Miss Me? - Listen Bitch! I Have Good Jeans

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver answer your questions about clothes.Next week, we want to hear your questions about FUN. Please send us a voice note on WhatsApp: [phone]. Or, if you like, send us an email: [e-mail] episode contains very strong language and adult themes. Credits: Producer: Flossie Barratt Technical Producer: Will Gibson Smith Assistant Producer: Caillin McDaid Production Coordinator: Hannah Bennett Executive Producers: Dino Sofos and Ellie Clifford Assistant Commissioner for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan Haskins Miss Me? is a Persephonica production for BBC Sounds

BBC Sounds music radio podcasts. This episode of Miss Me contains very strong language, adult themes and us talking about the things we put on our body called clothes. Welcome to Listen Bitch, we are talking about clothes today. Clothes glorious clothes, crop tops and pedal pushers. Clothes clothes clothes clothes clothes clothes. What are you doing? I don't know, just having a little dance.

I'm so peppy this week. Yes, clothes glorious clothes, I bloody love clothes, we both love clothes, love getting dressed, but we all wear clothes. Let's have a question about some clothes. Let's have a question about some clothes. Hello lovely ladies, my name is Blossom. I come from Norwich and I'm currently looking at my rather wild wardrobe. I have penchant for incredibly bold prints and wild patterns. I've got 1960s skirts that are purple and orange and brown. Some people might think this is a little bit ick, but I love it. I've got t-shirts with big eye prints all over it. I've got granddad

trousers and plaid with green and yellow and red. I'm drawn to anything that's got a bit of colour in it, anything that's out of fashion because I know that if I turn up somewhere, no one's going to have the same outfit as me. My question to you is what is the most obnoxious, crazy outfit that you've ever worn or that you own in your wardrobe. I love the podcast. I think it's absolutely amazing. It gives me hope for humanity. Okay, love you. Bye. Wow. Big talk, Blossom. Thank you. We'll just have all humanity on our shoulders. I'll take

that. I can hold that. Thank you, Blossom. Obnoxious. Yes, I had a bit of a time where I was trying to, I was inspired by my friend, Valentin Flidio Cordier. And she's very beautiful, nymph-like, French, gorgeous chick, who I love very much. And she could dress. And I was really into it, and I sort of mirrored it for a bit. Do you remember when I sort of started wearing like

baby doll see-through oversized dresses? There was this designer called Charles Anastas, I think he was called, who Valentine worked with a lot and everything was very like see-through, big, oversized baby doll dresses and and then knee-high socks, and then a sort of Mary Jane shoe. And I rocked it for a while, did it at my 25th birthday where it looked good.

There's a pretty hideous picture of me at the Serpentine Summer Party where I did it with a terrible leather jacket and glasses on my head, I think. So that was 2009. So that sounds cool. And it was obnoxious because it didn't come from my heart. It came from somewhere else.

Okay. Right there. Next question, please. Hi, Lily. Hi, Miquita. My name is Mao. I'm from Brazil, but I'm living here in the countryside of Portugal. My question is, I think one of the most important questions of the century.

People are writing pieces about it and it's extremely, extremely important for most people, I think, is if skinny jeans are really having a comeback and all your memories related to skinny jeans on the 2000s and if you really think that people will wear it as it was like mainstream back then. Thank you, bye. Mao, I think people forget how influential Kate Moss was in the 2000s. It was literally whatever jean she wore would be not only copied by every high street shop but then bought by everyone so it was kind of incredible to see her influence and power in that way and she looked really good in skinny jeans hence

Topshop making the Joni jean which is their classic skinny jean hmm I don't mind I mean I would never wear a skinny jean sometimes you still do and I actually think that I should style you when it comes to mean I would never wear a skinny jean. Sometimes you still do and I actually think that I should style you when it comes to jeans. I think there's a better jean for your body that you haven't discovered yet. I think you'd look great in 501s. Are you talking to me?

Yes, I'm talking to you. I mean, yeah, I have some 501s. What, you don't, are you saying you don't like the kind of jeans that I wear? No, no, no, I just don't like when you do straight skinny to the ankle. I think you look better in like a Levi's. Today we're gonna talk about clothes that we don't like that each other have worn,

so don't worry. You can come back for me. But I think- I think I've got good jeans. Yes, exactly. But you still do have some straight skinny jeans in your wardrobe, don't you? Don't you?

No. Well, you wore them on the artwork shoot for Miss Me. And I was like, no, a 501 is better for you because of your beautiful peachy bum and they just look so good on bums and a little bit of baggy at the end. I think it just would look so nice. Okay, I'll look into it. Not taking this well at all. Tell me some jeans that you think I've looked like shit in.

You used to have some like really bad skinny jeans that you would wear for days on it. That's a very good point. I don't even want to think about them actually. That's how overused they were. Yes, yes. You really did lean into that whole Indie Sleeves vibe, you know? I didn't quite so much. Actually, of course, if we could find a picture of me

at the Where the Wild Things Are premiere, I've been grabbing a Trilby or a Fedora, a waistcoat and a sort of skinny black jean, I know. Oh God, it's giving me the shivers, it's giving me the shivers. And a sort of ankle lace-up boot, it's like, oh, go know. Oh God, it's giving me the shivers, it's giving me the shivers. And a sort of ankle lace up boot, it's like, oh, go home, babes. Don't take that to the carpet.

Go home, who's your mate? Go home. Where are your mates? Oh. Collect your mans. Yeah, just wanted to say, jeggings are very different. People confuse skinny jeans and jeggings,

and jeggings are obviously where the devil lies. Skinny jeans can be a wire. A jegg- come on. A denim legging. I've got into a jegging. No you don't wear jeggings Lil. No I don't wear jeggings alright. I wear leggings though. Yeah I like leggings. Just not jegging. Not jegging and that goes for every other man in the world as well, please. What about when men wear skinny jeans with like shoes with no socks? No! No! Okay. No.

No! No, actually. No goodbye. Actually, God. And then maybe with some like purposely distressed knees. Get out of here! Get out. Okay, next question please.

Okay. Hi, Lillian Makita. This is Luke from Tomb Raiders in Kent, and I work in communication for a large company. So with regard the question around clothes, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on current clothing trends. Do you try and keep up with trends? Do you like current fashion trends? I personally have

had a bit of a struggle from going from skinny jeans to a more relaxed fit that doesn't bode well with my 40 year old self. But yeah, clothing trends. Do you like the current ones? Do you try and keep up with them or do you just follow your own style? Interested to hear your thoughts. Love you, babe. Lily Allen. I like to think of myself as more of a trendsetter than a trend follower. Um,

um, um, um, um, no, but in all honesty, I don't, I can't even tell you what the trends are. I don't, I'm not on trend watch and I don't really buy fashion magazines.

I don't really like watch fashion shows, you know, unless they're done by friends of mine. And I don't really like watch fashion shows, you know, unless they're done by friends of mine. And I don't, I wouldn't be able to tell you like what trends are. So. I know a trend that you like. What's the trend that I like? Quiet luxury.

Oh yeah, obviously. That's just cashmere. Yeah. I'm the opposite to Lily. It's really weird. We are so the opposite. We both love clothes, but I do everything that Lily said she doesn't do.

I do read fashion magazines. I love them. I always have. I used to make scrapbooks and tear things out in like my 20s, not as a child, before like the internet and phone having pictures on them and stuff. Now I have many, many, many mood boards for really different nichey reasons. And I just love looking at clothes. That's why I was talking about this documentary, Vogue in the 90s.

Have you watched it on Disney? No. It's really enjoyable and it goes through all the 1990s and fashion and clothes. If you showed me a fashion show from Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren or Versace, I could tell you what year the collection was, especially with Chloe, actually. There was lots of like the first collection from Stella McCartney for Chloe. Oh my God, I don't think people remember

how beautiful that collection was. Oh my God, Lily, some of the pieces. I was like, I have to start hunting some old Stella McCartney Chloe stuff. So I'm very, I suppose I do really know what trends are about, but I don't really follow them. I really like secondhand clothes. What I like doing is just looking at what's around

and then kind of recreating those looks with like five pound tops and two pound skirts. But now that I've been filming at your house, you've kind of inspired me. When I was packing down my flat, I threw out a lot of shit, Lily. I threw out like half my wardrobe, because you were right. There is, I threw out a lot of shit, Lily. I threw out like half my wardrobe, because you were right.

There is, I did have too much stuff. I did have like four of the same like two pound charity shop, polo shop with like stains on it. I was like, get rid. And your wardrobes in both your New York house and the flat in London are very like considered and scaled down, I suppose is the word.

And it sort of feels like pieces that are beautiful that you wear a lot. And mine was more like a charity shop, but the nice stuff, all curated and stuff, like a nice shop, but I actually had too much shit. So yes, we're quite different in that way. I hate saying it, but I love fashion. I like style.

I love fashion. I like fashion. So yeah, thank you. Another question, please. Hi, Lily Ann Makita. My name's Ellie. I'm currently living in Arizona in USA, but I grew up in Surrey in the UK.

And I'm a photographer out here. My question is regarding the, what feels like current obsession with recycle and thrifted clothing. Do you guys enjoy thrifting and vintage shopping? And if so, do you ever feel guilty if, and when you do, buy fast fashion or brand new? I try my best to recycle and thrift most clothing

that I own. Every now and then, I just need something quick. I just need something simple. I need to find it easily, and I will still buy fast fashion. And I feel like there's a little bit of a stigma nowadays that that's extremely frowned upon. So I just wanted to get your thoughts on that.

Bye, thank you, bye. I would say the stuff that you probably are buying from fast fashion, like probably like color and like mini skirts and tops with patterns and stuff like that, that's the stuff I think is better in charity shops and obviously like a fiver instead of 50 quid. That's the stuff I think people should look for in charity shops when you wanna like have definitely with color, skirts, things like that in high street shops. I really don't like and they all look really identikit and boring and in charity shops everything is like simple

and classic because they're not trend led. Unfortunately, there was a lot of high street fast fashion in charity shops today and I really wish that wasn't the case. I hate when everything's just ASOS and Topshop. But, I mean, Topshop's quite fun to find. But yeah, I would push more people into charity shops. My favorite balance is charity shops with a bit of the row, but I can't really afford the row, but that kind of vibe.

I go through phases of like really, it's like all to do with my addiction and where I am psychologically and my sort of narcissism and grandiosity. I'll exclusively shop in the best boutiques that there are all over the world and buying ridiculously expensive clothes. that there are all over the world and buying ridiculously expensive clothes. It's like something that gives me a momentary thrill and then I'm immediately filled with self-loathing and hatred straight afterwards. And that's exactly why I do it.

And, but then, you know, I get bored of that and I just want vintage stuff and stuff that people haven't got. And I love to just go out, especially now my kids love thrifting and we'll just go, yeah, there's a vintage fair that comes to down the road from where we are in Brooklyn. And we go to that whenever it's on. I love it. I love vintage stuff. I love finding old, old things. I love things that feel like they've got a story. And also, it feels like creative,

actually, it feels it feels like you're you are being are being creative by going through all of this stuff and finding bits that you like that you're going to put on your body in a certain way. I love that. I feel like you've got to trust your instinct when you're shopping second-hand, well for me in charity shops, because you can't be like, I'm a size blah blah, and I'm looking for a dress. Let me go to that section of the shop. It's like, I like stripes, I like mini skirts, I like color, and so I just find, like I'll just see a print, or like a halter neck,

or something, and I find that a bit more exciting. There's a bit more of a hunt involved. I went to the Goodwill by Your House when I was staying at Your House in New York. I was not impressed. I couldn't believe it because I'd gone there like 20 years before, 10 years before, and I found so much good shit. But even in New York now, in places like that, it was a lot of fast fashion. I was really looking

forward to it being brilliant. But there is a difference between vintage and the charity shop. And I think you and I need to go more charity shopping. I think I need to take you to some of those. We'll go to the ones in Hampstead where they have cashmere. Okay. Okay. Right, we're gonna take a little break from this journey down clothes memory lane

and we'll see you afterwards. ["Lesson Bitch"] Welcome back to Listen Bitch. The theme is clothes, garms, what we put on our body, why, how and who we are because of clothes. Next question please. Hi, this is Scarlett from Southampton. On the topic of clothing, I was just wondering, if you guys are able to style yourself all year round. With me, I only become fashionable in winter. I love my long coats, my scarves. I feel very put together as soon as the weather gets colder. But the moment it comes into summer, I never know

what to wear. So I guess my question for you guys is, are you fashionable all year round? Or are you like me and you pick and choose which seasons you can really flourish in? Thank you. Love the podcast. No, all year round. I'm fashionable all year round, particularly in spring and that's right now. I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks of getting dressed. I don't know whether I'm fashionable.

I just like getting dressed in every season. Although I hate winter when you have to wear a scarf. I hate scarves, I don't know why. But I think they're just always, I have an issue between all my hair and a scarf. I prefer dressing like right now. I like winter. I like winter because I don't really like my legs.

I do like wearing skirts, but I will only wear them with tights. So yeah, obviously I'm not really like a skirt wearer in the summer, but I wear skirts in the winter with tights and boots. Who used to be, what was that skirt? What was that Marc Jacobs skirt? Was it yellow or green?

No idea. It was a little mini skirt that you used to wear when we were about 20. Yellow. Yellow, and then you would wear it, I think, with those green Marc Jacobs sort of platformy shoes. Platform shoes, yeah, with the like sort of laminate stuff. Yeah, yeah, those were sick.

That was a real look. I hate when you say you don't like your legs. Your legs have never looked better. They look absolutely beautiful and they look great in that little mini skirt that you've been rocking recently. Thank you so much. Shall we have another question? Yeah, another question, please.

I'm Ali, I live in Denmark, but I'm from Scotland. Love your podcast. Me and my wife came to see you at your first London show in March, and we had the best time. Do you know, like, what I really wonder about clothes is about numbers. So it's summer. So again, as women, we're being encouraged

to look at our wardrobes and buy more stuff. So, like, how many things do I actually need? And would we all just be happy if we had less? I have, I think, like four decent bras. Is that okay? Should I have more bras? How many items of swimwear do you have? How many coats do you have? Things like that. I think we should all have less and I think we would be happier. But I also feel like maybe I'm just wrong. And I think we always get trained to think that way as women. So I'm genuinely really interested in your thoughts as to obviously deeply stylish people who I very much admire. Tell me what you think.

This is you really asking the right two people because that's what I was saying with the total opposite. When I was getting rid of my clothes, well, packing down and giving a lot of stuff to charity, I couldn't believe how many black leather coats I thought I needed. And they were all pretty similar. I had about 12 or 15 of the same long

Calvin Klein 90s-esque minimalist black leather coat. Some people would call that hoarding. Oh my God, maybe that's what I was doing. But it was also organized. So it's like organized hoarding, color coded hoarding. Yeah, I do quite frequent clear-outs of my clothes. I definitely buy too much because I'm addicted to buying things, but I love clothes.

Well, where are they all? Because you haven't got that many in New York or the London flat. So where the fuck are all those clothes from the years? What do you mean all my old clothes? All the looks from the Vogue article saying that Lily Allen is an icon. Oh, all of that stuff is archived, archived and in storage. Ah, okay.

So it's easier. Yeah, all of that stuff is there and will be, you know, given to Ethel and Marnie when they reach a certain age. What about Makeda and Phoebe? Mm, no, it's not for you. So I guess it's easier to be minimalist and to answer the ladies question. If you've got another place to sort of keep the history of your clothes, then you can, I think, on the ground where you live every day.

You really don't need much. Hang on a second. Listen, I'm talking about me. I was a pop star in my 20s and my early 30s, and I was being given gifted, you know, clothes by personally made for me by Carl Lagerfeld and you know, whoever was done designing for YSL at the time and you know, these are like important pieces of fashion history. Excuse me.

I'm not like saying I'm Lady Gaga or whatever, but you know, they're things that are worth something and so, you know, I'm not, I'm not, and I'm not going to wear them again. So yeah, I like wrap them up in tissue paper and you know, they're very well looked after and they'll be brought out for retirement for my kids if they choose to be interested in it, they probably won't chuck it all in the charity shop and it would have been a massive waste of time. I don't think so, no. Yeah, okay, I am a hoarder because I'm like, my close-up history is like, I wore on Pop World once. Doesn't really mean you need to keep it. I do have quite a nice checkered Christopher Kane dress from like his third collection, you know, that collection that was

like quite see-through and lots of cutouts and I wore that for Tifa on the beach. And I get my dress I hosted for Mobo's in. Thank you very much. So, there's stuff going on in my wardrobe too. But yeah, I don't think you need too much in your life day to day. It can feel like too much and that your head's too confused with all the stuff. I just need to say something quickly about bras. I finally threw out bras when I was packing down and I had bras from Jasper days. That's how much of a hoarder I am. I'm just starting to realize.

I had bras from like my first Potwell paycheck. I was like, okay. You should change your underwear every year. I did it with my knickers. I threw away all knickers. I just bought beautiful, lovely. I did it with my knickers. I threw away all knickers and I just bought beautiful, lovely knickers and I love my knickers, but my bras were tired. This is hence the new Skims years.

So once you get rid of shit, new shit comes in. That's a little bit of advice for you, clothes and life-wise. Let's have another question for this week's Lesser Bitch. Next question. Hello, Lily McKeeta. I'm a big fan of the podcast. I love it. I listen to it all the time.

It keeps me sane. I was just wondering, because I'm a screen printer, that's my job. I print t-shirts and tote bags and things like that. I was just wondering, what is your favorite screen printed garment you've ever owned? Maybe a t-shirt from a gig or something that you had

and you lost. I have loads of t-shirts, band t-shirts I had over the years and I decided one day to purge and bin a load. I don't know why I've done it, but I regret it ever since and I think about it. It was about nine years ago now. I don't know why I did it. Have you got a story like that? I'd love to know. Love the podcast. Thank you, bye. I have lost a t-shirt that I love more than anything. It's a screen print of Tom of Finland artwork. And Tom of Finland is, you know, he does this sort of homoerotic art, like cartoon kind of pictures. And I had this t-shirt of his that was on this really, really, really soft white t-shirt and I used to wear it all the time. And I don't know

where it is. And I'm really sad. It's always those t-shirts, isn't it? Like the Studio One t-shirt that I borrowed from Phoebe that I completely ruined. And it's like archive, like 1987, original deep punk shit. And I just fucking ruined it. I don't think she's ever really forgiven me. Is that what screen printing means? Like picture on top? Yeah.

Then no, I don't really have many clothes like that. Just stuff I've borrowed and ruined. Sorry, Phoebe, I really am sorry about that. I was fucking careless of me. Let's have a final question for this week's Listen Bitch discussing our sartorial journeys. It's Jessica from Bristol, but I live in Manchester. I work, because I know jobs are important now.

I work in operations. I hate my job though. I wanna be a dog trainer, but we're on that path. Anyway, I'm currently walking down the river Mersey and it's like beautiful, it's really sunny and I'm thinking of my tan lines and I was thinking I wish I was wearing less clothes and I personally would love it if the world was a nudist world. I don't know, I just think it would be a fun place, it would be a comfortable place. Personally I feel the most comfortable when I haven't got clothes on. I feel like clothes change your body and like move in shapes,

which I don't necessarily want it to. I just want to look how I look. And so yeah, quite often I feel most comfortable when I am naked. What do you think about getting rid of clothes? I can't imagine we're going to live in a world anytime soon where we do get rid of garments. But what do you think it'd be like? Would you would you be on board? Absolutely, I actually would be on board with that. Hmm I think so as I think that clothes have become like, you know a class marker haven't they it's like I earn this much money I've got this much money. Look at me in my fancy this in my fancy that and

Although like super super rich people just wear like really cheap clothes because they're not investing their money in something as stupid as clothes. But yeah, it would be good, put us all on the same level. Yeah, but you and I are quite naked-y if you think about it. Yeah, I don't mind wandering around in the nude.

Neither do I actually. I quite like being naked, especially in pictures. I don't know why, because I'm actually quite shy sometimes. Can be quite shy in the bedroom. I don't mind being naked in like a shoot. We finished some shoot, me and mum and I just stuck on these like boots that came to my knees in a thong and sat on the stairs and was like, let's take some pictures. I don't know who that part of me is, but I love when she comes out. And even actually when I did my end of year review of my year bullshit, whatever,

on Instagram at the end of the year, my front picture was that beautiful picture that you took of me and you when we were doing the observer shoot. And you took it on your real camera, and it's me like putting my top on. Oh yeah. And I was like, I look fucking fantastic. Thank you, Lily. My pleasure. I thought it was really arty and really nice. I might get that blown up actually.

It's literally, I feel like it's my, it is my job to make you look good. You know what I did do in 2020? I went to the marshes near my house with my photographer friend Charlotte and Neymar and bought some fabric from the fabric shop on Ridley and just did a naked shoot because I was sort of on one at the time. But I've seen it since and I'm so happy now that I'm 41 that at 36 I did that because I looked fucking banging. Every now and then I throw all of those

pictures up on Instagram like it was yesterday. But I'm so pleased I did that. I really think it's important that we have visual evidence to remind us that we were beautiful and alive and young ones. Still are, we still are beautiful, still are alive. Okay, okay. On that note, I'm gonna say goodbye, miss me.

Okay, baby love. So you need to choose your, you need to choose the theme. The theme for next week's Listen Bitch is fun. Woo! We're all about to have some fun, it's summer's coming, how do you like to party? Call us, text us. So yeah please on 08000 30 40 90, that's 08000 30 40 90.

I'll see you next week. Bye! Thanks for listening to Miss Me with Lily Allen and Makita Oliver. This is a Persephone Bye! Thanks for listening to Miss Me with Lily Allen and Makita Oliver. This is a Persephoneca production for BBC Sounds. How would a cockney rebel turned famous actor survive on a desert island? There's nothing better than a geezer naked dancing about on a desert island listening to wave music. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, presenter of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. My castaway is Danny Dyer. You might know him as Freddie Jones from Rivals or Mick Carter

from EastEnders. He wanted me to play an alpha male that wore a pink dressing gown. I was like, wow, I didn't expect this. Danny talks about the lows and the highs of his life and career, including some advice from the renowned playwright Harold Pinter. He always said to me, just be you, everyone else is taken. And I never quite understood, does that mean I get it now? Danny Dyer on Desert Island Discs.

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