Elise Waters
Fashion MA / Sustainability and Ethical Fashion MA
Northumbria University
Specialisms: Sustainable Fashion/Textiles / Fashion Comms /
Location: Derby, United Kingdom
Elise Waters
First Name: Elise
Last Name: Waters
Specialisms: Sustainable Fashion/Textiles / Fashion Comms
Sectors:
My Location: Derby, United Kingdom
University / College: Northumbria University
Course / Program Title: Fashion MA / Sustainability and Ethical Fashion MA
About
I am a designer and researcher driven by the belief that fashion can be a tool for care, communication, and cultural change. My practice combines material exploration, sustainability, and critical design thinking to create work with deeper purpose - whether through biodesign, intimate apparel, or experimental textile processes.
Across projects, I seek to challenge assumptions of what fashion can be: reframing materials, reimagining systems, and opening up conversations that connect people emotionally to garments and their ecological contexts. My work moves fluidly between research, making, and storytelling, always aiming to create outcomes that resonate on both a personal and societal level.
Of Lace and Living Things
Of Lace and Living Things reimagines lingerie through the lens of living materials. Using bacterial cellulose, the project develops “bio-lace” - a speculative textile that grows rather than is manufactured. Drawing on the traditions of lace as a symbol of delicacy, sensuality, and craft, the work fuses microbial morphologies with archival references and experimental making. The outcome is both garment and narrative: a bodice and skirt that embody intimacy, fragility, and ecological care. By positioning biomaterials as emotional as well as sustainable, the project proposes a future where design resonates with natural logics and fashion becomes a site of living collaboration.
Competitions
