My limited edition capsule collection is officially for sale at Nour & the Merchant! You can click here to shop the whole slow fashion line, ethically made in Italy. I'm so excited about every piece in this collection and I'm sharing each one on Instagram this week but perhaps the most special dress in the collection is this one, the Leannan Sidhe dress. When I started to design the capsule collection with Cristina, my focus was on creating a few very wearable pieces that I would want in my wardrobe and could see myself wearing every day. A mix of practical and fairytale inspired...but I had one dress idea that didn't seem very practical. It was a bit of a dream dress design and that's the Leannan Sidhe dress.
This dress inspiration started with a love for fairytale books and vintage book covers with beautiful gilt detailing. I saw the dress in my head as a lovely confection of embroidered gold threaded tulle featuring a pattern inspired by vintage book covers. I sent Cristina loads of different book covers as embroidery inspiration before I stumbled across the perfect cover that really captured what I wanted in my design. The idea was to make gold vines that weave together natural and fantastical elements. We took some of my favorite things--hawthorn flowers, dragons, swords, the phrase "quiet in the wild" and even a little golden book and wove them into the embroidery. The end is one of the most beautiful designs I've ever seen and one that really elegantly captures that love of books, fairytales, magic, and whimsical dresses.
The name Leannan Sidhe translates very literally to "fairy lover" but the origins of the name, like most fairytales, is a bit darker. Rather than someone who really loves fairytales and the fae, the name leannan sidhe is a type of fairy that would "love" a mortal. Most leannan sidhe were depicted as beautiful women, although there are some examples of male leannan sidhe as well, and like most fae-human interactions the stories centered around them rarely end well. WB Yeats also wrote his own version of a "leannan sidhe" and saw her as an almost vampiric muse who offers an artist endless inspiration in exchange for their love and devotion. She can artists into geniuses, but she also feeds off of their life force even as she inspires them and so the Gaelic poets who she bonds with will die young.
You can shop my entire capsule collection with Nour and the Merchant by clicking here! Nour and the Merchant also accepts payment plans with no additional fees, so message her if you'd prefer to pay that way. This capsule collection is limited edition because we're not sure how much certain custom fabrics will sell, so you should buy a piece now while everything is still available! And head to my Instagram for a special giveaway!
capsule collection
CONVERSATION