Emma Davidson – Owner and Managing Director

Emma Davidson joined Denza in 2008. She worked as the right hand to Vanessa Denza before acquiring the company in 2014.

At the heart of Emma’s role, she is responsible for the delivery of service to our clients, from the first phone call to our office through to appointing a recruitment consultant to lead the search and ensuring everything is up to the high standards expected by a client working with Denza.

Emma’s background covers a variety of areas – Licensing (Playboy, Bonpoint, Celia Birtwell), Production, Wholesale Sales (for Katharine Hamnett), Visual Merchandising (Urban Outfitters), at one time a performing electronic musician and exhibiting artist. Also, Emma spends time consulting in the industry for LFW brands on running a business, wholesale strategy, HR procedure, employment contracts, book keeping, cash flow and budgeting. This mixed business and creative background – in Fashion and Music – has been a perfect template for joining Denza. This background experience also means Emma will be first port of call for general employment advice, advice for setting up small businesses (she has worked with Fashion Scout a number of times mentoring on this topic) and offering advice to clients on how to review their recruitment processes. 

Emma is also involved in fashion education working with  the British Fashion Council, as a member of the Business of Fashion Education Council, as Grand Jury Member for La Cambre Mode M1 & M2 and B3, Belgium, Industry Liaison for Fashion at Ravensbourne and University of Norwich, United Kingdom, Short Course Leader and Grand Jury Member at Institut Français de la Mode, France. Emma has also participated on the Masters Grand Jury at KASK, Ghent, participated on teh show selection panel for Univerisity of Westminster and portfolio selection panel for University of Kingston. Emma has a truly global vision for fashion education having visited and given workshops to fashion courses in countries including Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong.

Emma covers all roles within the office from Senior or Executive roles (Creative or Design Director level.)

Anna Gatley-O’Neill – Recruitment Consultant

Having studied a Degree in Fashion Design and Marketing BA (Hons) at Northumbria University and past experience working at Denza, both with the recruitment side and also assisting on licensing projects between Celia Birtwell and Uniqlo so has experience will all aspects of our business.

As a trained lingerie and sleepwear designer, Anna’s background had her involved in all parts of the design process; from idea conception through to sampling, fabric sourcing and product development. Additionally, as a young designer Anna has worked overseas in Sweden and Germany, so she makes a great contact for new graduates wanting to know about living and working abroad for the first time.

Anna covers Design (Womenswear, Menswear, Textiles, Print, Graphics, Childrenswear, Accessories, Home ware, Active & Athleisure, Denim Design, Lingerie) and Non-Design (Production, Product Development, Studio Management, Pattern Cutting.)

After staying in close contact with the Denza team over the years, Anna was interested in returning to Denza because of the unrivalled reputation and dedication to customer service.

Sara Hollingsworth – Data Administrator

Working with the team covering the small details, Sara works remotely ensuring information on our database for candidates and clients is up to date, allowing the team to work quickly with the latest technology for every search we undertake. While her position is not necessarily a candidate or client facing one having someone to dot the i and cross the t throughout the back end of our database is invaluable.

And like the rest of us on the Denza team Sara upholds the most careful protection of confidential information under the UK Data Protection Act.

Sara also participates by researching talent pools and locations for the recruitment team, looking for interesting brands, markets and shows around the globe.