Esme Young | |
---|---|
Born | Esme A. Young 19 February 1949 [1] Bedford, Bedfordshire |
Nationality | British |
Education | Central St Martins |
Occupation | Fashion designer |
Label | Swanky Modes |
Parent(s) | Brian Pashley Young CB CBE , Patricia Cole |
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]
Esme Young was born at Bedford Hospital, [1] the second of five children. She has an older sister, Fiona, and younger brothers Christopher, Angus, and Jeremy. [5] [3] Her father, Air Vice Marshall Brian Pashley Young CB CBE (1918–1992), was born in Natal, South Africa, [6] and was a career officer in the RAF. [5] He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1944, [7] a Commander of the same order in 1960, [8] and a Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1972. [9] In Series 8 of The Great British Sewing Bee , Young revealed that her father was captain of Wasps RFC in the 1950/51 season. Her mother, Patricia Josephine Cole, was a secretary who worked as a nurse during the Second World War. [3] [10]
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]
In 1972, Young, along with fellow fashion designers Judy Dewsbury, Melanie Herberfield, and Willie Walters, founded a shop in Camden Town called Swanky Modes. [12] [13] [2] Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Swanky Modes clothing appeared in Vogue, Nova, Honey and The Face. [4] Their clothing was also photographed by Helmut Newton, David Bailey, Nick Knight, and John Swannell. [4]
Young has made costumes for many films including The Beach, Bridget Jones' Diary, Romeo & Juliet and Trainspotting. [11] [14]
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]
In December 2022, she was a contestant on Richard Osman’s House of Games. [16]
She teaches at Central Saint Martins and is involved in a project called "Exploding Fashion" which highlights the importance of pattern cutting. [14] [17]
Young published her autobiography in 2022: Behind the Seams: My Life in Creativity, Friendship and Adventure from the star of the Great British Sewing Bee. [18] [19]
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial and historic county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east and east, Hertfordshire to the south and south-east, and Buckinghamshire to the west. Since Bedfordshire County Council was abolished in 2009, the county has been administered by the three unitary authorities of the Borough of Bedford, Borough of Luton, and Central Bedfordshire.
Bedford is a market town and unparished area in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst the Borough of Bedford had a population of 157,479. Bedford is also the historic county town of Bedfordshire.
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabric, archaeologists believe Stone Age people across Europe and Asia sewed fur and leather clothing using bone, antler or ivory sewing-needles and "thread" made of various animal body parts including sinew, catgut, and veins.
Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman is an English television presenter, radio personality, film critic and journalist. Between 2004 and 2010, she presented Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two on weeknights on BBC Two. Since 2010, she has co-presented Strictly Come Dancing's main results show on Sunday nights with Tess Daly on BBC One and since 2014 has been a main co-host alongside Daly on the Saturday night live shows, following the departure of Sir Bruce Forsyth. She has been nominated three times for the British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance for her work on Strictly Come Dancing.
Bedfordshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire in England, which includes the unitary authorities of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton. Its headquarters are in the town of Kempston in Bedford Borough.
Bedford is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Mohammad Yasin of the Labour Party.
Grace Dent is an English columnist, broadcaster and author. She is a restaurant critic for The Guardian and from 2011 to 2017 wrote a restaurant column for the Evening Standard. She is a regular critic on the BBC's MasterChef UK and has appeared on Channel 4's television series Very British Problems.
Sara Patricia Pascoe is an English actress, comedian, presenter and writer. She has appeared on television programmes including 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown for Channel 4, QI for BBC and Taskmaster for the digital channel Dave.
Patrick James Grant is a Scottish fashion designer and businessman who is director of bespoke tailors Norton & Sons of Savile Row, clothing lines E. Tautz & Sons and Community Clothing, and textile manufacturer Cookson & Clegg. Since 2013, he has been a judge on the reality series The Great British Sewing Bee, which aired on BBC Two before moving to BBC One in 2020.
The Great British Sewing Bee is a BBC reality show that began airing on BBC Two on 2 April 2013. In the show, talented amateur sewers compete to be named "Britain's best home sewer". A spin-off of the format of The Great British Bake Off, the programme was presented by Claudia Winkleman for the first four series, with judges Patrick Grant, May Martin, and Esme Young. After a three-year hiatus, the series returned in 2019, with Joe Lycett taking over as presenter. The sixth series began airing on BBC One in April 2020 and the seventh began airing in April 2021. Sara Pascoe took over as presenter from series 8, which began airing in April 2022.
The fourth series of The Great British Sewing Bee began on 16 May 2016. Claudia Winkleman returned to present alongside resident judge Patrick Grant, with May Martin being replaced by new judge Esme Young.
The fifth series of The Great British Sewing Bee began on 12 February 2019 following a three-year hiatus. Joe Lycett replaced Claudia Winkleman as the presenter of the show, with both Esme Young and Patrick Grant returning as judges. The series was shot at 47-49 Tanner Street, Bermondsey, though the exterior shots are of 1 Tanner Street.
James Lee Williams, better known by the stage name The Vivienne, is a Welsh drag queen, known for being appointed the first UK RuPaul's Drag Race ambassador in 2015, winning the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK in 2019, and later returning to compete in the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars in 2022. As part of her victory, she was awarded her own online television series, later titled The Vivienne Takes on Hollywood. The series premiered on 9 April 2020 on BBC Three and follows her trip to Hollywood to produce her own music video.
Matilda Rose "Tilly" Walnes is an English fashion designer, author and educator. Based in South London, she designs plain language sewing patterns and hosts online workshops.
The sixth series of The Great British Sewing Bee began on 22 April 2020. Joe Lycett returned as the presenter of the show with both Esme Young and Patrick Grant returning as the judges. The series consisted of 12 contestants competing to be named the best sewer. For series six, the show moved from BBC Two to BBC One and increased from eight episodes to 10, becoming the channel's top rated show during its run.
The seventh series of The Great British Sewing Bee began on 14 April 2021. Joe Lycett returned as the presenter of the show, with both Esme Young and Patrick Grant returning as the judges. The series consisted of 12 contestants competing to be named the best sewer. The show aired on BBC One and was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The series was filmed at The Chainstore on Trinity Buoy Wharf in London's Docklands, a grade II listed building, built in 1854, and connected to London's only lighthouse.
The eighth series of The Great British Sewing Bee began on 27 April 2022. Sara Pascoe replaced Joe Lycett as the presenter of the show, with both Esme Young and Patrick Grant returning as judges. This series saw the programme moving out of London, it being filmed in a former textile mill called the Sunny Bank Mills, located in Farsley, Leeds. For the first time ever, there were 4 finalists in the final.
Swanky Modes was a British fashion brand that opened in 1972 in London's Camden Town district. It consisted of four designers: Judy Dewsbury, Melanie Herberfield, Willie Walters and Esme Young, and was located at 193 Royal College Street, London.
The ninth series of The Great British Sewing Bee began on 24th May 2023 on BBC One. As with series 8 Sara Pascoe hosts, with Esme Young and Patrick Grant returning as judges. There are 12 contestants in season 9.
On 19 February 1949, at the Nursing Home, 34 Kimbolton Road, Bedford, to Patricia (née Cole), wife of Wing-Commander B. P. Young, a daughter