Meet the Designer
Adelle is a young woman based in Reading, England, who is keen to share beauty with the world through fashion. With a passion for design and aesthetic, Adelle has turned her artist and designer dreams into a reality bringing us Transfigure!
Reflecting on her past Adelle can see how seemingly random events have so carefully paved the way for her to create this business. As a young girl she recalls a very memorable car journey, where all she could think about was the dolls dress she would make when she reached home. The long journey was well spent dreaming of the ways the fabric could drape, or be cut, and all the possible trimmings! She attributes this memory to where the seed for fashion design was first planted. Although it would be many years before this teeny seed began to grow.
Things really began when Adelle decided to make a dress for a Catholic Society Dance at University. Using some bedsheets from the charity shop she decided to dust off the sewing machine her grandpa had given her when she was fourteen. Her first dress was a success, and she began to sew more and more throughout the course of her degree. Here’s a link to the first dress: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ_uCRejI7t/
She recalls, “each time I entered my little sewing bubble, I just left the world for a little while and then came back with a new garment, it really feels like magic sometimes!”
Following the completion of her degree, Adelle decided to look into starting a fashion brand. As a practicing Catholic, she often enjoys taking inspiration from the liturgy to put together her outfits. She says, “this gives me a small and intentional way to tangibly bring my faith into my daily life,” and she noticed a growing interest in this way of dressing amongst the Catholic community. So with this in mind Transfigure was born.
Adelle says, “when trying to decide what would be the inspiration for my pieces, I thought… what do I know and love best that could inspire me to create collections? Naturally, the answer was the life of the Church. I just love the richness and beauty, and I knew I would never run out of inspiration.” Her main goal with the brand is to share beauty with the world through the clothes she makes, and she puts a special emphasis on how woman have a key role in doing this.
She says, “as well as a need for more clothes that honour the feminine body, I just think that we often forget how much our externals can influence our inner dispositions, and I have personally found that just as my diet can influence my body’s physical health, and what I consume in terms of media can affect my mind, I think I started to pay real attention to how what I put on myself, and what I surround myself with in terms of material objects has a real effect on my spirit.”
Adelle recalls a key moment where she realised this need for beauty in the world, “I remember on a trip to Madrid, just how moved I was by the beauty of the Churches, how they left me with a great sense of awe and wonder which can be so easily lost from our day to day life. I was amazed by how it all drew me heavenward, towards the divine. This really got me thinking about God as beauty, and how things that are made in a true, good and beautiful way, allow facilitate an awareness of God.” This awareness prompted her to see dressing not just something she does for herself or without much thought, but a tool to share beauty with other people. She says, “It feels almost like a duty, because I think if I know Beauty Himself, then I must find even the smallest way of communicating this knowledge with others.”
It’s really beautiful how these little moments have brought Adelle to the point of starting Transfigure, and she is very excited to welcome you on this journey and to bring you her first collection, launching this summer! Make sure to follow along through instagram: @transfigureuk, and sign up to our mailing list to stay in the loop.
