About Kate 

I began designing and making wedding dresses after my best friend cunningly talked me into making hers.

I’d gained a first class Fashion degree at university but had fallen out of love with the fashion industry after spending an eye-opening year travelling the world, so began working for a charity instead. 

In hindsight I think this was a reaction to the realities of fast-fashion – the low prices and over-consumption which had become so prevalent, and the consequences for garment workers overseas as well as for our environment. But I didn’t know much about ethics and sustainability back then, so I just walked away for a time.

Crafting Alexandra’s dress helped me rediscover my passion for designing clothes.

I realised that wedding dresses didn’t have to look like the ones I’d only ever seen up to that point (strapless corset top over layers of poofy skirt), that I could make pieces that were more subtle, elegant and easy to wear. Creating bespoke wedding dresses was the perfect way to combine all the bits about making I’d always loved best, on a small scale and on my own terms.  

I spent 4 years working from home after my son Rex was born, and now work from a studio in a listed building in central Sheffield - a converted cutlery factory with plenty of character and charm. My studio is on the first floor and the space is split into two halves: a workroom for my little team and me, and a showroom for trying on the frocks.

My husband James and I got married in April 2012. We had a beautiful personal humanist ceremony, ate cakes baked by our closest friends, enjoyed a gorgeous meal and fabulous speeches from our nearest and dearest, all out in a lovely boutique hotel in the Peak District. It was a wonderfully happy and emotional day. I wore my earliest design – Honeysuckle – and became a full-time wedding dress designer and maker soon afterwards. A few pictures from our wedding can be viewed here.

Studio images throughout by India Hobson | Wedding photograph above by S6 Photography