Claudia Schiffer is lovely and Jemima Khan is really down to earth.
That's the opinion of Kiwi pilates instructor Lane Gibson who has just come back from two years in London where he was trainer to the stars.
Lane and his partner Jane Bingham have just opened their fitness studio, Reform Fitness,
in Mount Maunganui, with Lane gaining experience at Ten Pilates, a highly regarded pilates studio which included clients like popstar Lily Allen and famous photographer Mario Testino.
Lane says he personally trained supermodel Schiffer and socialite Khan, and both were not what he expected.
"[Schiffer] was cool - massive, tall - she was really quite skinny but she was pregnant when we had her," he says.
"Jemima Khan, she's really nice, so down to earth, you wouldn't expect it."
He says Allen "came in a few times" but trained sporadically because of her "hectic diary".
The more problematic clientele, he says, were the television personalities, high flying lawyers, big-wig editors, directors and authors.
"The more loaded people are a bit pretentious, but you can't have that in a class," he says.
Lane says if a client refused to do something in class, he would tell them to do it or leave, and that got their attitudes into shape pretty quickly.
"We had a couple of TV presenters that if you gave them an inch, they'd walk all over you."
He says the prices at Ten Pilates were "up there but not outrageous", but it had a reputation as the best - hence the clientele.
Meanwhile Jane worked at an upmarket private hospital as an occupational therapist, treating people like Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. She also worked with Prince Charles' personal assistant who was "hilarious".
"She was your perfect toffee-nosed English plum-in-mouth [speaker], but she was just so funny," Jane says.
The couple returned to Mount Maunganui with the dream of opening up a similar venture here, and are on track to doing that with Reform Fitness. The studio is the first of its kind in New Zealand with state of the art equipment.
So do they miss training the rich and famous? No.
"But it's cool to be able to say you've trained the stars," Lane says.
