Halifax red carpet fashion designer Kevan Jon creates the perfect clothes for life, love and dancing

Kevan Jon’s customers are adjusting to lockdown in style. One bride-to-be was due to get married earlier this month, but the wedding had to be postponed owing to Covid restrictions. Undeterred, she and her fiancé went to the same hotel’s restaurant anyway for dinner, and instead of a wedding gown, she wore a Kevan Jon angel sweatshirt teamed with a pleated skirt and high heels.

Call it high/low or dress up/down style, this is fashion, and life, as it is now, with all big celebratory events on hold and no clues as to when they might be allowed to go ahead. These are challenging times for a special occasion designer, as Halifax-based Kevan Jon Aspinall admits.

“The current climate is tough, let me be honest,” he says. “Tough for many reasons, both economical and emotional reasons, a real genuine challenge. Kevan Jon is primarily an occasion wear brand – weddings, celebrations, holiday/cruise wear – and, of course, many occasions have been cancelled, therefore our stockists are struggling.”

But Kevan has a plan. He has been working hard to diversify and has launched a new casual collection of sweatshirts, Bardot tops and pants. Called KJ Luxe and made in fluid and fleecy fabrics, they are hand-embellished in his Halifax studio with signature designs including angel wings and butterflies. He describes the new range as softwear, which he thinks sounds better than sweats or loungewear.

This is what women want now, he says, and it’s very different from his signature statement looks. Kevan has been designing beautiful special occasion dresses since he launched his label in 1992. His clothes are glamorous but wearable, always with a twist of wow that explains why he is the turn-to designer for those in need of a red carpet showstopper, including Ruth Langsford, Shobna Gulati, Coronation Street’s Jennie McAlpine and Emmerdale’s Lucy Pargeter.

Now 50, Kevan was born in South Africa to British parents, who emigrated back to the UK in 1978. His father was a quantity surveyor and his parents owned a construction company in Huddersfield, where Kevan grew up. The fashion designing started with a gingham pinafore dress he made for a good friend many moons ago. “Believe it or not, she still has it 34 years later, being worn by her daughter to this day. Talk about sustainability,” he says.

He went on a graphic design youth training scheme in the 1980s and then studied Fashion Manufacturing at Batley College of Art & Design, followed by a degree at Epsom School of Art and Design, graduating in 1991.

Now he heads “a terrific team of four” based in Halifax, assisted by others in the manufacturing process. The clothes are made in the UK. “I am proud of this,” he says, adding: “We have stores stocking the collections all around the UK, throughout Ireland and a few in European hotspots, primarily Spanish cities. I would love to grow and supply Kevan Jon to stores across Europe and the rest of the world one day.”

The Kevan customer base is diverse, he points out, ranging from prom teens to all age groups. “I aim to design and create collections that are classic, of exceptional quality, comfortable yet edgy. Styles that are not just fashionable, items that can be worn again and again, and years later, perhaps by daughters or nieces and second generations, making my designs desirable and sustainable.”

There is most definitely a spectacular Kevan Jon occasion wear collection too, inspired by the ’70s and ’80s disco and glam decades, with embellished fabrics and striking silhouettes, with a contemporary twist. Very Studio 54.

And Kevan is also in the process of launching a new diffusion line, with cheaper price points and its own dedicated website called Angel No 58, offering dresses, coats, trousers and tops priced from £25 to £120. According to psychic teaching, the 58th angel carries energy for wealth and auspicious opportunities, so fingers crossed.

There is an organic range coming to KJ Luxe, too, so he has certainly not been idle during lockdown (he also hand-made hundreds of Lycra headbands to help protect health workers’ ears from personal protective equipment).

Kevan finds his energy, creativity and enthusiasm for fashion undimmed. “When I design an incredibly new and exciting idea, and bring this alive from a drawing, then work with my team producing it to the finished item, this is priceless to me,” he says. “It is what I do and enjoy. When I see a person wearing my design, and looking and feeling amazing, it is the best feeling in the world.”

Find out more about Kevan Jon and see his AW20 collections on www.kevanjon.com and www.AngelNo58.com.