About Me
I’m Ellen, a Womenswear Designer from Coventry University.
I am a Fashion Design graduate specialising in Womenswear Design. Throughout my time at university & mostly my final year, I have developed a love for womenswear design, and specifically commercial based womenswear. Timeless wearable women’s fashion.
I am passionate about creating garments that will empower women and make them feel their best selves, and I feel as though my designs reflect this.
INSPIRATION
KEEP CALM AND FEMALE ON is a womenswear collection inspired by women during the war.
My concept was to create a collection celebrating the empowerment of women taking on the usual roles of men whilst they were away fighting in the war. Mechanics, pilots and factory workers, at a time when a woman’s role was to be a stay-at-home mother and wife. I wanted to convey Female Empowerment in a gender-based society, exploring references from the second World War. I wanted to celebrate how females proved their strength, and proved the "weaker sex" stereotype wrong.
I visited the Imperial War Museum in London and took inspiration from the 1940’s clothing & military uniforms, machinery and transport. For my garments, I used traditional male garment blocks for sizing, and took inspiration from images from the war for using tricks like belts to flatter the female shape. For finer details, such as the pockets, I took inspiration from the small details on the uniforms.
MY WORK
PORTFOLIOS
T I T L E P A G E
M O O D B O A R D
B O I L E R S U I T D E V E L O P M E N T
B O I L E R S U I T 2
T R E N C H D E V E L O P M E N T
T R E N C H S L E E V E
T R E N C H D E T A I L
J U M P S U I T D E V E L O P M E N T
T R O U S E R D E V E L O P M E N T
O U T F I T O N E
O U T F I T T W O
O U T F I T T H R E E
O U T F I T F O U R
O U T F I T F I V E
O U T F I T S I X
L I N E U P
DETAIL
B E L T S
In my collection, belts play a huge role in completely transforming the garments to make them more fitted to the body and much more flattering. It also helped me in my collection as all the pieces were created from male garment blocks and patterns, so they were extremely oversized. The styling gave so much shape and flatters a female shape very well.
“By the end of the conflict, I had grown into a confident and self-possessed young woman. I became someone to stand on my own two feet”
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