Born in 1969, she grew up between Ibiza, Devon, and Sicily, spending the early 1990s organising warehouse raves in Naples, Italy, an unlikely beginning for one of British fashion’s most consequential figures. Returning to London in 1995, she fell into a job at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, renting out its industrial warehouses for art shows, parties, and catwalk shows. It was there, watching friends who were brilliant designers struggle simply to afford a venue, that everything clicked.

In 2000, she launched Fashion East, a non-profit initiative dedicated to scouting and nurturing emerging designers, giving them funding, mentoring, a runway show, and an audience at London Fashion Week. What began as a favour to friends became the most important talent incubator in British fashion. The alumni list reads like a who’s who of the industry: Kim Jones, Jonathan Anderson, Craig Green, Grace Wales Bonner, Simone Rocha, Gareth Pugh, Roksanda Ilincic, Charles Jeffrey, and Maximilian Davis, among many others. In 2005, she launched MAN, the menswear equivalent and is widely credited as the catalyst behind London Collections Men.

She received an MBE in 2012 for services to the fashion industry and serves as Editor-at-Large of Condé Nast’s LOVE magazine. In December 2025, Fashion East received a Special Recognition Award at the Fashion Awards, marking 25 years of shaping the future of British fashion.