By Laura Enfield | 4th July 2022
Shirtmaker to the stars Emma Willis has welcomed a young seamstress from Gloucester to its team.
The company makes its ready to wear and bespoke clothing at a studio in Bearland House in Gloucester. Its shirts sell for up to £520 and have graced the torsos of Barack Obama, Prince Charles, Tom Hanks, Benedict Cumberbatch and Colin Firth.
It has now expanded the team with four new faces including Brogan McGurk from Gloucester.
She left the city to train at the London College of Fashion as a bespoke tailor and has 10 years experience in the industry. Now she has returned home to work alongside Amma Wakeley in the bespoke and made-to-measure cutting room at Emma Willis.
The company has also welcomed seamstress Sui Mei who spent many years making costumes for the Hong Kong Theatre. She has now turned her skills to shirts, teaching herself how to make them using the traditional methods employed by Emma Willis.
By coincidence Jennifer Priestley used to make costumes for Hong Kong Ballet and brings her cutting and sewing skills to the team.
Meanwhile Dan Hallam joins the team of 28 women and four men, providing some male company for Andrew in the ready to wear cutting room.
Emma Willis started her business in 1989 and opened a shop in London in 1999.
The factory in Bearland House opened in 2014 and earlier this year it was announced the company had bought the property.
She has been praised for her philanthropy as well as her tailoring.
In 2008, she founded Style for Soldiers to provide bespoke clothing and walking sticks for Armed Forces members as part of their rehabilitation.
The charity is supported by numerous high-profile patrons including the Prince Of Wales who visited the Gloucester factory in 2020 to see the work they do there.
During the pandemic, the team also turned to making scrubs for the 7,000 doctors and nurses at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital after Emma lost a close friend to coronavirus.
See our interview with Emma Willis here.
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