About me

I've been making clothes since I was 7. Well apparently that was the first time I broke my mum's sewing machine. But I didn't pursue my love of design & creation professionally until many years later.

Following varied performing careers as an Actor/Musical Theatre Artist and later in the circus world as an Aerialist, I began working with Latex whilst living in San Francisco in 2001. All through my teens and 20’s I was busy sewing up random garments for myself and friends and with my circus work I always put together or designed and made costumes for myself, and was also commissioned by individuals and companies too. I was frequently asked why I wasn’t pursuing a career in Fashion or Costume, but as I had no formal training in that field I thought it would be impossible, and I was too busy pursuing my dreams as a performer. But as everyone knows a performer's life can be a little shaky, so after over 10 years of performing the opportunity to have a regular, full-time, creative job, where I got paid to learn new skills and make clothes was fantastic, and I leapt at the chance to learn....

After working at Mr S in San Francisco for several months I returned to London and was quickly offered a position at Regulation in Islington. I stayed there for over 5 years, initially as Production Assistant then for the last 3 years as Production Manager until May 2007, when a very challenging but exciting opportunity came my way.

I was offered the position of Designer and Production Manager of a brand new company : Devote Clothing. In the first few months my learning curve took a steep rise as I quickly realised anyone can be a Designer. Design is relatively easy, the difficult part is bringing that design to life. Although I’d worked with existing patterns for many years, done countless made to measure garments and also new designs, to create a whole collection of over 100 designs, in several sizes from scratch, was the biggest challenge of all. But always one to rise to a challenge, I did it. Dvote quickly established itself as a leading brand in the Fetish world, well known for it's style, fit and quality. My designs and manufacturing skills received much praise from customers and my creation of the  inflatable 'Alien Egg' was nominated for Best Fetish Design at the European Fetish Awards in 2008.

Although my time with dvote was invaluable experience, in the Spring of 2011 I decided to do what friends had been telling me to do for years and go it alone.

It's been great to work on a project that is entirely mine. It's hard work & time consuming, but exciting and very rewarding. With Tainted Love I hope to bring you new and innovative designs along with some classic garments that you can wear from the dinner party to the dancefloor to the Dungeon. All handmade in London using the best materials, great attention to detail and lots of (Tainted) love.