In this powerful episode of the Built Not Born in Business podcast, Chris and Helen travel to Stuart Trevor's own studio space to sit down with the man behind one of Britain's most recognisable fashion brands. From a childhood in Dundee with no money and hand-me-down clothes to polishing a pair of red boots and sleeping with them under his pillow because David Bowie made him fall in love with fashion, Stuart's story begins in the most unlikely of places.
What follows is a masterclass in audacity, instinct and relentless self-belief. Stuart reveals how he collared Paul Smith as a teenager and talked his way into a collection, how Naomi Campbell and Vivienne Westwood presented him with a national fashion award at the Royal Albert Hall, and how a mysterious envelope containing £500 in cash and a plane ticket to Florence changed the entire direction of his life.
Stuart takes us inside the founding of All Saints, from convincing a Chinese manufacturer to fund his dream, to naming the brand on All Saints Road during Carnival, to personally persuading the CEO of the NFL to let him register the name. He shares how a pile of antique sewing machines rescued from an Indian factory floor became an Instagram phenomenon and one of the most iconic retail visual identities in the world.
But this isn't just a success story. Stuart opens up about the moment he let the wrong person into his business, a partner who spent three years building trust before executing a hostile takeover that stripped Stuart of the brand he built from nothing. The betrayal, the emotional toll and the lessons learned are some of the most honest and unflinching moments ever captured on this podcast.
Today, Stuart is building what he believes could be a billion-dollar business, a fully sustainable fashion label where every piece is upcycled, hand-signed and made to last. He hasn't paid himself a salary in over two years. He doesn't care. This episode is raw, cinematic, deeply human and packed with lessons for anyone who has ever dreamed of building something from nothing and refuses to stop when the world tells them it's over.