Wonderful Britain

Gillian is an amazing woman, one of those unique people who really can live up to the statement, ’she’s a woman, of course she can multi-task’

For over two decades Gill has been running her dress design and tailoring business catering for the quirky, the beautiful, the demanding and the appreciative. You see, it’s not a dress design business at all. It’s all about how you make someone feel fantastic, confident, glamorous and stand out in a crowd. Sounds more like therapy

Do you measure-up to being self employed?

But that isn’t what makes Gill special. In between keeping the clients swathed in beauty, she has brought up two fantastic young women, and constantly battled with  the side effects and setbacks of progressive kidney failure. Does she complain – Nope. She loves what she does, and so do her clients.

From wedding parties to dance troupes, from transgenders to inebriated celebrities, Prom outfits to uniforms – even the epaulettes on a Traffic Warden!  Gill loves her customers.

Gill’s business isn’t large by any standards, but her heart is. She could have given up at anytime. I suspect most of us would have,  if we had walked in the same steps for a while.

I thought maybe Gill had a strange addiction to needles. I mean, why else would you spend your day having people put needles in you, then go home and get out more needles!  But no, Gill has always had a passion for art and design. After she left tertiary education Gill went on to study Art and Design at college in Gloucester and hasn’t looked back since. It’s in her blood, as they say (although in Gill’s case someone elses).

In fact, Gill would tell you running her own business gives her freedom. Freedom to express her individuality, the flexibility to deal with her illness (something that most employers would find impossible to accommodate), and the freedom to be there for her children as they grew up.

Has it been tough, sure has. Deadlines to meet, sometimes physical constraints, but nothing dampens Gill’s resolve. A resolve I suspect shared by many self-employed people.

So next time you see a friend at their wedding, or a mate at their prom, a mum at the christening of their child, or a Riverdance inspired spectacular at your local theatre… take a sneaky peak at the label, it might say a lot more than just a name.