Serena Solitaire Crichton-Stuart, Marchioness of Bute (born 29 December 1959), also known by her maiden name Serena Wendell, is a British fashion designer and former model.
Early life
editBorn in December 1959, Bute is the daughter of Major Jack Wendell (1924–2005) and his wife Anthea Peronelle Maxwell-Hyslop, and a niece of Robin Maxwell-Hyslop.[1][2] She was brought up in London and rural Wales by her mother and stepfather, Peter Rees, Baron Rees, and after a French finishing school became a fashion model.[3][4]
Career
editWorking in the world of fashion, Serena Wendell soon began designing and making clothes herself, launching some small fashion labels and selling to friends. She eventually established her own serious label, Serena Bute,[4][3] and in 2023 was a director of Rowanwood Ltd, Deltawood Ltd, and Serena Bute Ltd.[5] The guiding principle of the Serena Bute label is "elegant comfort". Bute's collections include wide-legged trousers, always with a grosgrain stripe. Shirts are large and tailored, made of silk, velvet, and cotton. Woollen cloths and wool-silk fabrics are supplied by Bute Fabrics, a long-established upholstery firm[3] founded by her late husband's grandfather the 5th Marquess of Bute.[6]
The Serena Bute label is reported as a favourite of Kate Moss, Emma Watson, Rita Ora, and Adwoa Aboah.[3]
Personal life
edit
Serena Wendell married firstly Robert de Lisser, and they had two children, Jazzy and Joshua de Lisser.[3] They settled in Jamaica and were together for ten years. After they separated, she spent eighteen months bringing up the children alone in Jamaica, then returned to England for medical help with Hepatitis C. She commented in 2020 that she did not then know where her first husband was.[4]
Secondly, on 13 February 1999, in the marble chapel at Mount Stuart House, on the island of Bute, she married as his second wife John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, with whom she has a daughter, Lola.[7][3] She was reported to be four months pregnant at the time.[8] Until his death in March 2021,[6] they shared a house in Regent's Park and also had the use of Mount Stuart House,[3] but did not live there, preferring a renovated farmhouse, Ardscalpsie, six miles from Rothesay on the west coast of Bute.[8]
Notes
edit- ^ Peter Townend, ed., Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, vol. 1 (London: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1965), p. 407
- ^ Burke's Peerage, vol. 3 (2003), p. 3309
- ^ a b c d e f g Chloe Fox, "Bonnie in Clyde: Meet the Marchioness of Bute", 15 January 2019, accessed 16 February 2023
- ^ a b c Anna Murphy, "Serena Bute interview – the marchioness who makes sexy joggers for the A-list and aristocracy", The Sunday Times, 12 September 2020, archived at archive.ph, accessed 29 September 2024
- ^ "Serena Solitaire BUTE, Date of birth December 1959", Companies House, accessed 16 February 2023
- ^ a b Richard Williams, "Johnny Dumfries obituary", The Guardian, 24 March 2021, accessed 16 February 2023
- ^ "The 7th Marquess of Bute obituary" in The Times, accessed 17 February 2023, archived at archive.ph
- ^ a b Euan McColm, "THE FAST MOVER; Formula One aristocrat's secret plans to marry his model fiancée", Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland), 25 January 1999, accessed 17 February 2023