Women's Lifestyle September 22, 2025 0 Comments

Leather Sequins: The Bold New Fashion Move That Could Boost Your Confidence and Turn Heads Instantly!

Ever wonder what happens when a designer sits on a fiery idea for years, just waiting for the perfect moment to unleash it? Conner Ives, a British fashion maestro, knows this dance all too well. He’s taken leather scraps—those leftover bits most would toss aside—and transformed them into giant sequins, painstakingly hand-embroidering them onto a dress base. It’s a bold move, a resurrection of a concept he shelved multiple times, proving that patience really pays off in couture. This isn’t just about making fashion; it’s about turning waste into wow, blending sustainability with high craftmanship—and, honestly, it’s one of Ives’ favorite creations to date. In an industry often chasing the next big thing, Ives reminds us that sometimes, the best ideas are worth the wait—and a little grit. Ready to dive deeper into this leather-sequin revolution? LEARN MORE

“A lot of the time, I will sit on an idea for years, waiting until I have the means to realize it properly,” says British fashion designer Conner Ives. “This was one of those ideas.” Ives wanted to find new ways to use leather off-cuts from his factory—so he turned them into giant sequins and embroidered them onto the base of a dress. It was a concept he’d put to bed and resurrected numerous times over many seasons. Now, “it’s one of my favorite dresses we have made in a while.”

fashion model runway leather sequin dress conner ives

Ik Aldama

Ives titled his Spring 2026 collection “On Pop,” after noticing that “pop music seems to get better in times of economic downturn or in moments of peril,” he says. In a time of both, pop music is once again at its height. “It’s my love letter to the popstars I grew up with, like Lady Gaga, and the pop stars we have now, like Addison Rae.” Whereas last season focused on escapism, this one dealt with the more uncomfortable feelings of sitting with the world’s issues in the form of “neon, acid-dipped exuberance.” Hence, sequins were a throughline and found a particularly poignant form in their leather alter ego.

fashion design illustration showcasing a black polka dot gown

Courtesy of Conner Ives

The dress in question boasts a slinky silhouette with a scoop neckline and low-cut armholes, almost like a sports jersey, and took over 100 hours to embroider by hand. The deadstock leather comes from his own studio scraps and factory leftovers. (One of the teams’ interns spent a day scouring London to source additional leather castoffs.) The silk chiffon that makes up the base of the garment also comes from a suppliers’ deadstock collection. The finished piece is a stellar example of how “we’re always looking at parts of our supply chain to see if we can utilize waste from production in the making of new styles,” says Ives. “Sustainability is a tireless process that relies on us being as exhaustive as we can to ensure that we can use things that exist already, rather than having them made.”

fashion runway showcasing diverse models in contemporary designs

Courtesy of Conner Ives

The dress is also an example of Ives’ voracious optimism despite looming pitfalls of the industry and the broader world around it. The past six months have seen resounding success for the brand’s “Protect the Dolls” T-Shirt, an idea he threw together the night before the Fall 2025 show in February. It has since raised over £500k (and counting) for Trans Lifeline, an organization that offers direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis. “The last six months have brought so much to us that we’re still reeling from what we’ve been able to accomplish as such a small team,” says Ives. “The ‘Protect the Dolls’ tee really changed my outlook on fashion as a whole; I have found a renewed faith in the medium of fashion for creating transformative moments like this.”