Ellery takes first steps in couture

It's a dream come true for Kym Ellery. The former Australian fashion editor, who launched her womenswear label in 2007 at 23 years old and who has been a regular at Paris fashion week since October 2015, took her very first steps into the world of couture on Tuesday, with a show organised at the Beaux Arts palace, as part of the official haute couture fashion week calendar.

The designer presented part of her ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2018-19 collection (the rest will be unveiled in February/March), as well as several couture pieces created in the "baby atelier", as Ellery has nicknamed it, which she set up in Paris 18 months ago to set out on this couture journey.

While her main activities remain in Sydney, where she employs some 50 personnel, Kym Ellery has been applying herself in the French capital with a small team, in which certain skills have been recruited including "some of the best craftspeople in France."

The new collection saw the return of masculine accents and those ample volumes known to the brand, taking wardrobe classics and giving them new proportions. Pants sat low on the waist and kicked out in a flare, under asymmetric tunics. Large pieces of cloth enveloped the models too, sometimes looking like a train, tied at the waist.

Ellery played with the contrast between empty and overflowing with openings created in the back and sides of coats, as well as at the end of extra-long sleeves and pants. The models were conservatively covered-up at the front, before walking past to display nude backs. The evening gowns were draped and cut from French and Italian fabrics.

The collection did not forgo accessories either with plenty of jewellery, notably statement earrings and scintillating broaches, which clasped over the sides of voluminous capes, as the models slinked along in thigh-high boots.

"Couture represents the natural evolution of my label. It's been 11 years now and I wanted to take it to a higher level. The couture pieces present my contemporary interpretation of evening and red-carpet gowns," explained the brunette designer, delighted with the response from the general public.

"I wanted to create evening looks that I would want to wear, which are targeted more at the modern woman. No need necessarily to make more glittery princess dresses," joked the designer.

Originally from Karratha, in Australia's west, Kym Ellery, who attended Central Saint Martins School in London, is stocked across 180 multibrand retail stores worldwide, including Galeries Lafayette.

Ellery makes 90% of her sales internationally, with her primary market being Europe, followed by the US and Asia.

Ellery takes first steps in couture

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