Colour is usually the first thing people notice in a dress. During the design process, it is one of the things I question the most.

A colour may feel certain when I see it in a small piece of fabric, then become completely different once it covers the body. Orange can look warm and soft in a swatch, then feel much stronger across several metres of fabric. Purple changes when it begins to move. Red can carry enough presence on its own.

I was thinking about these differences when I began working on this collection.

I did not begin with a group of evening dresses in mind. I was looking at colour, movement and the way each fabric changed the shape I thought I wanted. Some ideas worked through drawing. Others only became clear once I began working directly on the mannequin.

Before the fabric was cut

From ELLY’s design archive: an earlier fabric study showing my continuing exploration of colour and texture.

At the beginning, I gather everything around me: references, colour notes, fabric samples and sketches. I may know the colour I want or the way I want the fabric to fall, but rarely the whole piece. I like this point in the process because the idea is still open. I can move things around, remove what feels forced and wait until the fabric gives me a clearer direction.

Colours that seem right beside each other on a page can become too loud when translated into fabric. A shape that looks convincing in a drawing can lose its character once it is made.

I spend time looking at how the fabrics react before deciding what they should become. Some hold a fold. Some fall away from the body. Some need support underneath them. Others become heavy when too much is added.

These observations are small, but they change the work.

The orange draping

One of the clearest memories I have from the process is working on the orange draping.

The idea seemed simple. I wanted the fabric to cross the upper body, hold securely around the shoulders and open into a skirt with movement. Once we began working on the mannequin, it became one of the most difficult pieces to resolve.

The orange bodice during the draping stage. The pins and unfinished shoulder line remain visible.

Every fold affected the next one. If I adjusted the fabric at the shoulder, the line across the body changed. If I corrected the front, the balance at the side no longer felt right. When the bodice became too controlled, the fabric lost the movement that had made me choose it.

I kept returning to the mannequin.

There was no single correction that solved everything. It was a series of small decisions. The fabric was pinned, released and pinned again. I looked at it from different angles and left it unfinished until I could understand what was not working.