Shouts of acclamation were heard throughout the Villa Marina for the masterminds behind Preen at the Awards for Excellence on Thursday.

The Manx-born designers, Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, were praised for their success in the world of fashion having a long list of well-known figures, from Beyonce to Samantha Cameron, wear their creations.

A video featuring the couple’s family members, friends and actress Kate Bosworth was shown before Thea and Justin were announced as this year’s winners of the Lifetime Achievement award.

In the nine-minute video, Kate Bosworth said: ’I remember the first time I was introduced to your designs and I just fell in love immediately.’

Kate was not the only star to share her compliments towards the couple. Michelle Obama sent an exclusive message to the Isle of Man Newspapers to share at the Awards for Excellence.

It read: ’Justin and Thea, your designs, with their rich colors and striking patterns, always made me feel confident, comfortable, and most of all, totally like myself under the brightest spotlights around the world.

’You are treasures in the world of fashion design, and on behalf of women everywhere, thank you.’

Emotions rose even more when their friend Juliette Larthe, a film maker who produced the video for Calvin Harris and Rihanna’s hit ’We Found Love’, surprised the designers on stage.

’You both thoroughly deserve this and it’s amazing to be given it on your homeland,’ she later told them backstage, while exchanging hugs.

While the winners were having their photos taken, Juliette explained how she was flown onto the island in secret to see her ’heroes’ being given an ’exciting achievement’.

On her first visit to the island, the producer enjoyed fresh queenies at the Little Fish restaurant on Douglas Quay.

Thea and Justin were later interviewed by the Examiner in a small room where their Red Finella Dress that was previously worn by the Duchess of Cambridge during the 2016 Royal Tour of Canada was hanging.

They were all smiles as the shared their thoughts on the award they had just received.

’We’re very honoured to be here tonight,’ said Justin. ’It’s such a nice thing to have happened.’

Thea nodded in agreement. ’It was very overwhelming, especially seeing the video with everyone giving their congratulations,’ she said.

’It was quite emotional to hear people say a lot of amazing things,’ Justin added. ’We’ve had a great career and to think we’re just two people from the Isle of Man who just make frocks!’

Thea continued: ’We’re going to announce our win on the website and put the award somewhere where it will have pride of place.’

The couple began their artistic journey at a young age, but it was not until they reached college that their desire to create clothing was confirmed.

’We met at Isle of Man college where we were both studying an art foundation course, which looked at different areas of art such as graphic design, fine art and fashion.

’Through this, we found out that we both wanted to do fashion and set off to university to study it after completing the course,’ explained Justin.

’After three years we got chucked out into the real world. I was offered work by Helen Storey where I was working for experience.’

Thea made her way in by working for the same British designer, but did this by taking a customer service position in the esteemed artist’s shop.

’Helen liked our work and realised we were a couple, so she gave us an opportunity to work closer with her. This was the first time we worked together,’ she said.

The couple soon developed ideas to set up their own line and bought a shop on Portobello Road in London to help them achieve this.

’We used the time and space to experiment. It was a really fun time!’ Thea explained.

’We had no money then, so we learnt value in making clothes that sell.

’We learned quite quickly and before we knew it, we grew and grew. We’ve got a lot of Manx grit and determination and we weren’t afraid to keep going,’ she added.

Within the first few weeks of opening their shop, celebrities such as Cher and Kate Moss walked through the door to sample their hard work.

Thea and Justin have since enjoyed seeing their sophisticated, yet edgy designs flourish and have received a lot of attention over the years.

However, it can easily be said that the two designers have remained humble despite their global achievements and have stayed true to their Manx roots.

They are very excited to have six of Preen’s best creations feature on the new set of stamps launched by the Isle of Man Post Office.

Thea said: ’We come back to the island as much as we can to see family.

’We want our daughters to experience this place and see the beautiful scenery. As soon as we board the plane, we feel relaxed.’

’The Isle of Man is always home to us.’ Justin added.