With over 12 years' fashion industry experience, my textile designs encompass many different fabric manipulation techniques, chiefly elements/combinations of pleating, gathering, folding and piecing. I create and sell one-off textile swatches that serve as inspiration to other industry professionals.

Originally from Nottingham, the hometown of Nottingham Lace and fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, I am proud of my home town's significance within the history of fashion and textiles. This spurs me on to make my contribution within this field, and so, Emma Wilkes Designs was born, a textile design studio with a special focus on fabric manipulation techniques, construction details and innovative design concepts.

After graduating with a Fashion Design BA (Hons) from Nottingham Trent University, I developed my love of fabric manipulation while working as a textile designer for Acorn Conceptual Textiles (Nottingham, UK), where I really got the chance to experiment and unleash my creativity, selling to a variety of brands such as Donna Karan, Louis Vuitton, Badgley Mischka, Karen Millen and French Connection, to name but a few.

An early career highlight was when I was able to study corsetry and lingerie design in greater depth and I united my techniques with traditional corsetry construction methods with striking results.

I then went on to design in-house for fashion designer and retailer Leon Max (Northamptonshire, UK), where I  developed my skills further as a womenswear designer, creating luxury garments utilising my signature fabric manipulation techniques. Here, I realised the potential of what my designs could achieve and how to apply my techniques thoughtfully in combination with conventional garment construction methods in order to create successful garments that could be worn day to day.

I am inspired by the seemingly limitless potential of what textile design can achieve and I am motivated by the desire to develop and harness new techniques that are innovative, contemporary and viable.

With an inquisitive mind, I like to ask myself questions as I design. 'What if I do this?', 'What happens if I do that?', 'How might this work on the body?'. Even though fashion and textile design has such a rich and inspiring history, I feel that there is always something new that can be explored, which has led to the creation of Emma Wilkes Designs.

Outside of the design studio, you can find me walking out in the great outdoors, sipping coffee and photographing details seen in nature, architecture and anything else that takes my fancy; sometimes it's all about the simple pleasures in life!