Elena Dawson

Elena Dawson creates timeless and beautiful semi-deconstructed garments in her East Sussex studio. She studied at the University of Brighton and began working as a seamstress after graduating, which turned out to be an invaluable experience. “I draw on the knowledge I learned at the tailors still now in the way I make clothing,” she says. “When you work on alterations you are really tearing the guts out of the garment, performing a sort of autopsy—you really get to see a garment at its most vulnerable point. Observing this state of semi deconstruction in the making of a garment or shoe is what I like to retain in my finished work."

All pieces are sewn, dyed, and/or hand printed in her studio in England.