Huddersfield corset maker wins Trainer of the Year Award 2024
6th December 2024 | ANNOUNCEMENTS | OUR STORIES
Emma Brackenbury has won the 2024 Heritage Crafts Trainer of the Year Award, supported by the Marsh Charitable Trust, including a £1,000 prize awarded at a special presentation at Eltham Palace on Tuesday 26 November 2024.
The award celebrates those who have gone above-and-beyond in the last twelve months to pass their craft skills on to a new generation of makers.
Emma Brackenbury spent the first eight years of her career working as a costume maker in film, with credits including Fantastic Beasts, Artemis Fowl and Jurassic World. In 2023, she set up the Corsetry Retreat, a residential course held over several days in which she and other guest tutors coach attendees through the creation of a made-to-measure corset or set of stays. The course has proved to be immensely popular over the last two years and students have gone on to work in costuming for TV, film, theatre, opera and ballet.
The other three finalists for this year’s award were Derek Hunt, who teaches stained glass in-person and online, including free tutorials, interviews, and inspirational videos to over 33,000 social media subscribers, Lynn Mathias, who has over 30 years’ experience in the repair and restoration of historic buildings, playing a critical role in keeping centuries-old skills and techniques alive among younger generations, and Harriet Page, who has been employed as the Bristol Upholstery Collective’s lead tutor in 2018, since when she has trained a team of four fellow tutors and six cohorts of students.
The Marsh Charitable Trust runs a portfolio of awards with a number of nationally and internationally recognised partners to celebrate the outstanding contributions of people who are committed to social, cultural and environmental causes.
Photo: Emma Brackenbury, winner of the 2024 Trainer of the Year Award Award.