Upon graduation from the RSN Degree BA (Hons) Hand Embroidery in 2019, Charlie Ellis and Abbie Noronha launched their brand ‘Ellis + Noronha’ and, working with the same hand embroidery focus that they developed during their three years on the Degree course, they launched their second collection, ‘Self’, in mid-September.

“In the form of a fashion film,  this collection has much fewer pieces than our first collection, five in total, all heavily worked and very embellished. The pieces have drawn on our traditional hand embroidery expertise; challenging ourselves with techniques such as large scale Goldwork and complex construction.

To give you some context, the film and the pieces are inspired by dealing with mental health difficulties, particularly in the creative industries. It’s very topical particularly with there being so much pressure on artists and creatives to keep themselves going in the current climate. Each piece is inspired by a different way in which people deal with mental health challenges. For example, ‘armour’ for those who put up a tough exterior to shield themselves, ‘comfort’ for those who need a tranquil break, there are pieces entitled ‘confidence’, ‘release’ and ‘authority’, which you can read more about on our website. 

We started the ‘Self’ collection before the pandemic, but somehow it now seems more relevant to us than it did before. With everyone going through such a tough time these past months, self-care is more important than ever! We had also decided to produce a film long before the pandemic, yet somehow it became the only way we could have shown the collection anyway!  Although we produce fashion pieces, we don’t want to go down the traditional fashion route of seasons, catwalks and showrooms, so branching out into a film seemed like a great way for us to make our mark with this collection…and it will help us to reach a much more widespread audience both nationally and internationally.

Over the next couple of months, we are releasing a diffusion line for the collection. Alongside our main collections, we produce capsule collections of jewellery. In the run up to Christmas we will be releasing a collection of jewellery and accessory pieces that are inspired by our film collection which is an exciting next step.”

For further information and to see more of the ‘Self’ collection please see the recent Blog post and you can follow Ellis + Noronha’s Instagram page.  and see the full collection on their website.