BAFTAs red carpet designer Laura Pitharas says dressing Dame Emma Thompson was a ‘pinch me’ moment

“Dressing Dame Emma Thompson for the BAFTAs was another crazy moment, so it’s been all go, go, go,” says Laura. “Emma had been looking for a white tux, so I worked with her stylist, Olly Paton. It was all quite quick, but it’s been an amazing experience to work with such an incredible actress.

“She chose the double-breasted white tuxedo jacket and the wide-leg trousers, which are actually in our bridal section. This suit is the first suit that I ever designed for Laura Pitharas, because it is based on the suit that I wore to my city wedding.

“I thought she looked beautiful. It looked really, really elegant and you could tell that she felt really happy and comfortable in it from the photos. It was an amazing moment for the brand.

“I think it’s a new beginning for tailoring being featured on the red carpet. I think it’s a really cool option. I always feel my best in a tailored suit. That’s why we offer tailoring as a wedding option, because it’s a different elevated look, rather than just going for a traditional dress.”

Laura launched her eponymous fashion label in October 2020, and often describes what she does as "menswear for womenswear", with the aim of making women feel their best through understated elegance, bringing femininity to silhouettes traditionally thought of as the building blocks of men’s tailoring.

She studied menswear tailoring at the London College of Fashion, interned under Giles Deacon and Lou Dalton, and moved to Paris to be a design assistant for menswear brand Tillmann Lauterbach, then was recruited by French designer Delphine Ninous to work at Belstaff.

When the time came for starting her own brand, Laura wanted to create luxuriously crafted designs that celebrate the beauty of women (and Beauty of Women is indeed the name of her latest collection), with fabrics produced ethically and sustainably.

The clothes are made in London using wool woven in Yorkshire, at globally revered cloth manufacturers Alfred Brown in Bramley and at Dugdale in Huddersfield. Keen to honour her Yorkshire roots and provide her customers with transparency regarding where and how her clothes are made, she takes care to foster her relationships with her suppliers and manufacturers, focusing on quality and long-lasting wearability. In 2021 Laura Pitharas the label was selected by Elle magazine as “one to watch” in a list of worldwide fashion labels producing environmentally-conscious products.

Laura is also immensely proud to have been selected by the British Fashion Council for its DiscoveryLAB project, an arena for new generation designers, who have to submit a short fashion film as part of the application process. Laura’s film, called Serene, was showcased at London Fashion Week in February this year.

“I worked with a cinematographer on this throughout London,” she says. “The LP woman in different scenarios, showing how our clothes work from day to night. The whole ethos of the brand is that you can wear it both professionally and socially. That was what I wanted the video to explain in an artistic way. The British Fashion Council said that they loved it, which was a real ‘pinch me’ moment.”

Laura’s signature style, with oversized silhouettes, statement detailing and clean lines, is proving to be a must for those in search of understated quality and versatility. As well as the suiting, there is a range of beautiful shirts in linen and cotton poplin, skirts featuring exquisite pleating detail, organic bamboo silk dresses and, of course, the bridal collection of ivory silk shirts and wool tailoring, like Dame Emma’s suit, which was made in a Holland & Sherry 100 per cent wool, with a silk lapel.

The versatility of Laura Pitharas designs means that an easy and quick styling switch is all that is needed to create a different feel to an outfit. Laura says: “Say you are wearing it in the office - the pin-striped suit, for instance, which is our best-selling piece. If you are meeting people for dinner or drinks afterwards, pair it with a sneaker, so it dresses down the whole look, from a work shoe brogue. I feel a shoe just changes the whole look.

“A lot of our clients, even if they are not working, could be wearing one of our single-breasted jackets with a jogger bottom, just to dress up the whole outfit. Streetwear mixed with tailoring seems to be quite a big on-trend thing at the moment. I keep noticing it around London, just throwing on a tailored jacket to elevate a very casual look. Or jeans or an oversized dress. It can be styled however you want. That’s why I have made the styles so versatile in a minimalistic way. The new organic corduroy jacket that we do, they have been pairing that with a blue jean and sneaker, which looks really nice.”

This new jacket style features a dropped lapel for fresh statement detail.

Laura, who has just returned to her home in London from a very delayed honeymoon in Thailand, says she thinks the key to her brand’s success is the clear connection of her designs to their manufacture. “I work with a very close community of very specifically trained craftsmanship, and I think that comes across in the clothing,” she says.

“We have managed to perfect our fit as well. Our customer base is completely ageless. We use super-lovely fabrics that fall naturally and nicely on the body.”

*Laura Pitharas is at laurapitharas.com.