After over eighteen months spent in our lockdown tracksuits, there’s only one woman who we’d guarantee could entice us back into her world of glamorous gowns. Jenny Packham is the Southampton-born designer has been responsible for some of the sparkliest, most scintillating gowns the red carpet has ever seen, along with wedding dresses that light up the aisle.
Able to cite The Duchess of Cambridge, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Gigi Hadid and Angelina Jolie as loyal clients, Jenny Packham’s business has come a long way since launch, 33 years ago. “Back then the world was very small!” Packham told GLAMOUR earlier this year over Zoom from her London studio.
The punk spirit of her teenage years was definitely an influence. “We’d watch people on Top of the Pops – they couldn’t sing! – but there was an idea that if you wanted to do something, you work hard and you fight the system to get through. In this business, you have to not be intimidated by people and to really kick the doors down. Looking back at my younger self I’m like, ‘Whoa, well done!’ But it came from an era that was very much about fighting back and not being put down, which was the punk message.”
For young creatives looking for cut-though today, Jenny believes it might be harder, “I think you could dream bigger then because you didn’t know how many people out there wanted the same thing as you. Although now, [Millennial and Gen-Z women] can express themselves with a push of a button. They can dress up in their bedrooms. They can put out what music they want, they can just say, ‘here’s my personality, look at it’. That’s an amazing thing.”
Putting yourself out there is something Jenny did this year, with the publication of her book, How to Make a Dress: Adventures In The Art Of Style. Despite it’s prosaic title, it’s not a self-help sewing guide, more like a memoir that unpicks the magic that has inspired Jenny throughout her career. Throughout How To Make A Dress, Jenny is refreshingly cynical about her place in the industry. “I feel really offended by The Devil Wears Prada and all those cliché types! I’m trying to bring a bit more depth to what we do, as creatives, and really work to develop something that someone wants to buy and feel transported by,” she told GLAMOUR.
And those glimpses into her personal design journey – where she imagines the characters and scenarios that vintage dresses have ‘lived’ through – make her words dance off the page.