Dedicated to colour, line and drape, eponymous womenswear label Louisa Parris creates timeless versatile pieces. Merging luxurious fabrics with abstract patterns, Louisa’s collections reflect her passion for art, film, design and craft. Drawn with simplicity alongside refined pieces, the visually-striking designs embody vibrant and punchy colours, while remaining fuss-free and contemporary.

At the core of Louisa’s collections are styles and designs that transcend seasonality, occasion and trend. Some of our best-selling shapes are developed to be one size, designed to flatter all body types and shapes, whilst leveraging consistent cuts and styles each season, customers can look forward to new and changing designs in styles that they know fit their body.

After completing a degree in Fashion Design & Marketing at Central St. Martins, Louisa designed costume for film, theatre and opera as well as womenswear brands Donna Karan, Mulberry and Ghost, before starting her line in 2011. Blending her exhaustive knowledge of historic creativity and design, Louisa's pieces blur the lines between clothing and wearable art.

As a business, we recognise that sustainability has to be considered in everything we do, and this is our statement of our work so far.

Design

The Louisa Parris sustainability philosophy starts with the design approach. Louisa’s intricate graphic artworks are used to amplify existing styles, and only 3 or 4 new styles are added each collection.

With each collection comes a new agenda on which to place our sustainability focus. This might be looking for new fabrics to use, or making sure that we understand every element of our supply chain.

The dresses are made up of individual printed panels. Occasionally we receive panels with natural faults from the dyeing process. While our customers know that these natural imperfections are part of the material, we have multiple quality control checks to make sure they meet our standards. If not, we repurpose these silk panels to make high-quality accessories.

Fabrics

The fabrics we use are thoughtfully selected for their quality, drape, and feel. These factors ensure a long-lasting garment, allowing our pieces to be passed down as an heirloom for future generations.

Our pieces are made using our own printed fabrics. We take pride in this but it comes with responsibility. We made the choice to use digital printing with AZO-free dyes for the ecological impact. We work closely with our talented craftspeople in Italy and the Netherlands to ensure the highest print quality and to avoid wastage.

We exclusively use A-grade quality natural silks and Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) ECO cotton. Going forward, we have made a commitment to use natural fibres. Our team regularly visits sustainable fabric trade shows, to find new and innovative fabrics and trims for the next collection. Here is a list of the silk and organic cotton varieties that we enjoy using at Louisa Parris, each with its distinctive qualities.

Silk Crepe de Chine

Our luxurious silk crepe de chine is a light and lustrous fabric with a smooth matte finish and a fluid drape. Due to its soft, breathable nature, pieces made from this fabric are perfect to be worn in warmer weather. Wear with a slip for full coverage.

Silk Twill

Silk twill is a heavier silk with a light sheen, so our pieces made in this fabric feel more solid and structured. The fabric has a diagonal patterned weave, whilst still being smooth and soft to the touch. We like to use silk twill for pieces that require a more voluminous drape and a touch of theatre.

Silk Satin

Our silk satin is a solid base fabric and has a smooth, glossy sheen. A fabric that cascades elegantly, we use silk satin for pieces with billowing silhouettes and voluminous drapes.

Silk Organza

Our silk organza is a sheer, lightweight and buoyant fabric with a smooth texture. Closely woven to create a stiffer fabric, our pieces in this fabric are delicately structured. The organza has a sheer finish, so we recommend wearing a slip under some styles.

Silk Lamé

Silk lamé is a sheer, lightweight fabric with threads of metallic fibre, that provide a shimmering finish. It is printed on the reverse of the lamé for a smooth texture against the skin. Wearing a slip underneath this fabric is essential.

GOTS Cotton Voile

A wonderfully light fabric with a distinctly higher thread count than most other cotton fabrics, cotton voile has a soft and silky texture. Our pieces made from cotton voile have a gauze-like semi-sheer finish and should be worn with a slip for full coverage.

GOTS Cotton Poplin

A luxuriously firm and durable cotton with a tight weave, cotton poplin is pleasingly crisp. Our pieces made from cotton poplin keep their softly structured form wear after wear.

Collections

We have never conformed to the 4-season fashion calendar. Instead, we observe a slow fashion model of 2 collections a year, numbered for simplicity and timelessness.

Louisa Parris pieces are made to last. From the quality of the silk dye to the pattern cutting and finishing stitches - there is no compromise on detail. Our styles are crafted in small production runs so that we can make exactly what our customers require.

We believe in building strong relationships with wholesale partners, vendors and suppliers, taking the time to make sure our values are aligned.

Production

All of the prints are designed in-house by Louisa, drawn first by hand in her south London studio and then digitally printed in Worcestershire. Each garment is then made in London by specialist craftspeople.

We are proud to work with Fashion Enter, the Sedex SMETA approved factory in North London.

It makes sense to us to manufacture in London. It means we can visit the factory and keep a close eye on the process from start to finish. We are able to maintain positive communication, and send and receive samples with minimal environmental impact.

We have strong relationships with the team of talented makers in the pattern cutting room and meet with them regularly. We consider them part of the Louisa Parris team.

Fashion Enter involvement with the Fashion Technology Academy, which provides fashion education and vocational skills in garment construction, is one of the reasons we chose to work with them.

We are so pleased that our local production is one of the factors allowing us to be certified for Net-A-Porter’s Net Sustain platform, where Louisa Parris is showcased alongside other brands making consciously crafted garments and beauty products.

Packaging and Shipping

Each piece is sent out with a repurposed silk garment bag, made from leftover fabric from our production runs. These bags are intended to provide protection for the garments and to ensure longevity. We encourage customers to use eco dry-cleaning services where possible, and less frequently.

We choose to offset our carbon footprint when using courier services. When shipping to our wholesale accounts, our garments are packed in biodegradable bags.

As we grow, we will continue to look for more ways to improve our fulfilment and distribution practices.

Community

We are conscious that we exist as part of a community. We want to participate in this community sustainably, and that means using our creativity to support and empower vital initiatives.

Smart Works Charity gives confidence to women getting back into work by supplying high quality interview clothes and interview coaching. We are proud to have a partnership with the Reading branch of Smart Works. Our donations of scarves go directly to the building of professional wardrobes, while our evening wear pieces are often auctioned to raise funds for the charity.

Cecilia Carlstedt

Louisa’s love of illustration continues with her third collaboration with the Swedish artist Cecilia Carlstedt, known for her rich graphic illustrations formed from strong often jet black brushstrokes and blocks of vibrant colour. When Louisa discovered Cecilia's, she felt an immediate synergy with her use of colour, line and space.

‘Cecilia’s work talks to me on a romantic note, but her mark-making is still so wonderfully graphic. I have always adored the work of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld, art directed by Alexander Liberman from 1940s Vogues, seeing Cecilia’s work for the first time took me back to that era, but with a more vivid contemporary tone.’

Malika Favre

Following the success of our first collaboration with artist Malika Favre, we collaborated with her again for the launch of our Spring Summer 23 collection. We were delighted to work with her for a second time, as huge admirers of Malika’s uniquely bold and colourful style. Together with Louisa’s devotion to vibrant colour, line and drape, it is truly a match made in design heaven.

For this collaboration, Malika created a series of illustrations that captured the spirit of a selection of pieces from this new collection, which we released gradually over the season.

Daniel Egneus

It was a pleasure to work with artist Daniel Egneus for a commissioned series of illustrations that accompany the Marella Collection. Louisa was drawn to Daniel's multi-layered work immediately, and the results of this collaboration are a perfect comprehension of the collection's mood and direction.

Daniel has previously illustrated a re-issue of four of Neil Gaiman's seminal works, and was sent to Havana to cover the Chanel Resort Show for Departures Magazine. He has also worked with Penguin Books, Pori Jazz Festival, Marie Claire and Time Magazine.

Malika Favre

Our collaboration with Malika Favre ran alongside the launch of the Autumn Winter 21 collection. Malika is a French artist based in Barcelona. Her bold, minimal style – often described as Pop Art meets OpArt – is a striking lesson in the use of positive/negative space and colour, with a bit of humour, a touch of sexiness, and a re-imagination of the ordinary.