Emilia Wickstead

If you want polished, ladylike occasionwear, the answer for many buyers is yes. Wickstead's whole proposition began with made-to-measure pieces, and her style is described as "graceful" and "understated elegance," with colours that are "pretty but not saccharine." You are paying for that restrained, grown-up refinement rather than logos or trend-chasing, which is exactly why it reads as an investment piece.

Refined, made-to-measure womenswear with a distinctly ladylike sensibility. The business literally started with a small collection shown to family and friends in her living room, taking orders for made-to-measure items, before she opened a store in Belgravia and built a team of seamstresses. That couture-adjacent, made-to-order origin still defines the brand's polish.

Her understated, graceful aesthetic suits high-profile public dressing. Wickstead's clients include the Princess of Wales, and among those who have worn her designs are Catherine, Princess of Wales, Samantha Cameron and Melania Trump. That kind of clientele is a strong signal of how reliably tasteful and occasion-appropriate the clothes are.

She is a New Zealand fashion designer based in London, born in June 1983 in Auckland to Angela Wickstead, herself a designer with a boutique in Parnell. So this is very much a designer-led house with the founder still at its centre, which is part of why the point of view stays so consistent.

She studied fashion design and marketing at Central Saint Martins in London, one of the most respected fashion schools in the world, and interned in New York at Giorgio Armani and at Vogue magazine. That blend of design rigour and editorial polish shows up in how considered the collections are.

It began on a shoestring. At age 24, Wickstead's boyfriend gave her £5,000 to start her business, and she created a small collection she showed to family and friends, taking made-to-measure orders. Coverage in Tatler and UK Vogue helped her expand into a Belgravia store, and she held her first London Fashion Week show in 2012.

Think graceful and understated rather than flashy. Her work has been described as "graceful" and "understated elegance," with a colour sense praised as "pretty but not saccharine." In practice that means clean, ladylike occasion dressing, the kind of piece you wear to be quietly the best-dressed person in the room.

Yes, with a strong run of recognition. She won Elle magazine's Style Award for Red Carpet Designer of the Year in 2014 and the Walpole Award for Brands of Tomorrow in 2015, and she was shortlisted for the BFC/Vogue Fashion Fund across 2013 to 2016. That sustained industry attention backs up the brand's reputation for quality.

She did. In November 2023, Air New Zealand announced Wickstead as their future uniform designer, and the new crew uniforms, with prints by Māori artist Te Rangitu Netana, were introduced in April 2025. It is a meaningful tie back to her New Zealand roots and a sign of how versatile her tailoring credentials are.

The house holds shows and consultations across several cities, including New Zealand, New York and Milan, in addition to its London base, reflecting its made-to-measure heritage. For occasion and bridal pieces in particular, that consultation model is part of the appeal, so it is worth seeking out an official channel rather than treating it like off-the-rack shopping.