IN IBIZA TO SHOWCASE HER BEACHWEAR BRAND TESS DALY ON RETURNING TO HER FASHION ROOTS, STAYING FIT AT 55 AND 20 YEARS OF 'STRICTLY'

On a sunlit evening in Ibiza, TV presenter Tess Daly returned to her glamorous modelling roots.

This time, however, she was behind the scenes with best friend Gayle Lawton, with whom she co-owns beachwear brand NAIA Beach, helping to get their models runway ready.

"We were on our knees, fastening their shoes," Tess tells us in this exclusive interview and photoshoot with HELLO!.

"We wanted everything to look perfect," she adds. "Having a small business is like having another baby. It's on our minds every waking hour."

MAKING A SPLASH

It has been four years since Tess and Gayle created NAIA Beach, and earlier this summer it was the headline brand of the 20 on show at the Ibiza Fashion Festival, a sustainable fashion event held at the 528 Ibiza venue in the Benimussa hills on the outskirts of San Antonio.

Hosted by Poppy Valentine and including a DJ set by Woody Cook, the festival-founded by Karen Windle - supported Pure Sea, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to protecting our oceans.

Mum of two Tess, 55, began modelling when she was a teenager and has only positive things to say about the industry.

"I had wonderful agents who mentored me and looked after me," she says. "Then, as I got older, I would mentor younger models. I would do a talk every Friday where I’d share advice with new faces. People still come up to me today and say: ‘I remember when you did that talk.’

“Actually, my daughter [Phoebe, 19] is older now than when I started modelling. I do sometimes look at her and think: ‘My goodness.’ Now the models for NAIA Beach are like our family. We love working with them.”

Tess’s longevity in the industry is partly down to her keeping a sense of perspective – and that now means trying not to be glued to her phone.

“I like to forget that Instagram exists some days,” says Tess, who has another daughter, Amber, 15, with her husband, BBC Radio 2 host Vernon Kay.