AT HOME WITH FASHION DESIGNER JORDAN STEWART THE CANADIAN MOM OF FOUR OPENS UP ABOUT FAMILY, BIG DREAMS AND HER COUTURE LABEL BELOVED BY THE STARS

I call it my fashion house," Jordan Stewart says of her 200-year-old home in Norfolk Ellad County, Ont., a sprawling property filled with polished hardwood floors, sky-high ceilings and sparkling chandeliers.

-  ANDREA KARR

It's within these historic walls that she started her couture label, RVNG (pronounced "revenge"), sketching and sewing her first glamorous gowns while perched at her dining-room table.

But when Jordan purchased the residence in 2016, she never actually planned on living in it. At the time, she was on the hunt for a new location for her namesake womenswear boutique and was struck by the magical air of the place.

"There's so much history!" she gushes to Hello! Canada. "I loved the fireplaces and gardens. If you go into the carriage house, you can see where they kept the horses. I had Jane Austen on my mind. Women would come to shop and have tea on the terrace."

She transformed the house into a boutique brimming with her favourite brands, and it was beloved by local women. However, a series of unfortunate events from bureaucratic roadblocks to a messy breakup - forced her to shutter the store after less than a year and take up residence instead.

"At the time, I thought it was the end of the world," she recalls. "I'd had my a__ kicked in love and I remember sitting on my couch and thinking, 'What am I going to do? I have kids. I have bills."