THERE'S no denying that Lauren Laverne is the first lady of rock reporting. But try calling her a style icon and you'll have a battle on your hands. "No make-up, Toasties socks and a hoodie – oh, yeah, I'm a style icon," she laughs.
She may not take her newly conferred status in the fashion world seriously, but Laverne was the obvious choice to host this year's Scottish Style Awards.
Over the course of her career she has proved herself to be a master of re-invention, starting out singing in the band Kenickie before finding success as a cultural commentator. But it is her quick wit and street-smarts that have won her something young, attractive presenters rarely get: respect.
Laverne has proved herself more than equal to Mark Kermode, her co-host on BBC2's Culture Show, and an affable and well-informed DJ on BBC 6's Music Breakfast Show.
And despite playing down her look, the Style Awards will not be her only foray into the fashion world this year. She is looking forward to making a star turn alongside Twiggy on the '60s supermodel's Frock Exchange, a reality TV show that will see a hundred women swap clothes in a bid to get their hands on a bargain.
"I got a phonecall saying, 'Twiggy wants you to do a fashion show,' and I was like, 'Yes, yes, yes!'
"It's not about making insecure girls take their clothes off and stand in Debenhams' window," the 30-year-old adds, smiling, clearly aware of the gentle dig at Gok Wan's How to Look Good Naked. "Mind you, there's nothing wrong with that – follow your bliss, is what I say. But that's not what this show is about."
Next week, she will make the journey north to Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to host the Scottish Style Awards. If she's overworked, it certainly doesn't show, her dress-down day failing to hide her edgy beauty.
"I'm obsessed with clothes," she says. "Fashion should be enjoyed and celebrated. By its very nature it should be synonymous with revelry and excitement, so I'm really looking forward to it."
In an industry torn between the size-zero conundrum and Holly Willoughby's ample bosom, she clearly feels little need to conform to any spurious ideal. "I'm not the kind of person who'll start crying because they've tried on a pair of size-8 trousers and they don't fit. I'm just like, 'Next!'"
Laverne was a teenager making waves in cult indie-punk band Kenickie when she first discovered fashion. "If you're into music," she says, "clothes, fashion and style are part of it.
Born in Sunderland to academic parents, she remembers growing up surrounded by "typewriters and music". The Fall and The Who provided plenty of inspiration, and by 15 she was writing songs and had formed a band with her brother Pete and schoolfriends Marie du Santiago and Emmy-Kate Montrose.
Kenickie (who shared a name with the moody, sexed-up teen in Grease) swaggered on to the '90s music scene, giving a two-fingered salute to the era's boy bands and angst-ridden solo artists, rocking it up with their playful, anarchic vibe. (One critic described them as being like a "young Kirsty MacColl (crossed with] the sound of Kurt Cobain seeking shelter in the Go-Gos".) Spotted by John Peel, the band were quickly signed and became the darlings of the music press – in no small part thanks to Laverne's Blondie-esque presence.
Chart rivals the Spice Girls were dismissed by a cheeky Laverne as "Tory scum", a comment that fuelled the music press's adoration of her.
Four Top 40 hits and a Top 10 album followed, while the young singer juggled her A-levels and accepted (but never took up) a place at Durham University. Along the way, they recruited more than one celebrity fan, most notably rock's infamous bad girl Courtney Love, whom Laverne met when she ventured to LA at 17. "She came to see us play," she recalls. "We got on well, so we went out dancing. We took over a DJ booth in this club and put the Psychedelic Furs and The Fall on. It became like this anglophile disco. I got a lift home with a magician. It was one of those nights."
A year later, in 1998, the band would split, with Laverne screaming out to a jubilant crowd in London's Astoria: "We were Kenickie – a bunch of f***wits!" It was, she admits, the best of times.
Today, with a baby son, life is calmer. But even when she named him, she wanted to make sure young Fergus James got a bit of rock history: "My little boy is named after the Holy Trinity of music – I was really into Jimi Hendrix. Iggy Pop, whose real name is James, was a major influence, and I loved James Brown as well."
The two years that followed the break-up of Kenickie passed in a whirlwind. Laverne's outspoken nature got her noticed, and she took tentative steps towards presenting TV shows such as Play UK's The Alphabet Show. She would go on to present Planet Pop for Channel 4 and report for early-morning programme Ri:se.
Her unpredictable, acerbic wit won her opportunities on comedy shows such as Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, with high-profile gigs hosting the NME Awards and the Brit Awards and reporting from Glastonbury soon following.
If this was the plan all along, Laverne is reluctant to admit it. For now, she says after a long pause, "I just do the jobs I like the sound of." One such is Channel 4's Orange unsignedAct, in which she joins Blur's Alex James and A&M Records' Simon Gavin as a judge trying to find the UK's untapped music talent. The eight acts they choose will embark on a nationwide tour in a bid to win a record contract.
For Laverne, it has been a trip down memory lane. "It was very different for us back then. The internet didn't exist, for a start, and it has revolutionised music.
"But it's been tremendous fun listening to all these incredible kids in their bands. It reminds me of how brilliant it was being 15 and being in love with making music and being in a group.
"It's lovely to draw on memories of my time in Kenickie, because it's not just part of my biography, it's part of my growing-up. That naïve 15-year-old is still in me, screaming: 'Woo-hoo! Shiny lights, loud music and dancing! This is the best thing ever.' I hope I never lose that part of me."
For now, though, radio and television are where her heart lies. An award-winning stint on Xfm between 2002 and 2007 ensured she was seldom off the airwaves for long, and she is clearly relishing her time on BBC6.
And while she'd possibly be reluctant to admit it, the last few years have seen a slightly calmer Laverne emerge, signalled by her settling down with television producer and DJ Graeme Fisher in 2005, and the birth of their son last year.
"I suppose things have changed a little. I don't think in terms of career as much," she says. "I think in terms of my life, in terms of my family and what we want to do. I've always been decisive and followed my instincts – I tend to know when things are right for me."
Whatever the family commitments, one thing she won't be giving up any time soon is her job on The Culture Show, the very mention of which raises the temperature. "The thing is," she announces defiantly, "I think it's weird that people think culture is something they can't have an opinion on. The dictionary definition of culture is 'that which is not nature'; so that's everything from the Venus de Milo to the implants that Jordan's selling online. That's what I love about this show. I was watching it before I was ever a presenter and I'll be watching it long after.
"You can't not have an opinion on culture – it's your life, it makes up your world – so the idea that snotty-nosed critics have the power to pick and choose what culture is is wrong. Likewise, people thinking they can opt out and not have an opinion at all is kind of daft."
And with that Laverne swiftly sidesteps back into the world of fashion, as if to prove her point: "We in Britain do things that people in other countries don't. Take the French – they are seen as being incredibly chic. In America there's this athletic, glossy style that people aspire to – all tan and hair. But in Britain what we've got is wonky teeth and great shoes – I think we should celebrate and discuss that."
She reels off the names of her favourite designers ("I'm a big fan of Moschino and Matthew Williamson, and I like the younger designers coming through such as Christopher Kane"), and there have been a few comments about how quickly she shed the baby fat. Unsurprisingly, Laverne has something to say on that too: "I was happier when I got back to my normal size after giving birth, yes, but I'm tall and lanky and that's my natural shape. To tell you the truth, I don't really give a f***. I feel better in my life if I feel okay.
"Growing up, my icons were people like Pete Townshend, Mark E Smith and Debbie Harry, this beautiful freak of the bunch. I think anyone can look great. It's about how you dress, not about your shape.
"At the end of the day, clothes maketh the man, they really do."
This is not to say that having a baby and turning 30 haven't given her a new perspective. "I haven't changed, though my life has changed enormously," she says. "I'm still the person I was. You have a huge identity shift when you have a baby. The first few weeks were incredibly weird. I thought, 'Who am I supposed to be now? What am I supposed to wear?'
"You have to recalibrate everything. It has brought me down to the fundamentals: who I am, who my best friends are. Things have to be really important for me to spend my time on them, or they fall away."
With her credentials on the up in Britain, would she be tempted to try her luck across the pond? "I think I'm too quirky for LA," she says with a laugh. "But I love New York. I fit in there. I was in Texas last year, working on the South by Southwest festival, and I had a great time. But I'm happy here for now."
Besides, in the short term, she has a trip north to plan. "Some of my relatives are originally from Dingwall, so I was up there a few weeks ago. When I'm in Scotland later this week, hopefully there will be time to check in on family and wander around Glasgow.
"I do love Glasgow," she says. "It's such a vibrant, creative place, with a sense of humour and wit that I identify with. It has the survivor mentality – the city doesn't have the most hospitable climate but it puts on its glad rags and has a good time."
It should be in good company, then.
• Scotland on Sunday is the media partner for the Scottish Style Awards 2008. Now in its fourth year, the SSA offers the most prestigious platform for the best in Scottish fashion, design, music and the arts. Lauren Laverne will reveal all the winners at the spectacular ceremony in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum on Friday, October 24. Visit
www.scottishstyleawards.co.uk for more details.
The full article contains 1988 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
