EAST KENT

WHO? Hettie Allison, Commercial Director at Muddy Stilettos Kent

Hettie loves: I first met celebrity designer, Kate Halfpenny, through a mutual friend in our home town of Faversham. Not only is she a household name in the fashion world, known for dressing stars from Rihanna and Kate Moss to Emilia Fox, which has led her to being one of the world’s leading bridal designers but to me, she is one of the funniest and kind-hearted women I know with the most infectious laugh. It’s actually impossible not to laugh when you are around her.

WHO? Kate Halfpenny, Halfpenny London

Fashion Designer and founder of Halfpenny London, Kate creates luxury British bridalwear designed for the modern bride, with a a flagship boutique in Bloomsbury.

Kate loves: Fashion designer, Harrie Miller champions sustainable fashion, using wool fibre in her designs, with the yarn dyed with flower pigments from her own dye garden. Her passion is infectious. Her product is delicious. I’m excited to see the future of LAM.

WHO? Harriet Miller, LAM Food & Fibre

LAM Food & Fibre evolved when Harrie met, and fell in love with, her now husband, sheep farmer Will. They made the link between farming and fashion and between them they have created a regenerative food, fibre and fashion system on a small-scale, mixed farm in the AONB North Downs of Kent.

Harrie loves: Ros Humphries founder of The Natural Dyeworks, a natural dyer based in Faversham who creates small batch, slow crafted, hand dyed ribbons, accessories and homewares using the alchemy of 100 per cent plant based dyes, which are natural and non toxic.

WHO? Ros, The Natural Dyeworks

A natural dyer living in the Kent countryside. All the hand dyed ribbons and accessories are made with exclusively natural fibres including linen, silk, wool and bamboo, crafting an ever evolving palette of colours through the use of petals, leaves, bark, roots & seeds.

Ros loves: Kim Hill of The Nature Sessions because her movement classes and retreats have been pretty life changing for me. They get you out of your head and back into your body, helping ground you in an increasingly frantic world.

WHO? Kim Hill, The Nature Sessions

Providing memorable outdoor experiences Kim and her team are committed to helping you reconnect to yourself and to the world around you. These adventures in nature take the form of day retreats (think Forest Immersion or Sailing Day Retreats), wild weekends, corporate retreats and movement classes (using a mixture of movement, yoga and stillness).

Kim loves: Holistic Therapist and founder of Rosehip Rituals, Catherine Howkins. She offers the most incredible facials, her products are all natural and she just creates the most amazing sense of calm from within.

WHO? Catherine, Rosehip Rituals

Is a complementary therapist blending holistic facials, reflexology, aromatherapy and body massage. Offering a range of gorgeous treatments and online workshops which empower you to learn the daily practices to help you achieve and maintain transformative results.

Catherine loves: Nadine Sansom who crafts beautiful ceramic pieces AND shares her wealth of knowledge as a ceramicist with others in her workshops.

WHO? Nadine Sansom, Home Folk Ceramics

Nadine designs and makes small batch ceramics from her light and bright studio in West Hythe, Kent.  All her ceramics are wheel thrown, hand built and slip cast using freckled clays, pure porcelain and simple glazes.  Creating both beautiful and functional pottery that can be enjoyed everyday and for many years to come. 

Nadine loves: Katy Plimley of Bohemia Flower – she’s an absolute joy and so are her gorgeous soaps! Her knowledge and use of nature’s botanicals is only one of the reasons I adore her soaps, they smell so incredible and she’ll even deliver them straight through your letterbox too!

WHO? Katy Plimley, Bohemia & Flower

These small batch soaps are 100 per cent natural, plant based and inspired by nature (palm oil free & packaged with zero plastic using biodegradable materials). Suitable for the hands, body or face, the botanical soap bars are packaged to fit straight through the letterbox and can be delivered all over the UK. They are very popular as gifts (add a message to an order) or popular as part of a regular soap subscription.

Katy loves: Katy Newton of Wasted Kitchen and her team make fresh food in Faversham using surplus & wonky fruit & veg. They also run classes & do catering for events.

WHO? Katy Newton, Wasted Kitchen

Re-connecting people with real food and seasonal ingredients, Katy founder of Wasted Kitchen are helping people build kitchen confidence, understand gut health and get your food mojo going with great tasting freezer meals, ferments, salads and pickles through their range of food products, workshops, how-tos and events. Nothing processed here!

Katy loves: Virginia Hills – she is is on a mission to support women to feel their best and boost energy levels – whilst balancing stress and hormones.

WHO? Virginia Hills, Virginia Hills Nutrition

Registered Nutritional Therapist, Virginia Hills, and founder of Virginia Hills Nutrition supports women to feel their best, specialising in gut health to help you conquer unsolved bloating or gut pain and boost your energy levels, whilst balancing stress and hormones. Offering a free 30 minute initial chat for anyone plus there is also her one-hour Nutrition Power Hour to review your food habits and optimise your meals to up your nutrition game. She runs regular Gut Health workshops.

WEST KENT

WHO? Ali Agnew, Editor of Muddy Stilettos Kent

Ali loves: I’d like to give a shout out to Kali Hamerton-Stove who is not only the smartest, kindest and funniest person, she’s also created a thriving social enterprise that offers horticultural training (and often some retail experience) to improve the employability of young women offenders. They are sold from Kali’s gorgeous store The Glasshouse, in Cranbrook (or can be purchased online and sent direct to your door).

WHO? Kali Hamerton-Stove, The Glasshouse

 Like the idea of gifting something with purpose? Brighten up someone’s home (or yours) with a stunning plant from this gorgeous store which is packed with interior goodies and also involved in local social enterprise. Every single one of the plants from The Glasshouse in Cranbrook is nurtured, potted and beautifully packaged by women currently serving at HMP East Sutton Park in Kent as they work for a qualification and gain employment experience. It’s a brilliant scheme that has an incredible success rate for rehabilitation – plus you’ll just fall in love with everything in the shop! Don’t live nearby? Not a problem – plants can be bought online too.

Kali loves: Sarah Best of Findurfit is a Personal Trainer who is inspiring because she understands the demands of juggling, work, family life, and trying to keep on top of their health and fitness. Her insta feed is quite inspirational and she has built a community of women (and men) who support eachother and have realistic fitness goals. 

WHO? Sarah Best, Findurfit

Understanding the pressures of modern life, Sarah Best has created Fitness Bites an online, pre-recorded flexible programme that easily fits around your busy day. The workouts are all under 20 mins and designed to be done anywhere and anytime.  

Sarah loves: I’d like to celebrate Anna Stanford, founder of Anna’s Family Kitchen who shares food tips and recipes through her insta, website and more recently – her first cookbooks! The front cover of her first book reads ‘navigating through food, faff and family life’ and I think that says it all. We create her dishes all the time at home.

WHO? Anna Stanford, Anna’s Family Kitchen

Anna’s Family Kitchen was born of a love of food and creating wholesome meals that look great but don’t take ages to prepare. A self-taught cook and mother of three she wanted to share her tricks for cooking nutritious but minimal hassle meals and in the last few years has built a huge social following.

Anna loves: Kate Bull of Dress Dreams Bridal because has worked tirelessly to build her business as the go-to boutique for future brides. She has built a brilliant team around her who each share her passion for working with unique designers.

WHO? Kate Bull, Dress Dreams Bridal

Dress Dreams Bridal Boutique has is a beautifully designed bridal boutique on London Rd in Sevenoaks where you’ll feel totally spoilt and looked after from the moment you enter the store. It offers the modern bride that something a little different. You’ll find breathtaking contemporary dresses with the wow factor, created by the finest fashion-forward International Designers from all over the world whose designs are exquisitely beautiful and unique.

Kate loves: Fraser & Parsley – a collection of stunning daily and weekly planners, phonecases and personalised stationery all available to buy online. Founders, Rachel Fraser and Josie Parsley, best friends since the day they met are a wonderful female partnership, who have built a business on friendship and a shared passion for beautiful personalised and unique items.

WHO? Rachel Fraser & Josie Parsley, Fraser & Parsley

Founded by Rachel and Josie share a love of beauty and practicality – and have worked hard to create a range that they think is both beautiful and useful, and which they strive to improve upon with every season. Inspired by our mutual love of design, stationery, and planning, their first ranges focussed on personalised stationery, which they both love to use. Then they developed the range of annual planners, designing them to be beautiful but ultimately hard working, to help tame the chaos without being prescriptive.

Rachel loves: We’d like to nominate Emily Parton from Emily Adlard Design. She’s so creative and hardworking on top of everything else going on in her life! Her art is brilliant!

WHO? Emily Parton, Emily Adlard Design

After 20 years as a photographer capturing nature on film, in particular animals and their characters Emily decided to focus on her love of art and design and combined these skills to paint digitally. The result is colourful, characterful prints which add a splash of warmth and fun to our interior living spaces. See her full range here. 

Emily loves: I’d love to share the love with a nod to Sarah Hazebroek aka Huddle Collection. Sarah changed career in lockdown and has built an incredible textiles and home interiors business from scratch in just a few years.  Her eye for colour, print and detail is amazing; her work ethic and dedication, inspiring.  She is also a very good friend and I’m so happy that her business has become so successful.

WHO? Sarah Hazebroek, Huddle Collection

Sarah launched her home interiors business in 2021, born out of a love of joyful and colouful home accessories.  She personally sources all the wonderful handmade products and choses brands which allows her to work with fabulous, small-scale artisans across India and beyond. She also ensures that all products are produced with sustainability in mind and also their workers’ welfare.

Sarah loves: If you’ve not discovered her already, I can highly recommend Camilla Elms a nutritionist specialising in female hormone health who helps women struggling with the creeping symptoms of peri menopause to regain their energy and everyday joy for life. Camilla is so approachable and she really knows her stuff! Based in her Goudhurst home, she’s created a compassionate environment where women can be open about their frustrations with their health, their energy levels, their mood swings, their weight gain.

WHO? Camilla, Camilla Elms Nutritional Therapy

Camilla founded Camilla Elms Nutritional Therapy after her own struggle with a hormone imbalance. Since completing her 5-year Nutritional Therapy degree she’s been on a mission to help clients join the dots on the impact of stress on our brains and hormones. She offers a variety of services, including Personal Consultation, Online Menu Programme or a Kitchen Workshop. And through her guidance she can help you break down old behaviours and build healthy new habits that help you regain your health and energy.

Camilla loves: Chlöe Hannay at Willow & Bert who is one of those inspirational women, running her own business, looking after no less than children and all the other commitments that mid-life brings. She’s created a wonderful business with loads of great examples of her creative flair.

WHO? Chlöe Hannay, Willow & Bert

Willow and Bert has grown out of Chloe’s lifelong passion for interior design and decorating. Offering bespoke pieces for homes, from blinds, curtains and pelmets to cushions and bench seats – or even a full interior design service for the entire house – you can get inspired by her gorgeous projects here.