Ellie Misner is the London designer creating custom Couture for all bodies

This feature was originally published in May 24, repupblished after SZA wore Ellie Misner to the American Music Awards.

Typically crafted by deft and highly-skilled artisans in chic white salons with floor-to-ceiling windows and debuted as part of grand, extravagant shows in Paris, Haute Couture sits at the very top of the fashion pyramid. Where you might not expect to find a designer creating custom Couture pieces, however, is a grey and not particularly glam corner of East London, not far from Hackney Downs, on the ground floor of a shiny new-build mostly home to expensive identikit flats – but that’s exactly what Ellie Misner is doing. 

Though she’s slowly been infiltrating fashion fans’ Instagram feeds, dressing everyone from Julia Fox, to Paloma Elsesser, to Shygirl, if you’re not familiar with her name, now’s the time to pay attention. Graduating in the depths of COVID, Misner first started making waves with her meticulously crafted corsets. “But then everyone started making them during lockdown!” she recalls. Next came barely-there chiffon slips, asymmetric tops, and light-as-air bias-cut skirts that either just skim the knee or pool out dramatically onto the floor way past the wearer’s feet.

Probably best-known is the look she created for Perry to wear at a recent red carpet event. The night before we meet, the singer was snapped wearing a scarlet corset and slinky, second-skin pencil skirt, which, when she turned around, revealed a lace-up centre seam that offered a cheeky, inch-wide flash of bum-cleavage. Naturally, the tabloids and gossip mags had a field day, churning out stories about Perry’s ‘saucy’ outfit. When her alarm went off that morning, unsurprisingly Misner was hit with a barrage of messages. “Genuinely so many people sent the coverage to me,” she says. “It was so mad to wake up to.” 

While some designers in the early stages of their career might be pissed to see their work reduced to sleazy, salacious headlines by the red tops, Misner is good-humoured about it. Like the recent clip of Alexander McQueen doing the rounds on social media, in which the late, great iconoclast explains how fashion shouldn’t be taken too seriously, Misner comes from a similar mindset. “My work has always been a bit tongue-in-cheek and playful,” she says. One of her collections saw her utilise her grandmother’s old curtains to create a series of skimpy, skin-flashing looks her gran would likely have been unimpressed with, while exposing the curve of the bum-crack has long been a signature within her collections.

Beyond keeping a decent sense of humour in an industry that takes itself altogether too seriously, Misner has made a big commitment to inclusivity within her work. “I’m from a Jewish family of women with big boobs and big bums, so catering to that was always important to me,” she explains. “My best friend, who I work with a lot, is also a curve model. It didn’t really ever occur to me to not create clothes for people with a wide range of body shapes and sizes.” Head to her website and you’ll find a succession of ready-to-wear pieces ranging all the way from a UK size six to a size 30. “But because I work a lot on custom orders, there’s no [size] limit really,” she adds.

With Misner about to launch a new collection Be Careful set to drop imminently, she’s also setting her sights on a follow-up show to her first, which took place last autumn. The small, intimate event saw Misner clear out her little studio and stage a laid-back salon-style show for friends, family, and key industry names. Turned off by the huge costs that come with joining the British Fashion Council’s official schedule, and only just beginning to think about applying for financial support through initiatives like NEWGEN and Fashion East, her next show will continue in the same vein – only this time, she’s got a bit more space to play with after moving into a new studio. “At the last one, we had people pressing their noses up against the windows to get a look at what was going on,” she recalls. “It will be nice to be able to invite a few more people in.” 

Whatever form the next show takes, or where and when it is staged, Misner is refreshingly honest about wanting to take her time as she makes her name in fashion. It’s a rarity in the industry, as designers fresh out of uni and established alike grapple with its frenetic pace and seemingly inevitable moments of burnout. Misner knows herself, she explains, and she knows when to take a break, and a breather. Anyway, there’s no real rush, and slow and steady, for her, seems to be winning the race. Rather than blowing the timeline up and fading out before she’s even got a foothold on fashion’s ladder, she’s doing things at her own pace and notching up a dedicated crowd of fans as she goes – getting her head down and letting her brilliant clothes do the talking seems to be paying off. 

Extra credits for gallery one: MUA Daniela Alves, Retouching Oliwia Merïläinen, Talent Karmi Pinning.