IN EVERLASTING MEMORY

Smalley, her ‘ready-to-wear’ garments focus on feelings of; love, loss & grief, and the heightened importance of personal connections, endeavouring to convey the ephemeral nature of emotions and convert them into physical garments. Estelle has sought to combine careful detailing and pattern making across her designs - these include beaded embroidery/ textures/ embossing and achieving specific silhouettes. This collection is intended as an ‘ode’ to those lost to Covid-19 and more specifically her late Grandfather, dealing with personal emotions and the challenges faced whilst dealing with sudden loss of life, these concepts are threaded through the collection. This idea is depicted most literally in her press piece, ‘I’ll carry you’. The design includes a ‘mourner character t with the exaggerated hood and gown, imitating a ‘classical’ mourning veil and then ‘the deceased’ who is physically detached but is metaphorically being ‘carried along’ by six connective bows.