2011 Panel of Judges

Previously a Jasmine Judge, Joanna Norman is the new Chairman of the judging panel.  She has spent nearly 30 years working with fragrance and was originally trained by leading supplier, IFF, in both London and Paris. Her professional background includes all aspects of fragrance development, marketing, sales and training. Her passion lies in exploring perfumery, fashion and sensory design combining aesthetics and business.

Joanna is a senior corporate trainer, college lecturer and regular fragrance contributor to GMTV and BBC Radio Scotland. She is founding director of Pandora Ltd, providing training and consultancy within the fragrance industry.

Fashion commentator Caryn Franklin has worked for 29 years in the fashion industry as a broadcaster, writer, director and producer. She has interviewed everyone from Giorgio Armani to Yves Saint Laurent. A former fashion editor and co-editor of i-D Magazine she has produced and presented many TV shows including BBC's The Clothes Show and Style Challenge. Her documentaries have featured Vivienne Westwood, Matthew Williamson, and Philip Treacy, amongst others.

She has four books to her name, including a novel and has also worked in education as an external assessor and lecturer for a variety of colleges, including The Royal College of Art, Central St Martins and the London College of Fashion. Her latest award winning initiative All Walks Beyond the Catwalk co founded with Erin O-Connor to broaden the range of body and beauty ideals portrayed by the fashion industry is actively changing the way fashion is taught in in Art School and University. Supporters include Govt Minister Lynne Featherstone and psychoanalyst Susie Orbach.

Rosalind Miles is the prize-winning English author of twenty-three books of fiction and non-fiction.  At only 17, Rosalind was accepted at St Hilda’s College, Oxford where she studied English Literature, Latin, French, Anglo-Saxon and Middle English. She obtained five degrees and finished with a PhD from the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham. 

As a journalist she was a founder contributor to both the Literary Review and Working Woman in Britain.  She has been published in all the major British newspapers and magazines and has written for both the BBC and ITV, also making appearances on British TV and radio.

Jenny Packham is a British fashion designer known primarily for her bridal gowns and ready-to-wear collections. A graduate from Central St Martins College of Art, Jenny has designed outfits for such celebrities as Keira Knightley, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz. Her designs have been seen on the red carpets of Los Angeles and most recently on Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, during her tour of Canada and Los Angeles in July 2011.

She has fast become one of the UK’s most highly regarded designers with not only creative talent, but commercial success too and has flagship stores in both London and Paris as well as a presence in some of the world’s premier stores including Harrods and Bergdorf Goodman.

Jenny Packham outfits appear in two James Bond films ‘Die Another Day’ and ‘Casino Royale’, and she designed the widely reported short red dress worn by Emma Watson in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  She has also worked closely with Academy Award nominated Patricia Field, regularly dressing Kim Catrall in Sex and the City series and the movie.

After starting her career in the Fashion industry working for British designers Katharine Hamnett, Margaret Howell and Savile Row tailor Richard James, Deborah Parrott’s love of fashion was soon to be replaced by her other love – beauty.  Deborah is now one of the most renowned fragrance & beauty marketers’ for one of the UK’s leading premium beauty retailers, Debenhams, and works closely with celebrity make-up artists, beauty journalists and international beauty and fragrance brands.

Having worked in the beauty industry for over 20 years she has collaborated with many of the world’s top beauty houses on their advertising campaigns and has helped to launch thousands of beauty and fragrance products to millions of customers. For the past two years Deborah has been the driving force behind Debenhams new Beauty Club Reward Card programme which has already seen award winning success and has one of the biggest UK beauty retail followings on Facebook.

Kathy Phillips is well known as the former Health and Beauty Director at Vogue where she wrote regularly about fashion and beauty as well as styling many shoots - winning several Jasmine Awards along the way. She is presently affiliated to Vogue Nippon and Vogue China as International Beauty Director of Conde Nast Asia.

Following studying fashion and history of art at St Martins, she became a Fashion Editor with her own weekly page for The Daily Mail. She was Fashion Editor during the launch of the Mail on Sunday and worked on YOU magazine as commissioning editor.

Since leaving Vogue UK she has also written for The Financial Times, The Times, and The Sunday Times, the Saturday Telegraph Magazine, Sunday Telegraph, Evening Standard and Observer Woman magazine as well as writing books on both Yoga and beauty.  April 2004 saw the launch of “This Works”, Kathy’s own range of quality natural products which she claims will deliver what is promised on the bottle. 

Chairman of Judges Catherine Mitchell has worked at IFF, one of the world’s leading creators and suppliers of fragrance, for 19 years. During her career she has worked for the company in Paris as well as an exciting two year term at the global headquarters in New York, She currently holds the post of Business Development Director and, in a fascinating career, has helped develop fragrances for international brands as well as niche product lines. Catherine says she is “passionate about fragrance”.

Willie Walters is the Fashion Course Director at Central St. Martin’s which has turned out some of the world’s biggest fashion names including Matthew Williamson, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. Willie studied at St Martin's herself in the 1970s.  She says: “Students come to us for creative idea generators, not how to design a high street collection.”  She feels Britain is where people can cut their teeth in the fashion industry with a freedom to express themselves any way they like.  As for Willie’s own style, she doesn’t know exactly what it is - but she loves to get dressed in the morning!

After graduating in fashion at Edinburgh University, Graeme Black began his career as an assistant designer working in London for, amongst others, John Galliano and Zandra Rhodes.  Moving to Italy in 1993, he worked as a designer for Les Copains.  From 1995 he moved through the ranks at Georgio Armania to become Head Designer at Borgonuovo Black Label.  In 2003 he became Head of Womenswear at Ferragamo. He staged the biennial fashion show in Milan as well as one-off events in the USA and Far East.  2005 saw the launch of the first Graeme Black collection and in September 2007 Graeme left Ferragamo to concentrate on his own line.  Now based in London, Graeme overseas both the design and production of his eponymous label.

Author Sara Wheeler was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. Her first and most successful book to date, Terra Incognita, published in 1995 was about her seven-month stay in Antarctica as a writer-in-residence with the US National Science Foundation. Now at the opposite end of the globe with her sixth and latest book, The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle, Sarah has chosen to do something different. Part reportage, part investigative journalism and part biography of a land, her book takes in every aspect of life within the Arctic Circle and the communities who live there. Her other books include Travels in a Thin Country; and Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard.

When Cozmo Jenks was a little girl her dream was to have the largest hat collection in the world. Today, she is recognised as one of Europe's leading milliners having designed pieces for royalty, celebrities and leaders of fashion worldwide, including Jay Kay of Jamiroquai, Kylie Minogue, and Jodie and Jemma Kidd, as well as regular private clients who attend Royal Ascot and take part in the English Summer Season. Her hats are in constant demand by the press for fashion shoots throughout the year and have featured on the front of leading fashion magazines including, Harpers and Queen and Tatler.

Elizabeth Fagan is Marketing Director at Boots UK Ltd, responsible for the Health and Beauty Customer and Brand Strategy.  She first worked for Boots over 16 years ago as a Group Buyer and re-joined the Company as Managing Director of Boots Opticians in November 2006.  Prior to re-joining, Elizabeth worked for DSG International plc, one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Europe.
Since April 2006 she has been a Council Member of the Advertising Standards Authority.  Elizabeth is currently President of Women in Advertising and Communications London (WACL) and sits on the Government’s Strategic Marketing Advisory Board (GSMAB).