Hi Gabby & Emma, thank you for virtually sitting down with me to share a bit more about your brand GEM London. Tell us a little bit about you and how your brand came to be.

Thank you so much for virtually having us!

We have both been in the fashion industry for years, Gabby studied at Central St Martins before launching her brand Studd, which achieved tremendous success, highlights included her brand being worn by Madonna, Britney Spears and The Spice Girls, featured on the front cover of Vogue and been stocked worldwide.

Emma studied at The London College of Fashion and worked as stylist, fashion journalist and frequent speaker on fashion panels.

With marriage and seven children between us our careers were put on hold until a chance meeting via mutual friends changed all of that. We hit it off instantly, love and appreciated each others style and after months of friendship and discussing how we both still had a burning desire to get back to work and create something special and timeless, GEM was born.

Who is the GEM London woman, who buys your clothes?

Anyone who wants to stand out from the crowd! Our aim is to design clothes that are flattering, unique and timeless. It’s all about the fit and print and creating something that will still be special in your wardrobe for years to come - a treasured GEM!

I love that you’re placing an emphasis on sustainability and that your designs are made to order. Take us through the stages from design to production to selling your gorgeous pieces.

We continuously send each other inspirational pictures, whether it’s a vintage design, fabrics or a colour palette that we just love! Gabby has also been designed clothing for herself for many years and her closet is like walking into a fashion lovers Aladdin’s cave! This season’s Manu dress was designed by Gabby a few years ago and has most definitely stood the test of time.

Sourcing fabric is where we both get very carried away, we both love colour and prints that will make a garment ‘pop’, however, we can both be found guilty of having a bit too much of a splurge at times! We do however try and source leftover ‘dead stock’ wherever possible.

Once we have our fabric we will produce samples and tweak them until they are perfect. As you mentioned our production is all pre-order so we are not left with any dead stock. We are fortunate enough to have a London based factory and are able to ship orders 7-10 days after an order has been placed.

Who makes your GEM London clothes?

We have an amazing London based factory who does our production which is so convenient as we can just pop down to check how everything is going on a regular basis.

Tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind the amazing bold prints in this S/S collection? I particularly love the Sophie dress, where do you draw your ideas from?

We love and are drawn towards bright and bold fabrics. When we research our prints we often discover there is heritage behind them. The Sophie dress you are referring to is an African print and we also produced a beautiful pink floral print last summer that we subsequently discovered was a Polish folk print. The beauty of the internet allows us to research into the history of native prints and designs where we are able to gain inspiration.

How do you find the balance between your busy work lives and what I can only imagine is a super busy home life? You’ve got 7 children between you, that must be fun and challenging in equal measures!

We have a rule that the children always come first so if for any reason one of us can’t do something or be somewhere the other one takes over. It was most challenging during lockdown but it’s also important to both of us to show our children that sometimes you have to work hard and juggle home life in order to pursue your dreams and ambitions.

What’s you’re favourite item from this collection and why?

We both naturally gravitate towards different pieces in the collection, which is fortunate when taking pictures together! Gabby loves and looks amazing in the long Kiki dress and anything in the green and pink floral fabric, whilst Emma loves everything in the tie dye and also loves the Manu dress as it’s so comfortable, easy and flattering on all body shapes.

What does the future hold for you both, what are you looking forward to the most both professionally and personally?

We launched GEM last June in the middle of the pandemic and are so grateful and humble for all that we have achieved during this difficult time.

Professionally we want to continue to grow in the same way we have been, we have the most amazing customers who love our collections and as the world opens again we can’t wait to welcome and meet new customers. We also want to continue helping our consumers make a conscious choice when shopping, whether we sell a dress to someone who will treasure it for years to come or make a beautiful skirt out of fabric that would otherwise be wasted we can all help do our bit to be sustainable.

On a personal level we would love our children to see what can be achieved when you do something you love, work hard and perseverance.