Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget. From adventures at Central Saint Martins to The Great British Sewing Bee, go behind the scenes of Esme Young's amazing life... I especially loved reading the sections where she said about the films she had worked on, and one of my favourites being Bridget jones Diary with that classic bunny girl outfit! Esme mentored and taught designer Ashish until he became a professional fashion designer. Following his success, she worked on his London Fashion Week collections, cutting patterns and creating the shape of the designs, making the toiles and doing the fittings.

I could have taken it easy, and continued to teach at college part time, and make costumes for the rest of the time… but where would be the jeopardy in that. I like to try new things and different things, and I think it’s wonderful that I had the opportunity to start a new career when I was nearly 70” I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven. While watching the last series of Sewing Bee I said to my parents “I wish Esme would bring a book out, she’s had an amazing life by the sounds of it!” , and then not long after, she did!It was she who ­introduced me and my sister to boutiques such as Mary Quant and Biba. She wasn’t keen when I went to jumble sales and wore second-hand clothes when I was older.” It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories. I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions. In her free time, Esme teaches Innovative Pattern Cutting for graduates and professionals students at Central Saint Martin’s College. Esme uses hands on experience of design, pattern cutting and clothes making to move students’s imagination and help them interpret their drawings so they can develop the designs into actual garments.

BBC Two - Richard Osman's House of Games, Series 6, Week 14: Thursday". BBC . Retrieved 11 December 2022. From adventures at Central Saint Martins to The Great British Sewing Bee, go behind the scenes of Esme Young's amazing life.... Then, as he recovered in hospital in East Grinstead, West Sussex, Brian fell in love with Esme’s mother Patricia, a “glamorous and full of life” nurse. Esme Young (born 19 February 1949) is an English fashion designer and television presenter. [2] [3] Since 2016, she has been a judge on the BBC reality series The Great British Sewing Bee. [4] Early life and education [ edit ]His suit and his shoes,” she says, seeming amazed that I’d had to ask. “The tailoring was Italian.” Young developed sewing and pattern cutting techniques for underwear and swimwear which commenced her to work on special projects for ‘ Triumph underwear’ and ‘L’Oreal’. Young attended the Convent of the Holy Ghost, Bedford, where she learnt to draw and to sew. [11] She went on to Saint Martins School of Art. [11] [3] Career [ edit ] Swanky Modes [ edit ] Since 2016, Young has been a judge on The Great British Sewing Bee. [4] One of Young's most famous designs was the 'Amorphous Dress' worn by Linda Kozlowski in the 1986 movie Crocodile Dundee; a dress that is now in the V&A Collection. [15] David Bailey photographed one collection and Vogue featured Brigitte Nielsen wearing a Swanky Modes lycra two-piece in the mid-1980s.