Wilcom Associate Award for Fashion Winner

M’Ess Dress is a response to being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a disease where the body attacks itself, affecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing visible and hidden symptoms. The cerise layer captures the visible. Teachers need logic, planning and organisation, but for a creative teacher with MS, the brain has other ideas, giving awkward, weird and chaotic responses, often misunderstood by others. The colourful overlapping and colliding circular cells and ‘brains’, highlight the struggle of going round in circles to find answers. The embellishments add weight to the wearer faced with the realisation of a potentially debilitating disease. The hidden blue layer explores negative feelings, emotions and physical symptoms through embroidered text and nerve cells.

Fully visible, forming a protective upper body cocoon, reflecting days of struggling, blocking out the world, freezing and shutting down, avoiding conflict, analysing everything, masking and internalising feelings; or partially visible when varying the hemline, to represent days of mixed symptoms and emotions, creating alternative silhouettes.

A major transition point forces a journey to find a new self. This is the fight back against a disease that disrupts life, mentally and physically, ultimately hoping to raise more awareness of Multiple Sclerosis.