Rebecca Taylor

Rebecca Taylor was born in New Zealand in 1969. In New Zealand, she attended St Catherine's College in Wellington. She received her initial fashion training as part of Access, a government scheme. One of her first jobs on the scheme was making clothes for Peter Jackson's Meet the Feebles’ puppet characters. After arriving in New York with $600 to her name, she was eventually hired by fashion designer Cynthia RowleyShe stayed with Rowley for six years before leaving to develop her own line with business partner Elizabeth Bugdaycay.

In 2000 she was also nominated for the prestigious CFDA Perry Ellis Award in Womenswear.

She is married to Wayne Pate, who was introduced to her via mutual friends. Her younger sister, Victoria Taylor, is a nationally known jewellery designer in Wellington, New Zealand, and débuted her Tory Jewellery Company range at one of Rebecca Taylor's catwalk shows in New York.