Phil Towers

Siobhan Thomas wanted clothing that fitted her well and matched her personality, but ended up creating so much more. She spoke to Phil Towers about her journey to launch ‘What’s Your Skirt?’ and how she has taken the fashion world by storm.

“I was so – I’ll say it – so fed up in trying to find clothes that matched my body shape on the high street. I couldn’t find clothes to match my personality. And if there was, they were frumpy! It’s upsetting.” 

With her plain speaking and infectious laugh, it’s easy to see why Siobhan has managed to create such a successful business where her personality is front and centre. She bounds into the room, coffee cup in hand – on a tight schedule but with time for everyone.  

First things first, I ask her to give me an idea of what her company, ‘What’s Your Skirt?’, is, and what has made it so successful. 

“Essentially what we do is create skirts for loads of lovely people,” she explains. “We specialise in making skirts to match people’s personality. 

“We’ve been running since 2018. We’ve done really well actually in the time, won quite a few awards, done many shows up and down the UK.” 

The pride that Siobhan has in her business is clear. To her it is more than designing skirts, it is about giving other women the confidence and support that she feels they deserve. 

“I really want women to feel and look confident, and just really be who they’re meant to be,” she continues. “There’s so many women that feel really low about themselves – low self-esteem, very critical of themselves, and I think for me I wanted to be inspired by someone who is more than happy to just be themselves, it doesn’t matter about their size, it doesn’t matter about their race, about what they do or don’t do, it’s just about them.” 

Now based at her studio in Yorkshire, Siobhan was originally inspired by the idea that a skirt could be the key part of a whole outfit. 

“I just saw a gap in the market and I thought we really could do something new,” she says. “People would come up to me and say ‘Oh – I really love that dress that you’re wearing,’ and nine times out of ten it was always a skirt and a top.  

“People never really realised it was, so ultimately I used to go ‘Oh I’m wearing a skirt and a top, it’s one of my skirts’ and they’d be like ‘Oh wow really woo! That’s really really nice,’ so I thought it would be cool to bring that into the brand so you can make it look like it’s one outfit, but really it’s pieced.” 

Her trademark skirts are bold, hand-crafted, and there is the option of having something designed to your own individual style. 

“We have a ready-to-wear section where we release collections twice a year,” she explains, “and then we also have the haute couture element which is bespoke, making a garment for the actual person – for an occasion like a wedding or anything like that.” 

So if she was to design a skirt that summed up her own personality, what would it look like? 

“Oh that’s a good question,” she laughs. “Even though I’m in black, which is my day job sort of wear, I love bright colours personally, I like happy colours, particularly yellows, blues, reds – woo kind of colours!  

“So I’d probably say something that was quite bold. I like print, I like anything that really makes me feel happy and matches my personality I’d say.” 

Our brief time is almost up, but I just have time to quiz Siobhan on what the future holds for her and her business. 

“I’d love to be a boutique concession in different countries around the world, it would be amazing,” she says. “I would almost love to duplicate myself and find the staff who would approach the whole design process like I would. Almost train designers to do the same thing that I do, but having that same kind of intimate and personal service.  

“How I would do that, I really don’t know! But I’d love to do that, it would be really really cool.” 

Siobhan Thomas is the founder of ‘What’s Your Skirt?’, which can be found online at www.whatsyourskirt.com