Esme Young: Behind the Seams (Bonnier Books 2022)
Most people know fashion designer Esme Young from the show The Great British Sewing Bee, which ran for the 12th time this year in the United Kingdom with unbroken success. In the show, hobby seamstresses introduce themselves and compare their skills to decide who is the best in Great Britain that year. In each show, they have to demonstrate their skills in three tasks: sewing from a pattern, altering, and making a custom-made garment. A two-person jury evaluates their work: Esme Young and Patrick Grant.
However, Esme Young already had a significant career behind her when she joined the show. She had been interested in clothes since childhood and was able to truly express herself through her drawings. She made her first garment at the age of seven. She studied at a boarding school at a young age, and later graduated as a graphic designer at Central Saint Martins College of Art in London. She and her friends founded their own fashion studio called Swanky Modes and were able to present their collections alongside the big fashion houses. Their style was characterized by uniqueness, experimentation with new materials and the emphasis on the female body. Later, Esme helped young artists as a teacher at Central Saint Martins and her own works was also seen in films. One of her most famous creations, the “Amorphous Dress”, is kept in the V&A Archives and a version of it was worn by Linda Kozlowski in Crocodile Dundee. We can thank her for the dresses of Bridget Jones and some of the outfits in Fierce Creatures, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin or A Monster Calls. The Great British Sewing Bee means a new chapter in her life.
Esme Young admits that she is very lucky because she has never seen her job as work, but as passion. Many events and famous people are connected by her scissors and sewing machine. She said yes to every new experience and never cared too much about what others said or thought. So far in her life – apart from sewing – the defining element has been that she was happy with what she had, didn’t crave a lot of money, just followed her dreams and enjoyed creating with others. I hope she will be a defining member of the fashion world for a long time to come!
