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Esme Young on The Great British Sewing Bee© BBC

The Great British Sewing Bee's Esme Young delights fans with amazing new throwback snap you have to see

The fashion designer wowed her social media followers

Nicky Morris
TV and film writer
July 12, 2023
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The Great British Sewing Bee star Esme Young wowed fans with an amazing throwback photo to her younger years. 

Taking to Instagram, the fashion designer and TV judge shared a snap showing the fresh-faced star donning a chic black trench coat with a matching headband and dark shades. 

She captioned the post: "Here I go again."

Esme Young's throwback photo, close-up© @miss_esme_young
Esme shared a throwback snap on Instagram

Fans were quick to praise Esme's look in the comments section, with one person writing: "Style or what!" while another added: "Oh miss Esme, so cool."

The Great British Sewing Bee's official Instagram account also commented on the post, writing: "Effortlessly cool, as ever."

Esme has amassed a legion of fans from her appearances on the heartwarming BBC One sewing show, which she has been a judge on since 2016.

Sara, Esme and Patrick on The Great British Sewing Bee© BBC
Sara Pascoe, Esme Young and Patrick Grant on The Great British Sewing Bee

The 74-year-old is best known, however, for her illustrious career in the world of fashion. 

Esme began her career by founding the successful fashion brand, Swanky Modes, alongside friends Judy Dewsbury, Melanie Herberfield and Willie Walters. 

MORE: The Great British Sewing Bee star Patrick Grant shares incredible throwback snap to younger years – and he looks so different!

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The fashion fanatics set up a shop in Camden Town in the 1970s and it didn't take long for the label to gain popularity thanks to its high-profile clients, including Cher and Grace Jones.

Esme [right], with her Swanky Modes colleagues, Judy Dewsbury and Melanie Herberfield
Esme [right], with her Swanky Modes colleagues, Judy Dewsbury and Melanie Herberfield

Their designs soon began to pop up in magazines and newspapers such as Vogue, Nova, The Sunday Times, Honey and the V&A Little Black Dress Book. Their clothes were also snapped by renowned photographers, including Helmut Newton, David Bailey, Nick Knight, John Swannell and Neil Kirk.

Esme's design have also made it onto the big screen, with the fashion guru having worked on costumes for films such as The Beach, Bridget Jones' Diary, 2011's Wuthering Heights, Romeo & Juliet and Trainspotting.

MORE: The Great British Sewing Bee star Patrick Grant's home life away from the cameras

One of Esme's most famous designs is the 'Amorphous Dress', which was worn by actress Linda Kozlowski in the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee, and now sits in the V&A Collection.

Esme Young's TV career

Esme is a familiar face across the nation thanks to her judging role on The Great British Sewing Bee. She appears alongside fellow judge Patrick Grant on the show, as well as comedian Sara Pascoe, who hosts the programme. 

WATCH: The Great British Sewing Bee’s Patrick Grant and Esme Young share a joke

Speaking about what she loves about filming the series, Esme said in a recent interview: "I loved the new challenges of this series. We turned the sewing room into a gallery in Art Week and I loved it. The Pattern Challenge was inspired by the Modernist movement. And then, they transformed canvases into garments for the Transformation Challenge. It was so 3D because the texture of the canvas was so stiff. It's quite difficult to sew.

"The challenges get more and more difficult, I reckon. There's so many different things you can ask them to do – no one will have made all the things before, will they?" she told Prima

Away from the BBC programme, Esme has also featured as a celebrity guest on various reality shows, including House of Games, The Weakest Link, The Wheel, Celebrity Antiques Road Trip and Who Do You Think You Are?.

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