It wasn’t Ella Jackson’s plan to become a designer, let alone one whose pieces have been snapped across Paris Fashion Week and donned by some of the world’s biggest stars – yet here she is.
A Melbourne native, she was working as a recording engineer at Birdland Studios in South Yarra when the Covid pandemic struck, thrusting her back home without anything to do.
It was when she began working on her own album that the label Catholic Guilt was born.
“Because I also wasn’t able to get into the studio to record, I started jumping ahead and conceptualising music videos and outfits to wear,” she told NewsWire.
Catholic Guilt was born during the pandemic. Picture: Supplied
The pieces are intricate and woven stories of myth and philosophy. Picture: Supplied
Despite working as a fashion designer, the Melburnian has always resented working with a needle and thread.
“I hate sewing, so I’ll do just about anything to avoid it,” she said.
Instead, relying on her background in engineering and circuitry, Ms Jackson opted to intricately weave a web of her own world – entirely in chain mail.
Her pieces are intricate, intimate and intriguing – every loop of cold metal, every bead and chain in her collection telling a captivating story, be it nestled in a haunted garden or the middle of the bustling Melbourne CBD.
The chain mail is all created by hand. Picture: Supplied
Her work is crafted millimetre by millimetre. Picture: Supplied
Entirely and “completely self-taught”, Ms Jackson was inspired by the ’60s works from Paco Rabanne as well as art, philosophy, mythology and her music producer Lindsay Gravina, who “drilled” the importance of detail and intricacy when working with metals and leather.
“Because chain mail is so intricate and I’m working with such tiny rings, it allows me complete control over the visual story I’m trying to tell, literally millimetre by millimetre,” Ms Jackson told NewsWire.
“When I’m making a piece, I try to conceptualise its lineage, as though it’s an artefact that has been around much longer than humanity. What battles has it seen? Where would it naturally start to wear away with time? What secrets can it tell us about ourselves?”
Designer Ella Jackson’s work is entirely self-taught. Picture: Supplied
The Melbourne designer’s works have been featured across the globe. Picture: Supplied
It’s been a handful of years since Ms Jackson launched her label, and her pieces have already travelled the world, worn by influential names in the fashion industry.
But it wasn’t until December 2024, when American actress and media personality Julia Fox attended the NGV Gala in a custom Catholic Guilt chain mail gown, that her name was really put on the map.
“It was my first time making a truly large-scale piece with so much intricacy and attention to detail,” she told NewsWire.
America actress, model and media personality Julia Fox adorned a Catholic Guilt dress to the 2024 NGV Gala. Picture: Instagram
The dress was inspired by Chandelier of Grief, a 2016 piece by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose work was celebrated at the gala.
“I was doing so much research into her at the time and was particularly inspired by an interview with her where she mentioned that her polka dot motifs were reference to a sort of visual hallucination she had had as a child of dancing polka dot light refractions,” she said.
“I wanted to create a piece that created that effect: points of light dancing across the periphery of one’s vision.
“I really hope Kusama saw it and understood the intention.”
Since the dazzling debut, Ms Jackson’s work has featured on the likes of Amy Taylor from Amyl and the Sniffers and British-Australian band The Last Dinner Party.
In July, Lisa of Blackpink fame donned a custom matching chain mail top and skirt during her tour, weighing a whopping 10kg.
The garment took several months to make. Picture: Instagram
It was the designer’s largest work to date. Picture: Instagram
Creating each garment is no easy feat, either.
In fact, some of her largest pieces can take thousands of hours as she intricately and meticulously weaves every ring of metal and strip of leather by hand until it conveys her story.
“When I’m working on big pieces, I’ll have them going for months and months,” Ms Jackson told NewsWire.
“It’s great spending so much time on a single piece because the story I’m trying to convey with it strengthens and becomes more layered and visceral as I go.
“The ideas are always shifting and evolving as well which keeps things interesting for me.”
In conjunction with her pliers and rings of metal, time is one of the most important ingredients in Ms Jackson’s complex designs.
“I think patience is a virtue when it comes to good art,” she explained.
Catholic Guilt has built a following worldwide. Picture: Supplied
Ms Jackson is completing an artist’s residency in Berlin before returning to Paris Fashion Week. Picture: Supplied
Life is moving fast for Ms Jackson, who is completing an artist residency in Berlin, simultaneously developing new pieces for Paris Fashion Week that will be unveiled next year.
“It’s still in an embryonic sort of stage at the moment, but I’m really excited about the narrative and designs I have been working on,” she told NewsWire.
“It’s very personal to me and feels like the right thing to be doing next.”