Our story
Andrea Cutts
Eliza Jane Howell
Eliza Jane Howell was established in 2012 when Gill Harvey and Andrea Cutts started to work together. They both felt that bridal dresses were not catering for the modern bride who is far more aware of fashion trends and has developed her own personal style long before she is ready to choose her wedding gown.
Eliza Jane Howell is now known around the world for fabulous design and construction. Every gown is hand beaded and individually made combining traditional and modern beading techniques and patterns to create something very special.
Each dress celebrates evocative silhouettes and shapes that give the gown a timeless style with a modern twist and details that take each design to a whole new level.
An Eliza Jane Howell dress is new and exciting and comes with a real sense of history. It’s our blend of ancient techniques and new ideas that make the perfect gown.
Drawing inspiration from the exquisite vintage gowns of the past, Eliza Jane Howell has launched a collection of bridal gowns every year for the last fourteen years. But in addition to our annual made-to-measure collections, in 2026 we launched an exciting new ‘Ready to Wear’ Collection of bridal dresses and eveningwear under our new label, ‘EJH’. These dresses are available to buy through this site.
Gill Harvey Collection is the sister company to Eliza Jane Howell and specialises in occasionwear for weddings and for other special events.
Gill Harvey
A fashion graduate of the Royal College in London, Gill Harvey first gained international success with her Medici knitwear collection. Successful evening wear, occasion wear and red-carpet collections followed and in 2012 Eliza Jane Howell was launched, followed by The Gill Harvey Collection in 2013. Gill Harvey named Eliza Jane Howell after her grandmother who was also a fashion designer.
Eliza Jane Howell gowns are all hand-beaded and sometimes come with extra embellishments of hand embroidery. Each dress is individually made by combining exquisite traditional and modern beading techniques and patterns. It’s this blend of old and new that makes an Eliza Jane Howell dress truly unique and an heirloom piece to be passed on to the next generation.
In 2016 Gill Harvey for Eliza Jane Howell was voted Best Bridal Designer by the first ever UK Wedding Awards and in addition wo Best British Bridal Designer in the British Wedding Awards. In 2017, Eliza Jane Howell was voted Best Bridal Designer for the second year in a row in the UK Wedding Awards. In 2022, Gill won Bridal Buyer’s British Design Talent Award just a few days after her untimely death in September.
Picking up where Gill Harvey left off at Eliza Jane Howell would be a daunting challenge for any designer, but luckily Gill wasn’t just a design genius. She was also a strategic planner, who possessed a unique and far-seeing vision for the future of EJH. Even when she was ill she never stopped making plans for how the company should progress in the future, and who would be the best candidate to help it do so.
Gill Harvey
Catherine Fisher
Catherine Fisher
Gill had no doubt that Catherine Fisher was the right person to pick up the EJH design baton. Gill and Catherine had known each other for more than 25 years. They first met after Catherine had completed a degree in fashion design at Nottingham University, having previously studied design at the London College of Fashion. When she showed her collection at London’s graduate fashion week, Catherine’s self-evident flair had also caught the eye of the Denza International Agency, who invited her to join them.
Catherine and Gill worked closely together to develop the Medici and After Six ranges, embracing stylish Italian knits and occasion wear, while Catherine also applied some of her designer fairy-dust to the classic British fashion house Bernshaw. In addition, Catherine developed her own design business, creating bespoke garments for private clients. Always keen to expand her horizons, Catherine has recently completed a master’s degree in illustration, focusing primarily on fashion illustration.
Having to come to terms with an Eliza Jane Howell without Gill Harvey was tough for everybody, but Catherine’s arrival was made easier by her understanding of how Gill thought about fashion, and how to add that distinctive edge to dresses for weddings, parties and every kind of special occasion.
Being an extrovert Liverpudlian with an infectious sense of humour, Catherine had already endeared herself to Andrea Cutts and the rest of the EJH team and was familiar with the working methods of the company’s ateliers. From her very first designs, she displayed her total grasp of the how, the where and the why.