Yorkshire mother of the bride and special occasion designer Kevan Jon has fans including Vogue Williams and Annabel Croft

Move forward to 2025 and Halifax-based Kevan is designer to the stars, sought after for his understanding of women’s shapes, and knowing exactly how to create special occasion dresses that flatter and celebrate them with panache, and his signature statement style.

Kevan Jon’s glamorous but wearable dresses always come with that little twist of wow, which is perhaps why he has become a go-to designer for those in search of red carpet showstoppers, with Annabel Croft, Vogue Williams, Emily Andre, Ruth Langsford, Shobna Gulati, Jennie McAlpine, Love Island's Gabby Allen, Laura Hamilton and Lucy Pargeter among those spotted wearing his designs.

Modest Kevan credits his right-hand woman, sales and development manager Amy Ross, with being a whisperer to stylists who dress high-profile women for special events. “She's built up a really good rapport,” he says. “Because the thing is with Instagram and that lot, all these influencers, they want paying, and they want paying a lot of money, you know, they want collabs and, to be honest, half the time, it's not worth it.”

Whereas when Annabel Croft wore a white Kevan Jon Rosa jumpsuit at the Wimbledon Men's Final last year, as Kevan says: “It just went barmy. We got new stockists from that as well. How fab she looks in a classic Kevan Jon that can be worn dressed up, dressed down.”

Versatility has always been a key aspect of all Kevan’s designs, which are luxurious and high-end but relatively affordable, from around £250, within the special occasion and Mother of the Bride arena.

Kevan likes to keep it real. “You're rooted in Yorkshire and you maybe stay true to Yorkshire values,” he says. “My father was a building contractor. My mother was the company secretary, and I was kept very grounded. Nothing's for free in this life and you've got to work at it, and work hard, and then you appreciate what you've got.”

He was born in South Africa, although his British parents moved back to the UK in 1978. They owned a construction company in Huddersfield, where Kevan grew up. He studied Fashion Manufacturing at Batley College of Art & Design, then a degree at Epsom School of Art and Design, graduating in 1991. He launched his eponymous label in 1992, and the HQ has been at Berwick Mill in Halifax for 16 years. This is the office and workroom where he and his team make the initial samples and patterns (they work with an Italian company on prints). The clothes are made in Scunthorpe and at a large factory in Enfield.

Kevan says the market they have been especially targeting recently is the modern mother of the bride. “So they've still got to be church-worthy but they don't want to look frumpy in some old duchesse satin two-piece,” he says. “In the last 12 months we've gone from 52 stockists to 84.”

As well as kevanjon.com, there are boutiques stocking Kevan Jon across the UK, in Yorkshire in Doncaster, Sheffield, Hebden Bridge, Beverley, York (Molly Browns). Barnsley, Pudsey and Harrogate (Snooty Frox). Harrogate Fashion Week, which is trade only, has been a key place for showcasing and finding new stockists.

The Spring 2025 collection takes inspiration from floral and nature tropics and Caribbean beaches, silhouettes exuding soft power with feminine draping, ruffles, and layers. “But what we are going to do this time with the collection is make it a bit more diverse. It's not going to be just mother of the bride, we're going to do a lot more fashion in it, a bit more kooky, a bit more up-to-the-minute, so that our fashion shops that do mother of the bride will be able to buy into our fashion side as well.”

Copies of designs can be an issue and he has seen a dupe of his Emelia dress, with its distinctive pleated side panel, selling for £19.99 on a Chinese website. “I dread to think what it's like when you get it, but then we also get other English companies that look at what I do and then, literally the season after, they've got it.”

What women want can be hard to predict, sometimes. “The canary yellow that we're bringing out for spring now, we did that 18 months ago. I think we sold five dresses. We've done it for this spring and in one style alone, we’ve sold over 380 dresses in that one colour.

“It could be down to style. You can do it in one style, it doesn't sell. You can do it in another style and let it just fly.

“Because we are still small, we can adapt quickly to what the market is demanding. We're lucky also with the factories that we use. They can turn it around, and they're more than happy to help us in whatever way they can.”

Kevan says he has grown up with his customers, from the early days of the 1990s clubbing scene. Now their daughters are wearing their vintage Kevan Jon designs. “We all used to be at Sign of the Times in London, in Kensington, and I think I'm the only one that's left,” he says.

He puts the brand’s longevity down to being able to adapt to changing times, and listening to his stockists and his customers. “If we can tweak that, and it can go from a formal dress to a bridesmaid dress to an evening dress, depending on colour or fabric. So I always listen to what my customers have to say.

“It’s alright sitting in an ivory tower and designing fabulous things and loving what you're doing,but if there's no market out there, you've got no business.”

kevanjon.com