At 101, Jessie is still a cut above the rest

BRITAIN’S oldest fashion designer has vowed to keep putting on the style after turning 101.

Jessie Power of Reskadinnick, Cornwall says she knew she wanted to become a dressmaker when she left school aged 15. And the great-great-grandmother, who celebrated her birthday last week, is still creating her own designs under her Miss Neno brand – her mother’s maiden name – 86 years later.

Having bought a new sewing machine, Jessie has no plans to stop designing. For decades her outfits were available in local shops, but she now concentrates on making clothes for her family.

Jessie helped out with costumes for the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1990s when they came down to Cornwall. She even got to dress Sir Ian McKellen. “He took all his clothes off and I had to dress him,” Jessie said. “I said to him, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve seen it all before, Ian’.”

She finally retired from professional dressmaking aged 86. But just weeks later, she saw an advert for her local college saying: “Age is no barrier.”

She enrolled, then completed a fashion design degree – making her one of the oldest graduates in the country.

She said: “I finished my fashion design degree aged 87. Even one of the people in the university who taught me had no idea how to sew. I had to show them.”

Jessie was also a competitive swimmer. She said: “I won the championship of Cornwall twice in the open sea.”

Aged 93, she took part in the Cornwall County Amateur Swimming Association Masters Championships.