House of SheldonHall is unique and boutique brand formed in the north of the UK. The name comes from Steven Sheldon and Emma Hall, the head designers of the brand. Steven and Emma met at College in Sheffield whilst they were studying Art & Design. Emma is fabulous embroiderer and gifted seamstress; whilst Steven is a talented illustrator and brilliant pattern cutter. Both friends then went on to the University of Huddersfield where they studied Costume and Textiles.
Original’s by Steven Sheldon
At the age of 29 at London Fashion week the pair released their first ever collection in Autumn 2014. Furthermore, since the debut of House of SheldonHall the duo has been receiving Worldwide devotion of stylists, fashionistas and editors with their captivating and remarkable attitude to design. In 2014 Hand & Lock London, an embroidery atelier to the Royal Family and other remarkable designers such as Louis Vuitton awarded him with winning a prestigious design competition.
Since then the House of SheldonHall has received some amazing recognition of their impressive apparels by the likes of Tatler, Vogue and Hello. As well as being published together with prized labels such as Moschino, House of Malakai, Vivienne Westwood and Christian Lacroix.
I recently got the opportunity to ask Emma and Steven a number of questions about
their design process, and what’s coming for House of SheldonHall.
Sachin: Who is your favourite designer?
Steven: I don’t think I have one, there’s so many
Emma: We love a bit of Dior though
Sachin: Do you have a muse that you have in mind when you design?
Steven: I think my muse is whoever I end up drawing, she just appears. I always start with a head, ears first, I like funny ears. Mouth next, big lips, and eyes last. Very very tall. Never the same. Then she kind of guides me to what I should draw. If we’re ever looking for models, we try and get ones that look the closest to my sketches.
Emma: Inspiration is all around, it’s not just one particular person that makes my juices flow. It can be an era, a colour, art, animals? We both love the 1950’s. So we get a lot direction through researching past techniques and styles. We listen to a lot music; we never work in silence.
Sachin: Do you have a favourite piece? And why?
Steven: I don’t really. I think we both have our preferences, but in general they’re all our children.
Emma: I like the big opera Coat we did last season, and the green sequin, RIP, it got lost, or stolen. We’ve never got to the bottom of it. I think mostly because they’re 90% hand sewn.
Sachin: Who would you love to see wearing your pieces?
Steven: Personally, I would die to see Erin O’Conner in something. I love her look, her face, her features really speak to me.
Emma: We’ve already had a few chances for big names to wear our stuff, and got our hearts broken. So now I think that it’s best we don’t have a particular person in mind. Maybe just go with who is hot at the time. But we do hope we can get Daphne Guinness to wear something one day.
Steven: We would love the chance to work with Tim Walker, he always has the most interesting models.
Sachin: Tell us about your next collection? What’s coming up at the House of SheldonHall ?
Steven: Well, we obviously can’t say too much. As you know a designer’s new work is their best kept secret! It’s scheduled to be completed in mid-January. It’s our biggest collection to date. Massive!
Emma: Steven keeps adding more pieces!
Steven: Very Rich and full of colour. We’ve really concentrated on Textiles this season, our own applications of embroidery and print which makes the pieces so much more unique.
Emma: It will be the best we’ve done so far, it will defiantly make and impact, I know I’m going to need another house when it’s done.
Steven: There’s also a bit of a cute metaphor behind it all. Bit of a self-told story.
Emma: the next collection will blow your F***ing socks off!
