Sugar coating

As a fan of The Apprentice, it seemed obvious to designer Stefanie Smith that sleek young businesswomen were exactly the type of people she wanted to design for – forward-thinking, bold, not afraid to experiment, hard-working and feminine. Not unlike herself.

Stefanie specialises in traditional tailoring, combining embroidery with creative pattern cutting, experimenting with unexpected scale and proportion, hand-making her creations at her Holmfirth studio.

“I am inspired by the modern working woman; Helen Milligan is a successful businesswoman who wants to look respectable, sophisticated and feminine all at the same time. My new collection offers the opportunity for women to feel confident and more importantly comfortable.”

Born in Liverpool, Stefanie, 25, moved to Holmfirth when she was two. She began sewing at eight, having been handed down a Singer sewing machine belonging to her seamstress grandmother.

“I did ballet and tap and my mum would sew all our costumes in the dining room and I would help, sewing on sequins and so on,” she says.

After Holmfirth High School, Stefanie went to Batley School of Art and Design before heading for Nottingham Trent University for a degree in fashion design followed by a masters in women’s tailoring, all the while making clothes under her own label for boutiques in the area. She was awarded a business enterprise grant and also sought advice from the Prince’s Trust, which told her she could do with more industrial experience, so she applied for and got an internship with Burberry for three months, after which she was taken on to work in the Castleford operation as part of the bespoke team. “It was such great experience,” she says. After nine months, she felt confident enough to grow her own label and so approached Helen Milligan, her favourite contestant in The Apprentice.

“I am a fan of the show,” says Stefanie, “and I was watching her and I realised that she was exactly the kind of person that I wanted to be designing for – sophisticated and feminine at the same time.”

So Stefanie approached Helen Milligan with a selection of her designs and the relationship was formed. Milligan came second in the recent series, wearing several of Stefanie’s outfits in the show.

“Both Helen Milligan and Natasha Scibbins have been extremely supportive of my label,” Stefanie says.

She makes all her garments in her Holmfirth studio, sourcing materials locally as much as possible, designing, pattern cutting (the most time-consuming part, she says), making, and having fittings with clients.

At the moment all her clothes are made to measure, but she is in talks with a Savile Row tailor about a womenswear collection. Lord Sugar would be most impressed.