diptyque - lucky enough to visit their archive in #paris recently for a story I wrote for the magazine I edit for @theperfumesociety - The Scented Letter - and took this snap of the candle wall in their rue Saint-Honoré shop. Did you know that there is a colour for each type of fragrance note in the candles so each one has a different tissue paper ‘uniform’? I’m not sure I’ll ever figure it out but it pleases me immensely #secretcode SWIPE FOR SPECS! For me glasses are a fashion accessory (as well as absolutely necessary for reading, looking at my computer and seeing bus numbers, all of which require a separate pair - and that’s BEFORE we get to sunnies!) This very cool guy @tom.herrington designs some of the most beautiful specs I’ve ever seen (under his label @rockoptika ) and sometimes has a secret stash of vintage specs which I’ve been known to raid, too. He’s in the heart of #stleonardsonsea (an old bank I believe) and yet another important fixture in our retail landscape, which proves there IS life in the high street yet #retailisnotdead Some of my favourite people (including a very new and adorable one) Welcome Priscilla (Scilla) Peach Helia Gutierrez #modernfamily SWIPE! The love these two chaps - Jasper and Otis, our local #greengrocers - have for retail shines out via glowing produce and a shop that’s, well, just what shopping should be: beautifully arrayed, smile-y, creative. And for Christmas at the back of the store they’ve put together a little pop-up emporium/grotto selling great @hillcoulter branded stocking fillers and gifts (including their own fab scented candles, bath bombs etc.; they also happen to be fragrance nuts and the fireside-y and #vegan Pigs in Blankets candle has to be smelled to be believed!) Got LOTS of gorgeous stocking fillers (although I’m of course permanently tea-ed up via @raretealady and her very excellent @rareteacompany ). Hats (or rather caps) off to you, guys; you’re a wonderful addition to our shopping landscape 🥰 Tomorrow this begins, in our house. The idea is that every day you put aside something for @trusselltrust until you’ve collected 24 items and then take them to your appointed food bank for distribution. Staples are obviously key - pasta, sauces, cans of soup & beans, coffee, teabags etc.(note their recommendation to contact your nearest food bank to find out what they lack most). Actually I’m going to put aside TWO items and deliver to the local #trusselltrust food bank in 12 days to give them time to distribute for Xmas (Hastings folks, it’s on the Ridge). I will be putting aside items which are the same as we enjoy ourselves (though not as many lentils!!!). It is, frankly, the least those of us fortunate enough to have full fridges and bountiful larders can do... #trusselltrust #joyofgiving #gratitude #instagood And while I was in the area... The @dvf tree in Claridges’ hallway is pretty flipping spectacular, too... It really is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! WHAT a lunch. WHAT a privilege. Over my career as a beauty writer I’ve been honoured to meet many members of the Lauder family - including Estée who I interviewed at The Plaza over tea. As she walked into the room a whisper went round the Palm Court: ‘Estée Lauder, Estée Lauder...’ - she was just like New York royalty. Her son Leonard once wrote to me jokingly after I asked YOU Magazine readers to help save a product due to be discontinued to write to him (Herbal Hair Pack) asking me to be his campaign manager if he ever ran for President, and I have fond memories of times with him and his gracious, late wife Evelyn who taught me so much about the importance of writing thank-yous (no meeting ever went unmarked by a follow-up note from Evelyn thanking ME!). I’ve interviewed @aerin Lauder many times and had great fun with Jane Lauder ‘coolhunting’ in (yes) Manchester. Yesterday they - together with William Lauder & Ronald Lauder and two Lauders from the next generation, Josh and Will, ALL hosted the most splendid lunch @claridges (what you don’t get from this pic is the scent of the amazing aromatic foliage). The hosts all made witty, sometimes hilarious speeches and it was wonderful to get a sense of the huge love this family has for each other (there was much family banter) but also, actually, for those of us in the room whose paths have crossed with theirs at some time as they built the most astonishing beauty empire still powered by the dynamism of its founder, the ground-breaking Estée. Attention to detail included monogrammed ribbon with our individual initials on the crackers!!! (Which of course contained beauty treats.) I always hugely admire people who are driven to work as hard as these guys do when they could justifiably relax and retire - Leonard’s in his late 80s! - and it inspires me to keep rolling up my sleeves and working on exciting ventures and projects. Thank you SO much to all the Lauders for having me (though in true Evelyn style I will be putting this in writing). I’ll honestly never forget this special celebration 🥰🍽🍾 Glorious #golden #glowing #ginkgo hanging in there on 27th November #eastcastlestreet I love it in all weathers... #hastings #ourpier Pickling up a storm! The only problem with these #fennel #pickles from Pickled book by @freddielookatme is that I have to make MORE each time (for the people I’ve given it to before). So easy! I’ll be ready for kimchi soon... #wetsaturday #ilovemykitchen Love a pretty loo @petershamnurseries xx #pressedflowerart SWIPE! Had the loveliest interlude with @mirella_ricciardi - whose daughter Marina was one of my most-loved friends - showing me her unbelievably stunning exhibition @guinevere_antiques yesterday. Mirella’s African photographs have been blown up and hung as if it was someone’s utterly stylish boho home (basically I’d like to move right in please, Guinevere). I’ve never seen her photographs in a more appropriate or striking setting. Mirella refused to let me photograph her - still prefers to be behind the camera - but there are a couple of photos in the show from when I first knew her as my friend’s impossibly glamorous mum. I met Marina in Kenya when I was 18; she was four years younger than me, at boarding school & my ever-welcoming mother offered her a home-from-home. We spent her 21st together at Disneyland after a row with her fiery dad Lorenzo. We hung out together her on her Bennington College campus. I utterly adored her but she died way too young of cancer (and I will never ever regret flying to San Francisco just to spend a little precious time with her as she was dying). It was so lovely to remember her with Mirella over coffee afterwards and even fill in a few gaps for her mother. I think Marina would have loved this show, which her equally beautiful and very lovely sister @amina_ricciardi_dempsey coordinated - she’s doing a brilliant job of helping Mirella to get the glory she deserves. Deffo worth the piligrimage to New Kings Road (and although there’s a scary buzzer to get in they couldn’t be lovelier) #goodtimeswitholdfriends #vanishingafrica #purple pies!!!!! Purple sweet potato mash is my new and dramatic favourite pie topping (and soooooo good for you!) Filling the freezer in anticipation of the arrival of @lilz4evz new baby who I swear will be part-English, part-Mexican and part-lentil 😀🍴😈 #iloveparisintheautumn 🍁🍂🍁 It is still pretty much a miracle to me (having survived many a death-defying drive into Paris from Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports) that I can get on a train in London - or even Ashford if I’m really lucky - and a couple of hours later be in Paris. For. The. Day. (In this case exploring the utterly fascinating @diptyque archive for The Scented Letter, the magazine I produce for @theperfumesociety ). And home for bedtime #amazeballs #nofilter

PODCAST

For the Guardian's Meet the Mentors podcast series Jo gave her tips to milliner Sahar Freemantle on how to make it big. Listen below...

For the Guardian's Meet the Mentors podcast series Jo gave her tips to milliner Sahar Freemantle on how to make it big. Listen below...

THE STORY
The Story of Green & Black's: How two entrepreneurs turned an ethical idea into a business success
By Craig Sams, Josephine Fairley
Contact Jo Fairley