The Rise collection.
Every collection began with a feeling I wanted to make tangible. Some became sculptural coats, some garments for movement and play, others the particular intimacy of a bag held close. There are more than 400 styles in my wider archive; these are some of the worlds they belong to.
Look around. Follow the same curve as it appears in another fabric, or notice how a silhouette changes when someone turns. If you are researching a collection or imagining a commission, you can also request a closer look at the archive.
I wanted coats that could give a woman the feeling of taking up exactly as much space as she wished. In The Rise, the waist draws close before the sleeves and hems open into movement. A collar can be both a frame and a place of refuge. Watch how the silhouette changes when she turns.
The Awakening holds contrasts close: a disciplined waist beneath a generous sleeve, a strong collar beside soft fabric, a quiet surface beside an audacious print. I was interested in what happens when restraint and extravagance belong to the same body.
The Fire is carried high on the body. The sleeves expand, the collars lift, and a short hem lets the legs have their say. I wanted energy you could feel in the cut itself, even before the wearer begins to move.
I gave The Flowing a quiet palette so that the folds could speak. An opening at the waist, a crossing front, a pale curve of cloth: each is a small decision that changes the whole garment. Come closer and follow the lines.
There is a particular beauty in doing less. In The Water, a pocket, an off-centre hem or the lift of a neckline becomes enough. I wanted space for the woman wearing the clothes to complete the impression.
The Shivago bags began with a doctor’s bag my father gave me. I loved the sense of purpose in its proportions and the pleasure of carrying something beautifully constructed. That impulse became Charles, Charlene and Oscar: three different relationships between leather, hand and body.
Look at their handles, their edges and the way the leather gathers light. Each is meant to be lived with, not merely looked at.
A bag is never separate from the person carrying it. In the Urban Leather Bag Collection, I wanted to see how each shape changed when it met a body, a garment and an ordinary gesture. The portraits let the bags have that second life.
In The Surreal, even the empty spaces have been designed. A rounded opening around an arm, an enveloping hood, a waist held close beneath unexpected volume: I wanted the familiar to feel slightly strange and wonderfully possible again.
The Nature Of moves between garment and imagined world. Branches, dark surroundings and a pale line near the throat change how we read a body. I love the moment a piece of clothing stops being only an object and becomes part of a story.
With The Breath, I allowed the collection to become a wardrobe of related but independent personalities. Dresses, trousers and outerwear carry recurring curves into different lives. An orange jacket interrupts the softer colours like a sudden change of mind.
In The Pure, a pale skirt opens against the thigh while a cropped jacket follows the waist. I kept the colours quiet and let the construction hold the attention. The sleeves draw generous curves around the arms, then change their meaning as the wearer moves.
My cousin Anna Wellton and I made Chix on Boards in 2003. We wanted clothes that belonged to moving bodies and the city around them: boards, concrete, graffiti and the delicious informality of being outside together. I still see the beginnings of my sculptural language there.
Look closely at the line, the shape and the collection.
The Flowing, from the Camilla Wellton archive.
2009
“History and nature seem to meet and combine”
Anna Battista
On the spring/summer 2010 designs
An image can show the silhouette, but some things only become clear when you are near the garment: the construction, the weight, the small decisions hidden inside a seam. I welcome commissions, editorial research and professional enquiries about the wider Camilla Wellton Library. Write to the studio and tell me what you are looking for.
The Surreal, from the Camilla Wellton archive.
2010
“architectonic shapes with a zen minimalist colour palette.”
Finding Eco
On the spring/summer 2010 designs