Jan Constantine

Jan Constantine
Jan Constantine in London, 2008
Born	Bury, Greater Manchester, England
Occupation	Designer and managing director of jan constantine ltd.

Jan Constantine is a British designer, businesswoman and author. She is the head designer and managing director of Jan Constantine Ltd. She is widely recognised for her hand-embroidered cushions, accessories and patriotic interiors, and she has written two books.

Jan Constantine was born into a large Catholic family in Bury, Greater Manchester. Her mother was a tailoress and her grandmother was a milliner and dressmaker, and as a result, Constantine was exposed to sewing from an early age. She attended St Gabriel's RC High School, Bury, before going on to study fashion at Bolton College of Art. The fashion photographer and filmmaker Elaine Constantine is her sister.

Jan Constantine has worked in fashion and design since leaving college. In the early stages of her career, Constantine was a fashion designer; later, she established an interior design business, and worked as a stylist for magazines and advertisers in London before eventually founding the company that shares her name. She has stated in interviews that she believes craft in the digital age to be very important, and this belief has become a driving force in her work in textiles and design, and particularly in her championing of traditional embroidery.

After graduating, Constantine worked as a junior designer and then as design director for three fashion labels within the prestigious company Shubette of London. In her work for Shubette, Constantine worked on her own designer label, Soufflé. After ten years living and working in London, she moved to the Cheshire countryside to pursue a future career in interior design.

Jan Constantine Ltd. is an internationally recognised brand of hand-embroidered textiles and accessories. The company's tagline states that the products are destined to be "hand-embroidered heirlooms of the future".

In 2002, Jan Constantine founded a company under her own name: Jan Constantine Ltd. In various interviews, she has stated that the company began as a small enterprise, sewing lavender bags around her kitchen table with friends.

The company has produced numerous themed Collections of hand-embroidered goods. The first Collections produced by Jan Constantine Ltd. were the Bees and Bugs and Seaside Collections, both of which were launched at The Spirit of Christmas retail fair in 2002. The company attended its first trade fair, Top Drawer, in January 2004, and it was here that Fortnum & Mason became the first major store to place an order.