I've been working since I was 14, when I started shampooing ladies' hair in a small salon.
I was paid around £2 an hour, but I loved going home with money I had earned myself.
More importantly, I loved seeing someone leave feeling just a little better about themselves than when they arrived.
I probably didn't realise it at the time, but that feeling has followed me throughout my career. I have always loved working with people, and I have always been fascinated by the relationship between how we look and how we feel.
From fashion to bridalwear
My career has taken me through fashion, beauty, pharmaceuticals, personal shopping, hospitality and even the dreaded world of timeshare. Quite a mixture, but every role taught me something about people, presentation and the art of selling someone a good feeling.
Fashion was always where I wanted to be. I studied Fashion Production at university and secured my first merchandising role before I had even graduated. A few years later, I found myself managing several bridalwear shops, helping women choose what might be the most important dress they would ever wear.
That experience taught me that fit is only part of the equation. You have to listen, understand the person in front of you and recognise when something simply feels right.
Thirteen years in bespoke tailoring
It eventually led me into bespoke tailoring, where I have now spent the past 13 years as a manager and tailoring consultant.
Although I work extensively with menswear, womenswear has become a particular specialism of mine. I love achieving a beautiful fit, but I am equally interested in the woman wearing the clothes.
Tailoring should fit the person
For me, tailoring should never be about making somebody conform to a garment. It should be the other way around.
We all have different proportions, lifestyles and ideas about how we want to present ourselves. The pleasure of bespoke is being able to consider all of that and create something that feels completely natural on the person wearing it.
That is very much what I bring to my work at Fielding & Nicholson. I want to understand not only what a client wants made, but where they will wear it and, most importantly, how they want to feel in it.
Looking at the whole wardrobe
More recently, I have also been helping women look at their wardrobes as a whole. What do they genuinely wear? What is missing? What no longer feels like them? It is not necessarily about having fewer clothes. It is about having the right clothes.
In the showroom, the office or at home
My appointments can take place in the showroom, at a client's office or in the comfort of their home. Wherever we meet, I want the experience to feel relaxed, honest and entirely personal.
The motivation has not changed
Looking back, there is quite a distance between that 14-year-old shampooing hair for £2 an hour and what I do today.
But perhaps the motivation hasn't changed all that much.
I still love seeing someone leave feeling a little more confident than when they arrived. And, for me, that will always be one of the greatest luxuries of what we do.
