Boutique Star Awards 2026 judging panel
This year’s judging panel brings together a mix of respected indie retailers, industry experts and event organisers including The Dressing Room founder Deryane Tadd, Gemini Woman’s Claire Wright, Bira CEO Andrew Goodacre and Just a Group owner Juls Dawson. They will be joined by fashion agent Diane Sykes, Harrogate Fashion Week director Georgia Flynn, indie retail expert Clare Bailey, the Resilient Retail Club’s Catherine Erdly and Boutique magazine editor Gemma Ward.
Collectively, the panel offers extensive experience across retail, wholesale and brand development, ensuring entries are judged with a strong understanding of the challenges, opportunities and realities facing today’s independent fashion businesses.
Deryane Tadd, The Dressing Room
Founder of award-winning St Albans indie The Dressing Room, Deryane Tadd is a respected industry expert with more than 30 years’ experience in retail. She cut her teeth on the shop floor at various high street multiples before progressing into management and buying roles, ultimately becoming operations and buying director for French Connection franchises in the South East. In 2005 she launched The Dressing Room, relocating just 18 months later to premises more than four times the size. Twenty-one years on, Deryane still personally selects every product sold, with the indie now stocking more than 100 brands. Known for its exemplary service and popular shopping events, the business continues to evolve through Deryane’s focus on experiential retail, team development and adapting to its customers’ needs.
Claire Wright, Gemini Woman
Winner of Boutique Star Awards Fashion Independent of the Year 2025, Gemini Woman founder Claire Wright has spent four decades building a successful indie retail business. Her first store opened in Banbury in 1985, with two more shops following in close succession. By the mid-1990s, she decided to focus on the business’s most successful location – Stratford-upon-Avon, which remains its sole physical store today. Since then, the business has continued to grow in both size and profitability, now operating across two adjacent retail units. Gemini Woman launched its first e-commerce platform in 2008, and Claire has remained ahead of the curve in digital marketing and online retail ever since, with e-commerce now accounting for more than half of its total revenue.
Clare Bailey, The Retail Champion
Clare Bailey is one of the UK’s leading retail commentators, speakers and advisers. Founder of consultancy firm The Retail Champion, she works with retailers of all sizes, helping businesses navigate customer experience, operational change and growth in an evolving retail landscape. A regular media contributor across the BBC, Sky News and national press, Clare also writes as a columnist for Boutique magazine and hosts the Retail Reckoning podcast, interviewing senior leaders from across the retail and e-commerce sector. Passionate about supporting independent retail, she brings an informed and commercially focused approach to judging, recognising businesses that truly understand their customers and deliver what works in practice.
Georgia Flynn, Harrogate Fashion Week
Taking over ownership of popular womenswear trade show Harrogate Fashion Week (HFW) in 2024, Georgia Flynn has spent the past 15 years helping drive the success of independent brands and buyers within the exhibition space. Previously, she worked across several key industry events including Bridal Week Harrogate, Bridal Week London, White Gallery and Scoop International in roles spanning sales, operations and management. Having grown HFW over the past two years, she has a keen interest in championing indies, agencies and distributors and is passionate about the independent fashion retail industry.
Catherine Erdly, The Resilient Retail Club
Catherine Erdly is a retail strategist, speaker, writer and founder of The Resilient Retail Club, helping independent retailers and brands increase sales, improve cash flow and grow more profitable businesses. With more than 26 years’ retail experience – including nearly two decades with high-street businesses such as Laura Ashley, Coast, and Paperchase – she brings big-business expertise to ambitious small business owners. Catherine is a Forbes.com contributor, experienced media commentator and host of The Resilient Retail Game Plan – the UK’s leading podcast for independent retailers. She is also the author of Tame Your Tiger: How to Stop Your Product Business Eating You Alive and Grow Your Product Business.
Andrew Goodacre, Bira
Andrew Goodacre has spent his career championing Britain’s high streets and the communities they support. Since becoming CEO of Bira in 2018, he has become a leading voice for independent retailers and their importance to both the economy and local communities. A regular contributor to parliamentary select committees, Andrew also works closely with government, providing evidence on the key issues affecting the sector. He began his career in hospitality before moving into leadership roles with the Federation of Small Businesses and later the Residential Landlords Association, where he became CEO in 2013.
Diane Sykes, Diane Sykes Fashion
Diane Sykes has worked in the fashion industry since the 1980s, launching her career with a dream role in the London showroom of a leading global designer. The position gave her hands-on experience across the fashion spectrum – from retail and buying to merchandising and wholesale. Her career has since taken her from the fashion floors of London to the decks of the QE2 and the fast-paced showrooms of New York. In 2015, she established her own multi-brand agency: Diane Sykes Fashion. Focused on mid-premium European labels, she now proudly supplies independent retailers throughout the UK and Ireland.
Juls Dawson, JUST
With over 30 years’ experience in fashion wholesale, Juls Dawson is a respected industry veteran. He co-founded Just a Group with wife Steph Dawson – a dynamic collective of companies that span licensing, brand creation, trade show innovation, and its core model: a multi-brand agency and distribution house. With showrooms at its Brick Lane HQ, Manchester, and most recently Dublin, JUST is a market leader in sales and brand development. Juls is also a frequent judge at major industry events where he takes pride in recognising and celebrating standout boutiques and brands.
Gemma Ward, Boutique magazine
Gemma Ward is a fashion and lifestyle journalist with two decades of experience across both trade and consumer media. She is the founding editor of Boutique magazine, which launched in 2010 as the UK’s only publication dedicated to independent fashion retailers. Over the past 16 years, Gemma has interviewed hundreds of independent retailers, brands and industry experts, building a strong understanding of the ideas, innovation and commercial thinking driving the sector forward. Her role gives her a front-row view of the independent retail industry, from emerging brands and changing consumer habits to the retailers finding new ways to thrive. She has also judged a number of fashion and beauty industry awards.
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