Today’s get-up – a cream denim two-piece with distinct utilitarian flare – is emblematic of this new era. “It’s something I’ve not done yet,” asserts the bright spark finding her footing in the tumultuous industry she grew up in all over again. But if the clothes represent Thirlwall’s reinvention, her accessories – “you can’t do a Fendi show without an incredible handbag!” – are girl-band Jade through and through. Inside her new Peekaboo Soft, which she gasped at when spying the top-handle style in her hotel room, you’ll find all the trappings of a Northern lass at heart: a sheet eye mask, a fan (“I don’t want my face melting off!”), blotting tissues (“I’m not into over-powering my face”), and the best lip balm courtesy of La Roche-Posay.
Her glasses and book – It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World by Mikaela Loach – show a more thoughtful side to Thirlwall, who is the last of her Little Mix family to seek out a solo moment in the sun. Prior to hanging up the phone, she’s keen to recommend her boyfriend Jordan Stephens’s tell-all on fame, Avoidance, Drugs, Heartbreak and Dogs (“he’ll kill me if I don’t get the name right”), and notes that any anxiety she thought she’d feel going it alone has since dissipated: “I’m really proud of how hard I’ve worked to get to this point over the past 12 to 13 years, so why should I be nervous? I do feel like I’m very worthy of being here – and I know I look great.”