Esme Young has become a national treasure, revered for her decade-spanning career as both an esteemed fashion designer and a straight-talking judge on The Great British Sewing Bee. Speaking with The Telegraph in 2022, the 76-year-old, who is notoriously private, opened up about her life in north London, after moving into a one-bedroom flat in 1983, where she continues to reside to this day. While Esme has "earned more money as a judge on The Great British Sewing Bee than from any other job," the TV star is happily settled in Islington and continues to rent her property.
Reflecting on her London life, Esme told the publication: "I've never been able to afford my own home. I've lived in social housing since 1983 – in a one-bedroom flat in Islington, north London, rented from the charitable housing trust Peabody. It is rent-controlled, and I have tenure for the rest of my life. I also own a beach hut on the north Kent coast, which I bought for £500 many years ago.”
According to Esme, she's never been particularly focused on money, owing to her father's example, who encouraged her to follow her dreams above all else. After launching the clothing brand Swanky Modes in Camden, the fashion star and her fellow designers "never made loads of money". Speaking to This Money, she recalled: "I could not afford to pay rent so I lived in a squat with my brother and friends in a beautiful old terraced house in Elgin Avenue, West London.
"It was a big thing in the early 1970s – people would find houses that were not occupied, break in and change the locks. We had to pay for our electricity via a meter but otherwise we lived rent-free. I thought it was great. It was a way for young musicians and designers to get started. In that street, there was so much creativity."
"Even at the height of our success in the early 1980s, when we were designing costumes for commercials and pop videos," she clarified. "A Greek businessman offered to invest in us, but he pushed for 51pc of our business. We were advised not to accept, as he would probably have taken us over." Esme added that even when she’s made costumes for star-studded Hollywood productions, she's never actually made huge amounts of money.
When she launched her fashion line with fellow designers Judy Dewsbury, Melanie Herberfield and Willie Walters, she wasn't able to afford to live in London. She said: "I couldn't afford to pay rent, so I lived in a squat in a beautiful old house in west London. We had to feed the gas meter, but otherwise we lived rent free."
Esme Young's hidden disability
In a SheerLuxe interview last year, Esme revealed that she was "partially deaf" and because of her condition, she only learned to read when she was seven years old. "My teachers thought I was thick and my father used to describe me as 'dreamy' – but, really, I was in my own little world because I couldn't hear anyone. I also didn't learn to read until I was seven because I didn't know how to make the right sounds. It's still a bit of a problem today because I have to look at everything visually." Well her visual talents have certainly carved out an impressive career!