Over the past 16 years, Emilia Wickstead, born in New Zealand, has built the quintessentially British brand. Catherine, Princess of Wales, ranks among the label’s famed devotees and reportedly owns the same dress in four colors Lily James, Emily Blunt, Emilia Clarke, and many other English roses blossom in Wickstead’s designs.
Sunday night, just a few hours after her spring 2025 collection debuted, Wickstead hosted an intimate dinner at the Royal Geological Society with Vogue100. The stately room was transformed from the show venue earlier in the day for the after-hours affair. A five-piece band, outfitted in double-breasted white coats, played on the mezzanine overlooking the historic hall. The dark wood paneling contrasted the mountains of lilies and orchids that adorned the space. British Vogue’s Julia Sarr-Jamois, resplendent in a green gown from Wickstead’s last runway, served as the fabulous co-host for the decadent dinner party.
Wickstead cited photographer Gisèle Freund as the inspiration for the collection. Freund, who died in 2000 at the age of 91, photographed, socialized, and befriended many of the 20th century’s cultural titans, including James Joyce, Collette, and Virginia Woolf. Freund was an earlier adopter of color and her palette —smoke gray, turquoise, rose—can be detected in Wickstead’s clothes.
