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At the age of 25 Chloe Lonsdale revived Made in Heaven, the company set up by her godfather in 1969, with one goal: to re-establish it as the premium British jeans brand. At 29, she is now well on her way to achieving this, with every major fashion magazine hailing its modern reincarnation, MiH Jeans as the brand to wear.
Chloe has denim in her blood: her father Tony founded the Jean Machine, the first British denim emporium with 150 stores in its 70s heyday, and her mother Chekkie Maskell was a top model, even wearing the original Made in Heaven designs. Chloe, along with her three sisters, grew up in denim, dividing their father’s precious vintage stock and showing their early entrepreneurial streak by selling the surplus jeans to friends at a profit. Chloe’s father himself wore jeans every day (even to weddings and funerals) and regularly serenaded his girls with his favourite song, Neil Diamond’s ‘Forever in Blue Jeans’.
After completing her schooling at Bedales and her BA degree in Womenswear Design at Central St Martins, London, Chloe began work at Nicole Farhi, first as assistant to Nicole and later working on the successful ‘Farhi’ jeans line and 202 shop. Here she learned many of the fundamental skills required to run a successful business and was ready when the opportunity arose to revive Made in Heaven.