Knutsford woman who's toured the world as a fashion designer

Little did the family know, but those formative moments were the first few stitches of a thread that has run throughout Esmée Ertekin’s life.

She went on to study alongside Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney, worked in Paris, Milan and has even trained a Saudi Arabian princess in fashion.

So far, so glamorous, but it has only been possible thanks to talent and a lot of hard work.

“It is a continually changing industry that is affected by many factors so you have to be totally in tune with the political, social and economic trend of the times to keep on top,” says Esmée.

It all started at home in Knutsford for Esmée. She would watch her mother and grandmother make dresses while listening to the buzz of their sewing machines.

Her dolls provided the perfect models as she used the leftovers of the end of rolls her family had purchased from Altrincham Market.

After completing A-Levels at Sir John Deane’s and an Art Foundation at Mid Cheshire College, Esmée joined McQueen and McCartney at Central St Martin’s School of Art and Design in London to study a BA.

Although she was never friends with McQueen they were acquaintances and she describes him as having been ‘a bit cheeky’.

On the first day of university everyone knew that Sir Paul McCartney’s daughter was in class, but no one knew how to approach her.

As she was dining out at L’Escargot in Soho the rest of the students were grabbing a sandwich in the canteen.

“Stella was always dressed in best and we were all still in our dungarees having come straight from Art Foundation,” says Esmée.

University was a competitive business and she graduated a tougher person, ready for what the fashion world had to throw at her.

Her new-found inner steel was immediately put to the test as she was offered an unpaid placement with Kenzo.

Esmée headed to Paris with only a credit card and her talent to rely on, but it was a gamble that paid off as she was soon offered a role as an assistant knitwear designer before becoming a designer on the Kenzo Jeans collection.

“It was an amazing experience especially working for the LVMH group in Paris. Having access to their archives and atelier was a dream,” she says.

She went on to work in Italy for Moschino Jeans and then launched her own brand of shoes that sold into boutiques in the UK, including Harvey Nichols in London.

As she continued to make a name for herself Esmée would discover just how far that name had travelled four years ago when she received an email from a Saudi Arabian princess who wanted help setting up a fashion brand.

This was not a class to be taken in the UK, instead Esmée was flown to the princess’ palace in Riyadh where she lived a little like royalty for six months.

“It was an unforgettable experience,” says Esmée. “She wanted me to teach her how to draw.

“The princess had never put pencil to paper before and obviously I didn’t want her to feel like she was not achieving anything so we took it in baby steps.”

It was a job with perks. Esmée slept on the biggest bed she had ever seen, walked on marble floors and silk carpets and even benefitted from the attentive service of palace staff.

After six months it was back to reality in the UK, but she had another royal experience last year when she was asked to take part in events to mark the launch of the Princess Diana exhibition.

Together with her assistant Jamie she spent three evenings at Kensington Palace producing four-minute drawings of all the guests who then got to take the illustrations home.

Today a huge part of Esmée’s work is helping others crack the industry she has been a part of for more than 20 years.

She is a lecturer at Rochester University in Kent and also helps people one-to-one, helping equip them with the skills to start their own fashion label.

Despite her huge and varied success Esmée warns all newcomers that fashion is a ‘school of hard knocks’.

“You have to be 1,000% committed, flexible and hard working,” she says.