Happy International Women’s Day! We’d like to introduce six powerhouse designers and business owners who are taking their industries by storm – and doing it in style

International Women’s Day presents an incredible opportunity to share the work of some of Scotland’s most brilliant business women across the interior design, art, hospitality and skincare industries. We have hand-picked six women who have featured in our magazine and online in the last year; women who are executing uber stylish projects that are rooted in an appreciation for people and the planet.

We’d love to re-introduce Dr Sally Gouldstone, Salsabil El-awaisi, Katy Rodger, Jolene Crawford, Wendy Morrison and Emily Smoor.

Dr Sally Gouldstone, botanist and founder of Seilich Botanicals

In the outer Edinburgh farmlands of Pathead lies Seilich meadow, a place where all-natural skincare products are made with a respect and appreciation for nature. Botanist and founder of Seilich Botanicals, Dr Sally Gouldstone, admits that although she is passionate about her skincare brand, it began more as a biproduct of her mission to revive the arable lands surrounding Rosemains Steading in Pathead, Edinburgh.

Seilich was born from a love of nature more than anything else – “I am dedicated to nature conservation and biodiversity enhancement,” Sally says. Her passion to create products that weren’t just natural, but truly good for nature came later.

Sally sites her ethos now as believing in the symbiotic relationship between healthy skin and a thriving environment. “By carefully cultivating and harvesting flowers from our meadow, we provide naturally derived skincare that not only nourishes the skin but also supports local biodiversity.”

Read our full interview with Dr Sally Goudlstone here

Katy Rodger, interior designer and founder of Katy Rodger’s Artisan Dairy and The Tin Shed

Katy Rodger runs a farm, makes exceptional dairy products and has a thriving interiors business and a flourishing garden – and that’s just for starters. “I‘m no ordinary farmer’s wife,” chuckles Katy. She has been up and working since 5am, shifting a dozen or more 50-litre cans of milk by hand before most of us have even hit the snooze button. “I move it like this because it’s the most hygienic way – there’s less chance of contamination.”

Katy’s day-to-day is as diverse as it gets. She and her husband Robert, together with their family, run Knockraich, a 100-acre farm near Fintry, between Glasgow and Stirling.

Robert manages the animals (60 Friesian cows) and Katy runs Making Interiors, the interior design and soft furnishings business she set up in an outbuilding more than 20 years ago. Their daughter Catherine runs the farm’s Courtyard Cafe, while daughter Helena oversees the business, working across accounts and payroll, and son Ian, a vet, has control of the orchard.

In addition to the dairy, interiors showroom and cafe, the farm is also home to the Tin Shed wedding venue, as well as a glasshouse, two self-catering apartments and extensive gardens, all tended to by the Rodger family, with Katy at the helm.

Read our full interview with Katy Rodger here

Salsabil El-awaisi, interior designer and founder of SE Interiors

According to Edinburgh-based interior designer and founder of SE Interiors Salsabil El-awaisi, designing with emotional impact in mind is essential for creating spaces that resonate with people on a deeper level. When we visit Salsabil at home, we discuss emotional design and the power of prioritising feeling over function.

A specialist in re-designing Victorian, Georgian and Edwardian homes, the designer explains that prioritising how items make you feel sets a solid foundation for creating a home that you will love for years to come. The emotional design process, in the context of interiors, she explains, “can be broken down into four key elements: shape and form, colour, materials and pattern.”

Read our full interview with Salsabil El-awaisi here

Jolene Crawford, TV producer, designer and co-founder of Irregular Sleep Pattern

Jolene Crawford is the kind of person who gets things done. Decisive, dynamic, direct. These qualities made her a formidable TV producer for the BBC before launching Irregular Sleep Pattern with her husband. Creatives at heart, the idea was fill an irregular-shaped hole in the market. “First we joked about starting Irregular Sleep Pattern but didn’t do anything,” clarifies Jolene, sitting at the kitchen table of their Finnieston flat in a snazzy Irregular Sleep Pattern pyjama suit that matches the bubblegum-pink walls. “But then in 2017 I turned 40, and my husband turned 50. ‘It’s now or never,’ I said. ‘Do you actually want to do this?’”

Irregular Sleep Pattern’s values came instinctively to Jolene and her husband. They like beautiful things that are ethically made and well tailored. They reject trends and rampant consumerism. Their home, a five bedroom flat in a blond sandstone terrace that pulsates with vibrant colours, prints and art, is the font of their aesthetic: playful, bright, graphic. Music informs the names of their designs. “‘Irregular’ is the guiding light for all we do,” says Jolene. “We don’t follow the rules of a normal fashion brand. Our pyjamas are genderless, and our sizing goes up to 4XL.”

Read our full interview with Jolene Crawford here

Wendy Morrison, textiles designer and founder of Wendy Morrison Design

It’s no surprise to discover that this graduate of the Scottish College of Textiles has a background in fashion; she spent the early part of her career designing clothes for several big brands. These days, however, she is much better known for her rugs – although that word hardly does justice to these sublime creations in silk and wool. They are works of art in their own right, and would look as at home on the wall as they do on the floor.

Morrison’s flair for putting together unlikely combinations is in evidence in every room. In less skilful hands, this could be a mishmash of clashing tones, but it’s clear that composing boldly colourful patterns comes easily to her.

Read our full interview with Wendy Morrison here

Emily Smoor, interior designer and founder of Fantoush

Edinburgh-based interior designer Emily Smoor launched Fantoush in 2011. Since she was a little girl, Emily has loved trawling through flea markets and antique shops in a never-ending quest to find treasure. Three decades later, Emily is at the forefront of the Scottish interior design landscape, bringing life to some of the UK’s grandest properties, including Pennicuik Estate, the Kirkstyle Inn and more.

We speak to the interior design powerhouse about new year trends. She explains how you can engage with quick design fads in a more sustainable way, creating timeless designs that don’t harm the planet. “A key mindset shifter, if you will, is to see everything through the lens of timelessness,” Emily says. “If you strive to achieve timeless design, then you’re more likely to be drawn to characterful pieces from the past, well-made investment pieces of the present and generational pieces that you know will last long into the future.”

Emily has never been a ‘matchy matchy’ person when it comes to woods and metals. Fashion, for example, “can be a parallel to design and I feel that when you walk down the street now, you see a huge range of styles because there is a changing attitude towards body types and identity. As a result, I feel we have more confidence to bang our own drums when it comes to personal style.”

Read our full interview with Emily Smoor here

In the frame: Natasha Raskin Sharp, broadcaster and auctioneer