As creative director, I’ve developed the concepts, narrative design, scenic design/styling, and directed the brand’s shoots for a few years now. In 2024, their founder, Andrea, made a conscious decision to use her product to tell stories that were relevant to what was going on in the world. ‘Innocence (and other stories of loss)’ became the title of her collection, and with that, an invitation for me to reflect on different experiences of loss.
Four patterns, four women, four distinct narratives. ‘Innocence (and other stories of loss)’ explores the multifaceted nature of personal transformation, turning loss into defiant forms of strength that emerge through the rational and the absurd. The stories weave through different types of loss, from the intimate to the communal. It doesn’t always equate loss to grief, sometimes framing it as an invitation to step into power. It looks at types of loss that are generational, and inherited, narrating ways in which they’re transmuted into dignified resilience. It also surfaces honest, brutal moments where loss shatters, restructures and reframes. Loss that turns you inwards, deepening your sense of self.
Throughout the vignettes, loss is experienced as pain and power, but never as defeat.
Photographer: Caitlin Chescoe
1. Innocence:
A story of forced loss - of comfort, of safety nets. In the aftermath, spiralling, trying to find that sense of security again, and at the end of it all, realising that you are your only ally.
2. Breakdown Palace
A loss that shakes your core beliefs. A shattering of innocence, of a sense of naïveté and blindness to the ruthlessness of the world. A reckoning. A realisation of the absurdity of it all.
Recklessness, irreverence, brazenness.
It’s turtles all the way down.
3. Between Light and Dark
A symbol of fertility in many cultures, the pomegranate becomes the story of a different kind of loss. An intentional shedding; of impositions, past selves, roles that you never intended to play. A rejection of externally constructed definitions of value, with dignity, strength and grace.
4. Killing Socrates
Some losses are generational, and are carried forward and perpetuated, with no respite. As a result, steadfastness, wielding scars with seemingly effortless dignity, knowing that your strength, however performative, plays a part in collective resilience.
This pattern is based on a Palestinian embroidery pattern referred to as ‘dmou’a’, which translates to tears.
5. Homage to the Past:
This pattern is based on a Palestinian embroidery pattern referred to as ‘dmou’a’, which translates to tears.
