One Year On: Elissa Brunato

In an attempt to combat the reliance on unsustainable material options in the fashion industry, Elissa worked alongside scientists to create sequins using naturally abundant materials, pushing the boundaries of making for her final year project, ‘Bio Iridescent Sequin’.

It was this bold vision for the future of fashion and textiles that led Elissa to be crowned a Runner Up at the 2019 MullenLowe NOVA Awards and receive the Creative Review Innovation Award.

With the 2020 MullenLowe NOVA Awards in full swing, we caught up with Elissa to see how she’s been getting on.

What have you been up too since winning a MullenLowe NOVA Award? Any exhibitions, collaborations or new career plans?

The last year has been a really wonderful time of learning and developing both my work and my business. Winning these MullenLowe NOVA Awards gave me a great starting platform and recognition.

Since then, I have had the wonderful opportunity to exhibit in many different exhibitions including: New York Textile Month, Bio-Fabricate Summit London, Dubai Design Week, Dutch Design Week and be invited as a speaker at the Design Indaba Conference in Cape Town.

I have also been busy with a new commission for an Exhibition in Eindhoven’s Van Abbemuseum, with fellow designer Christoph Dichmann.

How has winning helped further your work?

The visibility the Awards gave me was really great because from this, new opportunities arose, and my work then featured on many other platforms. I am really thankful for this.

Have you done anything exiting with the prize money yet?

The financial support was very helpful because graduating is very financially exhausting – it helped to keep me afloat in order to navigate the next steps. The money contributed towards creating new embroidered pieces for some of the exhibitions that followed.

What are your plans for the future?

I am busy with creating my business, in order to challenge the boundaries of how we make luxurious products, starting with the Bio Iridescent Sequin. Part of my future journey is engaging with the fashion industry in order to stimulate a positive shift in mindset around the stigmatised aesthetics associated with sustainability. I have also started some new material developments which I am really excited to be working on.

Find out more about Elissa’s recent work here