Serena Solitaire Crichton-Stuart, Marchioness of Bute (born 29 December 1959), also known by her maiden name Serena Wendell, is a British fashion designer and former model.
Born in December 1959, Bute is the daughter of Major Jack Wendell (1924–2005) and his wife Anthea Peronelle Maxwell-Hyslop, and a niece of Robin Maxwell-Hyslop.[1][2] She was brought up in London and rural Wales by her mother and stepfather, Peter Rees, Baron Rees, and after a French finishing school became a fashion model.[3][4]
Career
Working in the world of fashion, Serena Wendell soon began designing and making clothes herself, launching some small fashion labels and selling to friends. She eventually established her own serious label, Serena Bute,[4][3] and in 2023 was a director of Rowanwood Ltd, Deltawood Ltd, and Serena Bute Ltd.[5] The guiding principle of the Serena Bute label is "elegant comfort". Bute's collections include wide-legged trousers, always with a grosgrain stripe. Shirts are large and tailored, made of silk, velvet, and cotton. Woollen cloths and wool-silk fabrics are supplied by Bute Fabrics, a long-established upholstery firm[3] founded by her late husband's grandfather the 5th Marquess of Bute.[6]
Serena Wendell married firstly Robert de Lisser, and they had two children, Jazzy and Joshua de Lisser.[3] They settled in Jamaica and were together for ten years. After they separated, she spent eighteen months bringing up the children alone in Jamaica, then returned to England for medical help with Hepatitis C. She commented in 2020 that she did not then know where her first husband was.[4]
Secondly, on 13 February 1999, in the marble chapel at Mount Stuart House, on the island of Bute, she married as his second wife John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, with whom she has a daughter, Lola.[7][3] She was reported to be four months pregnant at the time.[8] Until his death in March 2021,[6] they shared a house in Regent's Park and also had the use of Mount Stuart House,[3] but did not live there, preferring a renovated farmhouse, Ardscalpsie, six miles from Rothesay on the west coast of Bute.[8]
Notes
↑ Peter Townend, ed., Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, vol. 1 (London: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1965), p. 407
Marquess of the County of Bute, shortened in general usage to Marquess of Bute, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1796 for John Stuart, 4th Earl of Bute.
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Peter Wynford Innes Rees, Baron Rees, was a British Conservative politician and barrister. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Dover and Deal from 1974 to 1983 and MP for Dover from 1970 to 1974 and 1983 to 1987. He was Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1983 until 1985. He was created a life peer as Baron Rees, of Goytre, in 1987.
John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute, KT, was a Scottish peer.
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Sophia Frederica Christina Crichton-Stuart, Marchioness of Bute was a Scottish noblewoman. She was the second wife of John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, and the mother of the 3rd Marquess. Cardiff's Sophia Gardens are named after her.
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