Why Holly Willoughby is the down-to-earth Instagram star inspiring women to shop right now

Scrolling through Instagram last week, I came across a picture of someone who looked so, well, nice, that I felt compelled to buy the Warehouse dress off their back. The person who posted the picture was the celebrity stylist Angie Smith, taken of her client, the daytime television presenter Holly Willoughby.

In certain high fashion circles, this confession could be deemed career suicide. But after a month of catwalk shows, watching anonymous models parading next season's collections, I looked at this picture of Willoughby and simply thought; I can see here what that dress might look like on me.  

Willoughby has been consciously and quietly upping her fashion credentials since hiring Smith last January, selecting pieces from both the high street and the high end that are stylish but not scary. The pair have been sharing daily snaps of Willoughby’s outfits over the last few months, with interest in her style peaking in the five weeks since she returned to work on This Morning after her summer holidays. Since 4th September, her looks have racked up more than three million ‘likes’ and plenty, besides me, are even saying yes to the Will-you-buy effect.

Holly Willoughby LK Bennett skirt

Fashion search engine Lyst tells The Telegraph that an L.K. Bennett skirt worn by Willoughby, which attracted more than 167,000 people to press ‘like’ on Instagram, also prompted more than 3,000 to then search for the skirt on their website in the two hours after Willoughby posted the image on 21st September. Searches for the brand L.K. Bennett, also increased by 30% on Google on the same day.

Willoughby’s other recent hits have included pieces by Massimo Dutti, Very and River Island, all of which have experienced similar spikes after Willoughby has revealed that she is wearing pieces by them on her page. Lyst searches for Hobbs dresses rocketed by 132% on the day that she wore one, while Whistles skirts received a 33% boost.

The greatest success story so far, though, was a rainbow striped, sequin dress by the London Fashion Week-showing designer Ashish. More than 300,000 people ‘liked’ Willoughby’s picture of the dress she was going to wear on The Jonathan Ross Show, prompting a 300% surge in UK Google searches for the designer. Despite its ￡1,408 price tag, the dress promptly sold out on both Net-a-Porter.com and MatchesFashion.com.

Woman wears dress, dress sells out. 'What’s all the fuss about?', you might currently still be asking yourself. The appeal of the first lady of daytime television seems to actually be pretty simple; she looks like any one of us. Her style is polished and glamorous, but with elements that we could all so easily pull off for ourselves.

Willoughby’s stylist, Angie Smith, previously told me that the presenter thinks carefully about what she chooses to wear on air, knowing that women around the UK might be influenced by her look, but also that television cameras can be very unforgiving when you get it wrong.

“Dressing for TV is trickier than the red carpet because you’re going to be shot from so many different angles and depending on the show you might be moving around a lot and sitting down,” Smith told us of the considerations. “We work with a seamstress who will alter things until they fit perfectly.”

“We don’t tend to chose things from the catwalks for This Morning because we’re really keen, and I know Holly’s really keen, that she’s not wearing things that are ridiculously expensive,” she added. “We want viewers to see something that’s a great look and think ‘I could get a lot of wear out of that’.”

She's right, and I will.