The Great British Sewing Bee

Season 4 BBC Lifestyle (*174) 16:00 Reality

Esme Young designed for singers Cher and Grace Jones, made the bunny suit for Renée Zellweger in romcom movie Bridget Jones Diary (2001) and was the costume maker on 2000 adventure film The Beach. Nowadays, the seamstress is one of the scrutinising judges on season 4 of reality show The Great British Sewing Bee (2013-current).

Esme knows a bad stitch when she 1

sees it – she’s been sewing for 60 years! “I made my first garment, a red gathered skirt, at school. It must have been hand-sewn because we didn’t have sewing machines when I was seven,” she jokes.

She started London fashion label 2

Swanky Modes in 1972 and Cher was one of her first customers – for a dress made from a plastic shower curtain. “Young designers will often look at things in a different way,” says Esme. “When I was first designing, that is how I felt. People would say, ‘That is wrong’. But ‘that’ was how I wanted it!”

The 67-year-old recalls that her 3

biggest fashion flop was an outfit for a stripper. “It had this white train. We were up all night sewing this thing and I got underneath the train and then got caught in the overlocker. There was a huge great big cut in it,” she laughs.

And while she loves making cloths, 4

Esme detests wedding dresses as they’re “too much pressure, too white and too many fittings!”

When she isn’t on the set of The 5

Great British Sewing Bee, Esme still gives sewing and design classes at Central Saint Martins, a short course university for the Arts. Her courses range from basic cutting patterns to making delicate lingerie.