British designer Joanne Fleming has always been fascinated by the fashions of past eras—the more extreme and fantastical, the better. In a previous incarnation, she designed and made bespoke bridal wear from a gorgeous Brighton studio, specializing in intricately romantic creations; we at Enchanted Living even featured her sumptuous, ultra-poetic gowns in our spring 2020 Pre-Raphaelite issue, in a dreamy photography spread that might have been directed by Rossetti himself, decorated with candles and rose petals and cake.
But during the extended hiatus in the world of weddings caused by the Covid epidemic, when the U.K. bridal industry essentially collapsed, Joanne found herself craving a simpler life, more connected to nature and the surroundings of the West Country where she grew up. So she found a tiny Victorian workers’ cottage on a “riverbank on the edge of an ancient stannary town in the lee of the wild moor.” As one of a particular group of 64 cottages designed by the Duke of Bedford’s architect for local mine workers, her cottage is designated as part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. She closed her studio in Brighton and “upped sticks from the hot dry South East and relocated to the verdant dampness of Devon.”
She wanted, too, to cause less damage to the earth. It’s no secret, she says, that “fashion has had an increasingly heavy footprint on the planet, accelerating to a ridiculous extent, particularly in recent years.” So she has turned to her long-standing love of antique and vintage textiles, which she’d always gathered up in a haphazard, magpie sort of way, “picking through boxes of old lace and stacks of fabrics at flea markets and boot sales.” Her new line, Pavilion Parade, is created only from these found treasures, each piece entirely informed by the weight, pattern, and life of a particular textile or trim. She finds deep pleasure in taking a length of storied fabric, “cleaning and preparing it, and then carefully creating something new with it”—transforming these textiles into shimmering new beauties, bringing them to life once more, to continue their journeys through time.
Follow Joanne on Instagram @pavilion_parade and explore her current offerings at pavilionparade.co.uk.
