07/09/2026
1. What people are actually buying.
Before I start thinking about what’s next, I look at what’s already working.
Which pieces are moving, which colours people are gravitating towards, what they’re repeatedly coming back for, and what they’re asking us to make.
I don’t think customer behaviour should dictate design, but it should absolutely inform it.
2. What’s happening outside of Esme.
I spend a lot of time looking at fashion, jewellery, culture, trends and even what’s happening on social. Not because I want to replicate what’s trending, but because I want to understand where people’s tastes are moving. There’s a big difference between following a trend and understanding why it’s happening.
3. What feels overdone.
This one is probably just as important. I look at what’s everywhere : the colours, silhouettes, motifs and ideas that every brand is suddenly doing.
Sometimes that’s a reason to explore something. More often, it’s a reason to ask myself: do we really need another version of this?
4. What Esme hasn’t explored yet.
I always want there to be some element that feels new to us. Maybe it’s a different proportion, a new way of wearing something, an unexpected colour combination or simply approaching a familiar idea differently.
I want the collection to feel recognisably Esme, but not like we’ve made the same thing again.
5. What I can’t stop thinking about.
This is the least scientific one, but probably the most important. Sometimes a design idea just stays in your head. You keep coming back to it, tweaking it, imagining it differently.
At some point, you have to stop analysing it and make the thing.
Because ultimately, I think the best collections sit somewhere between what the customer wants, what’s happening in the world and what the designer can’t let go of.