Emilia Wickstead

Emilia Wickstead – Life, Career, and Signature Style

Discover the story of Emilia Wickstead, the New Zealand–born, London-based fashion designer celebrated for her elegant tailoring, royal clientele, and subtle, feminine aesthetic. Explore her journey, design philosophy, and legacy.

Introduction

Emilia Wickstead (born June 1983) is a New Zealander fashion designer whose eponymous brand is now based in London. She is widely praised for her refined, ladylike designs, exceptional tailoring, and a signature aesthetic that marries timeless elegance with modern sensibility. Her clientele includes royalty, political figures, and curated style insiders, and she has carved out a niche in luxury womenswear that stands apart through restraint and poise.

Though she is not the flashiest name in fashion’s avant-garde, her influence lies in creating clothes women actually want to live in—pieces that feel powerful, approachable, and graceful all at once.

Early Life and Family

Emilia was born in Auckland, New Zealand (June 1983). Angela Wickstead, was herself a dressmaker and ran a boutique and made-to-measure business in Parnell, Auckland.

At the age of about 14, she moved with her mother to Milan, Italy, a shift that opened her eyes to more formal European fashion culture and finesse.

Thus, her upbringing formed a dual foundation: early exposure to bespoke, client-driven dressmaking via her mother, and later immersion in European fashion tradition and discipline.

Education and Formative Training

After her years in Milan, Emilia moved to London to pursue formal studies in fashion. She enrolled at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London), studying Fashion Design and Marketing, and graduated with honours in 2007.

During her studies and shortly thereafter, she interned in New York with well-known names in fashion and publishing. Her internships included workrooms at Proenza Schouler, Narciso Rodriguez, and in the fashion department of Vogue. Giorgio Armani. These experiences gave her exposure to both creative direction and the inner workings of high-end fashion infrastructure.

After completing her training, Emilia returned to London (around 2008) and began laying the groundwork for her own label.

Career and Achievements

Launching the Label & Early Strategy

In 2008, Emilia officially launched her namesake label in London. made-to-measure garments with a streamlined delivery timeline (roughly 40 days) to appeal to clients seeking uniqueness without long waits.

Word-of-mouth and discreet showings among friends, family, and social contacts slowly built awareness. She even reportedly cold-called editors at British Vogue under a pseudonym to pitch her brand.

By 2011 she had begun to show collections in London Fashion Week (autumn/winter 2011/12) and gradually expanded into seasonal ready-to-wear, bespoke, bridal, and made-to-order lines.

Style Signature & Clientele

Emilia’s design aesthetic is often described as understated elegance, refined, feminine but never overly ornate, with sharp tailoring, clean lines, and thoughtful detailing.

Her clientele, over time, became notable and influential. Some prominent names include:

• Samantha Cameron (wife of UK Prime Minister) wearing her designs upon entering 10 Downing Street.

• Catherine, Princess of Wales, who wore Emilia pieces for public engagements.

• Other high-profile names from media, society, and style circles have also turned to her brand.

Her brand gained recognition in the fashion world:

• In 2014, she won the Elle Style Award – Red Carpet Designer of the Year.

• She was shortlisted multiple times for the British Fashion Awards and the BFC/Vogue Fashion Fund.

• In 2015, she won the Walpole Award for Brands of Tomorrow.

Growth, Diversification & Milestones

Over time, Emilia Wickstead expanded beyond bespoke dresses into wider product lines: ready-to-wear collections, bridal wear, made-to-order services, and even homeware. Sloane Street, London.

A major recent milestone: in November 2023, Air New Zealand announced that Emilia Wickstead would design their new crew uniforms, featuring prints by Māori artist Te Rangitu Netana.

This commission represents a homecoming of sorts—bringing her design influence back to New Zealand in a high-visibility, national context.

Historical Context & Fashion Landscape

Emilia Wickstead’s rise occurs in a period where fashion is marked by tension between spectacle and practicality, fast fashion and luxury, flashiness and restraint. Her brand has succeeded by anchoring itself in timelessness rather than chasing trends.

Her mode of growth—slow, client-first, boutique-driven rather than mass-produced expansion—is somewhat against the grain in a fashion world that often prioritizes rapid scaling. Yet this strategy has given her control over quality, identity, and exclusivity.

Her influence also taps into a wider appetite—for apparel that looks elegant but is wearable and appropriate in modern life. Among elite and style-conscious circles, she offers a middle ground between avant-garde experimentation and safe conformity.

Her ability to attract royals and political figures situates her work inside the intersection of style and public representation—a domain where image, symbolism, and propriety matter deeply.

Legacy and Influence

While still active, Emilia Wickstead is building a legacy rooted less in flamboyant spectacle and more in mastery of craftsmanship, brand integrity, and quiet influence. Her perhaps enduring impacts may include:

• An exemplar of modern elegance: showing that one can build a fashion brand centered on restraint, quality, and subtlety rather than shock value.

• Client-centric luxury: her early model of bespoke service, with relatively quick turnaround, showed a different route to gaining loyalty and trust in high-end fashion.

• Bridge between New Zealand and global design: her role designing Air New Zealand uniforms and maintaining a New Zealand identity brings international prestige back to her homeland.

• Influence on formal dressing: many contemporary style-conscious women view her dresses and coatdresses as staples for public-facing or ceremonial occasions, setting a tone for what “polished dressing” can look like in a modern era.

• Sustainable growth ethos: her cautious expansion strategy may offer lessons to designers in balancing brand purity, scalability, and business longevity.

Personality, Philosophy & Design Ethos

From interviews and profiles, some recurrent traits and philosophies emerge:

• Slow, thoughtful growth: She often contrasts her own methodical growth with more frenetic fashion industry norms.

• Marrying fantasy and reality: She sees her role as designing for a woman’s dreams, but also for her daily life: “bridging the gap between fantasy and reality.”

• Subtle detail and tailoring: Even in uniform design for an airline, she emphasizes that each piece needs to feel “like the best suit you’ve ever worn,” with hand-sewn details and considered lapels.

• Connection to heritage: Her New Zealand roots—its wildness, landscape, and stories—often serve as quiet influences on her aesthetic and approach.

• Work ethic and breadth of skills: Especially in early years, she handled many roles herself, from design and sewing to client outreach. This breadth has shaped a holistic understanding of her business.

• Simplicity and effortlessness: Her personal wardrobe often reflects her brand: streamlined, minimal, but with intentionality. She aims for her clothes to feel effortless over thought-provoking.

Memorable Statements & Reflections

While not a designer widely quoted in philosophical treatises, her interviews offer insight into how she views design, growth, and identity. A few representative statements:

“We’ve grown the business really slowly … and I think that’s our superpower.”

“I don’t think I set out to become a formal dressmaker, and there’s a lot people don’t know about the brand.”

On the Air New Zealand uniforms:
“When you talk about little style details … I want people to feel like it's the best suit that they've ever put on.”

Of her Kiwi heritage:
“New Zealand is home for me … that resilience, that roll-up-your-sleeves attitude … comes from my upbringing here.”

These reflections offer windows into how she synthesizes identity, design, and ambition into her work.

Lessons from Emilia Wickstead

From her path and philosophy, here are several lessons for designers, entrepreneurs, and creative professionals:

1. Start small, with integrity. You don’t need massive capital if you leverage relationships, craftsmanship, and authenticity to build steadily.

2. Understand your client deeply. Emilia’s early made-to-measure model taught her what her clients valued—comfort, fit, timeliness—which informed her brand identity.

3. Grow on your own terms. Rather than forcing expansion, she emphasized sustainable scaling, keeping control over identity and quality.

4. Let heritage inform, not dictate. Her New Zealand background is a source of ethos, not constraint—she adapts and borrows influences thoughtfully.

5. Balance consistency with adaptability. She maintains a visual signature, but evolves in product lines, collaborations, and market reach.

6. Fashion as service and confidence. Her approach suggests that successful design doesn’t just make beautiful garments—it gives women confidence and ease in public life.

Conclusion

Emilia Wickstead is an exemplar of how quiet conviction, exacting craft, and thoughtful branding can yield a distinctive place in global fashion. From observing her mother’s bespoke work in Auckland, to absorbing Milan’s sartorial rigor, to forging a London-based, internationally admired label, she has maintained a vision rooted in poise, femininity, and integrity.

As she continues to take on new challenges—such as her high-profile work designing airline uniforms for her native New Zealand—her legacy is still being written. What remains certain is that she has made elegance, discretion, and refined tailoring visible in an industry that often sensationalizes. Her story is one of subtle power, sustained devotion to craft, and a belief that beautiful clothes can be meaningful, wearable, and timeless.