Couturier Rowena Gill recently opened a bridal boutique in Arundel. She tells Jenny Mark-Bell where she gets her inspiration
Paris: London: New York: Arundel. It’s not your typical fashion label’s trajectory, but it is the path trodden by couturier Rowena Gill, who is now happily ensconced in her new bridal boutique in the town’s popular Tarrant Street.
While it was primarily the pull of family that drew her back to Sussex, Rowena confesses that England’s storied past is a major source of inspiration. Indeed the reason she is in Arundel specifically is “the authenticity of this beautiful place and the history and fantasy of it. I just have to look at the castle and I start seeing the dresses that would have been worn there.”
Trained in Paris at the fabled Studio Studio Berçot (where alumni include Azzedine Alaïa, Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler), Rowena learnt to temper English romanticism with a dash of French sophistication and believes that the influence of both countries can be traced in her designs.
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