IN CONVERSATION WITH EMILY CASLLI
It is easy to be drawn to the image first. The shimmer, the texture, the patience hidden behind every detail. But there is something more interesting underneath: the idea that a material can change and that through this change, a garment can become something entirely different.
Emily Caslli is a couture designer whose practice is defined by an extraordinary relationship with material. Working at the intersection of fashion, art, and experimentation, she approaches each garment as a process of discovery, one that requires patience, precision, and an openness to the unexpected.
At the heart of her practice is an unusual technique: rather than attaching crystals to a finished textile, Caslli develops a process that allows them to grow directly onto the fabric. Working with carefully prepared solutions of water and salts, she experiments with different conditions to influence the crystals’ colour, size, texture, and clarity. The result is a material that seems almost to have formed naturally, while in reality, it is carrying the trace of countless hours of experimentation.
But before the crystals, the garments, and the transformation, there is always an idea.
Where does an idea begin for you: with the material, the garment, or the concept?
An idea or a collection always begins with a narrative. I have to build the world first, and then I begin translating that into material. I’m interested in using material as a way of carrying meaning. Once that language begins to emerge, I allow the material to guide the garment. The process becomes very instinctive at that point, allowing the work to reveal what it wants to become. I’m preoccupied with a real desire to pull people into these worlds, into a separate realm, even if just for a night when they wear my pieces. Escapism can be powerful. Even a brief moment of fantasy can alter the way we return to reality.
Her vision takes an especially distinctive form in her work with crystal. What began as an experiment has become a meticulous study of transformation, where chemistry, time, and craftsmanship meet to create an entirely new textile language.
What does working with crystal allow you to express that conventional textiles cannot?
There is an otherworldly quality to the textile, especially in person. The pieces look almost unreal, not like the result of countless hours of human labor, but as though they were dropped off from another world, already fully formed. There is a harmony in that kind of design for me. They have an earthly beauty that is impossible to replicate through traditional embellishment techniques.
Her experiments began with chiffon, whose lightness allows the fabric to become almost entirely consumed by the crystals. She later pushed the process further with heavier materials, including denim and leather.
Do you think the future of fashion lies in discovering new materials, or in rethinking the way we use existing ones?
I think the future of fashion lies in a new perspective. Material innovation is just one expression of that. Real creative innovation comes from removing yourself from the cycles and structures of commercial pressure and creating enough space to develop your own point of view, unaltered by systems that don’t connect with you. When you give yourself that space, you can create work that is meaningful.
That independence is also reflected in the sheer amount of experimentation behind her work. Crystallisation is not a finishing touch but a slow process of testing, observation, and adjustment, with hundreds of swatches documenting the possibilities she continues to explore.
10,000 hand-crystallised cotton threads. Six months of work. Behind the apparent delicacy of Caslli’s pieces lies a practice measured in patience, repetition, and extraordinary precision.
In a fashion industry increasingly shaped by speed and mass production, what place can slow, highly labour-intensive craftsmanship still occupy?
That is almost like asking what place art can still occupy in the world. Craftsmanship will always have a place because it is a process so inherently human; the passing down of tradition through generations. Speed and mass production can make things more accessible, but they cannot replace the quality that comes from a person making something with intention, care, and a desire to make it in the best way possible. I think people biologically seek out things that allow them to feel a connection to another person, and as new technology exponentially seeks to divide us from each other, I think those qualities will become more meaningful, not less.
In Emily Caslli’s work, transformation is never instantaneous. It happens slowly, through experimentation, patience and an unwavering attention to material. What remains is more than a finished garment: it is the visible trace of a process, given the time to become what it was meant to be.
By Éther Revue
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