Slip on a silk robe by Phoebe Joan and you'll instantly feel that little bit posher.

Scrap that. You'll feel a lot posher.

Try it. We defy you not to want to drape yourself across a chaise longue and sip Champagne, like one of the poshest cast members of Made In Chelsea.

Phoebe Joan robes are luxury epitomised, the kind of garment you might see hanging on the bathroom door pegs of grand Hollywood mansions or elegant Parisian apartments – but they're designed right here, in Leicestershire, by a woman who, up until a few years ago, worked in forensic science and had never sewed in her life.

Jen Towner, the creative force behind the brand, says it's all down to her daughter, Phoebe Joan, who gave her the impetus to make a change in her life – as well as the perfect name for the business.

"I love getting ready to go out, I love that whole process, and it's just nice to put something that feels nice on when you get out the shower or the bath," says Jen.

"You feel set in the mood to get glam when you're in a nice robe, as opposed to the big fleecy thing that everyone in the family borrows, which never stays that soft once it's been in the wash a few times.

"And in summer, that's not what you want, is it?

"I'm a big fan of long bubble baths. You stay in for ages and come out lobster red – the last thing you need is a big, fleecy dressing gown."

Jen, 31, lives in Market Harborough with her partner, Luke, and their daughter, Phoebe, who's now nine. Their business is based in a small, modest industrial unit off a side road in the centre of town.

I'm expecting to meet a highly-tailored fashion graduate-type, with heels and not a hair out of place. Instead, I get a casually dressed Jen; a friendly, softly spoken northerner, and a seamstress with no formal training whatsoever.

She's just a girl who happened to be very good at making luxurious dressing gowns.

Luxurious dressing gowns that are priced between £800 and £1,800 a pop.

Crikey.

photo: bridesmaids dresses

So how did it all start?

"I used to live in Lancashire and I was working in forensic science, I was a forensic investigator for an independent company," she says.

"I loved it. It was basically examining anything to do with a crime scene, like clothing, weapons and so on.

"It was something I always wanted to do. It was why I chose the GCSEs and A-levels I did and why I studied psychology at university. But then I had my daughter, Phoebe, in 2007, and I think becoming a mum changed the way I saw things.

"As much as people think forensics is amazing, like CSI, you have to have a thick skin; you see a lot of things you don't want to see. When I became a mum I just wanted something a bit nicer, more gentle."

Jen put it off for as long as she could.

"It's terrifying when you've gone all through education building up to this dream career. It's a tough job to get into, very in-demand, very competitive, so it seemed like madness to give it up.

"There are a lot of good sides to it – you're making a difference and it was exciting – but it just got to that point where I didn't want to see those sorts of things every day.

"And I was becoming incredibly paranoid about Phoebe, as well, wondering if anything bad had happened to her."

Jen handed her notice in with no back-up plan, nothing to fall back on. Phoebe was five and had just started school. Luke was at university in Preston, studying fine art.

Jen moved back into her parents' with Phoebe, taking some time out to save money and figure out what she wanted to do with her life.

"It was quite nice, to be honest, coming away from this crazy, demanding, stressful job with lots of hours.

"I was able to do the school run, go to the park with her after school, bake cakes for her – all these things I realised I'd missed out on."

During the 12 months she was there, Jen decided she needed a hobby, something she could do for herself.

"I had my grandma's old Singer sewing machine and I learned on that," she says. "I'd never sewed before.

"I had a wonderful family friend called Pauline, the most amazing seamstress. I did two hours, once a week, with her and then practised myself.

"It was Pauline who told me I should focus on something I was passionate about making. And at the time I'd been thinking I wanted a really nice dressing gown."

Jen's first foray into glamorous robes was a green floral cotton number, fully lined – "that's important to me," she says, "not only for that extra pop of colour but also to make you feel dressed. These gowns will never be see-through, they feel finished."

One of Jen's best friends ended up buying it. So she made another one and another one, and another one.

"I'd never intended to sell them really, never intended it to be a business. But I enjoyed it and liked the fact I could make really nice gifts for family and friends."

After Luke's graduation in 2014, the couple decided they needed a change of scenery.

"The lure of London was there but London, it turns out, is phenomenally expensive, especially when you have a family," says Jen. "So we decided to look for somewhere within an hour away, but a bit more rural.

"Someone told us Market Harborough was nice, so we checked it out and really liked it."

The couple moved in August last year.

Still sewing, Jen decided to take a few months out to settle into Leicestershire life and hone her craft.

The more encouragement she got from other women who loved her creations, the more she started to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, she could turn her hobby into something more.

"Could I make enough pocket money out of it?

"Not long after we moved, a boutique called Keals, specialising in handmade goods from the area, opened in town. I remember thinking they might be interested. I took them in and they loved them. She put some info about me in the shop and I started getting e-mails and building up contacts."

Phoebe Joan the brand was born.

And then, suddenly, Jen's leisurely hobby started to become pretty full-on.

She was having to buy more and more fabric – which led to more and more research into where that fabric was coming from.

Plus, with each robe taking her three or four days to make, she knew it wasn't viable to keep it up by herself.

"Me and Luke were getting in touch with wholesalers and vintage suppliers and going round warehouses looking for fabric, and it dawned on us how much waste there was. There's a lot of fabric being made in the world and a lot being dumped.

"We started doing a bit of research and found out that fabric production is one of biggest contributors to environmental damage, because of all the dyes, the chemicals, the waste.

"We didn't want to be a part of that process, it's not what we're about."

Jen says she began to feel a disheartened, disillusioned with the industry.

"The idea of making it into a proper business was starting to feel impossible. The only way to do it cheaply was to buying fabric from factories which weren't offsetting the environmental damage and to have them made in unfair working conditions.

"You try looking for a manufacturer in England – it's not that easy."

Jen wasn't comfortable having her robes made abroad.

The couple spent months, she says, looking for the right manufacturer in the UK.

"I just wasn't fast enough to keep it going myself. Luckily, we ended up finding an amazing manufacturer in Manchester.

"They were very honest with me. They said they'd never worked like this before; typically they'd take an item and need a minimum of, say, 1,000 to make it.

"But the idea with Phoebe Joan is that it's not fast fashion. You should be able to buy something as unique as you. Making 1,000 of something just doesn't fit with that.

"Anyway, because they liked the product so much, they wanted to give it a go."

It means they will be making maybe three or four, possibly even just one, garment at a time.

And when you're getting something limited edition like that, the price has to go up...

"Obviously, that makes it more expensive," says Jen. "But until things change, that's what the face of British manufacturing is like.

"But I wanted to do it this way. I know everyone who makes these robes, we go to see them and have a cup of tea and make sure everything's okay up there. I could never afford to do that if they were being made abroad. And I wanted to be able to do that.

The material went from cotton to silk – "when the price is high you have to go all out" – and the new Phoebe Joan was launched just last month.

Now, all Jen has to do is wait for the celebs and ladies of leisure to get a glimpse.

"They are expensive," she admits. "They're not your normal bathrobe.

"We have ready-to-wear robes which are anything between £700 and £1,000, while made to order are anything between £800 and £1,800. It completely depends on what's gone into making it and how much it has cost us. There's three metres of silk on the outside and three on the inside; a lot of silk. And the fact it's taken someone a day or two to make.

"They're expensive to make. We make enough to buy more fabric and keep it going."

It was a difficult decision, says Jen, letting go of the making, but she says it's the right thing to do.

"I had a panic attack as I was happy making them myself but when you looked at it, there was no longevity.

"It is difficult selling something which you yourself think, 'could I afford that'?

"But at the same time, we wanted to do it properly and ethically, and that is expensive.

"It's a specialist audience at the end of the day, a niche market and we're aware of that.

"We've funded ourselves and we've calculated the risk.

"I'm confident in the patterns and fabric and customer service we deliver.

"We know we're asking people to take a leap of faith; it is expensive, but it's different, there's not a lot out there like it."

And if you've got that kind of money to spend – hello, rich More readers, or generous boyfriends! – the prices are in line with other retailers. You only have to go on the Selfridges or Harrods websites to find silk robes at similar prices.

"We're talking about people with disposable income who don't mind splashing out that bit more," says Jen. "They're not an impulse purchase, I'm aware of that.

"But you do find robes at similar prices in places such as Selfridges, so people do buy them.

"And these are great quality. You're not going to spend £1,000 and then need a new one in a year's time."

Jen's time is now taken up with the admin side of Phoebe Joan; it's still just her and Luke in Market Harborough.

"A crazy amount of time is taken up with office things. I handle all the Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, all that.

"And I'm also working on the next lot of fabrics and patterns and looking into new, complementary products, such as lounge pants and camisoles, as well as more everyday things like sleep masks.

"I still design the robes here, as well, even though I can't make them anymore.

"If we do the print then that can take a lot of time. There's one with barrels on it, Leizu Ivory, which is artwork that's more than 100 years old. That takes hours to tidy up and digitise and put through Photoshop – Luke does all of that stuff.

"We decide what colours we're going to use, what lining, what silk. There's a lot going on behind the scenes."

Jen is also big on customer service.

"We think about everything from start to finish. We use recycled cardboard instead of those plastic grey bags for our packaging, and then inside they come in a nice box.

"We pop a camomile tea in there as well and, within a couple of weeks of someone receiving their robe, we'll send a bath bomb or a body scrub as well, as a bit of a surprise.

"It's about those little touches. D'you know, I couldn't sleep at night if people were thinking, 'I spent all that money and the experience wasn't any different to anywhere else'.

"Shopping should be fun and you should feel like a valued customer. That goes without saying."

Jen is having fun with it, she says. And, most importantly, she can fit her work around the school run.

"I want to be able to spend time with Phoebe," she says. "Work has to fit around that.

"I'm really happy with everything we've achieved.

"A lot of people out there in this industry are fashion graduates or have done internships with like, Alexander McQueen.

"We're here because I learned to sew one day – blind faith and taking a risk."

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