Judy Stewart brings you a new season of Unpaused—stories of women who create with their
hands and transform their lives in the process.
Unpaused is back—and it’s taking a bold new direction.
This season, Judy Stewart steps into the creative world of women who have left behind their
careers and found a new calling through making.
// Hosted by Judy Stewart
Seasons 1-7 Produced by Leonie Marsh
Sound Engineers: Lana Kristensen (S1-6) and Jason Millhouse //
Instagram: @_unpaused
Website: www.unpaused.net
S8, Ep 56 - Justine Picardie Part 2: Evolution not Reinvention
This is the second of a two-part interview with Justine Picardie, the distinguished British biographer, novelist, and fashion historian.
Returning to Unpaused’s most persistent themes, Justine describes her career evolution, from her early days as an investigative reporter in London to her surprise move to the pages of fashion journalism, where she rose to become long-term editor-in-chief of the prestigious Harper’s Bazaar UK.
Since then, Justine has achieved both critical and commercial success with biographies of Coco Chanel and the Diors, Catherine and Christian, and she has collaborated with some of Europe’s most revered curators and prestigious museums. However, the demands of serious biography have not been without cost and the profound impact which Justine experienced while researching the life of French Resistance heroine, Catherine Dior, is tangible still.
This is an intimate portrait of both Justine and her celebrated subjects, and reveals an accomplished woman, who speaks movingly about navigating the landscape of loss, and who - like her subjects - finds solace and inspiration in the natural world.
Show Notes
Instagram @justinepicardie (https://www.instagram.com/justinepicardie/?hl=en)
Justine Picardie’s books include:
Fashioning the Crown: A Story of Power, Conflict and Couture (https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571404063-fashioning-the-crown-signed-edition/?srsltid=AfmBOorjhdikIRltT6TZpHMslNTSpL5nk80NuwP_8hmXUADlwB3Va_Ho)
Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture (https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571356539-miss-dior/)
Coco Chanel: The Legend and The Life (https://www.waterstones.com/book/coco-chanel/justine-picardie/9780008595739)
If The Spirit Moves You: Life and Love After Death (https://www.waterstones.com/book/if-the-spirit-moves-you/justine-picardie/andrew-ohagan/9781447289289)
My Mother’s Wedding Dress (https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-mothers-wedding-dress/justine-picardie/9780330413077)
// Hosted by Judy Stewart
// Produced by Caroline Hughes for Feast Collective
// Sound Engineer: Jason Millhouse
// Instagram: @_unpaused (https://www.instagram.com/_unpaused/) // Website: www.unpaused.net (http://www.unpaused.net/)
14 Aug 2026
S8, Ep 55 - Justine Picardie Part 1: Fashioning the Crown
This is the first of a two-part interview with Justine Picardie, the distinguished British biographer, novelist, and fashion historian.
Justine talks to Judy about her new book, Fashioning the Crown, a study of British royal fashion in the twentieth century. While the sartorial choices of Wallis Simpson (‘you can never be too rich or too thin’), including the notorious Lobster Dress designed by Schiaparelli with Salvador Dali, were so provocative and newsworthy, it was Queen Elizabeth (wife of George VI, later known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother), whom Hitler was said to have labelled “the most dangerous woman in Europe” after she wore white - the colour of freedom - on a visit to France in 1938, immediately before the war began.
This first episode examines how the sartorial choices of the House of Windsor projected power against the backdrop of two world wars and the abdication crisis, and contributed to a national re-evaluation of the legitimacy of the sovereign, and the family more generally, at the apex of the constitutional order of the United Kingdom.
Show Notes
Instagram @justinepicardie (https://www.instagram.com/justinepicardie/?hl=en)
Justine Picardie’s books include:
Fashioning the Crown: A Story of Power, Conflict and Couture (https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571404063-fashioning-the-crown-signed-edition/?srsltid=AfmBOorjhdikIRltT6TZpHMslNTSpL5nk80NuwP_8hmXUADlwB3Va_Ho)
Miss Dior: A Wartime Story of Courage and Couture (https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571356539-miss-dior/)
Coco Chanel: The Legend and The Life (https://www.waterstones.com/book/coco-chanel/justine-picardie/9780008595739)
If The Spirit Moves You: Life and Love After Death (https://www.waterstones.com/book/if-the-spirit-moves-you/justine-picardie/andrew-ohagan/9781447289289)
My Mother’s Wedding Dress (https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-mothers-wedding-dress/justine-picardie/9780330413077)
// Hosted by Judy Stewart
// Produced by Caroline Hughes for Feast Collective
// Sound Engineer: Jason Millhouse
// Instagram: @_unpaused (https://www.instagram.com/_unpaused/) // Website: www.unpaused.net (http://www.unpaused.net/)
17 Sept 2025
S8, Ep 54 - Polly Leonard: Founder of Selvedge Magazine
Polly Leonard is the founder of Selvedge, the world’s leading magazine about the culture of cloth. It’s a one-word cipher about textiles with a cultural edge, who makes them, and how. Polly talks to Judy about why she believes cloth is central to civilisation; she says “fibre may look like fluff, but it carries the weight of human history”. She shares the steps on her creative journey - starting with her art student days in Glasgow and New York - and her relentless pursuit of the highest standards. The pair also discuss the tension between making on one hand and disposable, fast fashion on the other, and why Polly believes art and craft should be a more valued part of the school curriculum.
And for those who don’t already know, Polly will reveal what the selvedge on a piece of fabric is!
Show Notes
www.selvedge.org (http://www.selvedge.org/)
@selvedgemagazine (https://www.instagram.com/selvedgemagazine/?hl=en)
// Hosted by Judy Stewart // Produced by Caroline Hughes for Feast Collective
// Sound Engineer: Jason Millhouse
// Instagram: @_unpaused // Website: www.unpaused.net (http://www.unpaused.net/)
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
752
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.1 / 5
7 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 43 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
48
Social presence
0
YouTube
66
Engagement
31
Contact Unpaused the Podcast
Guest appearances
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