Stephanie Staub’s first ever fashion design was a little disastrous. When she was very young she watched her mother design and sew little dresses for her and when she was 10 she decided to make a shirt. She measured her chest, waist and arms, cut out the fabric and sewed it up but without allowing for any seams. “It was small enough for a doll!” said Stephanie, who comes from Paris. However, within a very short time she was designing her own party dresses and when she married her IT consultant husband Dominic 18 months ago, she designed and made dresses for her flower girls. “ I loved doing those dresses and wanted to do more for other people.” Dominic encouraged er and now Stephanie runs a highly successful and unique dress designing business called Little Eglantine, She launched her Maidenhead-based business last December and has taken orders for this year and 2008 from London and Paris.   Brought up in the heart of French aristocracy, Stephanie spent her entire childhood surrounded by elegance and good taste, From a very young age, she was inspired and impassioned by art and devoted her time to scouring exhibitions and studying paintings, But it was her dress-designing skills which won the day, culminating in her developing her skills as an adult creating her own label in France and exporting her designs to London. After she completed a business studies diploma she again came back to her first love of sewing, but this time as a business venture and created Little Eglantine.   What makes Little Eglantine so unique is Stephanie’s exceptional and innovative design and the choice of her embroidered or plain taffetas, silk organzas and many more beautiful fabrics. “Fabric is very important to me – it makes all the difference” she said, her favourite, perhaps, are the exquisite plain and embroidered taffetas she sourced in Asia. “You won’t find these fabrics anywhere in the UK. I love playing with the fabrics and colours to make them harmonise.” Said Stephanie who is smitten with perfection, “I want children to be beautiful for special occasions. That’s why my creations source their essence in French refinement and good taste, while retaining children’s mischievousness and innocence,” she said.   Little Eglantine was born focusing exclusively on dresses and outfits for children for all special occasions but with particular a focus on wedding designs. Stephanie now also offers beautifully tailored dresses for adult bridesmaids created in harmony with the children in the entourage.   Bridesmaids dresses and page boys outfits can be ordered via the internet at www.littleeglantine.com  - or you can email Stephanie at contact@litteleglantine.com or call her for an appointment on 07856124208. Stephanie is happy to travel to London, for example, if potential customers find it difficult to come to Maidenhead. She has also designed a special measurements booklet for people who live far away from Maidenhead so they can manage their own dress fittings – and she always makes allowances for children’s inevitable growth spurts!

Weddings etc
Maidenhead Advertiser - september 2007