7. Can you highlight some of the celebrities and Royalty that have worn your bridal or eveningwear?
I have been fortunate enough to design pieces for women across the globe including Autumn Phillips who chose a bespoke gown for her royal wedding, Dame Helen Mirren for Cannes and Venice film festivals, Katherine Jenkins, Dame Darcy Bussell, Princess Tamara Czartoryski, Marisha Wallace, and Shirley Ballas.
8. Tell us about your philosophy on being responsible and mindful of the environment.
For us, it’s not a trend, it’s a way of life, which flows through every aspect of the business. Now, more than ever, my love of creating beautiful bridal gowns has to be balanced with being mindful of the environment. Since the very beginning, over 40 years ago, I have made every gown in England. We all have a responsibility to ensure we are doing our best to reduce waste, lower our carbon footprint and minimize our impact on the planet. We create garments with a conscience meaning that every part of the journey, from designing to making the final piece, is carefully considered.
9. Who are some of the partnerships for recycling fabric?
One of the ways we are recycling and reusing our offcuts and waste is to partner with like-minded brands, charities and schools. We ensure we provide our left-over fabric and usable ‘waste’ not only to good causes but to the future generation of fashion designers whom I hope will ensure our responsibility ethos carries on for years to come.
We partner with Phoebe English who uses our bridal fabric offcuts to produce fabrics that are then made into sustainable garments; Creating Tomorrow’s Forests who plant trees to offset our carbon emissions; Shop Lulu who receives our silk offcuts and transforms them into beautiful bridal accessories; and Inner Wheel whom we supply the highest quality silk to make comfort cushions for breast cancer patients at our local hospitals.
We also supply colleges and schools with large fabric offcuts to be used by fashion students for their work. We also offer all fabric cardboard tubes and small fabric offcuts to local primary schools to be used for arts and crafts.
10. Tell us about nurturing young talent.
In a world where so many processes have been exported, I know that if we want to keep couture skills alive here in the UK, we need to pass on our knowledge to the next generation.
Every year we take on apprentices who work alongside my talented team learning the craft and embracing our ethos of responsibility to the environment. We also support fashion undergraduates and graduates with paid internships.