Fashion designer Amanda Wakeley is mugged by moped gang

Amanda Wakeley, pictured this summer

Amanda Wakeley was brought up in Chester, the daughter of a prominent surgeon, Sir John Wakeley.

She has never had any formal training, but from her earliest childhood she was raiding her dressing-up box and altering the contents.

At her boarding school, Cheltenham Ladies’ College, she made extra money by running up clothes for her friends, and her first job, at 16, was working in a designer menswear boutique in Chester.

She began her own design career with a made-to-order collection, which she ran up in her Chelsea studio: ‘There was no great financial backing, just a collection of samples,’ she later said.

Nevertheless, her elegant styles soon brought her to the attention of Princess Diana.

The princess’s patronage made Amanda’s name, and famously, when Diana resigned from public life in 1993, she did so wearing a bottle-green Wakeley suit.

Amanda’s future should have been assured; unfortunately, she had her own marital difficulties to contend with.

By 1998, her marriage to Australian property developer Neil Gillon had ended – but his involvement in her business had not.

Two years later he sold his majority stake to Richard Caring, with Amanda staying on as creative director.

After five years, in 2005, Caring in turn sold the brand on to Saudi billionaire Walid Juffali.

And in 2008, Juffali sold it to the former City trader Jason Granite. Less than a week later, Amanda resigned.

Princess Diana in Amanda Wakeley in 1993

the Duchess of Cambridge in 2011

Princess Diana in Amanda Wakeley in 1993 and the Duchess of Cambridge in 2011

Fortunately, by this stage, Amanda had already fallen in love with Hugh Morrison, a strategic business advisor.

Amanda credits Hugh with the fact that just a month after she lost her eponymous business, a deal had been engineered for her to regain control.

By April 2009, Amanda was back in the driving seat as owner and creative director.

She had not looked back since, with stars such as Scarlett Johansson, Kate Winslet and Angelina Jolie having shimmered down the red carpet in Amanda’s liquid silks.

The Duchess of Cambridge and Queen Rania of Jordan have also worn her label for formal engagements and innumerable brides have chosen to wear Wakeley up the aisle.

More recently, she has changed direction somewhat from purveyor of evening-wear to luxury lifestyle brand and has begun to attract an edgier sort of customer, including Nicole Scherzinger and J-Lo, who wore head-to-toe Wakeley the 2015’s Golden Globes.

 Previously published in You Magazine.

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