‘Layered and visceral’: How Melbourne label Catholic Guilt rewrote the script for fashion

It wasn’t Ella Jackson’s plan, let alone becoming a designer whose pieces were showcased at Paris Fashion Week and worn by some of the world’s biggest stars; but he’s still here.

A Melbourne native, he was working as a recording engineer at Birdland Studios in South Yarra when the Covid outbreak hit and he had to return home to do nothing.

When he started working on his own album, the Catholic Guilt label was born.

“Since I couldn’t get into the studio to record either, I jumped ahead and started designing music videos and clothes to wear,” she told NewsWire.

Despite working as a fashion designer, the Melburnian always resented working with 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 chose to intricately weave the web of her world in full chainmail.

Her pieces are complex, intimate and intriguing; Whether set in a haunted garden or in the middle of the bustling Melbourne CBD, every cold metal link, every bead and chain in her collection tells a fascinating story.

Completely and “entirely self-taught,” Ms. Jackson was inspired by the work of Paco Rabanne in the 60s, as well as music producer Lindsay Gravina, who “deepened” art, philosophy, mythology, and the importance of detail and complexity when working with metals and leather.

“Because chainmail is so complex and I work with very small rings, it allows me to have complete control, literally millimeter by millimeter, over the visual story I’m trying to tell,” Ms. Jackson told NewsWire.

“When I make a piece, I try to conceptualize its lineage as if it were an artifact that has existed much longer than humanity. What wars has it witnessed? Where will it naturally begin to wear away over time? What secrets can it tell us about ourselves?”

It’s been several years since Ms. Jackson launched her own label, and her pieces have already traveled the world, being worn by influential figures in the fashion industry.

But in December 2024, her name was truly put on the map when American actress and media star Julia Fox attended the NGV Gala in a custom Catholic Guilt chainmail dress.

“This was the first time I was doing a truly large-scale piece with such complexity and attention to detail,” he told NewsWire.

The dress was inspired by the 2016 work Chandelier of Grief by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose work was celebrated at the gala.

“I was doing a lot of research about him at the time, and I was particularly inspired by an interview in which he said that his polka dot motifs referred to a kind of visual hallucination he experienced in his childhood due to the light refractions of dancing polka dots,” he said.

“I wanted to create a piece that created this effect: dots of light dancing around one’s vision.

“I hope Kusama actually saw this and understood her intentions.”

Since her dazzling debut, Ms. Jackson’s work has appeared with the likes of Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers and British-Australian band The Last Dinner Party.

In July, Lisa of Blackpink fame wore a custom matching chain-link top and skirt that weighed 10kg during her tour.

Creating each garment is no easy task either.

In fact, some of his largest pieces can take thousands of hours as he intricately and meticulously hand-knit each metal ring and strip of leather until it tells its story.

“When I’m working on large pieces, I’ll keep them running for months,” Ms. Jackson told NewsWire.

“It’s great to spend so much time on a single piece because the story I’m trying to convey with it becomes stronger and more layered and visceral as it progresses.

“Ideas are always changing and evolving, which keeps things interesting for me.”

Along with her pliers and metal rings, time is one of the most important ingredients in Ms. Jackson’s intricate designs.

Life is moving quickly for Ms. Jackson, who is completing a residency program in Berlin and also developing new pieces for Paris Fashion Week to be introduced next year.

“It’s still in an embryonic stage right now, but I’m really excited about the narrative and designs I’m working on,” he told NewsWire.

“This is very personal to me and feels like the right thing to do from now on.”