Esme Young, star of The Great British Sewing Bee goes behind the seams with her new book
To fans of BBC One’s The Great British Sewing Bee Esme Young is a familiar face with her silver bob, flawless outfits and steal the show accessories. One of the gimlet eyed judges, alongside Scottish designer Patrick Grant, she has a keen eye for detail and if a contestant has attempted to hide a gaping hole with a big bow, or left a thread dangling, she will spot it.
But as her book Behind the Seams - My life in creativity, friendship and adventure, which recounts her 73 years at the forefront of fashion reveals, she’s a former wild child with shaved eyebrows and a mohican who values creativity and having a go above all else, and rocked many a frayed hem herself in her younger years.
She appears at the Borders Book Festival this week [Friday 17 June] with the book which is a riotous and life-affirming read with stories that begin from childhood with mischievous siblings that saw her mother locking her wardrobe and her father his car in a bid to keep them away, to tales from the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties of topless motorbiking and living in squats with her brothers in London, where Mick Jones of the Clash visited and Sid Vicious moved in. She paints a vivid picture of her years at the helm of the Swanky Modes boutique in London’s Camden (celebrated in song by Jarvis Cocker last year), where she partied as much as she cut patterns and artists, actors, musicians couldn’t get enough of their figure-hugging creations which have become part of fashion history. Then it’s on to her years as a costume designer for films, music videos and TV, rubbing shoulder pads with numerous celebrities including Bowie and Dustin Hoffman, Juliette Binoche and Cher, Madness and Barry Manilow, with holidays in Iran and Mexico and teaching Fashion at Central St Martins to finally to becoming queen bee on one of the nation’s favourite reality shows. Oh and she throws in top tips on pattern cutting and sewing as she goes.
Who does Young, who still lectures at Central St Martins when she’s not on TV, think will buy her book?
“Well, it's gay men and middle aged women who watch the TV show, and for the book, well my students bought it and they’re mainly young women so maybe it’s a bigger group.”
And has the students’ attitude towards her changed since they read the book with its tales of her fast and furious life Behind the Seams?
“No. But I’m quite good at name dropping so they go, ‘Oh God, you worked with them! In fact there were lots of things I couldn't remember you know, and then they come into my head from time to time and I think ‘Oh god I should have put that in.’”
While The Great British Sewing Bee’s bid to find Britain's best home sewer has been attracting audiences of five and six million since it started in 2013 - Young joined in 2016 - she doesn’t watch herself because doesn’t have a TV.
“I’ve just got my computer so I watch the occasional drama thing on that, but I do sometimes see it to check my outfits because I don't want to wear the identical clothes I wore in the last series,” she says.
After 40 years as a designer Young has a wardrobe full of clothes and doesn’t need or want to buy any more.
“It's to do with sustainability but also I don't need more clothes. I have way too many. I think people buy lots of clothes for two reasons. One because some of them are so cheap, so you buy a T-shirt for £2 but often people don't wear them. And also I think it gives people a bit of a buzz, but it doesn't last very long.”
Born in Bedford in 1940, Young was influenced by a fashion conscious mother who introduced her to Jaeger, Biba, Mary Quant, Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark, but with her daughter’s habit of customising, these were out of bounds. Instead Young turned to charity shops and began to sew, altering items to fit her petite stature and transform them into something unique.
“In those days you couldn't buy something to go out because it was too expensive and you couldn’t get what you wanted in the shops anyway, so we went to jumble sales. But I think now with all this stuff online, all so cheap, people think oh I can buy it to go out tonight. Although with some online companies going bust maybe more young people are actually adapting clothes and being more sustainable.
“I remember as a teenager we used to alter things and change things, really badly. We’d just take chunks out of the back and didn't care. We just wanted to wear those things that night and didn't actually care how well they were sewn. It was just about how they looked.” How she looked was often “dressed as a peacock” according to her mother, who refused to walk beside her as favourite outfits included a children’s patchwork dressing gown paired with tartan scarf and straw bag.
After going to Cambridge Art College, where she watched fellow students Pink Floyd play, she went on to study Graphic Design at Saint Martins in London, all the while sewing and creating bespoke clothing for herself and friends and on leaving opened a boutique in Camden, Swanky Modes, which became famous for its cutting edge designs. As Young puts it: After the Swinging Sexy Sixties our generation were trailblazing into the new decade in a streak of sequins and safety pins. Soho was at the heart”.